First visit in years

[T.J. Clarke]

"This park fishes a little differently for me than the others, can’t really but my finger on it".

The park does fish differently now.

Xray,  I used to fish the park once a week back in 1984-1986 era.  It has changed a lot like other things.  First, I am not a good fisherman but we knocked them dead back then.  We met two old retired Dudes from St James that fished the park every day when they could.  They were old school even using green sewing thread on the ultralight spin reels!  As much as they tried they could not get me to switch to thread, LOL.  Anyway we learned a lot from these two old boys about the park.  

Part of the fun was eating with the locals at "The Pines" restaurant.....long gone now.

Back then there were lots of fish in the stream.  We always limited out on the last riffle before the foot bridge.  If we wanted to do more we teased the trout from the swing bridge with white jigs.  Danced the jigs until it drove them crazy.  Tons of fish held under the bridge in those days.  You could walk across the trout. 

They also stocked lots of browns just outside the park.  If you hit it right you could catch browns until your thumbs and pointer finger were raw from taking them off.  

I went back last Sept. after many, many years.  Needless to say I was disappointed.  

As far as good eats?  If you do not mind eating with old ladies Sybill's restaurant is very good.  The wagyu burger is crazy good and you can get it breakfast style with an egg on top.  

https://www.sybills.com/lunch

[snagged in outlet 3]

2 hours ago, T.J. Clarke said:

"This park fishes a little differently for me than the others, can’t really but my finger on it".

The park does fish differently now.

Xray,  I used to fish the park once a week back in 1984-1986 era.  It has changed a lot like other things.  First, I am not a good fisherman but we knocked them dead back then.  We met two old retired Dudes from St James that fished the park every day when they could.  They were old school even using green sewing thread on the ultralight spin reels!  As much as they tried they could not get me to switch to thread, LOL.  Anyway we learned a lot from these two old boys about the park.  

Part of the fun was eating with the locals at "The Pines" restaurant.....long gone now.

Back then there were lots of fish in the stream.  We always limited out on the last riffle before the foot bridge.  If we wanted to do more we teased the trout from the swing bridge with white jigs.  Danced the jigs until it drove them crazy.  Tons of fish held under the bridge in those days.  You could walk across the trout. 

They also stocked lots of browns just outside the park.  If you hit it right you could catch browns until your thumbs and pointer finger were raw from taking them off.  

I went back last Sept. after many, many years.  Needless to say I was disappointed.  

As far as good eats?  If you do not mind eating with old ladies Sybill's restaurant is very good.  The wagyu burger is crazy good and you can get it breakfast style with an egg on top.  

https://www.sybills.com/lunch

Seems like all the parks had more and bigger fish back then.  I was going to them all regularly starting in the 60’s.   The fishing has declined steadily since then.   To the point that I rarely go anymore.  And even then, only in the winter.  

[Gavin]

Meramec is a weird one...It is good in the winter as a  midge and small scud fishery, not very fly fishing friendly. Used to be an old poacher named Bosco who hung out there. He would chum a run then fish while declaring Bosco Bait, is the best there is! Think it was a mix of bacon grease and trout park pellets from the feeders.

[tjm]

Why not fly fishing friendly?  I've never been there that I recall. 

[jdmidwest]

4 hours ago, tjm said:

Why not fly fishing friendly?  I've never been there that I recall. 

Not fly fishing friendly because the bait slingers are crowding your casting room.

My first trip there was spin fishing with rooster tails and little cleos that my fried had used mastering the 11 pt river trout.  At that time, the trout seemed to like mini marshmallows.  We did not have any.  I did eke my first trout out with a sonic yellow roostertail, probably more of a snag.

[Foghorn]

17 hours ago, Gavin said:

Meramec is a weird one...It is good in the winter as a  midge and small scud fishery, not very fly fishing friendly. Used to be an old poacher named Bosco who hung out there. He would chum a run then fish while declaring Bosco Bait, is the best there is! Think it was a mix of bacon grease and trout park pellets from the feeders.

 

[Foghorn]

Just now, Foghorn said:

 

Old Bosco was show boating one day and when nobody paid attention he left the water . As he walked away, he picked up an empty soda can and tossed it towards the trash can. He missed and walked away only to have a conservation agent stop him. They had been watching him and the agent told Bosco to head to his truck as he was getting a ticket for littering. Bosco said it wasn't his can to which the agent declared it was when you picked it up and threw it on the ground. Guess he got banned from a couple trout parks.