Red Ribbon Trout Area

[tanvat]

The Meramec trout fishery is just a mystery to me. From the early to mid 1990's it was really, really good. My fishing journals and pictures from the time confirm my fond memories. Then it just sort of crashed. I'll never forget one night when I hit the fabled "white fly" hatch right at dusk and caught several really nice browns above Suicide. I also remember sight fishing the pool below the spring and down to Dry Creek and the river was just flat full of browns. Maybe that time period was just an anamoly and the river really isn't well suited for trout - but its not like there weren't some gargantuan floods in the mid-1990s. It would be fantastic if a halfway decent trout population returned. Haven't been down there for years, sounds like an afternoon trip is in order sometime this fall.

[ozark trout fisher]

It's definitely worth an afternoon. It's not like what you describe a couple decades ago, but it's not exactly a barren, troutless wasteland either.....it can still produce a very good day if the stars align.

[Gavin]

Mdc stocked it heavily this year. Not sure if the white fly or the size structure is back but there s/b some fish to catch. Was pretty good in the early 1990's.

[Al Agnew]

I fished it off and on in the late 1990s and early 2000s and never had a lot of trouble catching rainbows. Haven't fished it but a couple of times in the last few years, both times in the winter, and caught enough to keep things interesting. Never have caught many decent browns, lots of little ones at times, probably not long after a stocking. My fly fishing buddy used to fish it a lot back before the mid-1990s and caught some big browns back then. He often fished it at night to catch the big ones.

[ozark trout fisher]

Yeah, the rainbows are always there. Not always in great numbers, and catching them isn't a given, but they're there. I've been skunked on the Meramec several times, but I've never been where I haven't at least seen a trout or two. They can be really spooky in summer/fall and that makes it seem like there are less of them than there probably are in reality.

Higher water (as long as it's not muddy/unwadeable) is the time where I can often really get into them.

[stlfisher]

I think if the fish can survive the first year after the initial stocking the chances of survival probably goes way up. That has been difficult the last several years. I never really understood the spring stocking on places like the Meramec. The fish go from a raceway being fed to a stream that usually has huge floods with spiking water temperatures. The fish can hardly acclimate...that doesn't seem like a good recipe for survival in an already marginal area. Should be interesting to see if this helps.

[Johnsfolly]

I have only fished the Meramec a couple of times and had much more success about eight years ago with browns. I wonder if part of the issue is less structure for the brown trout to relate to like deep bluff holes. I have always found brown trout and especially big browns in areas where they find shelter, e.g., lots of wood, boulders, undercuts, to hole up during the day. I have seen several good holes on the Current river that held big browns in the past that have been covered up with sand and silt. I don't even bother fishing some of the "holes" anymore, because there just aren't fish there. Since I don't fish this river enough, I can't say that is part of what is going on with the fewer number of brown trout.

i will be interested to see if the additional stockings will help the population.

[Born to Fish]

The trout fishery was pretty good back in the late 1970s through the 1980s. I would anticipate this fishery reflects MDC's priorities for this stretch of river and how many and how often they stock trout in it. It would be interesting to get the stocking records from MDC and see what they show. Hopefully, with increased stocking, this area may return to a pretty decent trout fishery.

[Gavin]

There aren't a lot of rock structures on the Meramec and there is lots of shifting gravel. Small stuff and minnow imitations are the name of the game mostly. Big stoneflies work in some of the rocky areas and wood is your friend.

[Wildbill]

The white drake hatch was on yesterday and the day before along with midges and small caddis hatch. Wonderful fishing around suicide hill. Caught over 15 under ten inches and several over twelve inches. One brown. I caught a glance at was by far the biggest brown I've ever seen in my life a quarter mile down stream. He was low in a deep sandy run right before a bend. Any ideas what he was feeding on? Was was boiling around slowly and would roll over on his side and show his belly. He was an easy 22 inches!! Have a good day