Meramec Springs 8/18

[Seth]

Those weeds do kind of limit where a guy can effectively fish. Earlier in the season I really like that hole by the second cleaning station, but the fish don't seem to hang around once the weeds get too thick.

[Gavin]

You can find better in less than a half hour in any direction. Don't waste your time with that place. It sucks, mostly.

[Seth]

8 hours ago, Gavin said:

You can find better in less than a half hour in any direction. Don't waste your time with that place. It sucks, mostly.

I try to talk myself in to go trying Montauk or Bennett Springs again one of these days, but I just can't get myself to drive the extra distance since I am mainly just going trout fishing to cure my craving for baked lemon pepper trout. I used to keep the first three and just keep fishing, but anymore I usually just keep the first four decent sized trout and head back home.

[Haris122]

Quote

I guess I am eating crow today. Went to Maramec Springs today and lost one fish early and missed another later in the day. It seemed like no one was catching on anything. Bait , lures or flies. This was the first time I had fished the park since the end of C&R. Now I remember why. I hate All that grass and moss. Sorry Mitch F.

BB, I went yesterday and it was about the same for me (and most people I noticed fishing). I end up with too many of those kinds of days at trout spots. It's kind of frustrating to go to a place full of fish, spend all day there, and hardly even get a bite.

We got fishing at 8:30 in the morning. My friend caught a little one within the first few minutes on his fly rod, and then lost a bigger one right before netting. I couldn't get a bite to save my life. Then the next 5-6 hours, it died down for him too. Somewhere in that time frame I got a little sunfish, but by the end of those 5-6 hours we had traveled the length of the park and back and forth, with nothing more to show for it. We went back and forth some more. He would get the occasional bite but it would get off right away, I wouldn't even get that. I was fishing mainly my usual assortment of lures like on Thursday, except with more frequent color changes, and eventually I tried a some other things too like a creme troutworm on the magnet jighead, marabou jigs, and a little moth looking fly under slip bobbers. Anyways, eventually he decided to try way upstream as we didn't try that all day. There, he found a spot where they started taking his flies and the action heated up for him finally. He called me over, I tried some stuff, got some bites, but they always kept getting off for me right at the bite. I wound up catching one, and fighting one close to net before losing it. That was the extent of my action. He wound up with about 15-16 trout by the end of the day, and another 4-5 sunfish of various kinds. I got my sole trout on a little 1" or so minnow crankbait that's marketed for crappie fishing.

The really frustrating thing for me is that by the end of the day I had finally had 6-7 more committed bites on that little crankbait, and aside from those 2 fish earlier mentioned, each and every time they got off, right at the bite. Every time I would feel and see the bite, sense a few split seconds of tension, and then lose them right there (once slingshotting the lure back at me). I can't figure out what the deal is. What do you guys think might be to blame? Drag was maybe a little stiff for the size of those fish (as far as them being able to pull drag), but the last few bites I tried adjusting it a bit both ways, and the teasing hookups continued. The crankbait seemed relatively new, so I'm assuming the trebles were sharp enough that they shouldn't be the cause, but to be honest I've never sharpened my hooks before. Does that seem like a symptom of dull hooks, or what? By the way, I was using a light action 5'6" rod, and a pflueger trion spincast reel with that crankbait.

[bkbying89]

Harris122, I don't get what happens at Meramec. A light bite, sore mouths or what. I did think about it a bit and I did not see numbers of trout. Probably because of the grass and the really clear water might have made them shy. who knows. I will probably not go back down there until the C&R starts back up. I will spend my time in the smaller creeks and rivers. Probably wait till it cools off some. I can't really deal with the heat and humidity like I used to.

[Johnsfolly]

Haris122

Do you think that your rod wasn't giving you the power to get a real good hookset with the treble on that crankbait? Are you fishing mono line that might be stretching too much during the hookset? Maybe switching to a less stretch line might help.

[Seth]

6 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Haris122

Do you think that your rod wasn't giving you the power to get a real good hookset with the treble on that crankbait? Are you fishing mono line that might be stretching too much during the hookset? Maybe switching to a less stretch line might help.

