ozark trout fisher

Most definitely. The Meramec is pretty decent for big fish, with fish averaging 12" to 15", and plenty of fish too. This time of year, there's not much pressure, although good luck trying to find an empty spot in June or July. Besides the average stockers, I've caught and seem some truly nice fish there. It's been too high to fish most of this year, but when it's down below 500 CFS, and it's not crowded, it's the place to be. There's good fishing on the Meramec right below the spring park, or down at Cardiac/Suicide hill. I prefer the first mile below the park, because it seems the rainbows are always thick there. Some folks prefer Cardiac. No little dinks like on Little Piney, the smallest fish I've ever caught there have been in 9" range. The only time you'll really run into a lot of small fish there is around the May brown trout stocking time, when they release a whole bunch of naive 9 to 10 trout. I won't lie though, there are folks who can tell you a heck of a lot more about the Meramec than I know. I fish it quite a bit, but there are others who have fished it for longer, and more often.

Not big generally. I actually think the fish get larger as you go downstream, but that's just my humble opinion. I was fishing around Lane Spring, and my fish only averaged about 5" with a few running nearly up to 10". My biggest so far came about 1/2 mile below Vida Slab, 18 1/2 inches. That was the only fish I caught that day. I have to respectfully disagree with Gavin about the habitat above Vida slab. I do think once you get up to the riffles, fish habitat get's pretty good, I probably catch just as many fish there as up around Lane Spring/Highway 63. Below the slab, it seems like there aren't nearly as many fish until you get to the White Ribbon area, but the trout seem to average quite a bit larger, although still pretty small by big river standards. By the way, the fish seemed to be crowding downed trees, strainers, etc. Kind of odd. I generally find that fish usually prefer more permanent cover, but not last weekend.

The Yampa River in Colorado would be the water I've fished longest. I fished it my whole life until I moved out here. I haven't been back there in a couple years though, so I'm not sure if that counts.

Sorry for helping to descend this thread into what it was with my political post about redbird's signature. I hadn't checked it since, and had no idea a what my post had done to the thread. My sincere apologies for that. I should have known.

That's a heck of a brown. Good job.

I hadn't thought of doing that. It's not a bad idea. Maybe it would at least make the MDC aware of what's going on there, who knows.

As I have said in earlier posts, most of the evidence of poaching has been the type that it's difficult to do anything about. For example, if you see a worm container on the stream-side of a blue ribbon trout creek, you're not going to be able to prosecute anyone based on that. All you can do is pick up the container and throw it away. Also, if you see a dead, undersized trout decaying in a bag, all you can really do is let the fish out of the bag and let if float downstream so at least it won't totally go to waste, and walk away more than a bit dejected. Look, if it's a situation that I can help , I will. How exactly do you come to the conclusion anyway that I'm not trying to?

Sounds like you had pretty similar results to what I had further up river. It does look like the water is much higher and more off color down there. You're right that it's a lot of walking, but that's just life on a small stream. Man that water looks kinda rough down there. Where I was fish, the river was up and kinda blue-green but it didn't look anything like that. Corn Creek must have been pumping out a bunch of water. Deep nymphs were also the ticket for me though.

1/8 of 1% isn't such a big deal is it? Also, based on all the conservation departments I've seen, the MDC is the least politically swayed, and the most interested in actually protecting the resources they are there to protect. I don't always agree with them, but at least I can tell they really try to do a good job, and personally I respect that. It seems like I'm bound to play devil's advocate in this thread. Even the catch and release guys are against me on this one, lol.

I can't emphasize enough that poaching is common based on everything I've seen in Blue Ribbon areas. If you open your eyes and look for worm containers, that ought to be readily obvious. With only about 100-200 fish per mile in most of these streams, it doesn't take many poached fish to really hurt the stream. I do strongly believe that making it no kill would really emphasize that you shouldn't keep the fish, no matter what, and thereby greatly reduce cheating. The no treble hook rule just seems like a no-brainer. It is pretty hard to haul in a 5" rainbow with a big treble hook, and not tear up it's mouth pretty badly. I'm not interested in something that would just "feel good". I think it would really help these creeks fish better. Yes Gavin, I'm also in favor of changing the limit on smallies. 18" and 1 sounds like it would be about right to protect most of the fish, although I'd just prefer it be catch and release. This isn't just about trout, that's just what I happened to be thinking about when I started this topic.

Maybe you're right that the bigger rivers (Eleven Point, NFOW and the Current) should be exempt from these regs, because there is a hatchery element to the fishery in those streams, and big fish is more of an issue. But on pretty much every small wild trout stream I've fished lately, I've seen evidence of poaching. That includes Blue Spring, Mill, Spring Creek, and Little Piney. I'm sure if there's poaching going on there, it's probably going on around all of these creeks. And I just don't think these creeks should be managed for large fish. Like I said, with a few exceptions, the habitat just isn't there to support populations of larger fish. Most folks I know are just there to catch a few pretty little 8 inchers.

I really do think that poaching is quite prevalent. I can not remember the last time, for example, that I have visited the Blue Ribbon area of Little Piney Creek and not seen at least several worm containers on the ground. I don't think there should be any harvest of those trout allowed, I just think that's bad for the population. I could be wrong, but I do not think that anything like 99% of the fisherman around here fish legally. I do see your point about how no kill regulations might cause the trout size to go down. But are big fish are big fish what you're really there for when you're fishing on of those little creeks? The habitat just isn't there to support many large trout. I think if the population gets above the stream's carrying capacity, nature will even that out, and the population will go back down. I do trust that the MDC is knowledgable, is certainly trying to do their best to balance public opinion with the health of the fishery. But I don't think there's anything wrong with making suggestions. It's just hard to fish these streams week after week and not get concerned with where there going to be down the road. If the current level of poaching continues, I don't think these populations are going to stay healthy very long. That's all I'm saying.

