I grew up in Alaska and spent much time on the western slope
of Colorado. I have had the good fortune
to take budget trips to some of the greatest trout waters in the East and
West. So I will not try to make the case
that someone with the means to make a trip to one of these great destinations
should cancel their trip and instead fish Missouri. What I will do is get you excited about some
truly terrific trout fishing that can be had in the Show-Me-State; at least by
Midwestern standards.
One of the really cool things about fishing Missouri is the
diversity of options. There are classic
freestone rivers of the western style, small babbling streams with small but
wild trout, and at least one great option for lake fishing if that’s your
style. To top it off, Missouri hosts “trout
parks” which as long as you do not mind a good measure of social interaction
with fellow fishermen, you can stock up on stocked browns and/or rainbows with
a limit every time. If you want to put some
trout on the table, these parks are the way to go.
The purpose of this blog is to highlight some of the options
available to the Missouri resident trout fisherman, or the fisherman making a
visit. It is not a comprehensive list of
all the waters with detailed descriptions of each. Next week, I will provide some tips on
tactics for fishing these waters. For
highly detailed descriptions of nearly all Missouri trout fishing options,
along with basic and more advanced tactics, visit the Family Outdoors Missouri Trout Fishing Section.
Freestone Rivers of Missouri
Believe it or not, and you probably won’t if you have never
fished any of these waters, Missouri has some outstanding and cold crystal
clear waters that might make you forget for a moment that you are not in
Colorado or some other Western state.
The unique geography of Missouri has water erupting from massive springs
after having spent long enough in the earth’s depths to arise crystal clear and
cold (mid 50’s F). This water has
allowed for many miles of Missouri’s rivers fitting this description to be
stocked with rainbows and browns, and in some sections to sustain what are now
wild or mostly wild populations. Some of my purist friends do turn their noses
up at our trout as being “unnatural” since they are stocked, or at least were
at one time. I find these fish to be
game and in many cases, especially the wild fish, to be as beautiful as any I
have observed.
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| Current River |
The freestone stream on which we have spent the most time is
the locally famous, at times infamous, Current River. This stream has a partially deserved
reputation as a party destination.
However, if one is at least moderately cognizant of the section of the
river they will fish as well as the season, the Current can offer a terrific
experience. It begins at Montauk State
Park near Salem and Licking Missouri.
There is a system of springs at Montauk that initiate the cold-water
flow of the river, and is thus a great spot for a fish hatchery and one of
Missouri’s trout parks.
We will return to the trout parks later, but for now, the
fisherman should understand that the first few miles of the river is in the
Montauk Trout Park and stocked heavily with rainbows as well as a lesser
number of browns. It is also subject to
the rules of the park in this section.
Below Montauk, the Current is a blue ribbon trout stream
under Missouri Department of Conservation Regulations, which essentially means you are
fishing catch-and-release, though you will occasionally pick up a fish, usually
a brown that meets the 18 inch minimum.
Most fishermen will photograph their trophies if lucky enough to catch
one, and then release them only to be remembered by the photograph, or perhaps
a replica mount.
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| Current River |
Below Montauk in the blue ribbon section, there are a couple
of popular accesses, those being Tan Vat and Baptist Camp. Tan Vat can be busy, and so can Baptist, but
it seems like at Baptist fishermen do a better job spreading out along the
river. In all of this water, there is a
nice mix of riffles which tend to produce more but smaller fish with deeper
holes which produce larger and fewer fish.
Most of the nicer browns I have caught in this area were in these deep
holes. Do not confuse the deep holes
with the slow rather stagnant sections. The deep holes are downstream from riffles and
often butt up against bluffs which plunge the water depth quickly to greater
than ten feet.
Downstream from the blue ribbon section is a white ribbon
section with more liberal rules with regard to methods ande the fish you can
keep. These sections are stocked and I
guess one can keep fish with a more clear conscience if that is his or her
desire. This section is equally
beautiful, and is best accessed by canoe or kayak.
If you plan a visit to the Current, I suggest that you plan
around the crowds of floaters. From the
park down to Baptist Camp, you will not encounter many of them, but if you fish
downstream from here on a weekend in the summer, prepare for lots of company. You are better off avoiding summer weekends
if you can. Fall and spring are in fact
great times to fish the Current, with many days in the winter also being enjoyable
times to be on the water.
