Craig and I headed down to Maramec Springs today on our first C&R trip of the season — alot later in the C&R season than we would both like, but a fishing trip nonetheless. We arrived at the Park at 6:30am (note to everyone, we left St. Louis too early — as the whistle didn’t blow till 8am). But the time was not wasted, as we were watching all the deer. In a very honest count of different deer, we saw at least 45 deer in the fields near the park and down to the Hwy 8 Bridge. None of the deer were bucks, but there were deer everywhere. I took several photos of them in the big field by the parking area (in one photo there is at least 12 deer in the picture). On to the fishing report.

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day to fish. It wasn’t too cold and not too warm (albeit the morning was kind of brisk). There was still a little snow left on the ground, so the scenery was AWESOME. Up until the whistle blew, there were only 3 cars in the park (at most during the day there was maybe 6 cars on the lot with people actually fishing — so it wasn’t crowded). Craig and I started our fishing our favorite hole, and Craig quickly snapped off a fish on the first cast — he was fishing an “orange ass” soft hackle on 8x tippet. I wasn’t having much look with hooking up with fish. Craig picked up a fish on the “orange ass”. I started out throwing a beadhead crackleback, and missed one fish. I then switched to a mohair leech and landed one, and missed one. Then Craig hooked into a NICE fish (very long) on the “orange ass,” he couldn’t remember if it was 8x tippet or 7x tippet (‘cuz at some point in the morning he switched). The fish was long and big, and he fought it for close to 5 minutes (it seemed like much longer). All the while, I was standing by with the net. Not that I did much good with the net. I missed my one opportunity to net the fish and a minute later as Craig was still trying to bring it in, it snapped his line. The fish was bigger than the one he caught last year (and photos of posted of that one). All in all, the net man missed his chance. So if anyone knows where to get a big boat net — i may need it to increase my success ratio. Andrew (lunkerlubber) showed up in the morning and started fishing, after brief hellos he was out of sight and on his way downstream.

A little later, fishing in the same hole, I hook into a seriously large fish on a #18 beadhead redass on 7x frog hair tippet. I fought the fish for a while (not as long as Craig had his on) and the whole time I was freaking out. By that time, two guys that were down there fly fishing had walked by and were stopping to watch to see if we could land the fish. Craig was determined to net this fish and got aggressive and within seconds after unleashing the net from his vest, he had the monster trout in it. The fish is my biggest fish for Meramec, and maybe my biggest anywhere, and was a solid 22 inches long and fat, I am going to guess an honest 4.5lbs. One of the guys standing by started taking some photos for me (I am going to drop them off at the developer tomorrow). Once I get the photos I am going to come up with measurements and most probably get a fiberglass replica of the fish (does anyone know of a place in STL that does replicas and about how much it costs).

So, here are the statistics for todays trips. I fished the following flies with no success: beadhead cracklebacks, crackleback, and tan mohair leech. I caught fish on the following flies: Olive Mohair Leech (1); Redass (2); Red V-Rib Midge (2); and elk hair caddis on 3wt (1). Craig ended up catching 5 fish, I believe all on the “orangeass,” but not sure. It was a great trip. The water level was normal (I prefer the higher water flows, and was hoping to see that with all the snow melt – – but that wasn’t the case) and the temperature was great. We stopped fishing about 11:45 and headed back to STL after a quick pitstop at McD’s. We will probably be back down there this coming sunday, as it is the season. — Matt Tucker

Craig and I took a trip down to Maramec Springs this morning, for a quick trip to try out my 3wt rod and reel. It was going to be a very short trip — as both of us had things we had to get done back in the “big city.” We got down to the park about 6am. With all the recent rains, I was completely surprised how low the water was at “the spring.” The water was also VERY clear. There will still fish present everywhere (no matter what you may have read on conservationcafe.com in a thread LOL); however neither Craig nor I had the right fly or tried the right fly. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as “catch to keep” trips I remember in the past — we were never crowded out of 3 of our favorite holes (sure we had to share the holes with bait fisherman, but we had PLENTY of casting room). We fished from the whistle till about 9:45am, and all we had to show for it was one little 10″ rainbow I caught about 8am — I caught it on a sulphur crackleback (on top). It was a small fish, but it really bent my 3wt. I am now devoting my 3wt as my official “dry fly rod” (e.g. my crackleback and EHC rod). That was the only fish of the trip — but I did break the “skunk” out of my new rod. It was an absolutely beautiful morning to fish though — chilly in the morning, but warming up pretty good by the time we were packing up to leave. About 8:30am, there was the biggest hatch of insects coming off in Missouri that I have ever seen. I am not sure if they were tricos or if they were the famed white fly — kind of looked like a larger trico spinner. Not sure what insect it was — but they were all over up near the cable and the fast water running down the left side of the island. Tis the season to start the fishing. — Matt Tucker

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

Just got back from my trip down to Maramec Spring Trout Park today. Didn’t fare all too bad considering the temperature at the park was 8 degrees for most of the morning. I caught my first fish on a green copper john pattern that I tied up — and it was a bluegill. I caught my second and third fish on green copper johns. I had several hook-ups, but couldn’t bring the fish to hand — again up at the top of the park (near the wire). Craig caught a couple on a red copper john pattern that I tied up. We fished one hole and had a 20in trout continue to feed in front of us the entire time we fished the hole — between craig and I we couldn’t get the fish to hit (although that isn’t saying much). We fished down to the bridge, each picking up a couple of fish and then fished back up to the Blazer. Man was it cold! My hands didn’t begin to thaw out till around Sullivan on the trip home. We met up with Gavin for a bit down there — he was having alright luck and didn’t look nearly as cold as we ere (he was smart and didn’t get there till around 11am or so. All in all it was a great trip. We did have one guy that seemed to crowd us a little. It seemed that once we were catching fish he was in the water we were fishing immediately. I don’t think he had fished the park before, as he asked where the bathrooms were a couple of times. At any rate, there were very few people there (although more than last weekend, go figure) and the guy didn’t show any common courtesy when the park wasn’t full. So we moved on and still continued to catch a couple of fish. Oh well, all in all, it was another great trip — just hope i thaw out in time for the new year. I am thinking of making a trip down to Roaring River during catch and release season in February if anyone is interested — i have never been there and hear it is a real nice park. Anyone else doing any fishing. Mike_S, did you venture down to the park on Sunday — we saw a white tahoe but didn’t know if that was you or not (the guys in it didn’t stop and fish, just looked like they did a circle of the park and left). — Matt Tucker