Just a mere 11 miles west of Lebanon, Missouri lies Bennet Spring State Park. The spring itself is pretty amazing as somewhere in the range of 110 million gallons of cold spring water bubbles up from Mother Earth each day and trickles northward towards The Niangua River. At that confluence a peculiar thing goes on; in the summer the cool water draws browns and big smallies looking for a break from the warmer river water…but in the winter the exact opposite takes place. Spring water, a consistent 56ish degrees flows into a cold river and once again becomes a holding place for many different types of fish; mostly rainbows (stocked within the boundary of the park), browns (stocked by the MO DNR each winter) and smallmouth (stocked by God himself).
The river is a gem and for many years I have been floating and fly fishing it for the above species. This past spring break I once again dropped by float boat into the river at the end of the state park boundary and floated the mile or so down towards the Bennet Spring public takeout. The fishing…well, it was nothing short of awesome and as you will see when you watch my video I was able to hook-up with loads of rainbows (some in the 18-19 inch range), browns (the largest was a chunky fish approximately 19 inches) and several big river smallies (the largest came in at 15 inches). At one point on the first day I caught a back to back to back trifecta; a bow, smallie and brown in the span of just a couple of minutes!
If fishing the river in the summer there are a number of public access points that will allow for day trips of a few hours to however long it takes you to get the float completed. This is a hard time frame for me to gauge…simply because the better the fishing the longer the floats usually take me. I have had some hot summer days that turned into day long floats because of the excellent smallmouth action that can be had all along the way.
I hope you enjoy the video and it wets your appetite for what surely is going to be a super spring for fly fishing. If you like the video or have questions please contact me through my website and I will do my best to respond as accurately as possible.
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What fly were you using?
Dan,
I was using one of my own trout candies….there is a video on my site of how to tie. The fly was a size 6 with about 15 wraps of .030 lead in the middle of the fly….and it was creme colored. Hope this helps….the fly is easy to tie and works for me in most occasions for trout to smallmouth.
Jeff
Hey Jeff , I really enjoy your video , I might watch it once a day just for peace and excitement ! I have fished Bennet springs since the 70 s and my son and I are there every year for opening day. 20 years or so , but we have never fished the Niangua . It looks like a blast , we plan on coming down this winter to fish . Is it good in the winter ? What pound line are you using ?
Terry,
Glad you’ve enjoyed the video…Bennet and a The Niangua are special! You’ll find the river is good all year…but best at times when it’s either real fold or real warm; the fish will pull up into this section just below Bennet when they’re looking gor cooler or warmer waters…like you’ll have in the winter. As for tippet…I usually go with anywhere from 1X to 3X depending in the clarity. There are some big browns and knowing that…I try to use as large/strong as possible.
Jeff