For more information on the Current River, visit Family Outdoors Current River Trout Fishing.
You will find comprehensive answers to most of not all the questions you
might have.
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| Eleven Point River's Greer Branch |
The second river I will mention here is the Eleven
Point. It runs through some absolutely
wild country, and has a fair number of wild rainbows resident to its
waters. If you wish to have more water
all to yourself, this is a great option.
A nice place to start is at Greer Crossing. There is very little in the way of access to
the river except from on it, so this really is a canoe or kayaking river. There are some potentially challenging spots
on this stream for the novice if running the stream by canoe. This sort of depends on river levels.
Without getting into too much detail, the Eleven Point
differs from the Current in the respect that most of the fishing is streamer
fishing and fairly deep. There are some
times where dries are effective, but the Eleven Point really is not the river
for the dry fly purist. For more detail, visit Eleven Point Trout Fishing.
Small Stream Missouri Trout Fishing
With the internet, there are few secrets regarding places to
fish. Nevertheless, undoubtedly there
are some who would rather there be no mention of these little trout fishing
streams. Several of them host wild
rainbow populations and rarely produce fish that are larger than ten inches. Unfortunately, despite almost all of these
streams being confined to explicit fly only regulations, you will often find
evidence of bait having been used leaving one to conclude that these fishermen
were keeping the fish they caught. These
streams simply will not stand up to catch-and-keep fishing.
Having said all of that, perhaps the best protection for
these little streams such as the Little Piney and Blue Springs Creek is the
presence of ethical anglers willing to report transgressions of the necessary
regulations. This rationale, along with
the simple reality that all of this information is in some form available
anyway, will be my response to any who criticize me letting the cat out of the
bag on these streams.
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| Little Piney Creek Vidas Slab |
Little Piney is in fact my favorite place to fly fish in
Missouri. There is a blue ribbon and
white ribbon section on the stream, with handy access right off of US 63 at
Lane Springs just south of Rolla. The
section at Lane is in the blue ribbon section.
The white ribbon section is a bit more difficult to navigate to, but if
you want the details on finding it, visit the Little Piney Creek Trout Fishing
section of Family-Outdoors.
There are numerous other of these beautiful little streams
spread from down in the Springfield area all the way across the southern half
of Missouri.
Trout Parks
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| Maramec Springs Trout Park in the Winter |
Four trout parks are operated in Missouri by the Missouri
Department of Conservation. Many
Missouri trout anglers ritualize the start of the Missouri trout park season as
the start of spring. On these first few
days, the MDC releases some real lunkers, some topping ten pounds. These first few days are combat fishing at
its peak, and thus not really an attractive option for me even though they do
offer some real chances for big fish.
There are a variety of options of regulations at these
parks. To the best of my knowledge, what
they all have in common is a daily limit of four fish, and a great chance of
filling that limit early in the day. The
parks are usually segregated as to the methods allowed in various
sections. Some sections allow bait
fishing and some do not. All offer some
handicapped accessible areas.
These parks can be a lot of fun if you are in the right
frame of mind. They are also great
introductions to the sport of trout fishing, whether you are a spin or fly
fisherman. Find specifics on the trout
parks beginning at Missouri Trout Parks.
Lake Taneycomo
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| Lake Tanycomo |
Here is a lake that has held and might in the future hold
again record sized brown trout. Fishing
Taneycomo is a radical departure from the experience and methodology of trout
fishing in the freestone streams, small streams, or even the trout parks of
Missouri.
Taneycomo is stocked with over a half million rainbows every
year, making the action up and down its twenty-two mile stretch pretty darn
hot. There are however some interesting
tactics and baits that are used which we will discuss next week, or you can
read about now at Taneycomo Trout Fishing.
So, despite Missouri not being blessed with a Madison,
Frying Pan, Kenai, or Ausable River, it does have some pretty nice options for
the trout angler. Missouri is at the
very least a great place to cut your teeth trout fishing, whether that be fly
fishing or not. Next week, we will get
into some specifics on tactics including baits, lures, and flies, but much
more.
What are some of your favorite Missouri trout fishing experiences?
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