Wade Fishing The Meramac

[mic]

A co-worker and I are planning a trout hunting expedition on the 25th March. It is the start of my effort to catch a trout in every public access in the state. We are going to make a last minute decision based on the weather and water conditions.

Our first priority is the Meramac outside the park. At what water level is wade fishing no good. Just to verify, I want to read the Steelville reading correct. Secondly, is the fishing any good upstream of the spring flow this time of year?

The second priority is Little Piney. My question here is... how hard is the fishing in a high wind. That is one thing I like about Blue Springs Creek. The wind is really never a factor. It the LP is to open, how is it a Mill or Spring. I image it would be the same as BSC.

Thanks In Advance,

Mic

[ozark trout fisher]

A co-worker and I are planning a trout hunting expedition on the 25th March. It is the start of my effort to catch a trout in every public access in the state. We are going to make a last minute decision based on the weather and water conditions.

Our first priority is the Meramac outside the park. At what water level is wade fishing no good. Just to verify, I want to read the Steelville reading correct. Secondly, is the fishing any good upstream of the spring flow this time of year?

The second priority is Little Piney. My question here is... how hard is the fishing in a high wind. That is one thing I like about Blue Springs Creek. The wind is really never a factor. It the LP is to open, how is it a Mill or Spring. I image it would be the same as BSC.

Thanks In Advance,

Mic

For wade fishing on the Meramec, I like the water level at Steelville to be at or below 700 Cubic feet per second if I am fishing between the spring branch and the mouth of Dry Fork Creek and I like it to be below about 550 if I am fishing below the mouth of Dry Fork Creek (which is about 1/2-3/4 of a mile below the spring). The Dry Fork pumps in a lot more mud than the rest of the upper Meramec basin combined, so if water levels are up you'll definitely want to fish upstream of that.

I'm not sure about trout fishing upstream of Maramec Spring, as I've only fished there for smallmouth, but you'd have to imagine there would be some trout that would migrate up there during the cooler months, so it might be worth a try.

For your second question, wind can be a factor on Little Piney, but rarely is it a big enough problem to shut you down-it can make life difficult of course, but it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Mill and Spring are brush-choked little creeks a lot like BSC and I don't think you'll find wind to be a problem there.