Finicky Trout?

[DainW]

So I made second trip to roaring river state park this past weekend. The first trip was about a month ago, the first weekend after the flood, and fishing was great. When I got to the river on friday, the water was much clearer, to the point where you could come up on slower moving pools and literally see fish everywhere. Getting them to bite was a different story. Friday the fishing was great though. Fish seemed to be biting well everywhere, except in the slower pools, where I assume the trout are a little spookier just because they're more vulnerable in that type of water. Anyway, caught a bunch of fish on Friday and woke up saturday expecting to do the same thing, and boy was I wrong. Still caught a few fish, but it was nothing like Friday, and it even got frustrating because you could see fish actually moving away from your flies as you they drifted towards them. I tried lots of different flies too, and just never had all that much luck. The park was crazy crowded on Saturday too, which is understandable because the weather was so nice. So my guess is that the fish probably started to wise up a little bit after friday. 

Anyways, I don't have much experience fishing trout parks and if they're that busy during C&R season, I'd hate to see what they look like during the rest of year. But it does raise a few questions in my mind, what does everyone here do to get bites when the trout get picky like that? There were people there doing a lot better than myself, so it's not like it was just one of those days.  I couldn't really see much of a hatch coming off, so I'm assuming it wasn't necessarily a fly choice issue. I was using 5x tippet, do I need to go smaller at RR state park? Also, I saw a lot of fish holding in the upper 3rd of the water column, which I've never seen before. Is this pretty typical at trout parks? Seemed a little strange to me as I always thought they held closer to the bottom. 

[Flysmallie]

I came down for a bit on Saturday with my daughter. I have NEVER seen it that busy on a C&R weekend. Maybe it is on other nice days but that was just too many people for me.

I'm not the best trout fisher in the world but I have always done well just hunting the active fish when they get real picky. It seems there is always 1 or 2 at the head of every pool that will attack a bugger or pine squirrel. It's not a guarantee but it humors me. But that approach means that you have to be able to just hop from pool to pool. That wasn't happening on Saturday.

[DainW]

Yeah I honestly had to stop fishing early on saturday, it was too frustrating. Not only were there a lot of people fishing, but just a lot of people in the park in general, be it with their families hiking or whatever. Not that I blame them, but I don't care to fish around people like that. Don't get me wrong I realize finding any amount of solitude on a trout stream in the midwest is going to be a tall order, let alone a trout park when it's 70 degrees outside, but saturday was ridiculous. Not only did you have to deal with people having zero etiquette whatsoever when it comes to respecting somebody's spot, you also have to we weary not to put your back cast into an innocent bystander's face. Not my cup of tea that's for sure....

And also I don't understand the rationale behind closing zone III during the C&R season. Do they do that at the other 3 trout parks as well? Is it a safety issue primarily? Seems like that would really ease the crowding situation quite a bit.  

[Flysmallie]

I agree with you 100%.

[grizzly]

Your experience could be the result of a few things.  I would imagine the presentation was off i.e. that your fly was dragging.  I don't fish trout parks anymore, but I always notice the people dragging their flies all around.  Work on mending.  

If that wasn't the case, the fish could be spooked from all the anglers.  Trout in these parks don't seem to mind people so much, but you never know.  

I've never known trout to be too picky at RR, but I do use fluorocarbon when nymphing.  I really like fluorocarbon over mono when fishing nymphs as it sinks better and, supposedly, it is less visible under water.  I think 5x is right on at RR, but I do fish 5x fluoro.

Fish the blue ribbon streams if you want solitude   Blue ribbon streams are the only streams I fish in MO when it comes to trout.  

[jtram]

There are always places on Roaring River to fish alone, you just have to hike.

[jtram]

O ya, go to 6x fluorocarbon and midge when they get picky.

[trythisonemv]

I find that people flock to where others are catching fish so I'm with grizzly on the whole head to bluer ribbons mindset!  But rr does have its allure in winter . I find that going lighter on tippett. And moving around work well and also stop rude people fro? Invading your space. If they think oh he just caught one there then moved it makes them less likely to follow like a lost pup. Not to say that giving pointers is out of the question. But when that many people are there better to run and gun.

[DainW]

1 hour ago, grizzly said:

Your experience could be the result of a few things.  I would imagine the presentation was off i.e. that your fly was dragging.  I don't fish trout parks anymore, but I always notice the people dragging their flies all around.  Work on mending.  

I'm not world's best fly fisherman or anything like that, but I feel like at this point in the game, I've got a fairly good idea of when I'm getting a drag free drift and when I'm not. 

I think flouro vs  mono could be one of the issues though. I've been using mono a lot lately, mainly just because of the cost

[DainW]

37 minutes ago, jtram said:

There are always places on Roaring River to fish alone, you just have to hike.

I fished from bottom of zone II to the hatchery and there were literally people everywhere.