Cardiac/ Maramec Springs Report

[trizkid]

buddies and i headed to cardiac at around 8am it was raining here in st. louis but we figured give it a shot. arrived to the cardiac access around 10. on the way we noticed that dry fork was filled with rushing chocolate milk...not a good sign being that we are trying to fish just down stream from the creek. there was one car in the parking area and before we were ready to head down he came back up. informed us that the stream was pretty much blown out and muddy. Having never been there before we decided to go see for our selves. we walked down to see that it was high muddy water and turned back around to head to the car. the walk up showed me exactly why the access is called cardiac hill. after returning to the car we decided to head to the spring and atleast get a few fish in for the day. the park was not to crowded and the water was decent. Lots of deer in the big field all day long. Fishing was pretty slow for us, seen a few guys doing pretty good using bait but thats about it. i managed to bring in 3 one of which was only about 7 inches. I was using a white and pink y2k i had tied. The fish were staying close to the bottom pretty much all day. I remembered i had brought a homemade siftnet and decided to test it out for the first time......i couldnt believe it......stuck it in the water about 6 feet down from a buddy standing in the stream and pulled it up with proly about 100 scuds on it 2 of 3 leeches and some snails. after seen the results a buddy put on a small scud and landed a nice little brownie and a lil fingerling before we headed home. Also Near the end of the day up near the line...i saw a lady walking back and forth staring out in to the water she had no rod or anything just looking.....then next thing i know here comes her husband smacks the water rapidly three times about 4 feet from the bank with his rod and hooks up with a very nice 6-7lb brown i couldnt believe it. after getting it in immeditatllly puts on stringer.....it broke my heart. He acted like it was no big deal didnt say more than a few words. all in all it was nice to be out for the day having a good time I hope to return to cardiac with better results in the near future.

[ozark trout fisher]

buddies and i headed to cardiac at around 8am it was raining here in st. louis but we figured give it a shot. arrived to the cardiac access around 10. on the way we noticed that dry fork was filled with rushing chocolate milk...not a good sign being that we are trying to fish just down stream from the creek. there was one car in the parking area and before we were ready to head down he came back up. informed us that the stream was pretty much blown out and muddy. Having never been there before we decided to go see for our selves. we walked down to see that it was high muddy water and turned back around to head to the car. the walk up showed me exactly why the access is called cardiac hill. after returning to the car we decided to head to the spring and atleast get a few fish in for the day. the park was not to crowded and the water was decent. Lots of deer in the big field all day long. Fishing was pretty slow for us, seen a few guys doing pretty good using bait but thats about it. i managed to bring in 3 one of which was only about 7 inches. I was using a white and pink y2k i had tied. The fish were staying close to the bottom pretty much all day. I remembered i had brought a homemade siftnet and decided to test it out for the first time......i couldnt believe it......stuck it in the water about 6 feet down from a buddy standing in the stream and pulled it up with proly about 100 scuds on it 2 of 3 leeches and some snails. after seen the results a buddy put on a small scud and landed a nice little brownie and a lil fingerling before we headed home. Also Near the end of the day up near the line...i saw a lady walking back and forth staring out in to the water she had no rod or anything just looking.....then next thing i know here comes her husband smacks the water rapidly three times about 4 feet from the bank with his rod and hooks up with a very nice 6-7lb brown i couldnt believe it. after getting it in immeditatllly puts on stringer.....it broke my heart. He acted like it was no big deal didnt say more than a few words. all in all it was nice to be out for the day having a good time I hope to return to cardiac with better results in the near future.

Sounds like a good trip....

A seven pound brown on a stringer. All I can say is yuck.

[trizkid]

yeah thats what i was thinking man.....it killed me to see it like that

[ozark trout fisher]

yeah thats what i was thinking man.....it killed me to see it like that

Yeah, the Meramec isn't the White... There aren't seven pound browns behind every bend. That was a true trophy, and I sure wish it could have been released to fight again.

[flyfishmaster]

Darn schufflers.... They must be migrating North from Taney.

I sure he was not planning on eating that thing, as OTF said... Yuck.

Later,

FFM

[streamcreeper]

the guy was not remotely excited..he just threw him on stringer and booked it....i wish one of us would have got to him first ,so we could have let him go up by the line so he could go back up into the hachery area. it was sad to see that..it was the biggest brown i have seen caught at maramec personally..i guess im bitter because i didnt catch sh** that day ..o well it was cool to see that many scuds in the water.. i thought with that many people wading through allot of them would be washed out ,but there was a ton of them

[phins]

Wasn't around the area where the brown was caught but the fish were biting even if you had to stand in the rain like a drowned rat. Had excellant luck with the green jig and the fish were sure fighting hard but just no real size. If you wanted to catch 5lbs of fish you would of had to catch your stringer and steal your buddies. Good fighters just on the smaller size. I did find out that a new set of rain gear is heading my way. Still ain't dry 2 days later.

[FishinCricket]

Sounds like a good trip....

A seven pound brown on a stringer. All I can say is yuck.

Darn schufflers.... They must be migrating North from Taney.

I sure he was not planning on eating that thing, as OTF said... Yuck.

Later,

FFM

You guys are killing me! lol

this is the first time I can think of that I have actually wanted to catch and eat a lunker brown... lol

Naw, just teasin'.. I feel the same way about smallmouth. Of course, then again, they don't stock and breed smallmouth around here... Hmm (scratches head)

Sooooo, um yeah.. Thanks for the report.

[ozark trout fisher]

You guys are killing me! lol

this is the first time I can think of that I have actually wanted to catch and eat a lunker brown... lol

Naw, just teasin'.. I feel the same way about smallmouth. Of course, then again, they don't stock and breed smallmouth around here... Hmm (scratches head)

Sooooo, um yeah.. Thanks for the report.

Just trust me on this one man.... I like to eat fresh stocker trout, but a big brown absolutely is the gamiest, worst tasting fish you'll ever care to find. I made the mistake (it still upsets me that I did this) to keep a pretty decent brown in the White River. I almost instantly felt bad, but it was too late to release him. To add insult on to injury, he didn't taste very good, although I did eat him. And this fish wasn't even close to seven pounds. I find I always feel better after releasing a trophy (whether it is a smallmouth, trout, whatever) than keeping it, but I consider it a matter of preference.

[BobK]

I would never think about keeping something that big; but then I never keep anything caught in our Missouri streams.

That is why I always bring my camera....pic's then release.