April is a magical time on Missouri’s rivers and streams. The intimacy anglers enjoy with blooming flora helps dissolve memories of a harsh winter. A great way to drink in miles of gorgeous scenery while pursuing fish that are becoming more active is by quietly drifting down waterways in a drift boat. A spate of mild temperatures and excellent water flow from recent heavy rains motivated me, Al Harper, to pursue an engagement with a fishing guide I’d been hearing about for an excursion down a section of the Meramec on April 14.
Augustus “Augy” Knickmeyer, has just begun his career as a full-time fishing guide. But even as a part-time practitioner he developed a very solid reputation. I asked FATC member Bob Hassett to join Augy and me for what turned out to be a very productive effort. The weather and the river and its flow lined up just right for us and we launched an inflatable drift boat at Woodson Woods access a couple of miles upriver from Meramec Spring Park.
The idea on this day — besides enjoying the wonderful springtime environment — was to learn more about catching both smallmouth and trout with fly rods from a pro. This section of the Meramec with a takeout at Scotts Ford is unique for enabling one to catch both, plus Goggle-Eye (and pan fish if you are so inclined). The first hot spot is the confluence with historic Meramec Spring. As we approached we noticed RVs and tents at the nearby campsite indicating camping is in full swing.
Our ability to hover just a few yards out into the river and fish along the chalky line formed by millions of gallons of cool spring water merging into the river began paying off right away as we connected with large, healthy and hungry trout. Although I’ve caught some smallmouth here on previous floats, pods of trout seemed to out-muscle the bass for our flys on this day. I have to admit to getting so caught up in the fun that I didn’t focus on the number of fish we netted here or at other spots on down the river on this float but I’d have to say the confluence probably resulted in more than a dozen for us.
Augy suggested we mine that section well before proceeding because it sometimes ended up being the most productive place, although that wasn’t necessarily the case this day. But just to be sure, Augy oared back up for another good passthrough before heading on down and that paid off too.
Downriver we picked up a trout in a hole here a riffle there until we reached another confluence: this one with Dry Creek meandering out of St. James. Augy explained that the creek was fed by runoff not a spring but it is a pretty robust waterway that some people fish certain times of the year. This confluence also held a lot of fish and formed a basin many yards across that required us to anchor up or “tred water” by Augy back stroking the oars to fully exploit it. This area produced some of the most robust and healthiest fish of the day. A nice shelf formed by clean river rock set up a steep drop off back to the main river channel. The fat trout used the current expertly to dive deep and fight hard once hooked. Standing up in the drift boat with noon sun overhead we got terrific views of big, flashy slabs twisting, turning, running. Visibility was good but it took some effort to yank them up far enough to see their shape in the clear water. With strike indicators vibrating on taut lines we guessed out loud about what was emerging as they careened around wildly around the boat before Augy expertly netted them.
From that spot Augy lengthened our leaders and we rowed down to even deeper holes where the Meramec had scoured river banks when it had reached flows of 19,000 cfs only three weeks before. We were fishing at 721 cfs and Augy indicated that somewhere between 600 and 1000 cfs seemed to be a good flow for productive fishing. A couple of miles on downriver I switched from the 5 weight rod to a 7 and had some fun throwing streamers. Having a wide open view of a river while standing up in a drift boat and hitting spots with a streamer is something I really enjoy. On this day nice brown trout and an occasional smallmouth were really going after the streamers. It was a hoot to see them charge out the depths or from a shallow hiding spot to smash a fast moving fly.
Often, even at breakneck speeds, the fish are adroit at nipping the tail of a streamer or just bumping it to disrupt and confuse what they take to be a baitfish with an intent coming back around and eating it head first as it flounders in the current. Because of their feeding technique, I often miss as many fish as I catch with streamers but it is certainly an engaging, even engrossing, way to fish.
We continued to have success at many holes and runs on down to our takeout at Scotts Ford some 8 miles from where we started. Bob’s forte seems to me to be nymphing and he read his strike indicator well and had many excellent hook sets. Bob and I were very impressed with Augy. He was as knowledgeable and as helpful as we could have hoped. Several suggestions he made immediately resulted in not only more catching but in playing fish better as well. He had great insights, was a storehouse of fishing knowledge and was very generous in sharing them. Anyone wanting further information about Augy can look up his website: https://www.missouriflylifeguideco.com/
As mentioned, I was so engrossed in the fishing all day I didn’t get an accurate final fish count, and frankly I wasn’t focused on that, but just to give the reader a ballpark of how the fish were responding, I reconstructed with Bob and we figured more than 70 were netted. And though it pains us to admit it, we hooked and lost a large number as well. And I’m going to estimate we caught as many browns as bows with a few smallmouths as well. According to a recent MDC Shock Survey, there are about 290 fish per mile in some sections of the river. And we enjoyed probably as many as eight “doubles”, where both of us had a fish on at the same time. It was a memorable day and I hope many FATC members have springtime excursions as good.
