Photo Essay — A Day At a Missouri Trout Park

[Matt Tucker]

I was originally supposed to take the drift boat down the Meramac River today, but couldn’t seem to connect with the right folks at the right time to make it happen — but it will happen — so Brent Hinds and I headed down to Montauk State Park (aka Montauk Trout Park) for some fishing during the Catch & Release season.

It has been more than a year since I have been to Montauk, and it still hasn’t changed much.  The water was low (as with most rivers currently in the state).  It was cold this morning when I rolled into the park — the temp was 21 degrees in Licking as I passed through around 7am — but that didn’t dampen my spirits.  I suited up and awaited the arrival of Mr. Hinds, who showed up about 20 minutes after I did.

While rigging up the 4wt, I decided to throw some flies that I bought for my Wisconsin salmon fishing trip that I didn’t really use (some white zonker strip streamer with a beadhead and rubber legs, some estaz eggs, and some egg sucking leeches).  I rigged up the zonker rubber leg fly (I don’t have a clue what it is called — but it looked cool….it needed more weight though) and we headed up to the C&R area below the hatchery.

My first fish of the day came very early, and was a nice fish to say the least.  I was actually fishing a bigger fish, when I felt the take and set the hook.  It was a solid hook set and the fish didn’t move — so I thought I hooked up with the larger fish.  I was surprised when this fish started to move, and the larger fish was still in its original holding place.  Brent made for a good net man with this fish and we made quick work of it.

I do need to teach Brent how to become a better photographer though, and hold the camera still.  For those viewing the photos, keep in mind that I go about 6ft 3in and 325lbs+ so the fish is definitely a behomoth of a fish.  The fish was several inches past the 20″ mark on my net — but my guess is about 23″ or so.  It also was a super thick fish.  Mark one for the salmon flies that I never threw in Wisconsin.

After releasing this fish, we high tailed it to another section of river before the crowds started showing up.  I switched flies to an estaz egg, and Brent was throwing a Whitlock Rubber Leg Red Fox Squirrel Nymph.  We spotted some fish and went to work.

I quickly hooked up with a little stocker sized fish in some faster water and decided that it was time to mess around with the underwater capabilities of my new Olympus Stylus 790 SW point and shoot camera.  Below is one of those photos shot under water, and it was important to note that I probably should only make a practice of this when the air temp is above freezing.

Brent was the first to hook up with a decent fish in this section of water, and was rewarded with a healthy rainbow of just about 20″ against the net.  I was out of practice using a smaller net (I had become accustomed to the boat net that I have in the drift boat) and this fish took off around my back and under a log as Brent followed it and kept contact with the fish.  The end result is seen below.  To put the fish in context against Brent — he is also a man of stature (a “Hungry Man” if you will) so fish tend to shrink when held against him.  The fish is still a really nice fish, and we had several laughs when fighting / landing this fish.

We also played around with some underwater photos with this fish as well and tried some underwater movies as well — which turned out but are too large to post here.

Here is another underwater shot that I took.

If you recognize the fish below, it is becasue I actually caught the fish Brent released above about 15 minutes later (he took a pink estaz egg) and below is the end result.  Park fish aren’t the smartest fish, but it made for a good photo and a nice laugh.

The last nice fish of the day is below.  The fish is lucky to have its photo taken, but I will let Mr. Hinds divulge the story of this fish.

All in all it was a good day on a trout stream.  As the day wore on, the stream seemed to get more crowded.  Around every turn there was someone.  I was walking the bank upstream on one section and had let an older angler fish it out as he was fishing down stream.  I jumped upstream (about 30 yards) above him and started fishing, only to have this guy walk upstream in the river (there was a nice trail on the bank and the guy could have avoided walking through this nice riffle and spooking all the fish) through my run and then cross the river upstream of me and while doing so he told me “that the run fishes better from the other side” to which I promptly replied that “I imagine it fishes alot better when you don’t have someone wading through it”.

The incident above set the tone for the rest of the day as more and more people began to show up on the river — which is to be expected in one of Missouri’s elustrias trout parks (LOL) but we did manage to find seclusion in a few other places and had a few more shots at some fish over 20″ but none were landed.  It was a good day on the water, and one that I ended around 2pm and headed back to St. Louis.  I was also reminded why I need to stay away from the trout parks on nice days, as I just don’t like the crowds.  That being said, I can’t wait to hit the water again (maybe this Sunday)…….

Fish Hard,
Matt Tucker

[Mark Landerman]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is a trout park?

[Matt Tucker]

Lando:

It has got to be the unholyist (sp?) of trout waters that there is.

[jerod overley]

Good story Matt.

Unfortunately as a Kansas City resident I know the Missouri trout parks all too well.  Bennett Springs is the closest trout water I can touch at 3 hours away.  I spend hour after hour meticulously doting over my gear.  I pick through the flies at the local shop looking for the perfectly tied masterpiece.  I walk half a mile of the river picking out the perfect hole and approach before i dare get my boots wet.  All that time and effort to have a random local standing 6 feet from me dragging a 6 ounce spoon through my hole with his zebco that still has Wal-Mart tags hanging off it.

Trout parks make me feel dirty on the inside. These are the same people that come to our annual garage sale and argue over a $1 cd player.

Ok done venting…..

-Jerod

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