Trout Fishing Report for Bennett Spring
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April 20, 2024

by Cory Bennett   

How’s Fishing? If you ask me it has been awesome! And I say that because the days I have been on the streams it was gangbuster. I had one heck of a day on Monday fishing with my good ole buddy Chuck. I started out drifting an RGN which worked great and then it slowed down a bit. I switch to a full sink line and stripped cracklebacks and it was lights out! At one point I ran out of cracklebacks and started stripping renegades and Griffiths Gnat and the fishing continued. Now with that being said, to catch these fish I had to step out of my comfort zone. I most definitely am not a pro at a full sink line but with a little practice, I would have to say I didn’t do to bad. I most generally prefer the dry fly and drift methods of fly fishing, but I definitely opened my eyes to a new method of fishing. I get that its not going to be a cast and catch day every time and that why it’s called fishing and not catching. But if your preferred method of fishing isn’t working, switch it up a bit and the outcome may be better and you may even surprise yourself.

In my fishing reports I’ve been asked by several fisherman to try to educate on what to use and what not to use, this is mainly on what is legal and what’s not legal. So, I will touch on the definition of a soft plastic bait. Based on the Trout Fishing Regulations manual a soft plastic bait is synthetic eggs, synthetic worm and soft plastic lures. So basically, a soft plastic lure which is like a rubber worm, trout magnet or anything soft plastic or rubber that you feed onto a hook can only be used in Zone 3. Also, for zone 3- your dough bait, worms, minnows(baitfish), cheese, corn, grubs, shrimp, salmon eggs can only be used. I hope this information helps but if anyone has question, please feel free to contact me via Facebook or even by phone and I will try and answer your question as good as I possibly can.

So what working? Well for me this week-The Ross Glitter Nymph drifted under and indicator was great. I also did well with other small black midges. Other anglers reported peach fur bugs and orange glo balls were working well.  Now I did my very best on Monday with pumpkin, Bennett blue and olive cracklebacks.

In zone 1 and 2, black marabou and orange marabou were very popular. Also if you like throwing Rooster Tales- orange and also the rainbow fry were a solid choice. In the PowerBait category-Orange, Rainbow and Salmon Peach were of a few angler favorites.

Today is Free Veterans Free Fishing and the turnout seem to be good. I got to meet several veterans down on the stream. Its always a great experience to go down and watch our past and present members of our armed forces enjoying the spring.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend. Good luck, be safe and we’ll see you on the spring.

BENNETT SPRING gage height 1.71feet
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/06923500/#parameterCode=00065&period=P7D

NIANGUA RIVER gage height 1.31 feet
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/06923250/#parameterCode=00065&period=P7D

Recommendations

Zone 1 and Zone 2 - Marabou- black, orange, black & yellow, white & red and shell & white Mopfly- Cream, orange and Chartreus

White Mega worm, Pink Mega worm

zebra Midge-black, olive 

Grey Scud

Mini jigs-Peach or cream Fur Bug John Deere mini jig and Bedspread mini jig- white thread jig and the peacock mini jig with tail

Glow balls orange, Jimi Hendrix, white, peach and the tri colored orgininal

Zone 3 - Orange Spark PowerBait and Salmon Peach PowerBait- White PowerBait, Rainbow Powerbait
Pautzke’s Red label Salmon Eggs 

Bennett Spring Events

Bennett Spring Fly Tying Group- Every Wednesday @ 9 at the Bennett Spring

May 4th Kids Free Fishing

See  https://mostateparks.com/events/park/bennett-spring-state-parkhttps://mostateparks.com/events/park/bennett-spring-state-park   for more Bennett Spring Events and dates

Have fun, stay safe and tight lines!

Thanks for reading,

Cory

The Guy from Weaver’s

Also see our Facebook page and weaverstackle.com .

Mike Sapp Photo

Mike Sapp Photo