I thought pretty seriously about coming down to Tan Vat or Baptist on Saturday, but I ended up at Piney instead. Sounds like it ain't fishing too bad down there. Eggs are king down there, aren't they? Those fish down there on the Current seem to hit eggs all year, it's kinda odd.

Why? It certainly seems like single hooks reduce hooking mortality. When I have used treble hooked spinning lures, especially when catching small trout, it is hard to remove the hook without tearing the fish's mouth up pretty bad. Like I said, I support no kill regs because I personally think it would reduce cheating the length limit. Maybe the barbless hook restriction might be too far, and too complicated by some, I don't know. All I'm saying is that I think it should be further emphasized that we need to protect wild trout. Not take a knife to them. I see far too many signs of abuse on the wild trout streams lately. I am concerned about it.

Brownieman, I know the kind of fisherman you are, in regards to the fact that you like to catch large fish predominately. I would think that if that was indeed the case, you would be all for some regulations that would help the fish grow larger. Let's face it. Not everyone is responsible. If we allowed everyone to "make their own choice" about how they wanted to fish, we'd have folks bait fishing in blue ribbon areas snagging game fish, etc. We can't have that. I support no kill regulations for one reason I think is really overlooked and pretty important. If there is an 18" minimum length limit, there will always be cheaters who will say, well, "Hell 15" is close enough, let's take this one home today." Last weekend I saw evidence of that in the form of a dead, cleaned wild rainbow wasting in the sun. I am past the point of tolerating those who steal wild trout from those who really make it their passion to target them. I don't see any need whatsoever to satisfy the catch and keep guys on high quality trout waters. If they don't want to respect the resource by releasing trout in a wild trout stream, we shouldn't try to accomodate them. My advice to those to those people is to head to a trout park or a white ribbon area.

These are just some ideas I have to improve Blue Ribbon trout areas in Missouri. I'd like to hear what you all have to say about them. I voted yes on every question.

Yeah, feel free to report those guys using trebles during c&r. That's 100% illegal. By the way, I didn't end up at the Meramec River today, I went to Little Piney instead. Got a few rainbows there.

I decided to head to a certain nice stretch of Little Piney Creek today. I fished both up and downstream from the spring, and did pretty darn well with the little rainbows. I caught a fair number of fish today, none larger than 10". All fish were beautiful, and had great fight, and color. I caught fish on just about every kind of #16 Nymph there is. Pheasant tail and Hare's Ear were best, but the Copper John wasn't bad either. Caught some on beadheads, some without. MaxDrown, did you get to the stream today? (post was edited, I thought I was giving a bit too much info for such a tiny creek, so I took out the specifics of location. I hope you all understand.)

It's complicated.... First of all, spinning gear is totally legal. You do not need a fly rod to be legal. Second, you can basically use any single hooked artificial (without soft plastics) jigs, single hooks spinners, and egg patterns all would be allowed. Basically the only difference from the taney tackle regs is that you cannot use treble hooks during the winter trout park season.

Love your signature bud (sarcasm?????).... Not political at all or anything. Since Bush was So much better. (sorry, I just had to slip that in. Feel free to delete this post if you deem it necesarry)

Yeah, I think there isn't actually a C&R area at Bennett. I could have sworn I heard someone say there was a catch and release area, but I guess not. I'd have to say my home water (nearby lakes excluded), would be the Bourbeuse. But my heart is with Little Piney.

Yeah, I gotta say that some of those lures are bigger than the average wild trout I catch on some days. I just don't have the patience to throw big lures like that and just target the real trophies, while passing up all the 10 inchers... But then again that's why I almost never catch really large trout.

I'm just becoming more serious in the line of fly fishing for trout, and I fish small streams more than anywhere else, and the trout are hardly selective in those streams. So my fly box is ridiculously small, undiverse, and generally crappy right now. Here it goes, every single fly in my box. Nymphs (I have quite a few of each of these, pretty much all beadheads #14-#18 Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear Pheasant Tail Copper John Prince Nymph Streamers various sizes +colors Woolly buggers Various crawfish imitations Clouser Minnow Dries #12-16 Elk Hare Caddis #12-16 Royal Wulff #12-16 Adams (Honestly, I almost never fish dries) Other Glo-bugs (I have a whole bunch of those for trout parks and the Current River+spawning season just about anywhere San Juan Worms. My trout box for spin fishing is a lot more diverse. I have just about every kind of Mepp's, Rooster Tail, Panther Martin, Spin a Lure, Rapala, cleo, and kastmaster there is. I have to admit I don't have any great big plugs like Brownieman does anywhere near my trout box. Those look more like the lures I used to throw at pike a while back.

I will most definitely report... I'm thinking of maybe trying to hit a couple different creeks, just kinda follow where the trout take me.

Yeah... I was just thinking about heading to the park and walking down to the red ribbon area and fishing. I think instead I'm just gonna go down south of rolla and fish one of the Gasconade drainage streams... Like Mill, Spring, or maybe even the Piney up around Yancy Mill. I'm in the mood now to fish one of those little baby sized creeks (maybe even try to find some beaver pond action), and it turns out I'll be the only one going anyway.