Return of the Meramec River Brown Trout Bill Cooper

Avid St. James, Missouri angler Lyle Staab began my love affair with brown trout over 40 years ago. In the mid-1970’s Staab’s photograph appeared on the front cover of an outdoor magazine. He held a brown trout that weighed almost 15 pounds. Staab caught the behemoth brown from the Meramec River in the Missouri Ozarks.. I have been searching the cold, free-flowing Meramec for a brown trout of those proportions ever since. I’m still searching. The Meramec River became Missouri’s first Trophy Trout area in 1974, shortly after I became superintendent of Maramec Spring Park. Maramec (note spelling) Spring is the first major tributary to flow into the Meramec River, doubling its size and lowering the temperature by several degrees. The brown trout fishery was a new and exciting idea. However, Missouri fisheries biologiosts still had much to be learn about managing brown trout. Regulations allowed for the use of live bait for those early browns. Most disappeared quickly because the fish swallowed live baits causing release mortality to be high. As evidenced by Staab’s colossal catch in the mid-1970’s, a few browns from the original stocking did survive to a ripe old age. The Missouri Department of Conservation instituted a Red Ribbon Trout Area on the Meramec River in the 1980’s, with more restrictive regulations. Only lures and artificial flies could be used, increasing the number of fish which survived after being caught and released. The Missouri Department of Conservation continued releasing brown trout from 8-to-12-inches once a year in the fall. Most fly fishermen regarded the browns as being rather finicky. Regardless, anglers knowledgable about brown trout continued to catch them over the years. But, none the size of Staab’s 1970’s catch were ever reported. During the summer of 2014, brown trout fishing in the Meramec River took a turn for the better. A one time supply of browns up to 15 inches were stocked in the river as a result on an experimental program at Maramec Spring Hatchery. Brown trout were used to help control parasitic crustaceans called copepods, which attached themselves to rainbow trout. Brown trout were placed at the heads of raceways and acted as bio-filters. The copepods attached themselves to the brown trout, but could not complete their life cycle on brown trout, like they did on rainbows. The result was fewer parasites to attack the rainbows. The brown trout were held in the pools longer than normal and as a result grew larger than the normal 8-to-12-inches used for stocking. They were subsequently stocked in the Meramec River in the summer of 2014. “The experiments were a success,” said biologist Jen Girondo. “Now, with Maramec Spring Hatchery supplying a limited number of brown trout, fish will be stocked in smaller increments, but at multiple times in the fall. This will be done to maintain the appropriate number of brown trout needed in the hatchery raceways to keep parasites in check.” Upon learning about the releases of browns into the Meramec River, I began my in-the-field research, with my fly rod in hand. I knew browns do not like intense light, so I picked a dark, blustery day to fish in late November. The results were astounding. I located a long deep hole and cast a weighted sculpin pattern on a sinking line into the cold, clear waters. A jolt reverberated up my rod on my very first cast. A broad fish rolled to the surface and the sound of my 5X tapered tippet snapping echoed down the gravel bar. I was on to something. With a very good feeling, which only a lone angler on a stream full of feeding browns can feel, I tied on a heavier tippet and methodically began catching one brown trout after another. The fish were on a feeding spree and it didn’t seem to matter what pattern I used as long as it presented a big profile I could get down deep. Sculpins, crayfish, mohair leeches and big streamers accounted for the majority of the browns I caught from two deep holes over a three hour period. On more than one occasion a second brown trailed the first, attempting to rob it of its prized meal. I landed well over three dozen browns before the feeding frenzy waned. Too, I enjoyed another dozen or so hookups and three more break-offs. The fish struck with a vengeance as if they were ravenously hungry. The brightly colored fish averaged about 15-inches, with only two falling under 14-inches. Several broad, fat 17-inch males fell to my offerings and I am confident the break-offs involved larger fish. Obviously, a few browns larger than 15 inches had been released. Perhaps a few of them will survive to the double digits weight class. I will keep hunting. The Red Ribbon Trout Area on the Meramec River extends for 9 miles from the Highway 8 MDC Access, south of St. James, to the Scott’s Ford MDC Access, off of Hwy 8, just west of Steelville. The 9-mile stretch contains a variety of aquatic habitats, with long pools, riffles, drops, turns, jams, rock rubble and deep pools. Most of the bank side is in heavy vegetation with an abundance of logs and undercut banks. The Meramec River may also be accessed through the James Foundation’s Maramec Spring Park, when it is open. Anglers need to be aware of the separate regulations for fishing in the park and on the Meramec River. For further information about fishing the Red Ribbon Trout Area of the Meramec River log on to: www.mdc.mo.gov .