Trout Fishing MO Rivers - Need Help - Reading the River

[mic]

I don't want anyone's secret honey hole (send IM... LOL).  What I would like to know is how to read the rivers.  My only positive experience on rivers was in Montana.  There if the water was green or a decent riffle there was fish, and it became about fly and presentation.  Here it seems like there is a ton of dead water.  For example on the Meramec below the spring, there is the big hole and there are fish there.  Down stream, there is a lot of water with green water here and there and some fast moving sections below riffles, but I never see much less catch anything. I never had anything positive happen until dry fork.  So what am I looking for, what do I fish, what to I skip.  I'm headed back to the Meramac this weekend and looking for some help.  

[Gavin]

The Meramec trout water can be frustrating. Good habitat down to Suicide hill but lots of frog water too.  Not many hard points in the trout water so fish the wood or mid- channel with some depth. The substrate is fine gravel so your flies tend to be small, but minnow imitations work well too. Some craw and some big stones on the chunk rock in the few places that it exists.

[Al Agnew]

The easiest places to catch trout in the Meramec are in fairly fast water areas just where the riffle begins to slow.  I'm talking about where a riffle that's a foot deep drops off to about two feet deep, but is still fast and choppy.  Maybe the fish aren't always there, but when they are there they are feeding, and nymphing will usually get a few.  As Gavin said, the Meramec can be frustrating, but there are probably more fish between the spring and Dry Fork than there are below--at least a lot more spring branch escapees.  It's just that some of the places that hold the most fish are very difficult to fish--the log-choked runs.  And the fish in the frog water (trust me, they are there) are always tough to catch unless the river is up a bit and murky and you can tempt one now and then with a streamer.

To nymph those bottom of the riffle areas, keep back away from them, slightly downstream of where you want your drift to run.  Rig up a nymph or a two nymph rig, put on plenty of weight (two BB split shot is usually about right but if the water is flowing strongly you might want three BB shot) above the nymphs, put on a thingamabobber about 3.5 feet up the leader from the weight.  Cast it up into the riffle, well above where you think the fish are.  Let it drift...if the flies hang up (well actually it's always the weight that hangs up) just twitch it gently and it should come loose and keep drifting.  You want the strike indicator to be downstream of the flies when it drops off the shallowest part of the riffle, almost like the strike indicator is pulling the flies along behind it.  You should be able to see the thingamabobber just jiggling and bobbing slightly as the weight drags along the gravelly bottom.  If it does anything else, set the hook.  Mend as necessary to keep the strike indicator drifting at about the speed of the surface current, but really as it's doing that, it really is dragging the weight and flies along the bottom.  That's the reason, though, that I like to have almost double the amount of leader between weight and indicator as the depth I'm fishing...I want those flies to for sure be very close to the bottom, and be able to drop into slight indentations in the bottom and slight dropoffs.

Since the riffle dropoffs on the Meramec aren't as sudden and well-defined as they are on many streams (like the Current, for instance) and are pretty wide, a riffle will have a lot of possible fish-holding area.  They could be anywhere across the riffle and anywhere up and down it, so fish each riffle bottom thoroughly from shallower than you think they could be down into where the water really slows down.  

[joeD]

Even though their advise is sound, I guarantee if Al or Gavin want to catch trout, they sure as hell aren't going to go to the Meramec. Neither will any other smart trout fisherman. 

Yet, I realize the need for some anglers to tilt at windmills and seek out failure, embrace it actually, for the minute chance of success. Difficulty as the attraction. 

Me? I'm old and want to catch fish when I go fishing, so I don't go there (unless to jerkbait fish in the winter below the park). Regardless, good luck. The water is very low and very clear right now. 

 

[mic]

It isn't my first pick either, but I was camping right outside the park with a limited window.  And yes, I do like a challenge sometimes and quite water on others.  

[ColdWaterFshr]

Nobody goes there anymore.  Its too crowded.

There's a couple good spots around Cardiac and Suicide, but most of the fish are up close to the spring, and when I say "most", its all 7 of them.

 

[Gavin]

I did fish the Red Ribbon this year. Some friends wanted to meet up for a family camp & float and we decided to go to Meramec Spring due to time constraints. The bathrooms at the park CG are awful but it was a good time. Caught more bass than trout...maybe 8 bass and two 2 trout between 8 and Scotts Ford. River was low and crowded. Might be better this time of year, but its been years since I've given that section serious consideration. Much better trout fishing almost anywhere else.

 

[Ted Calcaterra]

I heard from the biologist that they are changing their stocking strategy to include stocking multiple times a year including this fall.   Browns should be a little bigger than years past to help with survival. 

Can only help.

[fishinwrench]

As you look at the tail section of a riffle pay particular attention to the furthest upstream spot where you cannot see the bottom, there will likely be trout there.    And if the trout you are fishing to are fairly recent stockers then expect to catch several any place where you get bit.   Stocker trout school up tighter than any fish I know of.  It isn't uncommon to catch a double limit from a spot no bigger than the tailgate of your truck.

[Justin92297]

How do you know when the Browns will be stocked? Or have they already been?