Many FATC members fish the Bennett Spring trout park, some with terrific results this past winter.  But I’ve often wondered how many of us were curious about where all that spring water flows and what happens to the more adventurous trout that decide to “escape” the security of the park and take their chances elsewhere.  One outdoor writer published an article a few years ago in which he called the Niangua “Missouri’s Forgotten Trout River.” See that article here: http://missourioutdoors.blogspot.com/2009/08/fishing-missouris-forgotten-trout-river.html

So is that the case?  To put it another way, is the Niangua the “Rodney Dangerfield” of Missouri’s trout rivers that gets no respect?  To find out, Dan Staggenborg and I, Al Harper, decided to float and fish a section of the Niangua River the first week of May.  We set out from a nearby resort with riverfront frontage that includes a launch.  I was in a Flycraft and Dan was piloting an inflatable kayak.  While I was getting a shuttle so our vehicle would await us some 8 miles downriver, Dan got his watercraft pumped up and began catching fish right away.  

This happened probably only about a quarter mile below where the spring flows into the river.  It was a good spot but one must be a resort guest, either renting a room or a campsite to fish there.  A FATC member had mentioned another outfitter just upstream with even more riverfront property.  The owners there allowed us to drive along the river on their property and apparently permit wade fishing along that stretch when they weren’t thronged with floaters. 

Back at our resort, after catching a few fish at their launch the realization that we had many miles yet to go finally compelled us to head downriver. Fortunately this wasn’t the only hot spot we encountered, but we did end up doing a good bit of paddling and oaring by the end of the day.  According to the USGS website, the Niangua’s flow was 136 cfs which seemed rather lazy, but steady, compared to other rivers we’d floated.  For instance that same day the more powerful Eleven Point was 1,050 cfs, the wide and muscular North Fork of the White was 895 cfs and the Meramec was 405 cfs.  Even the extremely consistent Spring River in Arkansas was at 979 cfs and it has been known to take the feet out from under wade fisherman.  So while the Niangua can beef up with heavy rains, of course, it still felt like a river that most floaters could easily handle. We heard from locals that the flow drops quite a bit on into the summer.  

But while the river seemed a little mild, the beauty of it and the fishing didn’t disappoint us.  There were many rocky sandbars that made it easy for a kayaker to pull over.  I fished almost exclusively from the drift boat. Dan reported the places he waded had a bottom that felt pretty sound.  Only when retrieving his fly from some obstruction in a swift spot did Dan report a dicey wading moment.  While we knew few details, we had heard a member and officer of another St. Louis fly club had tragically drowned while wading in the aforementioned North Fork of the White just a couple of days before we took off for our trip. 

Fortunately we faced few hazards on our float and enjoyed some very good streamer action not far downstream.  The river narrowed and deepened and resulted in a trough containing large boulders. That stretch of water was ideal for stripping streamers.  Dan spied a neck of water with a rock shelf just above strong riffles and did very well there without moving much.  It was here that he landed a brown estimated to be about 18” in length.  My technique was to position the drift boat mid-river, lower the anchor, stand up and throw a streamer to either bank.  As the fly sunk with the help of a weighted fly line, I’d strip it back through the trough maneuvering it around the boulders and inducing various forms of action on the streamer trying to illicit a predatory response from the fish.  I eagerly awaited the jolting strikes that came often, and had a real fight on my hands after hook sets with fish down river using the current to their advantage.  Then I’d drift down a little farther and repeat the process.  

Dan and I could have spent a lot more time fishing that productive section of the river where trout seemed to be stacked but with most of the mileage we needed to cover still downstream we were forced to move on.  We encountered three other flyfishers in kayaks at one point who were also having success.  The resort personnel mentioned that although the Niangua is roughly equidistant from Kansas City and St. Louis, they got more visitors from the western portion of the state.  

The next day, Dan and I dropped in on the Bennett Springs hatchery manager with whom Dan has developed a friendship.  He was excited about big changes coming in the months ahead.  The hatchery is getting a major makeover as the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is funding improvements to bring in more visitors. 

The MDC is currently working with an engineering firm to put a project into place to repair and replace portions of the hatchery’s aging infrastructure. The project is expected to last for two years and will cost approximately $20 million. New technologies will also be added to the infrastructure to improve fish reproduction.

According to one news source, during construction MDC says there may be some temporary restrictions to fishing accesses on portions of the stream, but any restrictions will be communicated to the public.

The hatchery will not operate during construction phases and existing fish will be moved to the Shepherd of the Hills, Roaring River and Montauk hatcheries. Fish will still be transported from other MDC hatcheries and stocked on a daily basis during the season at Bennett Spring, and anglers will not see a change to existing seasons. 

The hatchery manager talked at length and in great detail about the upcoming improvements, but I wanted to know more about trout escapees outside the park.  He said they stock the river, in addition to the park, on an ongoing basis but indicated he thought those newly released trout were usually caught relatively quickly.  

With more than 350,000 trout being placed into the spring annually, I have to think many of them decide to gravitate on down into the river.  I’d also like to believe (fantasize?) that some of them are savvy enough to survive in the Niangua for years, reach a remarkable size and lurk deep among boulders waiting for a streamer disguised as an unwary, confused baitfish containing a lot of calories.  But whether there are “hogs” in it or not, the Niangua is certainly a river not to be forgotten and very worthy of an angler’s respect.