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Home › Waters › Missouri › Niangua River
River · Ozarks · Missouri

Niangua River Fishing Guides

Ozark float river that picks up cold water at Bennett Spring below this gauge, holding stocked rainbow trout near the park and smallmouth bass, goggle-eye and catfish along the gravel-bar reaches toward Lake Niangua.

A clear gravel-bottomed river running past a wooded bank

Map of the Niangua River

34 numbered points: 12 access points, 8 campsites, 1 outfitter, 4 bridges, 2 parks and conservation areas, 1 agency office, 2 regulation section limits, 1 hazard, 2 springs, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 7, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (12)
  • Campsite (8)
  • Outfitter / canoe rental (1)
  • Bridge crossing (4)
  • Park / conservation area (2)
  • Agency / conservation office (1)
  • Regulation section limit (2)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • Spring (2)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 34 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Charity Access
MDC · Highway M		Access / boat ramp37.52011, -92.98371Upper put-in near Charity; the river above Bennett Spring is a spring-flow float.
2Highway M bridge at Charity
MO M		Bridge crossing37.52012, -92.98343Crossing beside Charity Access.
3Highway 32 bridge
MO 32		Bridge crossing37.63452, -93.02752Crossing east of Buffalo.
4Big John Access
County road · low-water crossing		Access / boat ramp37.64172, -93.04390Gravel access below the Highway 32 bridge.
5Williams Ford Access
County road		Access / boat ramp37.69223, -92.95581Low-water crossing and landing above Moon Valley.
6Highway K bridge
MO K		Bridge crossing37.68413, -92.92452Crossing between Williams Ford and Moon Valley.
7USGS 06923250 Niangua River at WindyvilleUSGS gauge37.68431, -92.92464The gauge behind the live flow on this page, on the Highway K reach above Moon Valley.
8Moon Valley Access
County road		Access / boat ramp37.70249, -92.88192Popular put-in for the float down to Bennett Spring.
9Fort Niangua Landing
Private · Fort Niangua River Resort		Access / boat ramp37.73148, -92.88835Resort landing and campground just above the state park.
10Fort Niangua River Resort
Private · camping and floats		Campsite37.73708, -92.89084Campground, cabins and rentals above Bennett Spring.
11Riverfront Campground
Private		Campsite37.73110, -92.87248Riverside camping between Fort Niangua and the park.
12Bennett Spring State Park
Missouri State Parks · trout park		Park / conservation area37.72607, -92.85771Daily trout tags on the spring branch; lodge, store, dining and five campgrounds.
13Bennett Spring Fish Hatchery
Missouri Department of Conservation		Agency / conservation office37.72530, -92.85518Hatchery that stocks the park water; nature center next door.
14Bennett Spring State Park Campground 1
Missouri State Parks · closest loop to the river		Campsite37.73143, -92.85993Campgrounds 1–5 book through Missouri State Parks.
15White Ribbon Trout Area — upper limit
Bennett Spring Branch confluence		Regulation section limit37.73374, -92.86132MDC's White Ribbon Trout Area runs 11.5 miles from the spring branch down to Prosperine Access. Check the MDC regulations for limits and methods.
16Bennett Spring State Park Landing
Missouri State Parks		Access / boat ramp37.73374, -92.86132Park landing where the spring branch meets the river.
17Sand SpringSpring37.73623, -92.86101Small spring beside the resort just below the park.
18Highway 64 bridge at Bennett Spring
MO 64		Bridge crossing37.73793, -92.86073The main crossing at the park entrance.
19Hidden Valley Outfitters
Canoe and raft rental · camping		Outfitter / canoe rental37.73937, -92.85916Rentals, shuttles and campground at the Highway 64 bridge.
20Bennett Spring Access
MDC · concrete ramp		Access / boat ramp37.74472, -92.86032Public access below the bridge; the busiest launch on the river.
21Niangua River Oasis
Private · camping and floats		Campsite37.76120, -92.87144Campground with its own landing.
22Niangua River Oasis Landing
Private		Access / boat ramp37.76110, -92.86956Outfitter landing.
23Coffin Cave Conservation Area
Missouri Department of Conservation		Park / conservation area37.78218, -92.85349MDC land on the east bank below the Oasis.
24Barclay Conservation Area Access
MDC · canoe launch		Access / boat ramp37.78801, -92.86150Public access on the Barclay CA.
25Barclay SpringSpring37.79290, -92.87117Spring on the conservation area.
26Big Bear River Resort
Private · camping and floats		Campsite37.80208, -92.87543Resort camping with river frontage.
27Maggard Corkery Landing
Private · Maggard Canoe		Access / boat ramp37.80515, -92.87072Outfitter landing at Corkery.
28Maggard Canoe & Corkery Campground
Private · canoe rental and camping		Campsite37.80572, -92.87111Long-running Niangua outfitter.
29Smokey Bottom Resort
Private · camping		Campsite37.80636, -92.86332Campground on the bend below Corkery.
30Mountain Creek Family Resort
Private · camping and floats		Campsite37.80065, -92.83735Resort with its own landing near Prosperine.
31White Ribbon Trout Area — lower limit
Prosperine Access		Regulation section limit37.79824, -92.83692Trout management ends here; warm-water fishing below.
32Prosperine Access
MDC		Access / boat ramp37.79824, -92.83692The usual take-out for the Bennett Spring float, about 11 miles.
33Oldhams Riverview Landing
Private		Access / boat ramp37.82258, -92.86710Landing on the quiet reach below Prosperine.
34Tunnel Dam
Hydro dam · portage		Dam / hazard37.93718, -92.85093Dam at the head of the Niangua Arm of Lake of the Ozarks. Take out well above it; no passage.

