It is said that if you can catch 6-7 trout in the Cardiac Hill area you had a good day.  An excellent day would be maybe around 10. So what kind of a day is it when you push into the 30s??

Mike Oldani took a day off from his new job (gutsy move Maverick) and convinced Jim Franke, who is retired and doesn’t have much to do, and Kenny Klimes, who is retired and even has less to do than Jim, to go to the Cardiac Hill on the Meramec river.  The three left at 6am since Kenny felt the best fishing would be early.  The river was moving faster than normal and still slightly off color from the recent rains.  The boys crossed over and headed upstream to the long run near the large gravel bar.  Kenny “instructed” the guys to try mohair leeches or woolybuggers first and it was a good choice. Many nice fish were caught (both rainbows and browns) in this run.  Once through the run the first time, they went back and fished it again this time with cerise worms and buggers.

At noon the guys stopped their movement downstream and ate lunch at the entry point to Cardiac Hill.  The plan was now to head downstream towards the Suicide Hill area.  They worked the northern bank and pulled out several more fish.  The fishing heated up again when they fished the 90 degree bend to the left – a very nice deep run – loaded with big trout.  They dead drifted cerise worms and rubber legged stoneflies.  The trout went wild and each drift would see a fish on or a hit and miss.  When the catching slowed down here they walked to the Suicide Hill area and swung leeches and again, did well.

It was an awesome day of fishing as the weather was too.  Fish caught were in the 10-14 inch range with several 15 inch trout caught and even a few 16-17 inchers in the net. The guys, tired from the long day, now had to walk Cardiac Hill. When they made it to the top they decided that Margaritas were in order and headed to the FATC’s favorite Mexican restaurant – El Nopal in Sullivan. So the question of the day was – why does the Sensei get the name of Sensei??