I made a spur of the moment trip to Maramec Springs Trout Park today with my Father-In-Law. He has never fly fished before, and I invited him to join me — completely forgetting about the crowds that Labor Day Weekend brings to the trout parks. The weather report was for heavy thunderstorms and temps in the low 70s; but no rain when I woke up and we ran into a little rain on the drive down but not much. We spent about 30 minutes out in the big field by the pavilion trying to show him how to cast a fly rod — it was sloppy but it was not his fault as I learned that I am not a good teacher. We then headed up to the top of the park to try our luck. I didn’t fish hardly at all, and spent time with him trying to show him how to cast and how to control his line and what not. I did have three hookups with fish (one on a black wooly bugger, one on a softhackle, and one on a brown mohair leech), but they all were when I was just drifting my line and retying my father-in-laws fly or untangling a knot or something. All in all it was a good trip. We only fished till 10am, and did not catch a fish. However, there was no crowd and the scenery with the fog on the water (due to the colder temps and misting rain) was awesome. I also found out that it is best to leave the teaching of fly casting to the guys at the fly shop. For those of you in St. Louis, Feather-Craft Fly Shop offers free casting lessons on Saturday morning in their casting yard. The first words out of his mouth as he went in to say hello to my wife was “That fly fishing is allot harder than it looks.” If he only knew the half of it.
Tag Archives: Trout Park – Maramec Spring Park
Maramec Springs Trout Park (St. James, MO) — June 21, 2003
My semi-annual trip to Maramec Springs Trout Park during the “catch to keep bait fisherman cabaret” occurred today. Craig had tried all of Thursday and Friday to convince me to go fishing on Sunday morning (of course he had to be back in Edwardsville by 12pm on the nose) down at Suicide or Cardiac. I tried to call his bluff and said that the only way I was fishing was if we fished the park on Sunday morning. It was set. We were to meet up at Denny’s at 5am to take off. After the hangover, getting up at 5am, working till 2pm, and cleaning up my basement from the prior night’s festivities (had 7 guys over to tie flies and enjoy barley sodas) I was dead tired. So I grabbed my 3wt rod, waders & boots, and vest and threw them in my blazer and headed for bed at 8pm. Chris (a member of an STL internet email fly tying list I belong to) called me at about 8:45 wanting to know where and what time to meet up with us in the morning. Alarm went off at 3:45am and I was up, showered, and out the door by 4:10am to grab some breakfast. I get to Denny’s and the drunks were still out in full force — what an interesting crowd they were. I enjoy my breakfast and by 4:45 was done and sitting in my blazer waiting on Craig and Chris. I call Craig to see what his eta is and the phone is switched off. That ain’t good — he was still a sleep. I left a vulgar voice mail message with a few choice words and continued to wait for Chris. I called Craig five minutes later to see if I got through — got him. He was just leaving Edwardsville at 4:45am! I will give him credit though, he did not once want to bow out and still showed up knowing, full well, the amount of crap i was going to give him for being late — not once have I ever been late for fishing (“I’m Late” is a phrase you don’t want to hear from your girlfriend or your fishing partner). Chris did show up at 5am on the nose, and I explained to him that my fishing buddy was a boozer and had one of them fancy alarm clocks with the 45 minute snooze buttons that us regular folks couldn’t afford. We decided to wait for him and went in and had some coffee.
And they say half the fun is getting there. We got down to the park at about 7am or so, bought our tags (i picked up an annual parking pass for the C&R season) and found out that there was already 200+ people in the park. We rigged up and suited up (Chris was wet wading in the park) and headed to the water. The water was still up a bit and very murky — couldn’t really see any fish at all. I ended up showing Chris the length of the park and where the Management Section outside of the park started and what not while fishing every once in awhile.
After about an hour of walking around the park, I decided to head back up to the cable at the top of the park and fish (hoping it was not crowded). Chris stopped to fish some of the slack water on the far side of the stream away from everyone (he was overwhelmed at the number of people there fishing). I started fishing a #14 Sulphur crackleback with no luck. Then I moved down to the little part of the stream that splits the island and heads into the handicap pool. First cast I had a hookup with a little brown of about 8″ on top. I ended up missing 2 more fish there and decided to head back up to the cable and fish the crackleback there. I figure at least I didn’t get skunked, and the fish i did catch was on my 3wt and on a dry (even if you neighsayers say it was caught on a “crackleback”). I started casting and drifting my crackleback along the sidewalk path on the far side of the stream, and on the first drift I missed a fish. I fished to that side of the stream for about 10 minutes or so and ended up missing 3 fish and landing another brown trout of about 10″ or so. While i was unhooking and releasing the trout two spin fisherman came and sat on the concrete path at the exact spot i was casting to and starting my drift. After releasing my fish i asked them if they were really going to sit there, of which I got the reply, “well why not,” and I told them that surely they had seen me with the fish and the missed fish while they were walking up the path, and I got the “oh were sorry” routine. I gave them the “no that’s alright, you probably already scared the fish away so I am done anyway” and the “thanks allot you idiot” look and reeled up and headed back to the truck to pack up and head back to STL.
