Post by darrelln09 on Nov 9, 2020 21:05:53 GMT -6
The Missouri Department of Conservation has a Blue Ribbon Trout Slam where you can earn a little award for catching trout in the 9 streams in the state that are designated as Blue Ribbon. You can read about it at the following link.
Blue Ribbon Trout Slam Info
Over this past long weekend (Nov. 7-9) I was able to earn the Bronze Award for catching a trout in 5 of the 9 blue ribbon streams. Here are the details of my award-winning trip.
Crane Creek (Sat.)
Crane Creek flows through the town of Crane and the MDC owns land both north and south of town. With the recent and well-needed rains, the stream flow has improved a bit. That seems to have energized the fish because just about every riffle was holding a hungry one. Many are small but I was able to net around 20 McCloud Redbands in half a day, all on a Purple Haze Parachute or a similar-looking purple emerger. Here is one of the nicer ones. What a beautiful trout!
Spring Creek (Sun.)
Spring creek is located not too far from the east gate of Fort Leonard Wood. It's a very small creek and rather shallow in most places. The fact that I netted a juvenile McCloud Redband with a Purple Haze on my very first cast was quite remarkable. I fished a while longer, had a few more strikes, but wasn't able to net another one.
Current River (Sun.)
The Current River is located just downstream of Montauk State Park and the associated hatchery. I entered the stream at a place called Tan Vat Hole. The current is indeed swift there and the fishing pressure is quite high. Surprisingly, I caught an interesting looking Brown, a good-sized Rainbow, and a few smaller Rainbows on a Euro rig. As far as flies go, this was a "first" for me. Every fish I caught was on my #18 Holographic Frenchie dropper. I tried several other nymphs and even a larger Holographic Frenchie as my point fly but nothing. I would guess I normally catch less than 20% on my dropper fly but on this day it was 100%. In the first photo, note the interesting markings at the lower back end of this Brown!
Mill Creek (Mon.)
Mill Creek is located south of the town of Newburg and actually dumps into Little Piney Creek near the city park . The creek is also small and rather shallow in most places although I was eventually able to find a few deeper pools. The stream is the most fishable the closer you get to the Little Piney confluence. Believe it or not but I actually netted a juvenile McCloud Redband with a Purple Haze on my very first cast! Again, I fished a little longer, had some strikes, but wasn't able to net another one.
Little Piney Creek (Mon.)
Little Piney Creek is located south of Rolla and is an awesome trout stream with almost unlimited riffles, pools, and root wads that hold fish. I was able to net around 12 Rainbows in half a day on a variety of nymphs fished Euro style. None of my nymphs worked great but I managed to catch 2 or 3 each on a Tungsten Surveyor, a Mohawk Pheasant Tail, a Brown Stonefly, a Copper John, and a Tungsten Diving Caddis. Obviously, I wouldn't have been trying so many different flies if one was getting bites regularly. This day evened out my dropper-to-point-fly ratio because all the fish were caught on my point fly. I tried several different midge and emerger droppers as well as the same irresistible #18 Holographic Frenchie but no fish took my dropper fly.
It was certainly a great weekend and I want to give thanks to all who have helped me find and fish some of these streams as well as learn the Euro Nymphing technique.
Blue Ribbon Trout Slam Info
Over this past long weekend (Nov. 7-9) I was able to earn the Bronze Award for catching a trout in 5 of the 9 blue ribbon streams. Here are the details of my award-winning trip.
Crane Creek (Sat.)
Crane Creek flows through the town of Crane and the MDC owns land both north and south of town. With the recent and well-needed rains, the stream flow has improved a bit. That seems to have energized the fish because just about every riffle was holding a hungry one. Many are small but I was able to net around 20 McCloud Redbands in half a day, all on a Purple Haze Parachute or a similar-looking purple emerger. Here is one of the nicer ones. What a beautiful trout!
Spring Creek (Sun.)
Spring creek is located not too far from the east gate of Fort Leonard Wood. It's a very small creek and rather shallow in most places. The fact that I netted a juvenile McCloud Redband with a Purple Haze on my very first cast was quite remarkable. I fished a while longer, had a few more strikes, but wasn't able to net another one.
Current River (Sun.)
The Current River is located just downstream of Montauk State Park and the associated hatchery. I entered the stream at a place called Tan Vat Hole. The current is indeed swift there and the fishing pressure is quite high. Surprisingly, I caught an interesting looking Brown, a good-sized Rainbow, and a few smaller Rainbows on a Euro rig. As far as flies go, this was a "first" for me. Every fish I caught was on my #18 Holographic Frenchie dropper. I tried several other nymphs and even a larger Holographic Frenchie as my point fly but nothing. I would guess I normally catch less than 20% on my dropper fly but on this day it was 100%. In the first photo, note the interesting markings at the lower back end of this Brown!
Mill Creek (Mon.)
Mill Creek is located south of the town of Newburg and actually dumps into Little Piney Creek near the city park . The creek is also small and rather shallow in most places although I was eventually able to find a few deeper pools. The stream is the most fishable the closer you get to the Little Piney confluence. Believe it or not but I actually netted a juvenile McCloud Redband with a Purple Haze on my very first cast! Again, I fished a little longer, had some strikes, but wasn't able to net another one.
Little Piney Creek (Mon.)
Little Piney Creek is located south of Rolla and is an awesome trout stream with almost unlimited riffles, pools, and root wads that hold fish. I was able to net around 12 Rainbows in half a day on a variety of nymphs fished Euro style. None of my nymphs worked great but I managed to catch 2 or 3 each on a Tungsten Surveyor, a Mohawk Pheasant Tail, a Brown Stonefly, a Copper John, and a Tungsten Diving Caddis. Obviously, I wouldn't have been trying so many different flies if one was getting bites regularly. This day evened out my dropper-to-point-fly ratio because all the fish were caught on my point fly. I tried several different midge and emerger droppers as well as the same irresistible #18 Holographic Frenchie but no fish took my dropper fly.
It was certainly a great weekend and I want to give thanks to all who have helped me find and fish some of these streams as well as learn the Euro Nymphing technique.
