Tough Fishing At Cardiac Hill

[northernranger]

I went out this afternoon to fish Cardiac. The river was very low and fish were hard to come by. I caught two nice rainbows and a few sunfish in the first hour, then nothing after that. I couldn't even spot any fish, everywhere was low and flat. However I did see a few nice size gar.

The section below the park was low and clear last week but I managed a steady amount of fish and seen A LOT of big gar.

A couple questions...

Where would fish move to if the river is extremely low? And what's up with the all the gar?

[fishinwrench]

Gar live a long time and have the slimmest chance of anything else in the river of being foraged upon.

The way I see it, it's a wonder that they haven't completely taken over every body of freshwater in the world.

What is keeping them from it?

[mic]

I'm by no means an expert, but I would think like most predators...

1. Predation when young

2. Lack of food sources

3. Healthy environment for reproduction and cover from non-water predators

[stlfisher]

Meramac can be a tough place to fish. There just isn't a lot of trout in the Meramac...especially with the severe flooding the last few years taking out about 33% of the the brown trout (which I have never caught on this river). Most rainbows I have caught in a day is 8 and some days zero. They can't go upstream into the park in low water because of the dam so it is possbile the warm weather and low water and have stressed/weakened the fish and actually pushed them downstream a bit. Wherever they are they are probably not feeling too good at the moment.

[ozark trout fisher]

Sounds like a very typical day on that part of the Meramec...The fishing is almost always tough in the Cardiac Hill area.

The succession of droughts and floods over the past few years have devastated the Meramec's trout fishery. You can still have a good day once in awhile, but with the exception of the first little ways below Maramec Spring where the fishing is pretty consistent, it's a very difficult river. Honestly it seems like there are more bass and sunfish than trout in much of the Red Ribbon area.

[Born to Fish]

I haven't been down there in over 25 years. It use to be real good for browns and rainbows back in the late 70s and early 80s. I've heard all the habitat has filled in with sand and gravel. It would be nice if MDC would do some stream habitat work instead of stocking otters!

[ColdWaterFshr]

I was in Rolla yesterday on business, so I packed a couple fishing rods along just in case I had time after.

Was torn on where to go so I ended up down at Suicide Hill which I hadn't been to in probably 5 years. Had low expectations. Spent about 2 hours and caught 4 keeper sized rainbows on black stonefly, mohair, and then a 15 inch smallie on a sculpin type fly, a nice way to finish! Water was very low and didn't feel quite as cold as it should be.

Not sure how they could do much habitat improvements on that water without it costing a fortune. I agree though, it just isn't very good.

[stlfisher]

I noticed the same thing a couple times last year regarding the water temperature....didn't feel to trouty.

Has anyone caught any brown trout out of there the last couple years?

[ozark trout fisher]

I realize the Meramec used to be a better trout stream than it is now, but no matter what habitat improvements or whatever else you do to it, it just ain't the Current or the Eleven Point and never will be. Unlike those rivers, the Meramec is an awesome smallie stream with some halfway decent trout fishing for a couple miles. Trying to make it anything else is probably an exercise in futility.

And to your question STL, on one winter trip last February I think it was, I caught three or four little brown trout. But since then every trip there for me has produced nothing but stocker rainbows.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Its a red ribbon area now, so I wonder with that change they quit stocking browns there. Although in someone else's post he shows a stocker sized brown, so who knows.

The rainbows I caught all looked very healthy and colorful and full of fight.

Just an FYI - grasshoppers were everywhere. Had a few nice rises to my indicator. Wish I had brought some stimulators.