After telling Chris we were leaving (he was still in the slack water) and told him where and with what I was having the hookups we were on our way (Chris how did you do after we left?). It was a good trip. I got to give Craig lots of crap for showing up late (and I am not done yet), got to show Chris why I don’t fish during the catch & keep season, and caught 2 fish on dries with my 3wt (I committed to it, and only took that rod with me — so i wouldn’t have a choice (man do i need to fish with that rod more)). All in all it was a good day. I was back on my couch in STL by 11:45am (after 2.5 hours in the car and about 2.5 hours of fishing) and took a nap by 1pm. Not a bad day. This will be my last trout trip of the year (unless someone talks me into to fishing the Spring River or heading down to the White/Norfork before October), now its time to tie up some flies. — Matt Tucker
Maramec Springs Trout Park — January 11, 2003
Today I went to Maramec Springs for some more C&R fishing, with Mike and Joe from the St. Louis Fly Tying Group on Yahoo. We all met at the Denny’s in Eureka for a quick breakfast and were on the road — we all drove down together in Mike’s Yukon (man that is one sweet fly fishing ride). We arrived at the park and changed in the Men’s Bathroom inside the “lodge” – – this was the first time I have done that, but since the temperature was 12 degrees when we arrived, I didn’t complain.
After suiting up we each went our separate ways — I walked down stream and crossed the bridge and began sight fishing to fish that I could see from the trail (I am really beginning to like sight fishing for fish). There was quite a crowd at the park today — way more spin fishermen than I can recall in a long time. The holes that held fish on the far side of the park still held fish, but they were covered with anglers. I proceeded to fish my way up to the top of the park near the cable (I was the only one up there), and was really surprised by the number of fish in the shallow riffles and one deep hole. I quickly started loosing flies on fish right away — I do not think 7x tippet that freezes is worth a damn, but they wouldn’t touch anything with 6x or bigger (the freezing temps combined with my bass fishing mentality early on, caused me to loose lots of flies and go through lots of tippet material LOL). I finally got in a rhythm and started landing fish on everything — it was as if once the fishing slowed down, I would change from a dry to a streamer or nymph and it was back on. The fish were very aggressive, and were hammering my balsa indicator like they were sharks attacking a fat surfer. I lost track of time, and then the other fisherman started showing up — there were fish everywhere in the park (seriously more fish than I have seen in awhile, which is why I don’t understand whey people have to crowd other people during the C&R season in the park).
I reeled up and started walking/fishing back to the truck for some water and a roast beef sandwich. I met up with Joe and we took a little break for lunch and to compare notes (Joe was not having near as good a day as I was having). We decided to head back up to where I was having all the fun (and hoping that everyone else had left for lunch, as it was about that time. I quickly LDR’d and hooked several fish, Joe started hooking into some fish as well. We fished there till about 2:30 and decided to fish our way back down the park in search of Mike, to compare notes and see if we were fishing till the end or packing up early (I am now convinced that I will start carrying my FRS radios while fishing, it would saved hikes like that). Mike had a heck of a day as well fishing a little black emerger. We ended up fishing till 4pm and packing up to head back to St. Louis. It was a great trip (probably the best trip to Maramec Springs I have had all season), the fish cooperated, and we saw a bald eagle several times (not sure if it was the same one or if it was a different one each time), my new St. Croix Ultra Legend 5wt and Ross Evolution Reel got broken in correctly (even if the first two fish were bluegill), and I caught by first brown trout out of Maramec Springs. Of the fish that were caught, 9 were rainbows, 1 brown trout, and 2 bluegills (the bluegills aren’t listed in the “flies” column, as they don’t count). It will probably be several weekends till I am on the water again, but I am already looking forward to that next hook-up. — Matt Tucker
Maramec Springs Trout Park — December 28, 2002
I made it to the “Springs” to fish today with several other members of the St. Louis Fly Tying Yahoo Group — Jim, Jerry, Mike, Gavin, and myself. It was a beautiful day to fish. Jim, Mike and I met at the Eureka Denny’s for breakfast and to play musical cars. Ended up down at the park just in time for the whistle to blow while we were rigging up and putting on our waders. I quickly broke off 3 fish within the first 30 minutes of fishing (1 in the first set of riffles and 2 in the handicap hole) on a tan/ginger mohair leech on 7x tippet. It was slow going after that. I did see several people hooking up on fish — but most fisherman were complaining of a “tough” bite. I managed to bring one bluegill and one trout to hand on a b.h. v-rib midge before we broke for lunch.
