ozark trout fisher

I see what you're saying...But natural gas only sounds like a good solution until someone decides that the watershed of your favorite river is a good place for hydrofracking. And you can bet that if natural gas becomes our primary source of energy, there will be hydrofracking, right here in the Ozarks. They are already looking at this area for an expansion of that industry. The effects would be devastating, everything from dewatering of the streams where we all love to fish to the possibility of poisoning drinking water...I don't want that here. Do you?

Ever see what's happening to the environment in the Canadian Oil Sands area? It looks like a moonscape up there, once beautiful, pristine north-woods wilderness now completely barren. Think that's the answer to our energy crisis??? I sure don't. Same story with gas fracking, except the impacts of that are not quite as obvious yet.

Interesting point Greasy. By all accounts and based on experience, there are a decent number of trout upstream from Maramec Spring..Of course not in the summertime, but throughout the rest of the year. I wonder how many of those fish don't make it back below the spring when the water heats up in May or June. I suppose some of those could find spring-holes upstream from the park, but you'd think most wouldn't survive. That could be one cause of mortality that no one is really thinking about. And there's no real way to prevent that. Another thing I wonder is why they manage and stock the river all the way down to Scotts Ford. Let's be honest...The trout habitat on the Meramec basically ends below the Suicide Hill area, with just some scattered pockets of decent water downstream from there. I don't see much point in stocking trout down near Scotts Ford where they'll have little chance to survive, unless they move upstream, or get lucky and find a spring-hole. Much of the lower part of the Red-ribbon area looks more like the Bourbeuse than a legitimate trout stream. I know you can catch trout down in the Scotts Ford area, but not to the point where it's ever going to be real quality fishery. I say that whatever trout they're stocking now in that part of the river would be better used in the sections where they have a decent chance of holding over from year to year...Leave the rest of it to the bass and goggle-eye.

Nice pictures. Nothing like exploring new water and catching some nice fish. On a side-note...From the pictures, I can't help but notice a striking resemblance between the Strawberry and the Bourbeuse. If I didn't know otherwise I would have thought that's where those pictures were taken.

Much appreciated. I'm used to floating the Bourbeuse so the long dead stuff is no concern...

I used to think that too, but have been surprised to hear people having decent success on heavily spring-fed rivers like the Big Piney, upper Meramec, Huzzah etc where I've spent a lot of time smallie fishing (but never would have thought would be good habitat for cats.) I'm not much of a catfisherman, but I think they are a little more widespread in most Ozark streams than I would have originally thought. I even saw a couple of set-lines presumably for catfish once when I was floating through the white ribbon stretch of the 11 Pt, one of the more spring-fed stretches of river in the Ozarks. But I'm guessing they weren't catching anything on those... Anyway, I know there's no way to really quantify smallmouth as the "premier species in the Missouri Ozarks", the wording I think I used. But I think they would have to be for anyone who's ever caught a smallie!

Awesome, this is very helpful. I'm trying to plan a float as soon as possible...Hopefully I'll manage two days but I kind of think it'll be a one day float at this point. I think based on what I'm hearing I'll probably try Riddle to 28.

I must say I'm very leery about a large scale changeover to natural gas...Look at the damages that are already being caused by hydrofracking in mid-atlantic states. It's a very environmentally unsound and potentially quite dangerous process that is going to rapidly become more common if it becomes our main source of energy. And I know some of you may not care about what's happening in New York and Pennsylvania, but the Ozarks are being considered as a possible area for that industry to expand to. Say goodbye to our word-class smallie fishing in many of the watersheds that would be affected. And that's just the tip of the iceberg on that one.

