9/19/07 Meramec- Recovery fishing day

Went down to Cardiac at about 2:30 pm. I was taking my last recovery day off after racing this past weekend and just wanted to be outside for a bit. I had a couple afternoon beers on the walk down to the water which was really rewarding- cold beer in the middle of a hot day is pretty tough to beat. Kinda reminds me of that scene in Shawshank Redemption. My plan was to high tail it upstream and fish all the way down to Suicide Hill as the sun set. As usual I found myself flogging holes with no hungry fish convincing myself I was doing something wrong. It was HOT and I was sweating in my waders like crazy. The thunderstorms were no where to be found and it was bright out. Poor summer fishing conditions. Up at the Dry Fork I caught one nice rainbow, about 18," but that was it. The structure had changed quite a bit and looked really good but still no eager fish.

I started to make my way back downstream and had a nice fish rise for a hopper in the big run before the house but that was it. It was almost 6 pm and nothing was happening. I headed down to Cardiac and fished that half heartedly for another 1/2 an hr and then realized I could still GET A SLURPY, STOP AT TACO HELL, AND MAKE IT HOME FOR THE SOPRANOS AT 9 so I split. I was making such good time and had convinced myself that this would be my last day off before the big race and stopped for a Kit Kat blizzard at DQ with hot fudge on top. Jen and I were amazed at the Kit Kat content.

Meramec 7/12/07

Left the house at 4 am to get on the water for the sunrise. Why? I don't really know but it sure is peaceful. No fish in Cardiac hole. I was hell bent on fishing dries today which lasted about 30 minutes until I tied on the olive woolie again. Down at the next hole I had a fish chase but couldn't dredge any up. Around the corner I caught a decent rainbow at the tail end of the run.

After trying every dry in the box I gave up and started to bounce the woolie again. When I got down below Suicide Hill things started to get good. For the next hour I hammered the fish, maybe 7:30-9 or so. I caught my first two smallies ever, one of which was probably 18" and 2 lbs?? They didn't fight quite as well as I thought they would, especially when I was catching 20 inch rainbows every other cast. These fish were hungry. I was running low on woolies after breaking off on a decent fish since I didn't retie after the last 5 and got hung up. I invaded their space to get it out and either that or the sun shut them down.

I caught one more at the rock below Suicide on a woolie and had a miss on a caddis. Up a ways I threw a big hopper repeatedly at the angry fish who I see every time but have never hooked. He came after it once and turned away. One more real nice sized ugly stocker at the base of Cardiac and I as off the water by 11.

I have never caught so many fish from that river in a day of fishing, never mind 5 hours. I ended up with 10+ trout, all rainbows, plus the two smallies and lost 3 more. Some of the trout were 3 pound stockers but pretty ugly fish....

Meramec 5/16/07

What a perfect day. Woke up and rode for 3 1/2 hrs and then hurried to get on the water. I went down to Cardiac and made the walk at around 3:30 pm. I opted to fish downstream after trying the first hole with no luck. At the first bend I landed one nice 16" brown on a woolie. Just around the corner before the stump I hooked into a much nicer rainbow, maybe 20" and had a couple other hits. I worked my way down and had a couple more hits on the long straight before the Suicide acess pond-pool but didn't hook up and some guys fishing in a boat went around me so I headed back up to the elbow where some floatees were making a racket. I was leaving and hit the Cardiac hole from both sides and had another nice brown on for a little while but it dropped the hook. It was around 7:15 when I split. The water was off-color and flowing at around 415 CFS. Fair amount of bugs in the air but I didn't see any risers...

Meramec 5/16/07

What a perfect day. Woke up and rode for 3 1/2 hrs and then hurried to get on the water. I went down to Cardiac and made the walk at around 3:30 pm. I opted to fish downstream after trying the first hole with no luck. At the first bend I landed one nice 16" brown on a woolie. Just around the corner before the stump I hooked into a much nicer rainbow, maybe 20" and had a couple other hits. I worked my way down and had a couple more hits on the long straight before the Suicide acess pond-pool but didn't hook up and some guys fishing in a boat went around me so I headed back up to the elbow where some floatees were making a racket. I was leaving and hit the Cardiac hole from both sides and had another nice brown on for a little while but it dropped the hook. It was around 7:15 when I split. The water was off-color and flowing at around 415 CFS. Fair amount of bugs in the air but I didn't see any risers...

