Born to Fish

What about a single person?

Need to watch out for some of the locals coming in by 4 wheelers and using bait, especially below BC. I've found empty cans of corn and bait containers down there.

Nice smally!!

The beauty of the upper Current always makes it special! Great post;I can see it and smell it!!

GREAT father/son trip!! Thanks for sharing.

Waders differ in sizes so make sure you try them on and make sure they're comfortable on you. Nothing like wading with penguin feet!! I used the stocking foot wader for years but have gone back to the boot waders because they are easier and quicker for me to put on, I don't get little rocks in my boots, and if you have your waders, there's no forgetting your wading shoes! I've known more then one angler who took their stocking foot waders but forgot their wading shoes when they went fishing. This seems to be easier to do as you get older!

No better place to celebrate your birthday then fishing the upper Current! I was down there last month for my 56th!!

Congratulations on the fish! Fishing is all about going out and having fun fishing no matter what you catch! Have fun learning more about the sport and good luck!

Just checked the USGS web site and and it shows that the Meramec had more high flows (20,000 cfs + Steelville) in the 1980's then any decade since, and it was pretty good for trophy trout back then too. Bank erosion + lost riparian corrider = higher water temps + excess fine substrate and gravel = decreased trout habitat and decreased survival. MDC does bank stabilzation and riparian corridor restoration work to help the endangered Niangua darter and Topeka shiner. Seeing the crowds at the other trout streams, compared to the late 1970s and 80s, it would be nice to spread out the pressure as much as possible. But then I prefer not to fish behind somebody when I fish a stream!

Many state's do fish habitat improvement projects but MDC hasn't ever shown much interest in doing such except a few bank stabilization projects or dredging out the trout parks. Their general fisheries management policy is to let nature take its' course and most of their fisheries biologist are not big supporters of trout fishing since trout aren't native to Missouri. The Meramec trout fishery has especially declined since Spence Turner retired as the state trout biologist. I don't think MDC even has a dedicated trout biologist anymore. The trout streams are just another responsibilty for the regional fisheries biologists. I'm sure Trout Unlimited has some biologists that could come up with some habitat improvement projects for the Meramec and not bankrupt MDC.

I haven't been down there in over 25 years. It use to be real good for browns and rainbows back in the late 70s and early 80s. I've heard all the habitat has filled in with sand and gravel. It would be nice if MDC would do some stream habitat work instead of stocking otters!

I just got hooked on hybrids this summer! Caught 4 in a KS reservoir a couple of weeks ago and my 14 year old son caught his first 2 just last Thursday! We were using 7/8 oz jigging spoons. They are second, behind the striper, for the hardest fighting fresh water fish pound for pound, in my opinion.

Nice SMB!! That stretch of the Current gets a lot of fishing pressure plus they grow slow in that spring water.

Nice fish!! Thanks for releasing it!

I can't help with gear, but if you find some gear, get up early and fish the first couple hours of light in the morning up near the hatchery. Your wife won't even know you were gone, maybe! Good luck!

Was with a guy who also got busted for expired tags about 30 years ago at Montauk. We were at our campsite when the sheriff drove through the campground and hit the lights when he got to our site. Was surprised he didn't hit the siren also. Luckily, my friend had is new tags in the glove box. Must be easy pickins. I would probably spend most of my days in the park too, if I was the sheriff! It's good to have them patrolling the campgrounds with everything that is left out while camping.

Ahhhh, pretty fish!! Thanks for posting!!

Nice fish!! Congratulations!!

Thanks for sharing! Loved the blog!! I'm eating lunch at work today and, for a while as I read your blog, I was taken back to days I have spent on the upper Current fishing for those beautiful trout. I haven't been down there in about 20 years when a car hit me head-on just outside Salem on Highway 32 on my way home. Luckily, I just broke several fingers and a couple bones in the hand from bracing myself on the steering wheel. Man, I need to get back down there! I'm haunted by water!!

Thanks for posting! That's tough to watch. Stay safe down there. You're in my thoughts and prayers.

The Corps has never had a dam failure (nock on wood!!). However, if an upstream dam does fail it would potentially cause the downstream dam to fail too because of likely overtopping of the dam and embankment. There just wouldn't be enough storage left in the downstream lake to "catch" the upstream lake. Kind of the domino affect. It's better to use the emergency spillway and control the emergency release then to have the dam "break" and send a sudden wall of water gushing downstream. There would be relatively less property damage and you would have a little time to evacuate all the people downstream. The Corps does operate all the dams in a drainage, as a system.

The Corps has a lake operation manual that documents how they are to operate Table Rock Dam. However, I'm not sure they ever anticipated lake levels this high since up till 2008, the previous lake record was 932.5 in 1961. The Corps web site, referenced above, just says the auxillary gates would only be used when the lake level exceeds 937. These gates are only intended to be used to save the dam from catostrophic failure, such as what a breach of the dam at Beaver could cause or some other near overtopping of the Table Rock Dam or failure of one of the flood gates. This record level also puts the dam under "record" pressure that it has not experienced before. Once the flood pool fills up at a Corps lake, the Corps is then out of the "flood control" business and it is up to Mother Nature (and God).

How bout just using an inner tube!!

I hate to think about them using the auxilary spillway!!

Makes you sick looking at those houses!! It's nice being by a river, but not in your living room!