Meramec from the park to Scott’s Ford

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- October 23, 2022 at 4:26 pm #25722
  
  jeffblev
  Participant
  
  First time out in my new raft – the Catchercraft Freestone.
  
  I only stopped to fish seriously once. Right before the confluence with dry creek.
  
  I put in at the park campground at about 11:00am and made it to Scott’s Ford at 6:20. I had very little daylight remaining. Nearly had to learn how to navigate the water by moonlight. Yikes. 🙂
  
  Anyway, managed to land a nice brown but I knew my fishing time was limited. It killed me having to pass the many fishy spots on the river. There was a father and son hammering rainbows with wooly buggers around cardiac hill.
  
  For me, and for the benefit of our fly-fishing class attendees, I used a 5 wt rod, an airflo floating polyleader (8-1/2’). About 24” of 5x tippet to my point fly (a #16 moodah poodah) and about 18” of 6x tippet to my dropper (a #16 copper john). Tied on the hook of the point fly.
  
  The brown took the hopper!
  
  The Meramec is very low and clear. There’s little flow and after dry fork creek, the wind was stabbing my face. Quite a challenge rowing through that but maybe the best environment to learn control.
  
  damage (less learned: bring gloves next time)
  
  Picture of nice brown:
  
  My wife grabbed a shot of me pulling into Scott’s Ford at sunset:
  
  Would like to do this trip again. Preferably after some rain. Preferably an overnight so that there’s time to thoroughly work the water.
  
  Didn’t fish the park at all. Shoulder to shoulder fishing with spincasters isn’t my thing. 🙂
- October 23, 2022 at 10:30 pm #25723
  
  Jim Craig
  Keymaster
  
  Oh, that looks like great fun. You guys are making it hard for me to resist buying some sort of drift craft so I can keep up with you!
  - October 24, 2022 at 7:08 pm #25725
    
    jeffblev
    Participant
    
    You can’t go wrong with the Catchercraft Freestone.
    
    I looked at several other solo fly-fishing rafts. Particularly the Water Master Kodiak and the Outcast Clearwater. I spoke with Rich at Water Master and Dave at Catchercraft. I didn’t really talk to anyone at Outcast.
    
    I had read on sone forums about the oar lock delaminating on the Water Master as it’s just welded to the raft. Rich admitted that he’d heard about that happening as well, but blamed it on improper storage (excessive heat can lead to delaminating). To be fair, I thoroughly believe that he believes that, and he may very well be correct. From my perspective as an inexperienced oarsmen though, I wanted to minimize any potential problems.
    
    The Catchercraft is similar to the Water Master and the Clearwater, but it includes a lightweight frame that breaks down to a manageable size. You could fit it in any vehicle. The oar locks are part of the frame offering some peace of mind that I won’t lose an oar in the middle of floating the Yellowstone (this is one of the stories that I had read online. Guy lost his oar lock on his water master, but was skilled enough to row to safety with a single oar. Am I good enough to do that? Probably not. I don’t want to find out)
    
    The only downside is that raft + frame is about 50 pounds so it’s not exactly backpackable. This is where talking to Dave at Catchercraft really helped. I wanted a single raft to fulfill two purposes – 1.) Navigate western rivers safely and 2.) Small enough that I could pack it in to alpine lakes. As I learned, this is a pipe dream. Dave recommended buying an outcast float tube for packing in to remote lakes, and I think his suggestion is spot on. Especially now seeing that Outcast has the Summit (7 pounds!) coming out this November.
    
    At the end of the day though – I think that each of these rafts are high quality and Catchercraft, Water Master, and Outcast are solid companies. I’d be happy with any of them.
    
    Just wanted to share my thought process behind buying the Freestone.
    
    Can not wait to get back to Montana. 🙂
    
    -Jeff
- October 24, 2022 at 7:55 pm #25726
  
  Jim Craig
  Keymaster
  
  Awesome. Thanks for the details. I think lots of guys on this forum will benefit from this information.
- November 16, 2022 at 6:50 am #25897
  
  alharp
  Participant
  
  Jeff:
  
  I enjoyed your article. I also use an inflatable drift boat (Flycraft) and have floated the 8-mile Meramec River stretch from Woodson Woods to Scotts Ford several times. In addition to trout, I and others have also caught smallmouth on this section. It’s great that your wife was able to shuttle you but if you have to resort to a commercial shuttle on a future float, I’ve used a guy named Don who is affiliated with Adventure Outdoors in Steelville. Or perhaps you and I (and I have room for another in the Flycraft) can team up and do our own self-shuttle now that fall and winter rainfall has beefed up the flow down there. It’s the closest trout flyfishing float I know of to St. Louis and can be productive once we learn that stretch of the river well. Take care.
  
  Al Harper 636-390-4569
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