ozark trout fisher

I agree with that. Too many Meramec and Bourbeuse anglers brag about killing spotted bass and throwing them on the banks. That is no way right or ethical, nor does whatever small benefit it is doing to the river make up for that. I do keep them, all of them up to the legal limit. But I can assure you each and every one gets eaten. They can become the main ingredient of a very nice shore lunch.

I know that's what the MDC says, and I'm sure they are right. But even around and below the mouth of Ashley Creek the vast majority of the trout I have caught have been rainbows. Even that far down you can easily have a twenty fish day and have none of them be browns. Doesn't seem to make much sense, I know, but those are the results I've had. When I first read that part in Missouri Fishing Prospects about the rainbow population dropping off dramatically below Baptist, I have to admit at first I wondered exactly how the MDC was sampling that stretch of river. I've never had a trip anywhere on the Current's Blue Ribbon stretch and caught mostly browns, and by the same token I've never been on any stretch of the blue ribbon area where I've had a hard time finding the rainbows. Probably because I am mostly throwing egg patterns...

Me too. That includes even the water down around Parker Hollow. I know that browns make up over 50% of the population down there but you'd never guess that based on the result of any given fishing trip.

I'd use 4 pound line, and I'd toss small spinners for the most part. While mostly I've fly fished it, I have done some spin fishing in the trophy area and I can tell you that Panther Martin and Mepp's Spinners can be pretty good. 1/32 ounce and 1/24 ounce on the panther martins (preferably the dressed variety), and #0 Mepps. You'll probably do quite well trout fishing Baptist to Cedar, it probably has the most consistent fishing of any stretch of trout river in the state. For the most part the Blue Ribbon water will be plenty cold for decent trout fishing even in this heat. Cedar to Welch, likely to be poor due to crowds and high water temps, maybe a few smallmouth and the chance for trout in a few certain areas. The area around the mouth of Welch should be good for trout, with the possibility of decent trout fishing for another three miles or so down to Akers. That is where my knowledge ends, as I have spent no time fishing the Current between Akers and Pulltite. Mid-day fishing is likely to tough, not to say you can't catch trout then but it is very likely to be slow. I'd make sure to set up camp that first night in the Blue Ribbon stretch and fish hard that evening and again early the next morning so you can get a chance to fish some of the prime water during the time of day when they'll be feeding. I'm sure small marabou jigs would work, and that seems to be what all the spin fishing trout anglers around here use, but to be honest I've never been a fan of them.

Pretty fish. Thanks for the report.

Hope you caught a few. I've been fishing most every night for the last three or four days, about 8 PM to about a half hour to to 45 minutes after dark (not tonight though- had to work late). It's been surprisingly good. Lots of decent sized bass and panfish, most on Woollies but a few on top too. I have a theory about why the fishing has been so good lately in the evenings. I think with the extremely warm water temps on the lakes right now, the fish just aren't feeding much mid day at all. While the evening feeding period is always significant in the warm months, with this heat wave a large portion of the feeding that fish do is right at dark and a little after. So if you're out there for that you can have a really good time, but other than that the fishing is pretty much non-existent, except early morning.

Get a whole bunch of Rebel Wee Craws and an ultralight spinning rod...All ya' need for all kinds of fun on most any smallmouth stream this time of year. Run them through the riffles and the deep holes on any decent smallmouth stream and you'll probably be in fish all day long. On those you'll usually catch lots of small to average sized smallies (occasionally you'll catch a good sized fish on a rebel craw, but that is kind of the exception), goggle-eye, longear sunfish, and just about everything else that swims. Summer smallmouth fishing is everything that is good about the Ozarks, clear, spring fed streams, beautiful country, and while it can be tough at times, the fishing isn't usually that difficult. And yes, above the canoe traffic is a good way to go. The upper sections of just about any of the areas popular float streams can be awesome for wading. There are also countless good creeks, streams, and branches that are too small to float that are great for wading. I will not be giving away too much by saying that some of headwater streams throughout the Meramec basin can be very good. For the most part the specific streams I have in mind are small and fragile, the kind of streams that you just don't name to anyone but the closest friends. But get out and explore and you will not be dissapointed.

Very nice looking website.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like an awesome trip.

Very nice fish! Thanks for posting.

In hard winters it can be possible to do some ice fishing in my neck of the woods (I'm just north of the Missouri). But you have to be real careful, it doesn't take more than a couple days with highs above freezing to make things very dicy. Personally I don't do it...The winter trout pond here has a dock so I just break a hole off that so I don't have to go out on the ice. I am much more comfortable doing it that way, as I have very little interest in falling in and possibly drowning in freezing cold water. But others do ice fish, and are successful with it. But they are mostly locals who know the score and can tell when the ice is safe. I also love winter time fishing. You're right, there is nothing like being out fishing a frozen lake in the snow, freezing cold, hands so numb they can hardly move and catching some fat trout for dinner. I have enjoyed that every winter for the past few years now and while it is a different kind of enjoyment than the fishing I normally do, it sure does have its own charm.

