Upper Meramec trip report Aug 19th

[Ted Calcaterra]

It has been awhile since I have fished the upper Meramec river. I have spent the last few months exploring smallmouth waters close to my home and haven't made it out much for trout fishing other than the famous tailwaters in the White River system. I have been told by friends that it has been fishing well the past few months so I decided to give it a try. I arrived around 7am accessing the water from cardiac hill and fishing upstream. For the first 2 hours I threw all the old favorites including the wolly bugger, mohair leech, soft hackle, etc. It wasn't until I had a trout hit my small white indicator that I decided to try something on top. I figured it was mid August and about time to fish hoppers. I am sure glad that I tried them. I proceeded to catch about a dozen trout over the next 3 hours before calling it quits around noon. That seems to be when the canoe hatch starts to make its way down. I would definitley recommend throwing some hoppers in your fly box before heading down to the upper Meramec anytime now until the end of September. I also want to stress that I had a long leader (10ft) with 6x tippet. The water is low and clear. In summary, I thought I was going to have to work long and hard for just a few fish. It turned out the bite was on and hoppers were the ticket.

[Kicknbass]

Thanks for the report Ted.