Last Weekend on the Niangua

[podum]

Took our annual trip to the Niangua last weekend and fished the accesses at Moon Valley, Bennett, the NRO Campsite, and Barclay. No floating as there are some older guys in our group. Water was swift but clearer than expected. We did reasonably well at all stops, with most of our fishing just upstream from Bennett Access (near the 64 bridge).

Lots of Smallmouth, but little in the way of size. Most were caught on Rebel Craws and Swimming Minnows. Trout were much better with a lot of rainbows in the 15 inch range. Fishing the riffle at Bennett resulted in stocker size rainbows, while moving up near the bridge brought much better fish. We caught very few browns and the ones we did were small.

Those of us fly fishing caught them on a "Jimi Hendrix" egg pattern (combo of pink, chartreuse and white) and on olive woolies. Spin fishing was good with rebel craws and in line spinners (with a maribu tail).

[creek wader]

Sounds like an active day. That was a very good report. Thanks. ... Wader

[podum]

3 days creek. I'm not young enough to do that in a day . . .