Name This Spot

[405z06]

The off color in the Meramec is probably from jet boat traffic upstream from the confluence with the Huzzah. That is one heck of a spot that continues to change every flood. Nice picture of the name that spot though.

I fished the Meramec on Friday for 10 miles ending at Onondaga. I noticed the stained water, too. I had never seen it like that before. It wasn't particularly high either. Corey certainly knows that area a million time better than me, but I didn't see a much jet action until later in the day and once I got past the Huzzah.

The fishing was def. below average from what I normally expect in that stretch.

[Al Agnew]

MF and B confluence last July. If you look real close you can see a treestand stuck in the gravel bar.

I will be doing my first float on the Meramac in early august, does anyone have a recommendation for a good stretch to do an overnight float? We will be running our own shuttle.

For variety and a good chance at good fishing, take Gavin's advice on the Cedar Ford to Scott Ford stretch. For the best scenery on the Meramec, take his advice on the Onondaga to Meramec State Park stretch, but the fishing is probably not going to be as good. Other good choices would be Scotts Ford to Birds Nest, or Birds Nest to Onondaga. On the Scotts Ford to Birds Nest section, the fishing would probably start out slow but get better as you get farther downstream. Birds Nest to Onondaga can be good fishing. Or you could go the way up, work a lot but see fewest people float from Short Bend to Cedar Ford.

[hank franklin]

I fished the Meramec on Friday for 10 miles ending at Onondaga. I noticed the stained water, too. I had never seen it like that before. It wasn't particularly high either. Corey certainly knows that area a million time better than me, but I didn't see a much jet action until later in the day and once I got past the Huzzah.

The fishing was def. below average from what I normally expect in that stretch.

I fished the same water you did on Saturday and Sunday. My experience was exactly the same as yours. I wondered about jet boat traffic being responsible for the stain but felt that was pushing it. Not sure what another explanation would be though.

[Al Agnew]

Sometimes Maramec Spring comes in pretty murky. And if there was a rain on the Dry Fork, it could be putting in enough muddy water to get the river murky without raising it much. The Meramec is almost always murkier above Huzzah than it is below it, and far murkier than Huzzah is. When you're on the Meramec above Huzzah you kinda get used to the murky water, and then when you get to the Huzzah and see the contrast, it surprises you how murky the Meramec was. Pretty much, I expect the Meramec to have about three feet of visibility above the Huzzah, and four feet or a little more below it during the summer.

[hank franklin]

Al, visibility on Saturday-Sunday was maybe two feet at most above the Huzzah. You would have noticed the difference, or the "departure from normal." I've fished this stretch several times in last few years and the contrast between Huzzah and Meramec was never greater. What's odd is there's no apparent explanation. Dry Fork and spring, possibly, but no big rises on the Meramec for at least 10 days preceding. The Meramec was definitely not its usual emerald green color. Below the Huzzah it was a little "sweeter" but still kind of opaque.

[Greasy B]

Last weekend on the middle Gasconade River a ferocious half hour downpour brought the river up just a couple of inches but lowered visibility from three foot or so to two inches. The next morning visibility was about a foot and a half in front of our camp, traveling up stream we ran across two large eddies that held water as muddy as chocolate milk. The water in these eddies was slowly mixing in the main stem which was quite clear. On our long boat ride back up to the ramp the rivers tint changed a couple more times from clear as normal to slightly murky then back clear again. Maybe something like this happened on Meramec.

Hydrology is terribly interesting and can be quite complex, especially on our Ozark rivers. On one memorable trip my fishing partner and I put in a river that was up about four feet with zero visibility. In the course of our three day float I fully expected the high water and mud to travel along with us. As it turned out the water level dropped and cleared up over the 24 mile float to the point where it was dead low and crystal clear at the take out. I figured the sediment and volume of water was slowly absorbed by the much greater volume of water held in each pool of the river. I call that trip The Amazing Disappearing Flood Float.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Good theory, Grease. Also could be some yahoos in 4 wheelers upstream running in some shallow water. Or a property owner or MODOT with a backhoe doing some in-stream gravel playtime.

[Greasy B]

yep, i used to have to deal with the 4 wheel yahoos back in the day on M fork. you never knew what the creek was like, muddy or clear until you got on it.

[ozark trout fisher]

Sometimes Maramec Spring comes in pretty murky.

I know that's true, but it seems more than a little odd, doesn't it? I mean, Maramec Spring Branch seems at least and probably more prone to high, murky water after rain events than most other Ozark streams of similar size, which is not what I would expect for a spring creek. And it usually stays that way for quite awhile-far longer than any of the other spring branches I know off.I know this is off topic, but does anyone have an explanation? I've heard that it's because the spring's recharge relies heavily on the losing stream sections of Dry Fork-a stream that tends to rise very easily, but I don't know whether that's the real reason.

[Greasy B]

It may be due to the geology of Dry Fork Creek which is more akin to Bourbeuse River than to the main stem Meramec, more suspended solids. The underlying bedrock contains huge voids that store water and I would suspect mud also, it could be that some of this mud breaks loose every now and then, dissolving slowly and staining the water.

Hey didn’t this thread start out being about stream confluences? Whenever I pass a tributary coming into a larger stream it always seems to me the junction should be more impressive. When I see Piney coming into the Gasconade it’s hard for me to imagine there are eighty something miles of navigable river above.