New to Trout Fishing: help me get started please.

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, jimithyashford said:

Do what instead? I alternated between rooster tail and power bait. Powerbait is the only thing that got bit. 
 

The only trout methods I’m familiar with are using some passive lure like power bait or a fly or a little plastic worm or something that you cast and and let drift through likely areas. Or fishing them basically like smallies with little spinner and what it. 

Marabou jigs.   Watch Blake and Phil using them on Taney.  They work and more engaging to use.  

 

[tjm]

14 hours ago, jimithyashford said:

Can I ask why you don’t like fishing white and red ribbon streams, or what about blue makes you prefer them?

 

I'll tell you my version. Lets say that I drive three hours one way to fish a stream, it would be nice  if that stream had fish in it, no?

The difference between the blue and the white is how many fish get stocked and how many are there now. At least  on the ones that I fish, the white ribbon steams get stocked five times per year and the blue ribbon not at all. So, that sounds like the white would have a lot more fish per mile? Nope. Because the white ribbon streams allow bait and and have a four fish kill limit. Whenever the stocking truck shows up someone always sees it and call all the local trout killers who will be there in minutes using bait and filling buckets, most can't count to four so take six or more and none of them can tell a brown trout from a rainbow, so if any browns under the length limit also get in the bucket. Typically a week or ten days sees 90%-99% of the newly stocked trout killed, leaving not too many in the stream. So these streams fish pretty good five weeks out of the year, IF you get there in the stocking  weeks. 

On the other hand the blue ribbon streams prohibit bait and only allow one fish to be killed and it must be over 18", so given that most of the fish caught are minimally hurt by the flies/lure and immediately released the numbers of fish in the stream stay about the same every day of the year. This means you have a better chance of seeing a fish on any given day than on the white ribbon steams after they have been depleted. 

The use of bait has some  real drawbacks to fish survival, because they often swallow and become gullet hooked or gut hooked and the mortality rate if released is about ten times that of single point lure caught trout, and that is if every fish is released. But because the white ribbon areas have a higher limit the bait caught fish are often killed. 

14 hours ago, jimithyashford said:

I thought the whole point of the ribbing streams was more restricting rules means healthier populations and better fishing?

I don't think that's true, I'd say that it sets aside the streams that may have self-sustaining populations as places where the harvest is meant to be about equal to natural mortality rates, so that they may remain self-sustaining. And to provide a put and take fishery on streams that are capable of holding trout but do not support natural reproduction.  

I'm pretty sure that if a white ribbon stream was observed to have repeated natural surviving reproduction that it would be elevated to blue status. 

[Johnsfolly]

@jimithyashford

I agree with what TJM @tjm was saying in his response to your question to me.

I have the same opinions in regards to the health of the trout populations in the various trout streams across MO. I love to catch brown trout and the red ribbon sections had degraded over the years that they were not enjoyable to fish anymore. There is one river where there is a blue ribbon section that runs into a white ribbon section. Upstream in the blue ribbon section I would regularly see and catch trout in the typical holes and runs. Down in the white ribbon section, those same areas were devoid of trout. Since I had a goal to catch a trout in both sections, I fished the white ribbon section for a couple of hours until I found a rainbow hidden in a small overlooked hole. I also feel that many of the blue ribbon sections run through more scenic parts of the state making the experience for me far more enjoyable.

I have been living in Maryland for the last 7-8 years, but if you go back into the OAF archives you'll find a lot of posts from my trips across MO trying to catch trout from every white, red, blue ribbon creeks/rivers (at least as of designations prior to 2014), the four trout parks and Lake Taneycomo. I also have fished a number of the urban trout lakes across the state. I lived in Columbia at that time. I had to travel well over 100 miles each way to trout fish and got pretty particular as to which creeks I would go back to and fish.

To follow up on Pete's @snagged in outlet 3 response, I would include a number of microjigs, John Deere, chenille grubs, glowballs, etc. that you can also pick up at Weaver's. You can also fish nymphs under floats on spinning gear if you don't want to fly fish. While wading I have caught both rainbow and brown trout in the Niangua up by the Hwy 64 bridge and down at Barclay's access using marabou jigs, microjigs, and small jerkbaits. I don't recall having more than a 6 trout day at either access point.

Hopefully you can have some more success with different techniques and get to fish other trout creeks across the state.

 

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Agree with Pete. Honestly, the only thing you need for any trout waters in the country is a marabou jig. Get a variety of sizes so you can adjust with water depth and flow. Start there and then expand your techniques.