Trout Report

[ozark trout fisher]

Well, I went down to the trout section of the Meramec River today, and here follows the most boring fishing report in the history of the world

The Red Ribbon stretch of the Meramec River is maybe the most inconsistent trout stream I've ever fished. Often the fish are sulking to the point that they can make you think that there aren't any trout in the river. Other days the fishing is just silly. This was one of those times. The fish were easy to find in the usual places, and they were much less finicky than I've come to expect, responding very well to egg patterns as well as various other nymphs. There is really only so much one can really write about such a day; the fish were stacked up like cordwood in the good holes, they were hungry, and I caught fish until I began to feel it was pointless. No real skill was necessary, all it took was keeping the fly in the water and the trout would pretty much take care of the rest. Just one of those days. The Meramec so rarely fishes well anymore that I was more than a little surprised.

Number wise, it was far and away the best day I've had on the Red Ribbon section, but that isn't saying a lot as I tend to get skunked at least half of the time I fish there. I didn't catch any big fish, just a bunch of stocker sized rainbows, 10-15 inches, though the coloration of a few indicated they had been in the river for awhile. The only real difficulties came in the wading (due to the high water, which caused a few adventurous moments) and casting (because of the wind, which made fishing next to impossible at times.) It was a good day for sure, just not too much to write about.

[laker67]

maybe you are just getting better at finding and fooling trout. good report otc, glad you had a good day. where exactly is the red section?

[ozark trout fisher]

maybe you are just getting better at finding and fooling trout. good report otc, glad you had a good day. where exactly is the red section?

Thanks, it was a good time.

The Red Ribbon section is the water from the Highway 8 Bridge to the Scotts Ford Bridge...But primarily the good trout water is from Maramec Spring down 3-4 miles. Today I was just fishing the first mile or so below Maramec Spring, down to a little ways past where the dry fork dumps in.

[ColdWaterFshr]

No browns? or even stocker sized browns?

the rainbow escapees are always stacked up by the hundreds right below the mouth of the spring. always. And I agree with you on the inconsistency, but mostly in regards to finding and catching any browns, which is what that section is managed for unless they have given up on it.

[ozark trout fisher]

No browns? or even stocker sized browns?

the rainbow escapees are always stacked up by the hundreds right below the mouth of the spring. always. And I agree with you on the inconsistency, but mostly in regards to finding and catching any browns, which is what that section is managed for unless they have given up on it.

No browns, not a single one. If there were any disappointments today (and there weren't really) that would be it. The only fish of any size I even saw was a pig rainbow right at the confluence, though I didn't stop to try to catch the thing.