Fishing Report
Opener 2024! Welcome back anglers! We had a great opening this year. With several fish caught along with some nice lunkers. March 1st for many folks is comparable to Christmas. Anglers travel from all over to experience the opening morning of trout season. It’s truly an experience you will never forget. This year the opening siren ringer was Don Harbaugh, 93, of Saint Louis. Don has been fishing at Bennett Spring for over 75 years. I got to witness Don fire the start gun. He had a great time doing so as he shot it off multiple times. Congrats Don!
How’s fishing? We had a great catch and release season with several nice fish caught this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday we have had great fishing reports with several nice fish brought up to be weighed. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had some great fishing even with the rain.
Kathy Crim from Plainville, IL
What to use? Black and Yellow marabou jigs, yep that’s right black and yellow is what several anglers start out with in the mornings here at Bennett Spring. I don’t know what it is about the b&y marabou jig but it’s a very productive jig. Other jigs that always work great are the ginger, gingersnap, (brown and yellow), light pink and (red and white.)
Clayton from Illinois
If drifting with an indicator is your game than I would most definitely go with the cream mop fly. This produced several nice fish and a bunch of lunkers last year. This year it has already proven to be a great drifter. The white, orange, olive mops are also a good choice.
Jake and Judd from Tuscumbia, MO
One of my favorites last year on the drift was the white thread jig. Of course, the Jimi Hendrix, tri color original and the Easter egg are always a good choice in the glow balls.
Another underestimated fly is kapok. This works really great with a split shot. The kapok fly comes from the kapok tree. This was originally used for life jackets as it floats. Running a split shot approximately a foot from the kapok and letting it bounce the bottom works wonders.
In zone three Bentley's Secret Bait-Garlic was working awesome. Several angler reported it worked great this past week. Salmon Peach PowerBait, White PowerBait, Sherbet Powerbait , Trout Pellet Powerbait are a few favorites for anglers on the stream.
All of us at Weaver’s are excited for another year and can’t wait to see everyone. Have a great season everyone! Good luck, be safe and as always, we will see you on the stream!
Craig, Victoria and Justine from Springfield and KC area
STREAM CONDITIONS
BENNETT SPRING gage height 2.50 feet
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/06923500/#parameterCode=00065&period=P7D
NIANGUA RIVER gage height 4.29 feet
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/06923250/#parameterCode=00065&period=P7D
Jeff Singer- 5.5 lbs
Lunkers
Carl Davis from Nevada, MO- 3lb with a green RoosterTail in zone 1
Ron Thomas from Fulton, MO- 2.5lbs with a minnow in zone 3
Sean Wilmes from Wentzville, Mo- 2.1lbs with a brown/ white marabou in zone 1
Deanna Wolff from Adrian, MO- 2.1lbs with a black and white spinner in zone 1
Henry Perry from Holts Summit, MO,- 3lbs with a black and yellow marabou in zone 2
Cody Fishburn from Boliver, mo- 2.2lbs with a black and yellow mbj in zone 2
Ryan Ammel from Arnold, Mo 3.5 lbs with a wooly spinner in zone 2
David Kennedy from Disloge, MO- 3.5 lbs. with dough bait in zone 3
Jeff Singer from Hartsburg, MO- 5.5 lbs. with a black and yellow mbj in zone 2
Gene Bauer from Eldon, MO- 2.5 lbs. with a pink and white mbj in zone 1
Ronnie Mueller from Cedar Hill, MO-2.5 lbs. with a glo ball in zone 1
Jason Williams from KC, KS- 2 lbs. with Rainbow Powerbait in zone 3
Brendon Farkas from St. Peters, MO- 2 lbs. with a JD mini jig in zone 2
Cameron Kirchner from Canton, MO- 2 lbs. with orange PB in zone 3
Luciano Biscari from KC, MO -2 lbs. with a brassie in zone 2
Jimmy Smith from Moscow Mills, MO- 2 1/8 lbs. with orange mb jig- zone 1
John Greer from Sweet Springs, MO- 2 lbs. with a gray scud in zone 2
Nathan Carey from Harrisburg, MO- 4 lbs. with an "EB Special" in zone 1
Jeremy Hein from Dekalb, IL-3.5 lbs. with a mopfly in zone 1
Kevin Lee from Bowling Green, MO, 2 lbs. with Rainbow Powerbait in zone 3
Laurie Juergensen from Wentzville, MO- 2.25 lbs. with white mop in zone 1
Jon Seaman from Holden, MO- 2 lbs. with a Pink mini jig in zone 1
Recommendations
Zone 1 and Zone 2- cream mopfly, orange mopfly, white mega worm, renegade, Bennett blue crackleback, white thread jig,Gold plate- black and yellow, marabou- black and yellow marabou, ginger snap, black, shell, shell & white. John Deere mini jig, peacock jig, white glo ball, Jimi Hendrix glo ball and Lt Roe glo ball.
Zone 3 - PowerBait(Yellow, white, salmon peach, cheese and orange.) Bentleys Secret Bait.
Bennett Spring Events
Bennett Spring Fly Tying Group- Every Wednesday @ 9 at the Bennett Spring Church
See https://mostateparks.com/events/park/bennett-spring-state-park for more Bennet Spring Events and dates
Have fun, stay safe and tight lines!
Thanks for reading,
Cory Bennett