More Meramec Intel on Escapees
The favorite Christmas present of 2024 for me — Al Harper — was a chance to join Steve Darr and guide and trout biologist Mike Kruse on another floating and fishing adventure on the Meramec River. It was my third trip down a river that offers phenomenal fishing since historic flooding occurred there 11/5/24.
Mike, who lives in Columbia, MO, retired after a long and interesting career with the Missouri Department of Conservation and began guiding. He currently concentrates his efforts primarily on the Meramec, the Niangua and Westover Farms but continues to fish for his own fun and recreation in many places including far flung and exotic locations (including New Zealand). He has fascinating stories about his life outdoors; he survived a mountain lion attack while fishing a Colorado stream. He’s also developed and taught college level courses on aquatic biology and fish management so obviously he is a walking (floating?) encyclopedia on many species of fish and angling in general .
For this excursion two days after Christmas, Steve and I met Mike at Scotts Ford access on an overcast almost rainy morning. We left our “shuttle vehicle” at the Maramec Spring parking lot and we all walked to Mike’s Flycraft drift boat across the open, lowland field. As we walked, Mike painted a verbal picture of how the thousands of trout that escaped the hatchery in high floodwaters must have explored the several square miles of a new temporary lake formed by the swollen Meramec as it reached as far out of its banks as it has been in many, many years.
Mike said it was his understanding that as many as 40,000 trout were lost but that number would have been even higher if hatchery workers hadn’t affixed mesh covers over some of the holding/raising vats as the heavy rains approached. It is anyone’s guess how many of the escapee trout sensed when the water started to recede after a few days and made their way to the main channel of the river. But judging from the terrific fishing many FATC members have enjoyed since the fateful deluge, it seems a safe bet there has never been so many fish swimming freely in both the park and the river.
Those escapees have since spread out both up and down river for miles. Mike speculated it may be well into the late spring before naturally warming river water forces the trout to move back up toward the confluence with the cool spring water outside the park or to gather around one of the natural springs entering the river downstream. He added it is very difficult to know just how many trout a river like the Meramec can actually support long term but he seemed to agree that larger and more aggressive trout could be feeding on smaller ones along with other baitfish. Our success casting larger articulated streamers during our day on the water seemed to validate this observation. Another scientific fact from Mike was that a hungry trout can devour a fish up to 40% of its size.
I had also fished inside the park itself on Christmas Eve and while I did well on jigs and emergers I was surprised that I didn’t get more strikes on streamers. But Mike clarified that fish that are more “captive” in trout parks or stocked lakes often quickly tire of chasing streamers. I guess they see too many of them or similar fast moving spin fishing lures?
Mike also pointed out special “tattoos” just behind the eyes of some of the brown trout we caught. They had been injected there with syringes by MDC hatchery personnel to help track the trout later on. That was just another of many interesting tidbits of information that made fishing with him an educational experience. In addition to the streamers mentioned above, we caught fish — a lot of fish actually — on leech flys, marabou jigs and crayfish flys. Best of all was an egg pattern Steve had tied and brought along. Steve got the award for the best fish of the day on that fly.
I should credit Jim Craig for taking the attached photo of the three of us in Mike’s boat. Jim just happened to be pulling in a nice trout on the river bank himself when we floated by and grabbed his phone. Thanks Jim. Hope you did really well that day like we did.
Here’s a link to Mike Kruse’s website https://missouriflyfishingguide.com/
