Maramec Springs Trout Park — Saturday, Jan 26, 2002

Craig and I headed down to Maramec Springs Trout park today for another day of catch & release fly fishing. We arrived at the Hwy. 8 bridge at about 6am and were on the water fishing by 6:20am. We fished the Trophy Trout Management Area at the Highway 8 bridge (which is the Meremac River, above Maramec Springs Trout Park) until about 7:45am. At about 8am we headed to the park to fish within its freindly confines. Man was it crowded — this was the most cars I remember seeing there during catch and release season. I caught about 6 rainbows, and Craig caught a couple more than that (not sure — pretty close to 10 fish). All of my fish were very small (smallest of the year), with the biggest being about 14 inches. Craig caught several bigger fish (although nothing to write home about). The average size fish was about 10 – 12 inches. I noticed a caddis hatch coming off about 10:00am in select areas of the park, but nothing else. With the temperature as warm as it was, insects were everywhere. We caught all our fish on dry flies. The majority of fish came on a #16 grey elk hair caddis, Craig caught a couple on a crackleback. I also fished with some Copper John’s and B.H. Pheasant Tails — but was unsuccessful. I did hook a NICE fish on a size 14 green copper john — but LDR’d the fish (it was right when we started fishing). The water was very clear. The air temps were in the 30’s in the morning, but they went into the 50’s by 10am. It was very warm for this time of year. It was a clear, sunny day, with a slight breeze (gusting sometimes). It was a great day to be on the water. Unfortunately, everyone else thought the weather was great and came out to fish. We did run into Mike_S while down there. I was walking down the bank and noticed him giving casting instructions to a young boy who had never been fly fishing before (but his mom saw it on videos and thought he wanted to try it). The kid was beating the water to death, but Mike spent at least 20 minutes with the kid, and even tied him on a crackleback. He had just started fishing when we were walking up to leave. We had to return back to St. Louis early today, but it was still a great day fishing. — Matt Tucker