MDC’s official trout fishing guide lists 14 locations with flowing water where an angler can pursue trout in Missouri.  On a July day that offered a respite between downpours that had produced minor flooding, I — Al Harper — looked to that resource for a nearby fishing excursion.  I decided to return to a challenging, but picturesque three-mile-long creek flowing from Blue Springs just south of Bourbon, MO.  This creek, that flows into the Meramec River, is a Blue Ribbon Trout Area that leaves many fisherman sometimes wondering just why it merits that designation. 

I had fished it maybe three times before but even with robust residual rainwater bolstering its flow, I initially questioned the wisdom of trying it again.  The first glimpse one gets of the creek is when it rushes under highway N through a pair of four-foot wide culverts mangled by debris from recent flooding that sent water right over the highway.  

I had decided to wet wade but just entering the creek presented the first in what turned out to be a series of challenges with a few quiet rewards sprinkled in this day.  A large log with its root ball intact had been forced over the road and lodged in the riverbed beyond bobbing in the current.  As I found a spot to enter the stream nearby a large, fiesty otter popped his head up on the other side of the log.  It quickly submerged again and I saw his mate quickly launch from the nearby bank and submerge as well.  

Two otters prowling this small creek further fed my doubts about what I might catch here.  I decided to continue my efforts but found myself wondering: “should these predators be trapped and removed from Blue Ribbon trout areas?”  The pool formed at highway N is one of the largest on the creek but one could pretty much cast completely across it.  That’s assuming one could do so without hanging a back cast in the trees and bushes around the pool.  That’s another of those challenges I mentioned earlier.  An angler wanting to watch his fly line beautifully unfurling in the distance over the water will be mostly disappointed on Blue Springs Creek.  The intimate terrain and the thick vegetation and tree limbs crowding in on all sides here present a very different fly fishing dynamic.  

For that reason, a very controlled and compact type of nymphing or even Euro nymphing is sometimes more productive here.  But because I was fishing in the remnants of flooding in a creek swollen with a flow greater than normal, I wanted to try streamers. The other factor at play is the overall spookiness of the trout.  Launching a fly from some distance, even with the difficulty presented by obstacles like downed logs and the ever present overhead branches, seemed like a worthy tactic given the conditions.  

And so, out of necessity, I settled into a slow, deliberate pattern of negotiating the terrain, devising a strategy for stealthily approaching a new section of the creek and then thinking through a cast and retrieve that offered the best chance of not surrendering my fly to the vegetation.  With diligence and patience forced on me by a few hang ups, narrow casting corridors began to reveal themselves and I was able to work some likely holes and small tailouts.  Roll casting became crucial and I even resorted to the obscure “sling shot” casting that I understand originated in hard-to-fish streams back east.  

After a while, and some additional frustration, I finally began to adjust to a slower fishing rhythm.  The tranquillity that surrounded me began to seep in.  I had started at daybreak and in the dense woods beautiful rays of sunlight now began to break through.  Sheets of vapor resembling fog slowly rose from the cool spring water.  At one point, standing midstream with my attention riveted downstream on a hole I was working, I glanced over and saw a snake about three feet long blithely and effortlessly floating by.  

Other FATC members have commented to me that just not getting skunked here and on other similar Ozark creeks is a victory.  But on the other hand there are You Tube videos and published articles that document the fact that really nice wild trout are often caught from them.  I’m relieved that in most of those videos I’ve seen those trout are released.  Well, I’m proud to report that my mini creek adventure resulted in three trout, the loss of only two streamers to obstructions and a successful “tightrope” type walk over the creek on a downed log at one point. So I guess despite the otters, snakes, floods, birds of prey and human predators using fly rods, the trout are hanging in there at Blue Springs Creek.  

An excursion there, while not very far to drive to, requires one to shift to a slower more deliberate pace of fishing and possess a willingness to overcome challenges.  Good fishin’ to ya.