I was out the door by 6 am. It was still dark and 30 degrees out, a thick layer of ice still underfoot in the driveway. I had packed my gear the night before and was armed with a stiff cup of Peets Celebration Blend. I don't know what it is about Peets but you have to really lay it on thick to get it strong enough. I had planned on heading down to the Current River for the day but as I neared Rolla I was entertaining thoughts of fishing Little Piney Creek and checking out the Lane Spring Campground. I pulled out my Gazeteer and Missouri Trout book that live in the backseat to see where the access points were. I decided on getting another cup of coffee and exploring some back roads.
It doesn't take much to find back roads in Missouri. I was only 10 miles outside of Rolla, 1 mile off of Route 63 and on dirt; actually snow and ice. It's a really pretty area. Lots of cattle and one small bison farm. I wanted to stop and take some photos of two bison head to head at the crest of a hill but I pushed on, somewhat eager to wet my line. This was some old school farm country.
I came up on a low water bridge, luckily the water was below the single lane concrete bridge with no rails. I stopped and looked around a bit but other than the outflow of the bridge the water looked un-appealing both upstream and down. The No Tresspassing signs with a bullet ridden bullseye on the tree next to it wasn't so welcoming either. I decided to push on to the main road which appeared to be about 4 miles away on the other side of the creek and head to the next access downstream, towards the end of the Blue Ribbon section. My old front wheel drive Audi pulled it's way up the ice covered dirt road.
I got off the barely plowed paved section again and as I got closer to the Milldam Access the other tire tracks got fewer and I was crossing some small feeder streams, steam rising off the engine. I came to a small parking lot with "White Ribbon Area" postings and a sign for the access further ahead. I stopped to look around at some decent water but was more intrested in fishing the purely wild area so pushed on, but not for long. Having to back out of failed attempt on a steep hill and knowing that it was a long walk without cell phone reception I decided to call it quits. It was about 8:30 now, my coffee was empty again, it was warming up a little and I had enough rally car action for the day.
There was no easy way to get to the other access aside from backtracking so I opted to head north and get back on US 64-40. I considered leaving this stream without fishing it and heading back to the Meramec but as I neared the Rolla exited again I instinctively got off and headed south again.
The Lane Spring Recreation Area was closed so I parked at the gate, packed my daypack and hiked in. I walked upstream through the campground and then out to the water, I would come to find out later that was pretty close to the start of decent looking water. I tied on a Rio 6X leader, 6X tippet a a #10 olive Wooly and began to work my way downstream.
Right off the back I lost a big fish (16 inch range) and caught a couple small rainbows. I worked my way downstream to the big pool before the spring catching fish in riffles and stripping.
I wanted to fish the Meramec as well so I head back to the car around 1 pm and was at the Meramec by 2. I hiked in through the snow at Cardiac. It was out of control. The water was very high and ripping by. I couldn't see any of the stucture at the access, made a few halfhearted casts and then decided to resurrect the day and go back to Little Piney.
I found the access point off 63 and managed a couple more fish. All in all about 10 fish for the day, all in the 6-12" range.
Little Piney
9 am- 2.61 ft 131 cfs (perfect!!)
5 pm- 2.6 130
Meramec
2pm 2.45 557 (WAY TOO HIGH)
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