Redhorse

[Hog Wally]

Up a foot  zero visibility 

[Hog Wally]

Indian creek messed it up but it's cleaning up fast 

[Al Agnew]

There will be a slug of mud hitting it from Huzzah and Courtois.  I was driving around in the Huzzah watershed today.  Looked good up at Dillard Mill, but at Harper's Slab it was still up a couple feet and less than 6 inches visibility.  And upper Dry Creek was also muddy.  Courtois had less than a foot of visibility at Hwy. 8.  It looked like very localized rain and heavy hail hit parts of the watersheds...I drove over several places where gravel roads were nearly washed out, and places where the road was covered with bits of leaves from the hail.  On the other hand, the far upper Meramec was in good shape.  I was looking for the extreme headwaters of the Meramec, among other things, for the book I'm writing.  Meramec does one final fork up in the headwaters, and some maps show the west fork being the river, but the east fork is slightly longer and heads up at Scotia Pond, an ancient (1800s) little dam that was built to serve as a water supply for the Nova Scotia Company Iron Mine and the village that held the miners.

[joeD]

Small sample size admittedly, but the two upper Meramec sections I've done this spring have definitely been affected by the high waters this past winter. The bank erosion in many spots is obvious, and, to me, quite worrisome. The sheer amount of downed trees, many fresh, rootballs intact, plus other downed trees that have been obviously pushed around is enormous. Gravel has also been so displaced, that certain areas are unrecognizable. I understand that streams change over time, but these adjustments seem severe, and outside the norm. I can't say whether this is a bad thing for fish, or fishing (we still caught fish, saw big fish, so..) but I am concerned how abruptly this section of the Meramec has changed, and, looking at many banks,  I wonder how much more earth and greenery will fall into the river.

[Smalliebigs]

Big logs and sweepers making streams dangerous  and hard to fish=killer fishing

[Hog Wally]

Flow was fast but had to try some current breaks for post spawn sows and they were there.  Tried everything but had to resort to the Mitch craw 

[Hog Wally]

19" was my biggest but lots of fish bit.  What a day!!

[Mitch f]

[ness]

Thanks, Mitch! My neck was getting sore.

[Hog Wally]

Sorry guys.  Out here in no mans land the iPhone is all I have to go on.