2/11/23 Last Saturday of the C&R

[Ham]

9 hours ago, tjm said:

True of all the Parks?

I have fished RRSP a few hundred times and never have seen or caught a sunfish, rock bass or bass. I have caught sculpin and have seen suckers, and I've wondered at the absence of the sunfish, now you have me wondering if I just didn't look close enough?

RR 100 % for sure has lots of Knobfin Sculpin. I bet other stuff too especially Pool Three or the river below it. 

[Johnsfolly]

10 hours ago, Ham said:

RR 100 % for sure has lots of Knobfin Sculpin. I bet other stuff too especially Pool Three or the river below it. 

We've caught a bunch of sculpin in the park. I haven't tried for them below the park. I've caught rainbows and brown trout in pool 3. Really didn't look for or try for anything but trout.

Further downstream near the Conservation area, I've caught stonerollers, rainbow darters, hornyhead chub, Duskystripe shiners, Southern red belly dace and rainbows. Saw skittish browns and northern hog suckers, and either redhorse or white suckers. I did eventually catch some bluegill and longear sunfish well downstream of the CA access.

[FishnDave]

11 hours ago, Ham said:

It’s weird getting complimented and hated on at the same time. What the heck?

Dave sand bags really hard. Every time I looked up he was catching or releasing a fish. Somehow, he insists that he caught less fish than I did. And he of course worked his Green Sunfish magic again. I think he caught more fish than me, but he can’t count or keep up with how many he has caught.

I was really distracted by high numbers of suckers swimming around. I tried for them , but got no love at all. 
 

it’s a fun enough place to go once a year during C&R.

 

😅  Only compliments were intended, @Ham .  You absolutely have my respect and admiration!  And it is well-earned!  Every time I looked up, YOU were catching or releasing fish! 👍  I did ok.  You definitely finished really strong, while I was wasting (as it turned out) time trying to catch a Striped Shiner.  I also lost time from having to re-rig with fresh tippet numerous times after losing to underwater snags and overhead trees.

As for my counting ability... yeah, I wasn't counting. I took pictures of most of the fish, but there were some I didn't.  I hoped I'd remember how many I didn't take a picture of...but...  not so much.  I try not to overstate what I caught, I'd rather go low on a guess than high.  I think what I told you my total was is probably pretty accurate.  22 to your 29.  I'm happy with what I caught.  Really enjoyable day of fishing!  While standing next to each other, we double up numerous times, which was pretty cool!

@Johnsfolly  I've caught Brown Trout from a few places in AR....and in Iowa, of course, and Wisconsin, and maybe even Illinois.  I don't recall getting one in MO yet.  I'm just not spending much time where they are, I think.

[Johnsfolly]

17 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

I've caught Brown Trout from a few places in AR....and in Iowa, of course, and Wisconsin, and maybe even Illinois.  I don't recall getting one in MO yet.  I'm just not spending much time where they are, I think.

I've caught most of my MO browns in the Current river (I should probably put together a post or two😉), but as mentioned have caught some in the Niangua not far from where you guys fished in the park. Closer to you, the red ribbon section of the Meramec river used to have decent brown trout. However, I've heard that fishery has been in decline over the last decade. I haven't fished it since about 2008, but even then several of the good holes had filled up. Taneycomo is much farther away but has great brown trout fishing. Maybe @JestersHK can give you a lift on one of his turn and burn trips. He does guarantee one fish😁!

[BilletHead]

3 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I've caught most of my MO browns in the Current river (I should probably put together a post or two😉), but as mentioned have caught some in the Niangua not far from where you guys fished in the park. Closer to you, the red ribbon section of the Meramec river used to have decent brown trout. However, I've heard that fishery has been in decline over the last decade. I haven't fished it since about 2008, but even then several of the good holes had filled up. Taneycomo is much farther away but has great brown trout fishing. Maybe @JestersHK can give you a lift on one of his turn and burn trips. He does guarantee one fish😁!

   Oh and @FishnDave it will be called a Sea monster. 

[tjm]

I very rarely fish RRSP during the C&R because of the weekend restrictions. Mid week is most often when I fish. But the couple dozen times I was over there in C&R I thought the crowds were worse than on summer weekdays, unless the weather was severe. It always made me grin when guys would say that they only fish there during C&R because they didn't like the crowds.

"Pool Three" is new to me after fishing the place for years, are you counting down steam from the hatchery bridge or starting with the pool above that bridge? 

[Ham]

45 minutes ago, tjm said:

 

"Pool Three" is new to me after fishing the place for years, are you counting down steam from the hatchery bridge or starting with the pool above that bridge? 

I dug around and found that "Pool Three" or really ZONE Three is from the old hatchery dam to the park boundary. I only ever fished in Zone 1. The people in Zone 2 were crazy and I was with my family so I had minutes to fish.

I would like to fish Zone Three sometime or better yet downstream of the park boundary.

 

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

"Pool Three" is new to me after fishing the place for years, are you counting down steam from the hatchery bridge or starting with the pool above that bridge? 

This is what I am referring to in my posts as zone 3 or pool 3. Well below the old dam in the park. I would wade upstream from the conservation area parking off of rt F. 

So from this pin

down to here

[tjm]

"Zone 3" I'm familiar with, the live bait section of the Park, although I haven't fished it much in the past several years because it seems not to have many fish of any kind. It used to run from the broken dam down stream to the Park boundary which is not quite to the CA IIRC.  Recently expanded up stream above the dam by two or three pools/holes, making Zone 2 that much smaller. I don't think Zone 3 gets daily stockings below  the broken dam and the stocking places are quickly hit by bait and kill anglers. The area below the park in the CA and below is on five stockings per year I'm told, at all the county roads, even though the last time I checked all that land was posted. And yeah down below the park by the CA I did see stone rollers and chub, the water feels several degrees warmer that far down, but I'm told the trout survive all the way to the lake. I've never fished below the county road by Munsey Cemetery and that was ~15-20 years ago.

I have in the past most often fished Zone 2 as the fly only area, but since they dredged that into canal, I've fished the CCC Lodge area more the last couple years for ease of access.

[Johnsfolly]

14 minutes ago, tjm said:

I've never fished below the county road by Munsey Cemetery and that was ~15-20 years ago.

Looking at the maps, I don't think that I have gone beyond the last big river bend upstream of the cemetery. Some of those thin water areas just above the CA access and below were on bedrock and extremely slick. Did not enjoy that at all. I have only fished that river a few times. Well over 4 hrs from our house in Columbia.