I like your enthusiasm for the Meramec's trout fishery, but I just don't see how it could benefit from the normal methods of habitat improvements, because the floods on that river are so incredibly extreme... Just about anything you do to provide better habitat will be washed out when the river gets rolling at 30,000 cubic feet per second. Until the Meramec stops flooding as badly as it has lately, it's hard to see it ever being one of the state's better trout streams, no matter what the MDC does. I'd say just enjoy the Meramec for what it is...A very nice smallmouth stream that features a pretty viable trout population for 3 or 4 miles. The thing is, unlike many of Missouri's sections of trout water, much of the the Meramec's Red Ribbon area can support a very fishable population of native species like smallmouth bass and goggle-eye. Perhaps it's a good thing that we don't have quite so many non-native trout intruding on them anymore. Just food for thought. If all of our trout streams were declining then I'd also be concerned about management. But I've seen the Current, Eleven Point, and many of our smaller streams doing well over the last few years...So I think this is an isolated issue that has a lot more to do with recent weather than anything a state agency like the MDC can control.

Thanks...I'll consider the float down from Riddle Bridge instead.

Not to hijack my own thread, but I was wanting to plan an actual float on that general part of the Gasconade sometime soon. I was thinking of trying the 10 mile stretch from the Highway 28 bridge to Jerome. Only problem is that I'm not even sure that Highway 28 is a viable access, or whether or not there's any good place to park there. Anyone know have some info on this? If not, I'll just wait til I have two days where I have nothing going on and float the whole special management area...That's probably the only way to fish that river the way it should be fished anyway.

These fires are terrible, both the quantity and size of them that are occurring. And don't get me wrong, if I lived out west this would seriously concerning to me. But that said, all of this isn't without a benefit. Last summer I visited the Trappers Lake area in the Flattops Wilderness of northwest Colorado. That area was absolutely devastated by the Big Fish fire in the summer of 2002. And let me tell you, ten years later, I've never seen an area more absolutely full of life. The deer populations are ridiculous out there now, and almost all of what was a barren wasteland when I visited Trappers the year after the fire is now carpeted in a strikingly beautiful array of wildflowers. Absolutely I think it is more beautiful (and probably more ecologically diverse) now up there than before the fire burned, even though most of the pine and aspen forest is still in the early stages of recovery. There is nothing quite like seeing an area like that come back from total devastation. And yes, despite all the apocolyptic concerns that were flying around then about siltation of the streams where the trout spawn, the fishing in Trappers and other lakes and streams in the area is about as good now as it's ever been. If it's arson or otherwise man-caused, then of course we're talking about something purely negative. But if we are talking about natural, lightning caused fires, there really is some good that can come out of it.

The MDC says they're still stocking browns at a high rate, but that the survival is down...This is from the MDC's page "Missouri Fishing Prospects", "The decrease in brown trout numbers is attributed mainly to low stocked brown trout survival over the last several years. Years of extreme drought followed by extreme floods have reduced survival beyond what was expected. Future production estimates look hopeful that brown trout numbers will increase in coming years."

I realize the Meramec used to be a better trout stream than it is now, but no matter what habitat improvements or whatever else you do to it, it just ain't the Current or the Eleven Point and never will be. Unlike those rivers, the Meramec is an awesome smallie stream with some halfway decent trout fishing for a couple miles. Trying to make it anything else is probably an exercise in futility. And to your question STL, on one winter trip last February I think it was, I caught three or four little brown trout. But since then every trip there for me has produced nothing but stocker rainbows.

I had thought of that. But many states with trout stamps have bodies of water that are "designated trout streams" where trout permits are required to fish for any species. That is the sort of thing I have in mind here. Could be a logistical nightmare coming up with a comprehensive list of smallmouth waters, as well as the issue of people fishing for a wider variety of species than on most trout streams, so I realize that it's probably not going to happen. And for those who would worry about the cost...Trout stamps are what, $7? Would a similar price for a smallmouth stamp really break the bank? I hear about some fisherman spending $15 or $20 on a single lure, so what's 5 or 10 bucks to what we're spending for even one day on the river, let alone for a whole year? We have trout stamps to help manage a non-native species, so I just think some similar attention should be given to what is in my opinion the Missouri Ozark's premier native fish. $100 licenses for those who keep smallies is a very nice dream, but not much more than that. At least in a state like Missouri, I just can't see anything remotely like that happening probably ever.

