Tuesday Report

[Haris122]

Me and MikeH hit up the red ribbon section on Tuesday. We started from just below Meramec Springs in the morning, and made the way down to cardiac by about 3pm , and then headed back up with an occasional stop to fish, and got back to the park shortly before they close.  I didn't do too hot, with a total of about 5 fish, most smaller Browns, with a small rainbow thrown in too, but my first fish being a nice 14" Brown Trout that I got on a Rapala Husky Jerk. I don't know if it was the cold, or if the fish was just getting active for the day, but I was a little disappointed with the sluggish fight it put up for it's size. It took me a little to get it to net, but it didn't really go on any runs one way or the other. It just kind of went belly up and continued to shake it's head as I reeled it in. Part of that though might have been because the rear treble hooked into it at the bottom of the head near the gill rakers, probably right as it hit the lure and then tried to shake it off. Wish it would've just got hooked in the mouth. Probably would've fought a lot harder that way. Anyways, I unhooked it quick and it didn't act any worse for the wear after it as it swam off. It was one of a few fish I ever got retrieving a jerkbait the proper way (or at least what I think is the proper way). Mike did better while fly fishing, with 2 nicer Rainbows and more catches in general to show for it. It's been a while I fished that section of the red ribbon area, and going from my memory it seems as if a couple of good spots changed for the worse since that flood. Granted there's also been at least 1 spot that seems to have gotten better but my favorite spot that I've caught my best fish at several times there now, has changed for the worse (in my thinking at least), because the tree that was there got pushed more parallel to the channel than it was before. As Mike commented though, considering how bad the flood was, for the most part that stretch seems to have changed only a little. As an aside, there was like 3 or 4 signs of someone having a little fire on the gravel banks, as if they camped overnight alongside the river, and whether it's related to that or not, I'm not sure, but near the confluence with dry fork, we saw what looked like a few dead fish on the bottom, and one of which that I could see a little better seemed almost as if it was filleted out. It was in too deep water to see very accurately, and since it was real cold I decided not trying to reach for it in the water, but bottom line was that it also looked under 15", so if it was a trout, someone probably kept some they weren't supposed to. I hope to make it out soon again, hopefully after aquasealing whatever areas leak in my waders, successfully. I had hoped I had done that this time, but by the end of the trip I could tell the layer of sweatpants contacting the waders was still pretty damp by the end of it.