3/7 Red Ribbon Area Report

[Haris122]

Made it out yesterday to Meramec Springs again. Plan was to fish the stretch of Red Ribbon Area just below the end of the spring, to the Dry Fork confluence as last few times I've been mainly working my way upstream from Suicide Hill and Cardiac up to Dry Fork Creek. In case nothing happened doing that, I was going to go back and fish the spring, and see if I can at least get a pair of trout to take home. The park was a little bit more crowded than I expected considering it was a Monday, especially near the parking lot, so I decided to not toy around any on the way through the spring, and just start right away below it, to get more of the river to myself. It wound up being less productive than the last few times, but nonetheless, did better than I suspected. I figured I'd probably run out of luck with the red ribbon area this time.

Anyways, all fish today were caught on roostertails again. A variety of different ones but the action was sporadic. It was mainly a small fish day. I caught 6 fish,4 Smallmouth, and 2 Rainbows, lost another Smallie close to the net, and got a bite from something that got off right away (that was on a minnow like crankbait). Out of those 6, only 1 fish was over 12", a Rainbow, while most of the Smallies were well below that. It was still a fun day though.

Started out with an 8" or so Smallie a bit downstream of the spring. Not a huge fighter but it did good for its size, and it was fun to know I wasn't getting skunked at least. That was within the first 25 minutes. I continued upstream towards the park, as that was where the deeper water was. There I lost the smallie near the net, but proceeded to catch my 2nd fish, a 12" Rainbow, that also put up a pretty good fight. After a little while of not getting any more bites, I headed downstream again. A drought hit me for a few hours, even though i saw and fished for several solid trout and smallies that outright launched out of the water. Finally I got another tiny smallie, followed by a 10" near a log that dissected the river into 2 channels because of how shallow it was in the middle of the stream. Further downstream I was just getting ready to change out the current roostertail when a real nice rainbow came out of nowhere, hammered that roostertail while completely launching it's head out of the water and then proceeded to give me the fight of the day. For what felt like an agonizingly long time I watched it shake it's head as it also oddly fought the current, instead of trying to run with it againt me, not more than 10 feet downstream from me. After a few adrenaline pumped minutes, and several last moment runs resulting in failed netting attempts, I finally got it to the net. You could tell it was exhausted as it stayed calm in my hands for a good minute or so, as I was letting it "catch it's breath", before it swam off. That was a fun fish. It was right around 14", and I hope it did good afterwards. I know I kept it in the water for almost the entire time it was netted so hopefully it lives to grow even bigger and stronger. Then I continued a little further down to the confluence without further bites, went back up, and then hooked another beautiful Smallie near the previously mentioned laydown bisecting the river. It also put up one hell of a fight for its size. I was surprised once I got it in, that it didn't break the 12" mark. It was only 11" or so, but it gave me a go on the light action, that's for sure. After that I made a few casts here and there on the way back up to the Spring with no bites. Passed through the spring relatively quick, only making a few passing casts near the parking lot, as I needed to rush back towards St. Louis, for a later event, and that was that. Was a bit disappointed there wasn't more activity or really big fish, with the first 3 miles downstream of the park supposedly being the most heavily populated by trout, but it was still a fun, scenic trip.

 

[moguy1973]

Those smallies have some great color on them!

[Haris122]

Yeah, they were really beautiful fish. I just wish they were a little bigger.

[Johnsfolly]

I agree that those are really impressive color patterns on those smallmouth. I haven't had much luck on smallmouth in that section of the river. Even with the fishing being less that you expected still sounds like a great time.

[Smalliebigs]

sweet report Haris 122!!! I love reports with pics!!!!.....I agree with Moguy those Smallies have killer looking coloring.

 

   Kudos on the great day IMO

 

[bkbying89]

I fished the park and upstream of the park Monday and caught one nice trout in the park and lost to more. My hook set must suck as I fought another nice trout and watched as he came to a stop and just spit the hook out as I watched, didn't through it, he just ejected the hook. Both of those fish were on an egg fly. Hooked a small one on a BHPrince. Outside I stood on a rock looking down on a dozen nice fish and missed two strikes on a San Juan worm. After that, I got nada bites to speak of. It was crowded in the park, I guess a lot of people got out before, the rainy  weather blew in. They were also working in the trout reserve with a track hoe. I'm not sure what was up but every time they dumped rock and stirred it up the water down stream got milky. The new darn is in and it's pretty massive.

[Haris122]

Quote

I fished the park and upstream of the park Monday and caught one nice trout in the park and lost to more.

By upstream, do you mean at the hwy 8 access, or which way? How big was the nice trout. I noticed the milky water too. At first I thought it was just some off color thing having to do with depth as it seemed more prevalent in the deeper water. Then I started thinking it was just from the oxygen from the riffle at the end of the spring. Finally I noticed it probably wasn't that either. But couldn't figure out what it was and left it at that. 

[bkbying89]

Haris122, I meant just outside of the park, upstream. I have some pictures of the spring area, the new dam and the track hoe stirring up the bottom. I will try to download the pictures but have to figure out how this camera works first.

[Haris122]

I drove down there today again and had my rear handed to me by the trout. First I was going to fish the red ribbon area at Scott's Ford, plan being to wade upstream as far as it let me, but I don't know how to gauge at what point a low water bridge is not safe to cross, and since there was a good flow of water going over it, I decided not to try crossing it to get to Scott's Ford Access on the other bank. So next I figured I try the red ribbon access at Hwy 8. Got there, geared up, saw the water was high but figured I try it anyways. Once I started wading I came to the conclusion that the flow was too much, to really wade any distance. So back to the drawing board. Immediately I decided I just stick to within Meramec Springs, and not try anything more adventurous anymore, as time was passing me by fast.

Bottom line I started up around 1:40pm at Meramec Springs. Tossed a variety of Roostertails most of the day and didn't so much as get a bite. I saw plenty of good stringers, but hardly anyone else catch anything while I was around. I eventually changed to a little minnow type crankbait after making my way all the way down, and a little back upstream with the roostertails. The trout still wouldn't have any of it. Once I got back to the parking lot, around 5:20 I finally came across a bite. The fish jumped, but couldn't shake the crankbait, and I finally caught a fish, a tiny Smallmouth. In the end I wound up with 4 fish, 1 smallmouth, 1 sunfish of some sort, and 2 Rock Bass, all caught within the last 40 minutes, and all a lot smaller than what size fish I was hoping to catch. Probably the only decent fish (for it's species) I got was the 2nd Rock Bass, that was about 8".

I should've tried other stuff, but I didn't want to lug around anything aside from 1 fishing rod and what little I could fit into the pouch in the waders, and I had too much faith in the roostertails eventually catching me something, so I didn't keep trying different types of lures, or rigging to find the technique that works.

[bkbying89]

I have never had much luck with Roostertails but I know they work for others. Still you were able to fish, that's a plus. I checked the river flow yesterday and it was running around 3.8 at Steelville. That supposed to mean the wading can be pretty hazardous. Glad you didn't get into trouble.