I've paid $70 and $80 on out of state licenses to fish for just a couple weeks. I'm not at all advocating that instate licenses in Missouri should cost that much, but I do think currently they are not charging enough. I'd certainly not have an issue paying something like $30 for a year-long license. Of course we'll never see the day where those who keep smallmouth have to pay $100 for a license. But I would be very supportive of an extra smallmouth stamp being required for everyone who fished for them, catch and keep or C&R... all of that money going into better enforcement of stream smallie regs. If the MDC can require an extra trout stamp, I don't see why they can't do something similar for smallmouth.

Sounds like a very typical day on that part of the Meramec...The fishing is almost always tough in the Cardiac Hill area. The succession of droughts and floods over the past few years have devastated the Meramec's trout fishery. You can still have a good day once in awhile, but with the exception of the first little ways below Maramec Spring where the fishing is pretty consistent, it's a very difficult river. Honestly it seems like there are more bass and sunfish than trout in much of the Red Ribbon area.

Here are some pictures...

I decided I wanted to try a new stretch of river, and since there is so much of the Gasconade that I've never been on, that seemed like a good option. I didn't want to try to organize a shuttle, and it's really too big to wade-fish, which did present something of problem. I ended up just deciding to take my kayak to a certain access north of Highway 44 , and used it to paddle upstream and drift back down again. Having never been to this part of the river, I didn't know how feasible this would be, but it ended up working out almost perfect. The access was right at the head of a long, slow hole, and I paddled upstream about a half mile to a riffle, and worked my way back down. I did this a total of about five times throughout the day, which didn't bother me, because the habitat through this stretch was nearly all excellent. Because of the storms this morning, I didn't get started until about 2 PM, but it took almost no time before I started getting into smallmouth. I've never fished the middle part of the Gasconade before, but it very quickly earned a spot among my favorites. The half mile that I was fishing almost all had good current, not riffle water in the traditional sense, but a fast, rocky run that was just some of the most perfect looking smallmouth habitat I've seen anywhere. The fish were almost everywhere you'd expect them to be, along the banks, in eddies behind mid-stream rocks, in deep scour holes. There were no really big fish caught, but a very healthy percentage were in the 14 inch range, with a couple perhaps a bit larger. The biggest bass of the day was a largemouth of about 2 pounds, caught out of some slow water. I did try some other stuff, but the best producer for me was the Rebel Teeny Craw. The scenery was awesome, with some very impressive bluffs. The area around this part of the river wasn't quite as remote as I prefer, but the pretty country combined with the good fishing allowed me to pretty easily look past that. I saw one canoe and several jet-boaters, most of which were quite courteous and didn't cause much of a problem. That's about it really. I'll post some pics when I get them loaded on my computer.

Sounds like a fun trip.

It doesn't sound to me like you were shorted on large fish at all...On the contrary, a 20 inch smallie from an Ozark stream is a dang fine fish, a once a year type of catch for many of us. Sounds like a fun trip on a great stretch of river.

I have killed and eaten only one 20 inch plus brown,a fish that I wasn't able to revive. I thought the meat tasted okay, but nothing special enough for me to want to keep one on purpose, given how relatively few of them there are. I do like to kill fish to eat occasionally, and if I'm on the Current that's when I drive upstream to Montauk and spend a half-hour to get a couple of stockers...That's what the trout parks are there for.

Maybe, but it's certainly not enough for me to actually accuse someone of a crime. I've caught fish fish with gashes in their side like that one. So I'll reserve judgement.

You'd have to be dumb to snag trout on the Current, especially around Tan Vat, where this brown was supposedly caught. It gets checked often, and there are usually fisherman around who are more than willing to report those who choose to do it anyway. I'll certainly give the guy the benefit of the doubt until there's some evidence that this fish wasn't taken legally.

Um, I'm all for as much money going to the MDC as possible. But funding that is currently going to schools is NOT where it should be coming from. Most of them are at least as cash strapped, if not more so. I like the idea that some have brought up about charging a small fee to park at river accesses. Considering the amount of money we all spend on lures, gas, food etc for a day on the river, I think we can deal with an extra $5.