Bennett Report

[brittsnbirds]

Finally made it back down on 4/23. Started fishing AM of the 24th with rain. Tried several options to include the glo ball. Had minimal success with it as the water was moving pretty good. Finally re-calibrated my drift and changed over to a white floss mini jig and started hammering them. Most of the reports that I read spoke of the fish hanging out in the slack water, I found the larger fish in the faster water and more aggressive. I fished as deep as the drift would let me without getting hung up. Mostly above the Holland dam to the Spring on the far West bank. I caught several nice fish on Thursday and Friday. I was impressed with the clarity of the water. You can actually do a little sight fishing. If there isn't any severe rains the river should look pretty good in a week or so!

RC and PC you didn't miss anything on Saturday except the crowd! Don't know when I can make it down again. This month is busy with graduation and moving from school back to my other office at the Station. I will stay in touch! I noticed PC on some previous Niangua posts you were curious about the river. I would like to hit it some time this summer, have only fished it a couple other times in the past but was using a spinning rod. Let me know when you are interested and trying it. Maybe we can tag team it! Be sure and bring that HUGE bag of tricks!!

Pat

[Paola Cat]

Hey Pat .... It was good to meet you .... RC and I met up down there on Friday morning. I did pretty good for the 1st hour after the siren on a peach glow ball and then struggled with an occaisional fish until mid afternoon. Did decent after that on the white G-Bug. I'm in for an assault on the river when the water stabilizes. Was thinking on the drive home about consolidating the huge bag of tricks. I went ahead and ordered some boxes from Cabelas to get my stuff organized. I was impressed with your organization. You and RC are alot more organized than me. Anyway, I had a good time and am looking forward to getting back down there. PC (Mike)

[Thom]

Thanks for whetting my appetite and the report. I will be hitting Bennet with my Grandson, his father and family this coming weekend for kids weekend. Hopefully the water will be stabilized by then. If not we will figure it out somehow.

Looks like white is still working there. I have some new white experminents as well as some john deere's to start out on.

Also a version of the y2k egg cluster that I will also try.

Thanks again for the report.

Thom

[DoveTail]

Crowds alrady? I guess with the high water and rains, the first weekend that was fair everyone got out. Good to hear y'all were catching some.

[BrowningFisherman]

I fished all day yesterday and this morning it was crowded until about 9 am when I counted 10 fisherman in my line of sight. I tried fishing zone 1 on saturday but it was too crowded and I couldn't figure them out, I moved to zone 2 above whistle bridge and put my glo ball about 6 ft down and started hammering them. I am ready for the water to be normal, I am craving stripping cracklebacks on floating line.

[rcguy]

It was great to meet Mike (PC) and Pat (brittsnbirds) and Dixie. Mike introduced me to the G-bug and I caught a couple on that, but Mike out fished me for sure. I still had a great time and the weather for the most part was comfortable. It will be nice when the stream slows down to normal. I was pretty uneasy wading in that strong current. I'm ready to go again in a few weeks if anyone is going down. I might do a friday and sat next time. Now... to start tying G-bugs. BTW, Paola Cat has worlds largest fly collection!

[brittsnbirds]

Thanks for the reminder RC, I need to look up the recipe for the G-Bug and get busy also! If either of you guys haven't checked Weavers report, looks like some people were doing a little "dry fly" action on black caddis flys. I had one tied on my 3wt but was having too much fun with that white mini jig.

BTW I may try a weekend trip on the 23rd of May. Haven't checked with the boss yet. Very busy schedule in May!

Pat

[Paola Cat]

I saw the Weaver's report. Little black caddis and renegades .... hmmmm. I think RC's got that caddis pattern nailed. Also, after reading that report, it looks like it's time to start stripping cracklebacks. Just checked my schedule .... 5/23 was already penciled in for BSSP (I'm in). I also have this Friday penciled in for a river trip .... might end up at the park based on the river conditions.

PC

[Buzz]

Thanks for the reports guys. I have a question????? My buddy and I are starting to plan a weekend fishing trip around the 3rd or 4th week of May. We want to float fish and I want to get some wading in. I was thinking of one of the parks (Maramac or Bennett ). Both are great fisheries with floatable rivers. I've only fished Roaring River so I'm ready for a new challenge. Smallmouth fishing would be a plus. From what I've read the Niangua has a very good smallmouth population. We had originally talked about the NFOTW, but it is quite a bit farther for him to drive. He is in Columbia and I'm near Joplin. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Buzz

[Paola Cat]

Buzz ... I don't have any experience at Meramac but can recommend the Niangua. The Niangua does have a nice smallmouth population but on the weekends, there's a siginificant aluminum hatch around the BSSP area. I personally like to fish the upper Niangua (way above BSSP). There's no crowds and the fishing is usually great. The smallmouth up there get to 18" with most in the 8"-10" range. There's also the assortment of goggle-eyes, panfishes, and a few spots. The float from the MDC Charity access to the Hico Slab is a great fishing/wading float. It takes all day and you probably won't see anybody else. Other areas to consider would be the MDC Big John access, Williams Ford and the MDC Moon Valley access. The fishing below BSSP is good also with a mixed bag of trout and smallmouth but on the weekends, there's a large contingent of floaters/partiers. You could do a combo trip ... Day 1 float/wade the upper Niangua, Day 2 fish BSSP.

You might want to consider the Osage Fork. This is another stream with an excellent smallmouth population. This one is located close to Lebanon and could easily be combined with a BSSP Trip. We typically do a shorter float on this one. PM me if you want detailed information.

Another place that has an excellent smallmouth population, though not close to BSSP ..... but probably closer to you, is Flat Creek (south of Aurora, Mo and close to Jenkins). A nice float is from the Highway 39 bridge to the MDC EE takeout. I have caught smallmouth up to 19" in this section. This one takes all day also, the fishing is great, but you'll see a few more people. This one is also close to Crane. You could do a combo trip here also ... Day 1 do a float/wade on Flat Creek, Day 2 wade Crane.

Been waiting for the water to stabilize so I can make one of these trips myself.

PC