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3. Missouri Wild Trout

Got out today for some early-spring wild trout fishing. The south-central Missouri stream I hit today is an old favorite of mine, always reliable and friendly, as long as you don't mind a lot of small fish. It's a spring creek, of course, but after a few days of rain, it was flowing big, green, and handsome. Just enough color to keep the trout from becoming skittish but not enough to affect anything in a negative way. Some fish were rising but the best success was with a Hare's ear nymph.

Anyway, a nice afternoon on the water, and I'll let the pictures take it from here.

Pretty water. I can smell and feel those swollen early spring trout streams. Thanks for sharing.

Motrout, ya got me going with your post. Paul right on the smell, creeks may not be greened up as yet. But the clean smells & more are there.
Hard to believe it almost opening day here in N.Y.
Still cold, never know what it gonna do. But Wed.,can't get here soon enough for this guy.
Spying on the creek yesterday, she's prime & ready for rods & lines. She running nice, half clear & cold. Never have I been so ant's -up ta go.
Just need a day on the water. Good luck to all, be safe, be warm, & have fun being back on the waters.
Milt.....

You know, this may sound a little weird, but I've actually teared up at the sight of a trout stream -esp when they just green up, the streamside trees and shrubs are flowering, and the trout are rising. In fact, they don't actually have to be rising. I'm just so thankful to be there I've said out loud, "Look where I am!"

OK, high-rise fever is getting pitched here. Shippers come tomorrow to pack my stuff up. {Insert crazy-dancing-man emoticon here}

Paul I hear ya. The spot I am trying this week, is one of the only places I also get some fiddle head fern buds. I have a cook that makes the best fiddle head fern soup. They are not out as yet, but soon.
They come with the greening of spring, short picking time, maybe a week for the sweet ones. The cream soap is like nothing ever bought in a store, once a year thing, Spring.....ain't it great. I could smell dirt & wet sand, moss, dead deer off in the field, road kill I be thinking. That won't last long. The water even smelled as my senses thought it should. I was going today, but stopped myself. Wed, I'll be in it.
Fishing & breaking in new boots....I'll yell look where I am.:):):).....

For me, in NY, it was potato leek (ramps) soup. In Colorado, it's been asparagus that distracts me from my bass fishing down on the plains.

Enjoy your fishing and yellin, Milt.

Good job MO. Things are still pretty cold around here - 30s and 40s F - so I haven't been out yet. Steelhead any day now, might go after them once they show up in my "backyard"...

Jonathon

P.S. Awaiting morels in the next month or so...

Always glad to help folks get in the mood to go fishing!

The weather has been up and down this spring, making for some really weird, unpredictable fishing. A week ago it was in the 60s-70s and the warm-water fish were going crazy...a few days later, it's below freezing with scattered snow flurries (and when this report is from, it was in the high 30s/low 40s.) Today, it got almost to 80 degrees. I'm confused and I'm sure the fish are too. Not to mention everything that blooms now when it inevitably gets down to 25 here in a couple of days.

Point is, plenty of places have colder weather than Missouri, and a few hotter, but there aren't a lot that go between the two extremes this fast.

The pic at the top post reminds me of a Crane Creek.

Yep. To be clear, this isn't Crane Creek, but it's awfully similar in size and the way the fishing usually plays out.