Niangua Saturday 1-3-09

[fishinwrench]

The wind made me its b!tc#, all day today

Fished all the holes and riffles from Sand Spring down to 3rd island, tried every trick I know, and only had 4 noticable bites all day. Managed to get one little 12" rainbow hooked and landed.

Super-tough day for me.

[oneshot]

Boy i'm glad it isn't just me.I was down at Barclay Saturday didn't get nothing.

oneshot

[bclift65706]

has the water cleared up yet or is it still dirty

[fishinwrench]

has the water cleared up yet or is it still dirty

Saturday it was a bit chalky-green (visability about 3ft.) but it's clearing up pretty fast.

[Paola Cat]

Wrench .... I hear ya on it being slow. I fished the park on Friday and it was slow there also (see BSSP report). I was kicking myself for not making it down to the river .... sounds like I didn't miss much. It's been a struggle so far this winter. Something's not right ..... not sure what's going on in the "home waters"? I can't seem to find the concentrations of fish (in the river) that we can normally find. I don't know if they're not there or if it's just me! PC

[fishinwrench]

Wrench .... I hear ya on it being slow. I fished the park on Friday and it was slow there also (see BSSP report). I was kicking myself for not making it down to the river .... sounds like I didn't miss much. It's been a struggle so far this winter. Something's not right ..... not sure what's going on in the "home waters"? I can't seem to find the concentrations of fish (in the river) that we can normally find. I don't know if they're not there or if it's just me! PC

Naw it's not "just you", it was fishing good before Thanksgiving but there are certain little spots where a few of the most recent stockers always hang out, I can usually always count on getting bit in those spots no matter how tough it is elsewhere in the river... but the fish are simply not there.

When I drove through the park I saw that they put a sign up at the crapper by the Holland dam, saying that they were closing off half the restrooms..as a "budget cut" LOL

I wonder when doing these "budget cuts" if they cut the cleaning crews hours right away, or skimp on the river stockings first ?

I have nothing to go by other than a gut feeling, but I don't think they put any Browns in the river this Fall, at all.

I dunno, but after the butt-kickin' I've taken the last 2 times in that stretch by the access...I'll be concentrating my efforts elsewhere for awhile.

[laker67]

I have nothing to go by other than a gut feeling, but I don't think they put any Browns in the river this Fall, at all.

wrench,

This is what I heard from a reliable source. "In an attempt to turn zone 1 into a trophy brown area, the normal river stocking of browns was diverted to zone 1 this fall" It is rumored that they will stock 100 browns in zone 1 for the next few years. This is not saying that browns will no longer be stocked in the river. I can't see them "not" doing that. They may have had a poor year as far as egg harvest, just as Taney did. My thought on the matter is this, I think they are trying to raise some 20 pound browns in the creek. By putting them in zone 1, they do not have to run the guantlet in zone 3. There is some ideal water in zone 1 to make this possible. Also I suspect that RR might be doing the same thing with it's winter release of browns on the upper end. Tim might be able to shed some light on this.

[fishinwrench]

Yep, like I said, my gut feeling was as such. The Browns I caught before Thanksgiving I could tell had been in the river awhile, each fish (brown) was on his own separate little niche of river. They were agressive and willing to chase when I found one...but there was no fishing one little area and catching 4-5 like you can do after a recent stocking.

I'd like to take the toon and cover some water on a day thats not so windy.

[fishinwrench]

Well Shut My Mouth ! ....Here's the latest word on the stocking of Browns, per Weaver's:

{quote} The annual stocking of brown trout in the Niangua River took place on December 18 & 19, 2008. Five thousand browns were stocked, with an average length of 11½". Individual fish varied from 9" to 13" in length. The fish were stocked at 6 locations between Niangua River Oasis (NRO) and Ho-Humm Campground. {un-quote}

5000 Browns released along that 5 mile stretch of river the day before I last floated it in the toon. And I thought I had really figured something out that day ....LMAO What a bubble-buster

I gotta challenge those numbers though, the most I've ever known them to drop in one place is 500, 500x6=3000 Still a very good thing, but lets keep it real. Knowing their movements after release(90+ percent immediatly head upstream) the fishing at NRO should be amazing.

Probably why our buddy Cricket got all quiet

[laker67]

Well Shut My Mouth ! ....Here's the latest word on the stocking of Browns, per Weaver's:

{

5000 Browns released along that 5 mile stretch of river the day before I last floated it in the toon. And I thought I had really figured something out that day ....LMAO What a bubble-buster

I gotta challenge those numbers though, the most I've ever known them to drop in one place is 500, 500x6=3000 Still a very good thing, but lets keep it real. Knowing their movements after release(90+ percent immediatly head upstream) the fishing at NRO should be amazing.

I would have to challenge that also. Only 10,000 are stocked in Taney. 3 to 500 would be more accurate. Sounds like Weaver's are posting a "come on down" report. The park must have acquired some fish from SOH.