With a 70 degree sunny day forecast I just couldn't resist sneaking away for another day on the river. I had some work that I was supposed to be getting done , but what the hell, life is short. I asked my fishing buddy and he just wagged his tail in agreement so it was decided to head back South for a one day trip.
Pulled into the parking lot at the 63 bridge access about 8:00 Tuesday morning and found it empty as usual on a weekday. While I hate working weekends, the one benefit is time on the river when most everyone else is at work.
I parked at the South end and got rigged up with an olive bugger on a sinking head line. The river looked to be just a little high and slightly off color just as it had been several days earlier. Perfect water for this river in my opinion. I started off swinging the bugger through the rocky riffles in front of the canoe launch area and had a fish on two of my first five casts.
Not much to look at ( the majority of fish caught were fresh off the stocking truck recently and had the look of a fish that spent it's life swimming around in a concrete tank) but I was standing in a cool river with my best friend at my side and a flyrod in my hand , life is good!
I spent a couple hours working through my favorite holes down to the boat ramp , catching a fish or two out of each spot.
Saw one other fisherman as I was walking back to the truck and we visited for a minute or two. He was fly fishing as well and said he had been doing pretty well on the river the last couple days also. I wished him luck and continued on to the truck. After a quick drive through BSSP to grab a cold drink and a spool of tippet from Larry's I headed to Barclay Access about 7 miles downstream of my first stop.
It was getting close to noon by the time I arrived at Barclay and no one else was in the parking lot so we sat down to eat a quick lunch before hitting the water. Note to self : one sandwich isn't enough when you have to share it with your fishing partner.
This water lends itself more towards nymphing so I switched over to a two nymph rig consisting of a GRHE and a SJ worm for a dropper. I started upstream of the parking area and worked my way downstream hitting all the areas that normally produce.
The fish were everywhere they were supposed to be and seemed to approve of my fly choice. Lots of small rainbows were caught and a couple that were obvious holdovers and had escaped the onslaught of the powerbait brigade, for now at least.
Still no browns, which has been the case my last two or three trips to this river. Obviously the MDC hasn't been keeping up with their stocking of browns on this water or maybe they just quit altogether. That's really too bad as I think the Niangua has some great habitat for browns.
It was around 4:00 when I decided to call it a day and head back for the parking lot. Even my fishing buddy had chased enough hooked trout up and down the bank to look tired , but satisfied.
Another great day on the water in Missouri.
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