Little Piney Report: 11/07/2009

[ozark trout fisher]

I actually live about 2 to 3 miles from Lane Spring. Moved out of Rolla city limits to a very smallish farm. One of the draws was the closeness to Lane Spring and Little Piney in general.

Meramec will definitely have bigger fish, but it is also a bigger river (than the little p). I like fishing the smaller streams and therefore you end with smaller trout. From the 63 bridge area isn't my favorite section. It is okay but I don't think it seems to hold very many trout. Which reminds me of what an old fisherman told me, "you catch fish on the fly you fish the most." which is in effect to say that the section right below and above 63 bridge is not my favorite so I don't fish it much so I don't catch many trout out of there. I like to fish down from Lane Spring. If you catch a 11 inch plus fish you are doing well (above Vida Slab).

I'm not a biologist but just from observation, in the Wild trout areas of the Little Piney it aways seems like fish come in 2 inch spreads. They are 2, 4, 6, 8 inches in one season of the year say spring for example and then they are 3, 5, 7, 9 in the fall season of the year for example. Which suggest that they are growing about 2 inches a year on the Little Piney at Lane Spring area from Wild stream reproduced trout. (no stocking in years at Lane Spring). if a fish is 2 inches it is a year, 4 inches 2 years, 6 inches 3 years etc. A 12 inch fish on the little piney is about 6 years old. An 18 inch fish would be 9 years old!!!

If you go down to the area of little piney below Vida Slab where they stock out of the hatchery, some of those fish grew 5 to 8 or more inches in a year on fish pellets! Which brings me to the point, if you are looking for bigger fish then down stream, up from Newburg at the River Access where they stock there are much bigger fish as they came from a hatchery. I've seen some good sized ones caught out of there. I don't fish there much anymore...

Truth is, Little Piney isn't for everybody, at least in the wild trout stretch. I like catching the fingerlings, so I enjoy it, but the chance for bigger fish isn't very great-unless you're after the stockers down around Milldam.

Where the fish are on that creek depends on the conditions. I know of some holes where I can always catch a couple, but I also know of certain stretches that fish well in one kind of flow but not in another. There are pools and runs that can be full of trout at one time of year and pretty much empty at another time. Naturally I'm not going to say any more than that. I will certainly say that it is always possible to find fairly long stretches of kind of barren water, but you can do well if you know where to look based on the water flow and temp.