Here is a report for Mike Oldani who just got cabin fever:
Social distancing and rain, rain, rain were the main concerns of this trip. The scheduled Let’s Try A Work Out trip was delayed one day because rivers were blown out from all the storms. Bill Byington, Jim Craig, and Mike Oldani decided to disregard the flood water warnings to try to get on the water somewhere. In route trying to figure out where we could fish, we decided on Maramec Spring Park. It wasn’t looking promising with heavy rains, thunder & lightning during the route on I-44. Then we started thinking if the park might have any COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. We did a quick search on Maramec Spring website. Park is open but, you had to purchase your tag through the drive up window only. Office and restaurant are closed.
The water was definitely up, dingy and moving quickly inside the park and by the park bridge where the spring empties into the Meramec River. It looked like the spring and river were one. I’m sure many hatchery fish were swimming easily into the river. You will see the photos of the flooded condition. We persevered through the rainy condition. If you had proper rain gear and with the temperatures in the high 60s, it made the day very comfortable. You could see the water rise as we fished. The 3 determined FATC’s brothers reached their goal of finding fishable water. The fish catching was challenging. The few fish that were netted were tricked by the star fly of the day. The cerise worm heavily weighted. It was a good day to practice different techniques, knots and casting. Euro nymphing technique was tried and improvements were made by all. Plus, what a better way to social distance yourself then on the water fishing even under flooded conditions.
Well the 3 determined fishermen’s bellies started to rumble. We decided to pack up around 4:30pm and focus on our fellowship dinner. Another concern was where to go for dinner with all the pandemic restrictions??? A quick call to Bubba at Missouri Pizza Company in St James. We lucked out. He welcomed the FATC boys for dine-in only until Saturday. You will see from the photo we did our civic duty of social distancing during dinner. As always we had great fellowship. So, don’t let the pandemic challenges get you bummed. Get out on the water to fly fish and mend your worries away!!! Tightlines!