I know what you're saying. It's those big fish that we just see or hook and don't land that make for good stories though, aren't they?

I have been just fishing in the late evenings...No earlier than 7:30 PM until well after dark. That's when the fish are the most active now anyway I think.

Am I the only one lately who has been discouraged from fishing by this heat-wave? I mean, when temperatures are getting up to 100 degrees on a regular basis, and not dropping below 85 or so until late at night, I can find it somewhat difficult to get myself out of the door and go fishing. I know it'll be hot, the mosquitos will be out in force, and the water will be warm enough that the fishing probably won't be very good. I haven't been fishing this week nearly as much as I usually do in the warm months (today was only my second evening out this week). I keep thinking to myself that if things go as planned, in ten days or so I'll be in the Colorado high country, and out there I will be able to do all the fishing I want without this darned heat. I really had to convince myself not to just sit around home this evening, but I was sure glad I did. I got down to the lake that lies just a quarter mile or so from my home a little after 8 P.M. The water in this particular arm of the lake was very weedy and warm. It was a pretty night, but conditions didn't look good. I had an Olive Woolly tied on, and I was half-heartedly casting in the shallow water, working the fly pretty quickly to keep it above weeds. I hooked into a couple of small sunfish, about par for the course on this water this time of year. I keep working this water for quite awhile, and no more results. I was just getting ready to try somewhere else when I got another take. For a moment I thought it was just another 5 inch sunny, but when I set up, I realize that isn't the case at all. I was tight to a heavy fish, and before I had much clue what was going on, my five weight was bent double, and that was when I realized that I had something pretty special on the end of the line. The fish stayed out of sight and headed down into the weeds, and I was forced to put some pressure on to avoid him getting buried in the muck. I was just about all the 4 pound test I was using for tippet could stand, but I managed to keep him out of the worst of the weeds, and a little bit later I saw the fish. I knew all along this was a good fish, but when I saw it blew my mind. This fish was one of the biggest largemouth bass that I had ever been tied into, and easily the biggest that I had hooked on a fly rod. 21, 22 inches of fat, mean largemouth, connected to me with nothing more than four pound tippet and a #10 Woolly, and plenty of weeds for him to get buried in. If that isn't a recipe for disaster, then I don't know what is. But I was able to bring him in to the dock, so close, the largest fly rod bass of my life. He was tired out, ready for the net, and I reached down to close the deal. But as so often happens, this fish decided that he still had a little bit of starch left in him, and took a hard run at the last second. And then just like that he was gone. After the initial shock (and maybe an expletive or two) I have to admit that I just started laughing. I mean, here it was a night when by all rights I shouldn't have hooked into anything more substantial than a few small sunfish, and I just had a look at one of the largest bass I have ever seen on the end of my line. Who cares if he didn't make it the extra few inches to the net? He would have ended up back in the water after a short interval anyway. After that I figured I had all the excitement I needed for the evening, and it was almost completely dark. So I decided to finish off with a little bit of dry fly fishing which is always fun on late evenings like this during the summer. In this type of situation I often like to skate a Marabou Muddler across the surface, and that's what I did this time. I had a great time until after dark catching small bass and panfish on the surface. To say that I was surprised at the results of this evening would be an understatement. But more than that, isn't fly fishing (or any kind of fishing for that matter) just such a great excuse to just be outside and watch the sunset? Sometimes it's possible to get so caught up in the catching or the lack of catching that it's possible to forget why you're really out there, but there's nothing like a nice evening fishing familiar water to put things back in perspective.

I don't know about Bennett in particular, but if you are nymph fishing for trout, you will make your life a whole lot easier if you use an indicator. Like NoLuck I just use the little stick on ones because they don't hinder casting and do a good job detecting subtle takes. That works for me because I don't really ever add split shot, although I think I'm the exception to the rule in that. I instead prefer to use heavy, beadhead flies to get the fly down to where it needs to be. For trout park fishing you can't go wrong with beadhead egg patterns (orange and peach) and #10-12 Beadhead Woollies in olive and black.

If you're bait fishing, use crickets or worms under a bobber. Small 1/32 ounce Rooster Tails and Panther Martins won't catch you as many fish, but the bluegill strike them real hard and its sure fun. My favorite way to fish for 'gills is with a light fly rod and big, bushy dry flies (Dave's Hoppers, Ausable Wulffs, Parachute Adams, etc mostly in #10-14.) Great fun on summer evenings. And I use #10 Woolly Buggers through the rest of the day, usually Olive, or whatever other color I feel like using.

