Niangua Decline?

[snagged in outlet 3]

Story sounds similar to the upper Meramec.

I've fished both since the early 70's and they are a shadow of what they used to be.

Pete

[fishinwrench]

IMO they have no reason not to manage the Niangua fishery better. They have a hell of a hatchery operation there now that is certainly not needed just simply for the 1 mile of spring creek at Bennett.

The whole area would benefit from making that 8-10 miles of the Niangua the best White ribbon stretch in the state.

The only thing they'd have to do is actually stock the numbers they claim, preferably float stock it, and monitor the gigging activity some.

[bkbying89]

I noticed this post and decided to ad my two cents. If you follow the money it goes to Big Bass fishing management on large impoundments. That's where the money is at. Same goes for hunting Missouri used to have great Quail hunting. the management money now goes to deer hunting and a more diverse over all management system. 

[fishinwrench]

Big bass fishing management ?    Where does that happen at ?

[DaddyO]

What is the possibility that their stocking numbers are correct and the fish are being seined out of the river, at night?

[fishinwrench]

What is the possibility that their stocking numbers are correct and the fish are being seined out of the river, at night?

Who loves eating stocker trout enough to go through all that trouble ?

[oneshot]

Mid-90's to about 2001-03 was the peak of Brown trout stocking.

I had them figured out really well and knew almost all of the holding spots. I could tell that they had stopped stocking at Prosperine 2-3 years before they let the word out simply because there was only 5 spots between there and Ho-Humm where the trout held...and they had disappeared. After that there were still fish in the same spots they had always been in between Barclay and Ho-Humm for a couple years, and IF you did catch one below Ho-Humm it was a bigun (a holdover).

2003-04 was a crazy high water year and I can't imagine that they did much, if any, stocking during that 4-5 month period while the river was basically unfishable. They also had a bad fish kill at the hatchery during that period.

It hasn't been really good like it was pre-2003 since then to my knowledge.

The Niangua isn't a hard river to fish, the good holding spots are very predictable and if you are a reasonably good fisherman and fish it regularly then you know the difference between a tough bite and when fish are simply not in the river to be had.

Got to agree, seen couple years no fish because they were just not there. Before caught good numbers and good size.

 

oneshot

[oneshot]

What is the possibility that their stocking numbers are correct and the fish are being seined out of the river, at night?

There is no way they would go through that trouble. Now people catching maybe double limit in one day is very possible but not that many doing it. Most I seen was Guys catch limit at the Park then do the same in the river below the bridge.

 

I would much rather go on down river catch more variety of warm water fish, or Goggle Eye above the Park.

 

oneshot 

[oneshot]

Ok I would say not stocking the numbers they say they are plus dang Otters. They are Dening all the way down the River. Have set on the Sycamores just below 64 HWY Bridge have Otters all over me. Same at Barclay.

 

oneshot

[Al Agnew]

I doubt that otters are a big factor.  There is little doubt that otters can decimate smaller warm water streams, but a river the size of the Niangua is a lot harder for them to clean out, and trout are not quite as easy to catch as warm water fish, especially in cold weather.

Rivers like the Niangua and Meramec, with large watersheds above the trout water, are tough on trout.  A big warm flood can really mess things up, as can drought years when not only the river gets really low but the spring flow also decreases significantly.  And even a small flood of cool to cold water at the right time of spring could make a lot of trout move upstream, well above the spring, in an abortive spawning run, and then end up stranded in rapidly warming water.  Still, if nothing else the first couple of miles should be fairly consistent fishing as trout should continually repopulate it from the spring branch.