Trip Report

[podum]

Our 8 man group hit the Niangua Thursday through today. Man, was there a lot of water. In the river and in the sky. When I arrived Thursday, I was worried because the river had popped up after the storms on Monday and Tuesday. The Windyville gauge was still showing 700. To my surprise the water was very clear. High, but clear. We fished mainly in the area around NRO. Fishing was excellent both Thursday (sunny and nice) and Friday (wet, wet, wet). The river was blown out on Friday night (7 foot spike) so we fished Bennett on Saturday.

There are lots of really nice sized rainbows in the river right now. 14-16 inch fish. The best lure was a rebel crawfish. I was using the long rod and decided to streamer fish the whole trip (I havent done much of this and wanted to get some experience). Man was that the right call. I only used one fly - a size 10 articulated (double) olive circus peanut. I had the three largest trout I've ever caught on a fly rod.

Two encouraging observations: First, there were many more fish in the river this year than in any of the last 4. Maybe we hit right behind the stocking truck this time, but I fished the river this winter and saw more fish than in recent years. I'm hoping that the conclusion of the hatchery work means more fish for the lower river. Second, we caught 6 browns over the course of the 2 days. We had none last year and one the year before. No keepers but 2 were in the 13-14 range (likely not recent stockers) and the rest 10-11. I hope they get smart fast and avoid the meat hunters.

Cheers!