Guides on the Niangua River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Niangua River

The Niangua runs north from the Lebanon area to Lake of the Ozarks, and the stretch anglers care about begins where Bennett Spring dumps roughly 100 million gallons a day into it. Bennett Spring State Park is one of Missouri’s four trout parks, and the river below the park is a real trout fishery for several miles before it warms into one of the better smallmouth floats in the state.

Bennett Spring to Prosperine, or on to Barclay, is the standard trout float. The river here is wider than the spring branch in the park and holds rainbows that have moved out of the park, plus browns that grow large in the deeper pools around Moon Valley. Below Barclay the Niangua is a warm-water river with smallmouth, largemouth, goggle-eye, and catfish, popular with canoe liveries out of Lebanon. The float from Barclay down to Highway 64 at Windyville, where the USGS gauge sits, is the one most smallmouth guides run.

The Windyville gauge reads well below the spring, so it reflects rain in the whole upper basin. Around 250 to 600 cfs is a comfortable float; below 200 the riffles get thin for a drift boat; above 1,200 the river is muddy and pushy. The trout reach near the park is buffered by the spring and stays fishable longer than the gauge suggests.

Tunnel Dam and Lake Niangua sit downstream of Windyville, and below the dam the river runs a few more miles to Lake of the Ozarks. Lebanon is the supply town for the whole river, with lodging, liveries, and fly shops within a few minutes of the park, and Bennett Spring State Park itself has a campground, cabins, and a store that stays busy from opening day through October.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Niangua River cfs

Now: 26.2 cfs, read 6:00 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 06923250, Niangua River at Windyville, MO).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Bennett Spring State Park: the park access at the mouth of the spring branch is the top of the trout float.
Prosperine Access: MDC access 5 miles below the park, common trout takeout.
Barclay Access: MDC access with ramp, 4 miles below Prosperine, where the smallmouth floats begin.
Moon Valley and Lead Mine Conservation Area: mid-river accesses.
Highway 64 Access at Windyville: MDC ramp at the gauge, the usual smallmouth takeout above Lake Niangua.

Seasons

March 1: trout park opening day at Bennett Spring draws thousands; the river below the park is a quieter option.
April through June: best all-around flows for both trout and smallmouth floats.
July and August: warm water below Barclay, topwater smallmouth early and late, heavy livery traffic on weekends.
September and October: low clear water, excellent wade fishing, park closes to regular season at the end of October.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Niangua River?

As of Oct 18, 6:00 pm, the USGS gauge Niangua River at Windyville, MO reads 26 cfs, the 21st percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Niangua River?

Anglers target Channel Catfish, Rainbow Trout, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass on the Niangua River in Missouri.

Are there fishing guides on the Niangua River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Niangua River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Niangua River?

Bennett Spring State Park: the park access at the mouth of the spring branch is the top of the trout float. Prosperine Access: MDC access 5 miles below the park, common trout takeout. Barclay Access: MDC access with ramp, 4 miles below Prosperine, where the smallmouth floats begin. Moon Valley and Lead Mine Conservation Area: mid-river accesses. Highway 64 Access at Windyville: MDC ramp at the gauge, the usual smallmouth takeout above Lake Niangua.

When is the best time to fish the Niangua River?

March 1: trout park opening day at Bennett Spring draws thousands; the river below the park is a quieter option. April through June: best all-around flows for both trout and smallmouth floats. July and August: warm water below Barclay, topwater smallmouth early and late, heavy livery traffic on weekends. September and October: low clear water, excellent wade fishing, park closes to regular season at the end of October.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Niangua River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Missouri agency site: https://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/regulations