A Float on the Meramac with Cardiac Mountain Outfitters

I have been trying to fish with Damon Spurgeon head guide from Cardiac Mtn Outfitters located out of Rolla he guides on the Meramec. He floats from the park down too  Scotts Ford a total of 9mi. He has a two-person Flycraft. An excellent boat if you’re looking for boat yourself.  He knows the river better than anyone in the area he started fishing the river at the age of 5 and worked at the fisher through high school. He knows the feeding habits of the fish better than anyone. He also teaches Czech nymphing so if your interested in learning that style or just perfecting the art on the water. In either case he’s your man.

Well back to the fishing we started off fishing at the bend good thing we were in a boat the water was moving fast, and we were able to target the fish feeding zone they were holding deep and in the middle of the river. They would have been hard to cast to and get a good drift on from the bank. The boat allowed us to set up right over them and get the perfect drift. We started with the Cerise Worm; this is Damon’s go to fly.  He says it’s the most effective fly he has in his box. I hooked and fought a few fish on it, but they won. We finally spotted a big boy come to the surface then disappear to the bottom Damon said we are going to land that one. On went the MOP and second cast BAAM he was on we brought him to the boat he was close to 22in.

We floated down while Damon taught some history of the river and talked about the telemetry study that’s going on, the latest flood washed away the radar detector from the trees. He has been recording by hand all the browns caught to help keep track of them. The Browns are moving quite far it seems. After we floated past suicide, we started fishing streamers he uses a lake series line which gets you down fast. Much better than a traditional sinking line. We landed half a dozen on a variety of streamers one of his favorite streamers is the sparkle minnow and autumn splendor the autumn splendor produced several nice.

It was a great day to be on the water looking for someone to

By the way no trip is ever complete without grabbing some  “Missouri Pizza” located in St James as always Bubba never disappoints