Miracle On The Niangua

[XP 590]

We hit the access just below Bennett last Friday and had a great day. The water was up a foot or two and we were hoping to float to NRO, but we changed our mind on overnight camping Thursday with the thunderstorms. With the faster water, we put on heavy 7ft sinking tips (thanks Charlie) and big heavy woolybuggers and leeches. We mainly fished swinging them across the current and were hooking up immediately.

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Now for the miracle part: I had tucked my Winston/Ross combo under my arm to put on some sunscreen then I must have gone brain dead because the next thing I saw was the tip of my rod about 15ft downstream and going under fast. The river was way too fast and deep to give chase but I tried to haul butt downstream as fast as I could. I made it downstream about 100 yrds to the gravel boat ramp and pretty much gave up. My buddy was slowly coming downstream keeping his eyes peeled but no luck. He decided to work his way down to the concrete boat ramp as he had gotten himself stuck on the far side by the water, and was going to have to work down a little further to get across. I walked up to get the car and pick him up down at the boat ramp. As I drove by the gravel ramp opening in the trees, I saw him standing just below that area, no where near the boat ramp, and he was waving at me. I just though he was catching so many fish he didn't want to quit yet, so I got out of the car to see what was up. When I asked him if he was still catching fish, he said "Yeah, I caugt a skinny 9 footer"! I about $h#+ my pants when he reached down and pulled up my rod. Apparently the woolybugger had hooked on a rock and peeled a bunch of line off the reel becuase I had to trace the line about 60ft upstream to unhook the woolybugger. Since I still had my waders on I jumped right back in the river and kept on fishing. I figured we landed 12-15 each. Not a bad day for Friday the 13th.