Meramec River, 3/15/07

Got down to Cardiac around 2 pm. Started moving upstream and passing by other holes with anglers. I caught my first fish in the timber up behind the house hole on an olive wooly as usual. Then I headed straight up past the Dry Fork to the first set of timber and caught another fish the same way. THere were a few fish rising and I tried a caddis but no takers. I worked my way down slowly but no more fish. It was an awfully nice day, mid 70's and a little cloudy and the water was running at around 250 CFS. I caught one more fish right at the base of Cardiac and headed home around 6. There was still some more daylight but I was beat.

Current River 2/21/07

The day started off great hearing that my little brother had a baby boy this morning! What a great way to start the day.

First day on the water in way too long! Started at the Baptist at around 10:30 and worked my way down to the first hole to leapfrog a couple other anglers. Right away I caught a nice 15" rainbow in the upper part of the first hole on the olive wooly. I let it go quick thinking it was going to be gangbusters action but then someone came splashing though the bottom of the hole with a spinning rod and not a clue. I was a little disgruntled but at least I was able to stick to my plan of seeing more of the river. I didn't put in too much of an effort until I got down to the next big hole because I felt like I was being chased and didn't want to get leapfrogged myself. There were fish in there and I got a couple hits but someone else came up from downstream and spooked the fish. I was trying to be friendly but I just wanted to keep moving.

Around the corner was another angler downstream and come rising fish. I tried some caddis (which there were lots of) and a couple midges but the fish weren't interested. I got up on the bank and kept moving. It was about this time that I realized that the cats had got to my Camelback bladder and I had no water left which kinda sucked, good thing I brought a Rockstar Energy drink and some sodium laced jerky! It wasn't long before I caught this brown and then the rainbow two holes apart. There weren't many signs of other anglers and the structure was great. I kept moving and saw a couple rising fishn below the feeder creek (Welch's??) but it was getting late and I wasn't really sure how far downstream I had made it.

What a great day for February. Water was a little off color and the temp was in the 60's!!!

Gauge height 1.45, CFS 340

Meramec River 1/7/2007

Headed down with Ted and Larry and were on the water at Cardiac by 9:30 am. It was drizzling and overcast, maybe 45 degrees but didn't feel all that chilly. I fished right in front and they headed upstream. I flogged that hole from very angle, unwilling to give in and then finally headed downstream. I fished around the bend from the big timber elbow hole where I caught the two browns last week- nothing doing. There was a guy fishing the deep hole and then three guys down below so I packed it in and hustled upstream. I was pretty surprised to not even have had a hit so far.

Ted was seeing fish rise in the flat pool above the house and hadn't fished any higher ustream. There was a bald eagle hanging out in a tree overlooking the river which was pretty cool. A little further up I found Larry who had found some fish. He had high-tailed it up above the Dry Fork and was catching them on the olive woolies I had given him. I hung out with him for a couple and then headed up there myself.

Right away I caught one in the elbow of the junction. Nice fat 14" rainbow. I was letting the woolie drift into the hole and it hit on the second strip. I moved upstream to the next big flat and then started working down. I landed this fish the same way fishing it into some nice timber structure, there was lots of it.

I didn't land any more fish until I got down below the junction but they were definately there. I had some hits and saw a couple fish following the woolie out of holes. They were deep. Around the corner I fished on the opposite side of some timber and caught one more fishing the woolie the same way. The rainbows are defianately concentrated upstream.

We left around 2 pm. Larry ended up with 3 rainbows and a brown, Ted with one small smallie and I got 3 decent rainbows. Ted is the only one who didn't fish above the house.

CFS was right around 310 and it was pretty overcast for most of the morning, I think there would have been a lot more fish caught had I followed Larry to begin with. Also, the number of people fishing below Cardiac was amazing, but there were hardly any tracks upstream.