Jan 15th Red Ribbon Report

[Haris122]

So I decided to try my hand at Suicide Hill/Cardiac Access section of the Red Ribbon trout area on Friday. Since there was a car already at Cardiac Access, I decided to at least check out what the big deal of Suicide Hill is. I got there and thought, where do you even descend down. Well after a little further investigating I found a good spot to descend. Anyways, I started fishing at 12:30 and got my first fish within 15 minutes. My biggest fish, a 12" Largemouth. I fished further near that area and the action kept coming. Mainly smaller and smaller fish though. Several Largemouth, and then a fish I haven't identified yet. Eventually I started moving around so I wouldn't stress the fish at any one small spot too much. I caught another couple Largemouth and a sunfish before getting in some brown trout. I have to say either those are some strong fish being in the rivers, or they know how to use the current to their advantage, or both but bottom line, I caught 2 of them, each time thinking I had a bigger fish on than what turned out to be maybe 11-12" ones. I was just fishing roostertails, mainly a white 1/24th one with gold blade and a rainbow trout colored 1/16th one. For the trout I kept throwing it in the deep water and reeling back, getting bites from time to time. Anyways, as it was getting close to dark I went back near where I started off and then got even a nice 11" Crappie (I think White Crappie), a small crappie after that, and an 11" Smallmouth but my phone had died by then. All together wound up with 13 fish in 4-5 hours. Biggest were the first Largemouth, and maybe the 11" Crappie. The Trout and Smallmouth were probably a little smaller weight wise, but actually I think they fought a little harder. Anyways it was a fun trip. If anyone knows what fish that is that isn't one of the common ones can you let me know?

 

 

[Deadstream]

Some kind of shad?   It's hard to tell with my old eyes.

[Haris122]

I looked over the "Introduction to Missouri Fishes" pdf and color wise the closest I found was that of a male Red Shiner in breeding color. However size wize those are supposed to only get to 3.5" or so, and this one was more like 6-7".

[MOsmallies]

Nice report... I believe that last one is a creek chub

[Haris122]

Creek chub, cool. Had not caught one of those before. I thought size wise it seemed about right, but then color pattern wise and picture wise from the pdf "intro to missouri fishes", it didn't seem quite like it.

[Johnsfolly]

I may have to disagree with the creek chub assessment. Below are photos of creek chub (top), common (middle) and striped shiners (bottom). Although both the chub and common shiner are in breeding colors you can still see the dark spot on the front base of the dorsal fin of the creek chub, which both males and females display. Creek chubs also tend to be fairly cylindrical in their body shape. Your fish is more flattened from side to side and a similar general shape to the common or striped shiner. Based upon where you were fishing (south of Missouri and Osage rivers) it may likely be a striped shiner. it's hard to tell these apart without dissecting them.

[Johnsfolly]

Nice photos and congrats on a good day on the river. I haven't gone down that hill in many years. The last time I tore the sole of one of my wading boots getting back up to the road. Since you can't wear felt soles anymore, I may have to take a trip back down there.

[Haris122]

Size wise and shape wise those definitely fit the bill closely. I'm not sure the striping was really evident on this specimen as on yours. But it must be something close enough to one of those two, if not exactly that. Either way, it's a new species, woohoo. I'm off to a good start for the year, diversity wise. 8 species so far. Including several catches of ones I rarely catch more than a few times a year.

[Haris122]

I went again on Monday, this time trying out Cardiac Access and wound up going a little downstream of it up to where I stopped at upstream of suicide hill last time, and then went upstream up to the confluence with dry fork. Had plenty of action fishing with the same things as last time (mainly white roostertail). Ended up with the same amount of fish too, but the species distribution was much smaller. This time it was mainly brown trout with a couple rainbows mixing in towards the end. Most of them were around typical stocker size, but there was one 15" Rainbow that gave me a hell of a fight on the light action, and another maybe 13-14" Brown that did as well, but it didn't go on drag peeling runs like the bigger Rainbow, mainly just did the headshakes and bent the rod, but still fun. The big Rainbow though was definitely a great finish to an awesome day in general. Maybe next time I'll get some even bigger. Next time maybe I'll try out the section from meramec springs down to dry fork, or scott's ford on upstream some.

[JestersHK]

Thanks for the report.  I've been wanting to fish there for a while, but never really figured out how or where was the best place to park and put in...