Red Ribbon Trout Area

[Al Agnew]

I don't have much problem with continuing to stock browns in the Meramec and let the rainbows keep moving in from the spring. Basically, it's not bad trout water and not even decent smallmouth water until you get to the big pool below Suicide. From there on down the trout just naturally get scarce and the bass get...well, less scarce, anyway. There have been big browns caught from the Meramec in the past, so they are capable of surviving for years, apparently, even with the things they have to contend with (which, when you get down to it, are the same things they have to contend with on the Niangua, Eleven Point, and to some extent the North Fork. All those streams have rip-roaring floods of warm water now and then.

[Fly guy]

So I decided instead of fishing bsc yesterday to hit up cardiac to suicide on the meramec. Bad idea, I did manage to catch one fish on a streamer early in the day, after that it became the tour of the power boats between suicide all the way up to the springs. I saw a total of five power boats on the river yesterday with three of them being pretty decent people. The other two are the reason I hate powered boats being allowed above suicide. The first was some guy who thought he was gods gift to the river as he tore up and down the river between dry fork and cardiac three times just to dip a bucket in the water. The other one was even more annoying, he decided his boat was perfect for getting him above the piles and when I came across him he was leaving hitting every tree along the way and then he fouled his prop on the bottom in a particularly shallow area and then grabbed his oar to continue on from there. Hilarious as it was I had just come up on a hole that had quite a few fish in it and after he bounced his boat off the tree in the hole those fish took off. Just really frustrating.

[jackdizo]

Fished the Meramec Red-Ribbon Trout section of the river this past weekend.

I am newer to fly fishing and am still learning, definitely a rookie. I have fished this section of the river in the past, but with spinning gear targeting bass. So I do not have much to go on, but I personally thought the river was fishing great. Especially for brown trout, possibly due to the efforts mentioned on this post by the MDC.

Fished for around 4hrs and caught a total of 10 fish with some really nice browns in the mix. Actually caught 5 browns and 5 rainbows to my surprise which was a great mix.

I am very happy the MDC is not giving up on this section of the river and am happy to have something close to home where I can go target brown trout.

Attached are a few images of some of the browns from the day. Crazy how each fish is so different looking from the next.

And you cannot beat mid 60 degree temps in February!

All fish were released unharmed and handled with care.

Tight lines and long drifts!

[joeD]

Splendid jack. The most fish pictured in years on this forum on this stretch. Good for you.

[BassMaster#1]

I floated from the spring down to adventure outdoors on Sunday (9 mile float), and I have to say there were a lot of trout. I was surprised to see so many browns. We were smallmouth fishing, but my buddies ended up hooking 2 17" rainbows. Only caught 2 largemouth. One fat 13" and one 12", but the trout were all over the place. Didnt see many smallmouth. Thought the warmer water from the spring would be the ticket, but that wasnt the case.