Little Niangua Smallies

[WestCentralFisher]

LN is a funny stream. Fishing can alternate between excellent and horrendous. It doesn't have as much spring influence and thus base flow as most similar streams, so conditions are really variable. You also have impacts from it feeding into LOZ and sometimes parts of the river that appear to be good smallie water most of the year are an arm of the lake at other times. Meanwhile, in drought years the upper stretch is basically a tiny creek. I find as I go upstream, I often find higher proportions of largemouth vs smallmouth which is an odd dynamic for an Ozark stream though it really depends on the exact reach. 

It's really on the edge of the Ozarks, and it feels and looks like it. It's an Ozark stream with an awful lot of prairie creek characteristics. Your feet aren't going to be chilly in July if you're wet wading.

All that said, on the right day in the right spot it can still be a decent smallie stream. You just never know on any given day until you get there. The country around much of it is quite pretty. Often when the river is being excessively moody I'll decide it's a better day for a hike.

There's no question in my mind the Big Niangua is a significantly better and more consistent smallie stream, both above and below the trout water (and some times of the year, within it). The Little Niangua is much quieter, because while floatable, at anything but elevated flows it's a whole lot of dragging. I don't even really consider it a proper floating stream, but there are plenty of people who do it anyway. During the last couple summers everyone I saw paddling on it seemed to be complaining a whole lot about dragging. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

3 hours ago, WestCentralFisher said:

. Fishing can alternate between excellent and horrendous.

Boy that’s unique 😆

[fishinwrench]

The biggest Smallie I've ever caught from the LN was a 16 incher, and that was quite a few years ago.   

It has a pretty good population of 12-14 inchers though.....and they are plenty of fun, especially of fly gear.  

The fish in there just don't seem to make it long enough to get big.....and the spotted bass are so ate up with worms that I really don't want to eat them. 

[WestCentralFisher]

49 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

The biggest Smallie I've ever caught from the LN was a 16 incher, and that was quite a few years ago.   

It has a pretty good population of 12-14 inchers though.....and they are plenty of fun, especially of fly gear.  

The fish in there just don't seem to make it long enough to get big.....and the spotted bass are so ate up with worms that I really don't want to eat them. 

Yeah, the problem with small rivers like that is that at summer low flows, you can pretty much see every fish in the river. And it seems like an unusually high % of the folks you see around the accesses are serious fishermen as opposed to people there to play in the river who may bring a fishing pole along. It equates to a situation where it just doesn't seem like there just are a whole lot of places for fish to hide in the sections that are easily accessible. The fish tend to run small in those places, though it can still be a perfectly pleasant place to fish. 

Of course, there are some sections that aren't easily accessible, and that's all I'm going to say about that.