Good Day Monday

[LunkerB]

Me and my buddy "Uncle Pauly" hit the bell monday. Started at the rock spillway down from the springhole throwing 1/16th oz maribou jigs in peach and sculpin with yellow heads, We each caught between 8 to 10 fish in the 10 to 14 inch range. Pleased with the good start, we made our way up to the spring hole where we each picked up one more. We then decided to take a break and head down towards the end of zone one, just up from the big spillway. We changed up and I put on a bedspread 1/16 oz jig and paul tied on a peach glowball. I added about five more on the bedspread working up and paul added quite a few more than I did following right behind me. The water was so low and clear that he could see the bites the trout would give the glowball and he would set the hook every time. We decided to leave the park and go hit up moon valley for smallmouth around 11. I was throwing a black and yellow maribou jigs and caught two 10 inch smallies, a wonderful lunchtime suprise. Pauly barely fished and was scouring gravel bars for Daltons. Even more pleased than before we decided to try fishing the confluence with the Niangua area. The recent moss cutting sent a lot of debris down that way so we decided to fish around the bridge a little. We each added one more on either side of the bridge throwing jigs. Feeling out of our element we headed up to the hatchery outlets by the bluff in zone two and worked our way up. I was still throwing the bedspread and paul went back to the glowball in the slower water. We each caught more fish and by this point we lost count and did not care because we each had 20 or more fish for the day but we still worked our way up to the spillway and bridge area. Under the bridge below the spillway at the end of zone 1 was one of the deeper holes and while fishing it from behind I spotted what was easily a 8 to 10lb submarine. It nearly bumped me off my spot and lurked back down into the hole to not be seen again. By now it was 4 and we had 3.5 hrs to drive so we left feeling great about the daytrip. Bennett never fails even though it is not at its prime it was still excellent and I truly believe that it will only get better in the next couple of years after hatchery completion. I dont see how it could get worse with a hatchery the size of shepard of the hills.

[stlfisher]

Great report....thanks for sharing. Sounds like you guys had a great time. Nice to hear good news coming from Benett. I agree I think it will get better with time.

[ciRe]

I was at Bennett last weekend and fishing was a little slower except when I went into all the fast water areas using scuds and would tear them up. My girlfriend ended up catching a 2.5lber (21") on bottom of the spillway with a bubblebee roster tail. Was kinda surprised when she grabbed my attention because I figured it was just a small one.