Spring Break in Mizzou – Part 2

As you may have read in my last post, Vickie and I spent our spring break just west of Lebanon, Missouri at Bennet Spring State Park. My first couple of days were spent fishing for trout in the water that flows out of Bennet at a rate of about 100 million gallons of 56 degree clear spring water per day; Bennet is Missouri’s 4^th largest such spring. Sunday of that week was a wet one and rain dominated but we awoke on Monday morning to bright sunshine and warm temps…in fact there were a number of one day records for high temperatures set within the Show Me state; we certainly felt it and rarely have I been hot while fly-fishing in March but this was the case as once again my little black/spider nymph did its job and I netted about 30 trout during the day.

Tuesday through Thursday was supposed to be more of the same with temps in the upper 70’s or low 80’s and even more moisture in the air. I awoke early on Thursday, March 15^th and while driving to the river remembered that it was indeed the “Ides of March.” I decided I would switch gears and try a little smallmouth fishing on the Niangua River. Bennet flows about a mile north towards the Niangua which in turn also flows north towards the Lake of the Ozarks; for many years I have heard the reports of very good smallmouth fishing on the Niangua and I figured that if ever they were to be aggressive these warm days might just have them started. I pulled out onto highway 64, crossed the Niangua and took an immediate right into the Bennet Spring public use area…parked my truck, tied on a yellow half and half fly that has worked well back home in Indiana and started off down the river.

The first couple hundred yards was a little dry with a few strikes and a couple of smaller rainbows that had obviously either left the spring area or had been stocked into the river. As I neared the last boat launch ramp I made a cross stream cast and watched as the yellow fly pitched downstream…a few strips and the fly disappeared, I wasn’t sure at first if I had a smallie on or possibly a brown trout that also lives in the river. A few more strips of my 6 weight fly line and I lipped my first smallmouth, a 14 incher that was way more bronze in color than are our smallies back home. Two more cast and a complete jolt on my line left me stripping against the current and I could tell that whatever I was hooked into was not a small version. One thing that time and experience has taught me is to be patient and in a few seconds I could see that I had a very large smallie…I readied my landing net and was about to slip the net under my prize when he rolled on my leader and was loose, swimming back towards the depths of the Niangua. For a second I couldn’t believe it, I really can’t be sure but after a pretty good look I think this may have been my biggest smallie ever…so it goes!

I gathered myself back together and made a few more cast when once again I felt a jolt and this time there was no doubt about the fish as a large brown smallie jumped up out of the stream and swam directly for me…I raced to keep up with the fish by stripping line feverishly and after a few seconds I slid my net under a beauty of a fish, 16 inches and one of the chunkiest smallies I had ever caught. I snapped several photos and slid the fish back into the river. My next cast was straight down the middle of the river and once again I felt a pop on my line…another slab of a smallie, 15 inches in all and my morning had went from relatively slow to a blast in a short period of time. Over the next 30 minutes I landed three more fish; another 16 inch smallmouth, a very yellow rock bass of about 11 inches and a sporty little nine inch spotted bass and without knowing it had completed my own sort of river slam of all three species of river bass! I looked down at my watch and it was just 7:45am…what a glorious morning, not only did I catch a nice batch of fish but listened to a multitude of tom turkeys gobbling from various hilltops within the canyon.

I pulled out of the canyon and back into the park area in front of the park store, purchased my $3 dollar daily trout tag, clipped off my yellow half and half and traded it in for some 4X tippet and a black/red wooly bugger and preceded to one of my favorite spots in zone one that currently was inhabited by only one other fisherman. It took a few casts to find how deep the trout were but once I located them I really caught a slew of fish…and quickly. By 9:15am I had placed 4 nice rainbows on my stringer…all were 15 inches or larger and made my way back to the island area just above the dam to clean the fish. I was taking a few photos of the fish, my rod, vest, etc…when the other gentleman asked me if I wanted him to take a picture. I told him that I had got the photo I was looking for and this led to about a 30 minute discussion of everything from fish, rods, lines, Missouri and even his wife who had just had a hip replacement? He, Larry, reminded me that he was the one who took the photo for me a couple years back when I had caught a nice 20 inch rainbow on my two weight. As I have said before…you meet the nicest people when you are in the outdoors.

While the Ides of March may have not been good to Caesar it certainly was to me…what a day full of nature and fishing…a perfect day of Enjoying the Great Outdoors.

Click here to watch a video of me landing one of the smallies on the Niangua River.