The forecast was for cold weather, colder than we have seen this year in Missouri. But, there was a chance that the temps could hit in the mid 30s by the afternoon, so we went fishing.  Originally we had around seven FATC members going but when the forecast came in, four got the sniffles and wanted to stay close to the fireplace. So Matt McClure, Glenn Haake and Kenny Klimes were on their own. The plan was to go to Meramec since Glenn had never fished there before (and it was close to home in case we couldn’t take the cold). We left at 7am to give the day a little chance to warm up a bit. Arriving in the park there were already four cars of fishermen there preparing to fish for the day. So we weren’t the only crazy ones. But by mid day the cars numbered about 15!! I guess when you have a day off you go fishing no matter what the weather.

We started outside the park to check if the browns were back from the December stocking (when we arrived in the park we met up with Wes Swee, the hatchery manager, and he said they stocked the river a week ago.) One of our goals was to show Glenn “the lay of the land” so to speak since it was his first time. We had the river to ourselves. We picked up a few browns but didn’t see many in the riffles so at noon we headed back in the park.  Arriving back in the park for lunch we were shocked with how many fishermen we saw – what, don’t these guys have job?? After lunch we worked the usual spots up near the island and below. Kenny noticed that the long stretch below the island and before the first “waterfall dam” had trout sipping something off the top. Could they be just those little chubs or maybe small rainbows? He put on two soft hackles (about 16 -20 inches apart) and presented a slow strip to the fish feeding on top. The rainbows attacked the small flies but to Kenny’s surprise the rainbows were, as President Trump would say, HUGE.  One cast after another the hits kept coming. Kenny was frantically trying to signal to Matt and Glenn to get down were he was but they didn’t see him.  Finally, Matt saw him waving and both came down to this area. See the pictures….

As the 4pm siren approached snow started falling and the temperatures dropped. It was time to go home. The guys stopped to eat at Missouri Pizza in St James. Although not all caught the same amount of fish it was a good day of catching and learning. Hats off to Glenn for braving the cold on what was only his third time out. Winter fishing isn’t bad when you are prepared with the correct gear. Here is my theory. The stocked fish from months ago are now just realizing that there are no more pellets to eat just real bugs. I think they are ready for us!!