Lunch, what can I say about lunch. IT WAS AWESOME. Those of you in this group that didn’t make the trip to fish with us, should have. We BBQ’d beer brats, hamburgers, and beans streamside. The meat along with the cookies and hot chocolate (complete with whip cream), was enough to turn the heads of all the other fishermen in the park. It was a great time. Jerry tought us the secret to good rod building — when showing someone a rod you built, keep it at a distance of 3 feet or more. We also discussed the “morals” of fishing with a globall, and other things. It was a good lunch and good conversation. It was fun to take a break from fishing and relax amongst friends. We broke from lunch about 1pm and headed back to the water for some more fish action.
Jim and I were planning on leaving about 2pm to head back to St. Louis. We each fished for about an hour — I managed to scratch one trout on a #16 renegade on my 3wt. I watched the drift, the take, and the hookup — i love catching fish on dry flies. It was pretty frustrating hour of fishing — there was a midge hatch coming off and the fish were pretty active feeding on top of the water. I however, had nothing in my fly box that looked anything like the small grey/black midge they were feeding on. I need to try and tie up some midges and emergers for winter dry fly action. All in all it was a great day on the water and the weather cooperated to top it off. The park was crowded with cars, and some of the holes had several fisherman in it (including one “ice fisherman” that didn’t pay respect to distances between fisherman and was very erotic with the way he was working the jig), but I was not crowded out of a hole with the exception of the “ice fisherman.” The water was still low and crystal clear — I can’t wait for the water to get high and muddy (i always seem to do better then). Will be heading to the Current or the Maremec this New Year’s day and will drop a line when we are back from that trip. — Matt Tucker
Maramec Springs Trout Park — Dec. 15, 2002
I met Jim Collins at Denny’s in Eureka at 6am and we headed down to “the springs” after a bite of breakfast and looking over his deer pictures from South Dakota. It was beautiful weather, and I expected all the “weekend” fishermen to be out — and they were. As we were leaving I counted 22 cars in the parking lot (that is alot for the C&R season). Fishing was not that crowded however, there was only one hole (my favorite hole, and also were I caught that 20″+ fish last Sunday, that was crowded. I wonder if it had anything to do with my photo and story being posted in the internet message boards (i doubt it, but you never know)?
We spotted 2 HUGE fish today — one was near the outhouse on the bank and it had something seriously wrong with it as it was floating really close to the surface and let me bounce my mohair leech off of its nose; the second fish was an easy 28″ and was ABSOLUTELY huge. We saw it on the far bank near the bottom of the park — it was almost impossible to fish too (I was given the task at trying to catch him, but Jim lost site of the fish and the stalk was over). It would have been a really horrible day fishing, but I managed to pick up 4 of my 5 fish within 30 minutes on the tan/ginger mohair leech on the far bank near the second spring. The biggest fish of the day was a nice plump 14″ fish — the other 4 fish didn’t have any size to them (oh yes, I also caught a chub minnow). In two trips, Jim still hasn’t caught a trout at the Springs (he did manage a rock bass though).
On the way back, we decided to stop by Blue Spring Creek and do some scouting. It is a very small creek near Bourbon, MO that has wild rainbow trout in it. We stopped at the two MDC access points off of HWY N and got out to scout the stream. We did see some trout — although not many and with no size whatsoever (but they are wild trout — something I don’t think I have ever caught). Jim noticed lots of insect larva on the rocks, and the stream did look very “fishy,” we left and decided that we would make it back in the early spring or perhaps when there is some snow on the ground and the water is a tad higher. We also stopped by the actual spring feeding the creek, it is a campground (a very nice campground), and noticed lots of stocked fish in that section of stream — but almost impossible for them to move downstream due to the series of spillways they have. — Matt Tucker