Hey, I didn't say it was a bad stretch of river. You'll probably catch some fish, just probably more bass and panfish above Welch Spring. The MDC only stocks below Welch this time of year because that is where the coldest water in the White Ribbon area is, although there are certainly some holdover fish between Cedar and Welch year-round, you just have to know where to look. There is a series of pretty awesome pools and runs below Welch that just about always hold plenty of trout, so make sure to fish those. Very deep water by Ozark stream standards (reminds me of the Eleven Point) and kind of hard to fish properly, but the trout are sure there. You'll probably see them down near the bottom, feeding on nymphs, scuds, and other subsurface fare. That stretch should be particularly good as fish look for cooler water in this heat. You will pass Welch about halfway through your float. You can't miss it, it's a massive spring and doubles the size of the river. Some areas will have considerably warmer or cooler water temps than others. Anywhere the water temp is at or above 70 degrees, please target bass or goggle-eye, unless you plan on keeping trout. Trout are difficult to impossible to release alive when caught in that kind of warm water. It's not a requirement, but if you have a water thermometer, I'd bring it. Besides any ethical concerns it would help give you an idea where the trout will be holding.

. Way below Cedar Grove with this heat, those trout aren't gonna be happy..Wouldn't be surprised if water temps in parts of the area between Cedar and Welch are in the 70s. Welch Spring down will be much better for trout than between Cedar and Welch this time of year-you oughta be able to get at least a few down there. I'd throw 1/24 and 1/32 ounce Panther Martins and Rooster Tails, Rebel Wee Craws, maybe a marabou jig or two. Probably you'll catch more bass and goggle-eye than trout. Have a good time.

Thanks for the report. Looks like a great day on the water!

Aw, come on? What's the fun in that? Most of the fun on a multi-day float trip is just sitting around the campfire under a starry sky, just chilling out, and listening to the river as you go to sleep, then waking up the next morning on a beautiful river full of clear water and fish. Can't get that at a hotel.

Oh, you guys are all crazy. I'm not about to step into this one. I figure that I only have a certain portion of my life that I should be able to waste on pointless smallmouth regulation threads on OAF-and I have greatly exceeded it!

I think the idea of comparing put and take fishing and high fence hunting is really interesting, and it's hard to objectively argue that it's not a good comparison...I just personally cannot equate the two things. It's not that I like put and take trout management. I think that it degrades the sport of trout fishing considerably, the whole artificial nature of it, not to mention the damage it has done to many native fisheries across the country. But when you are talking about a 10" fish, the guilt factor of me taking it in unnatural circumstances is not anything like it would be for a large animal. Sounds simple-minded doesn't it? I guess maybe it is, but I I can't shake that feeling... I will admit, I am not making my argument based on science. It's just that I would feel really guilty, really feel like I did something wrong if I killed a big game animal in a high fence enclosure just for the pure thrill of killing an animal. High fence hunting is all about killing all about the act of taking another animals life that is far more aware, has far more mental capacity than a 10" fish. I couldn't do that and look myself in the mirror in the morning. For me real hunting is all about food, and using the same general process that human beings have been using to obtain food since we first came into existence-a completely different thing the high fence culture in my mind. I believe that this debate is all about opinion, what hunting and fishing means to to different people. While I firmly believe that high-fence hunting is wrong, in the end this argument is all based on emotion, on beliefs, not on provable facts. Is a 10" trout equal in your mind to a water buffalo? Is it any different to kill a domesticated animal purely for food than to kill it and call it "game"? What do you consider to be a successful hunt? Does it have to end with an animal on the ground? I don't think it will surprise anyone on here that I have very strong feelings about all of the above things, but there is no point in me going into it any further. It's all too subjective.

Really. I wouldn't have expected that at least on the parts I've been on. I'm assuming not in the trout water?

The Bourbeuse is a very good catfish river all the way through.Lots of channel cats in there, a few flatheads too. I catch them fairly often fishing for bass, especially when I'm using soft plastics. Pretty much all the Meramec below the trout water is decent for catfish too. Big River is a good option as well. On the Bourbeuse there are some nice holes with plenty of channel cats in the Mayers Landing area on Highway UU outside Union...Not right at the access though, you'll have to wade a bit downstream to get to them. Not exactly your clear, spring-fed river though. I can't say I've ever specifically targeted catfish with a fly rod, but when I have accidentally hooked them while fishing for other species, it's sure fun. A four pound catfish will give you all you can handle on a 5 weight.

Well for one, I do have a hard time drawing a comparison between a 10 inch trout and a water buffalo. And for another who said I did keep going to the trout parks?