Floating for trout

[Iceman12]

Well I'm planning on going down to float the Niangua from Bennett Springs access to the NRO campground on Sunday and staying on the river until Thursday. I know, short stretch for 5 days. I was hoping to get into a bunch of trout but now with the flooding I feel like it's gonna be a lost cause. Any chance the water will clear up and go down to normal levels in the next week leading up to Sunday?

[cmoore03]

With the rain forecast for Monday and heavier on Wednesday, I would venture to guess that the water will still be up and far from clear. You should have a sunny trip and best of luck.  CM

[oneshot]

Well the river is all over the Bottoms and my wife says it will take two days for all the water to get here from the South. I had 5 3/4 Inch of rain this last round and that much before.

Suppose to rain again Wednesday.

Wife says you should be good to go unless we get a bunch more rain.

oneshot

[Iceman12]

Well shoot. I hope the water goes down, otherwise I'll be cancelling my trip for a later date

[Al Agnew]

Keep an eye on the USGS gauge for the Niangua above Lake Niangua.  Normal for this time of year is about 750 cfs.  Even at 750 cfs, you're somewhat limited on where you can get out and wade to fish.  I suspect that even without a lot more rain, the river will still be flowing over 1000 cfs by next weekend, and that pretty much precludes any wade-fishing and makes slowing your boat down enough to fish from it somewhat problematical.  Can you do it?  Sure.  But it won't be an optimum trip in my opinion to spend that many days on that short stretch.

[Gavin]

Would keep an eye on the water level, and floating might be dicey. You never know what you will encounter after a big high water event, massive log jams, etc.

 

 

[Ozark Sweetwater]

That's a very short float for 3 days. I don't think it will drop out by this weekend. It is currently over 21,000 CFS. It's dropping about 1300 cfs per hour right now. I would not attempt it at anything over 1500-2000cfs. There are several islands in that stretch that are prone to log jams. I would doubt that any of the outfitters will be out cutting trees by this weekend.

I would probably reschedule if I were you. Just my 2 cents.

[Iceman12]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I figured as much. Just wanted to try to get some advice from some people who are more used to that river. I know it pretty well but my knowledge only extends to where I usually catch fish on the river, places where I like to camp, and my ability to read the few guage pages for the Niangua

[oneshot]

Suppose to be raining Wednesday 2-5 inches. So the river will be back up and will be up for days.

oneshot 

[podum]

I'd suspect tree jams, not log jams.  There were 60 foot sycamores jammed up in the river after the Dec. 2015 flood.  This was similar.  I wouldn't put in without good intelligence on what is down stream.