I normally use a medium fast rod with 6# mono when throwing jerkbaits down on Taneycomo. However, I've used a light action rod with 4# in the past and not had too many issues with hooking trout on those same 4-5" jerkbaits. My bet is they just weren't eating the bait very well. I've seen them where they would swipe at my jig or trout worm and not even open their mouths plenty of times in the past. You couldn't hardly hook them unless you got lucky and hooked them on the outside of the mouth.

[Haris122]

Bkb, in some sense I was lucky Tuesday. It wasn't all that hot, which was nice when I'm wearing extra pants and thick socks under the waders. But on the other hand it kept raining more than I wanted. On and off. Cool side effect of it was that it started looking like Taneycomo, with all the fog.

John, I don't know too much how to tell if the rod wasn't giving me enough power. I've hooked them good with that rod, in the past, but I have had plenty times where the same frustrating thing happens, especially at Meramec Springs, and I don't think it's limited to that rod. I bet the mono probably doesn't help, but again, it's worked in the past. Is there any mono that stretches less than other mono, and if so is it economical? The stuff I use isn't exactly top shelf stuff, but I have upgraded from the really cheap mono. I'm almost wondering if it has something to do with the spincast reel not reeling in fast enough, but then sometime you have to reel it in slow for them to want to bite. I know there's also been issues with the antireverse on this reel sometime not being instantaneous. It will go back for part of a turn and then kick in, but I didn't notice that happening yesterday.

I'm starting to think like Seth said they weren't hitting it good. I've had this happen there before on several other occasions. But I did have a few good bites, that also got off right away too. Like the time the lure just slingshot back towards me right after the take. Wish I would've tried the lure on a different rod, just to see if some possible causes can get excluded. I did get some hook files to see if that helps next time. Seth, when they do that, is it just cause they're interested in eating it but yet really suspicious?

 

[Seth]

11 hours ago, Haris122 said:

Seth, when they do that, is it just cause they're interested in eating it but yet really suspicious?

 

That's just park trout for you. What goes on in their little brains to make them not want the same thing I've been throwing all day and then magically it's the most delicious thing in the water for the next 15 minutes? They are very temperamental fish to say the least. When somebody says park trout are dumb and never a challenge, I just laugh inside and go about my day and think "somebody needs to try fishing for them outside of the first 20 minutes after the buzzer".

[JUNGLE JIM 1]

They are hatchery trout and hatchery trout are weird. Been fishing for those things about 40 years and still haven't figured them out but that's what makes it fun. I mainly fish jigs on tiny #12 hooks and I'd go smaller if I could find #14 or smaller jig hooks. I fished there a couple days before this post started. They must have just recently put browns in because I was jig fishing and everyone else was using various prepared baits. I caught seven browns in the 10-12 inch range in the first 20 minutes at the first hole while everyone else was catching rainbows. I like to move and fish all the holes down to the bridge. Those little calm spots where those points jut out always holds fish and nobody ever fishes those. I catch 2-3 out of each one. People will sometimes hear splashing from me playing a trout but still keep using the powerbait. Fine by me. I work my way around to the first hole where all the browns were. Two friends I was with had been at the same spot all day and had two rainbows each. Friend told me to try and catch and keep a few to make the trip worthwhile. I'd been dangling my jig at the very head of the pool watching it skip on top of the water and watched a nose come out as a rainbow ate it. So, I kept doing that and had a limit in less than ten minutes. Handed my buddy the rod and he finished his limit and then the other guy did as well. 8 fish in a half hour by bouncing a jig off the ripples in the fast water at the top of the hole. Many years ago I took a friend fishing who had never tried before. His rod had 10 lb test and I told him to use one of mine because his line was too heavy. He declined and said his rod was fine. He tied on the ugliest jig in the world that he made and started fishing. Couple minutes later he starts hollering, his rod bent over double with a huge trout on who snaps his line because the reel was crap and the drag didn't work. He never caught a trout that day but that first scenario repeated itself two more times with two more break offs with those ugly jigs. I caught trout but nothing close to the three that he hooked. Hatchery trout are weird.