February 28, 2020
I’m always a big fan of lists and an even bigger fan of competition. When I heard about the Missouri Blue Ribbon Trout Slam, I was immediately hooked. Finding ourselves with an open Saturday in February, Billy and I set out for Little Piney Creek to chase some wild Missouri rainbow trout and get to work on our list.
What is the #MoTroutSlam?
The Missouri Blue Ribbon Trout Slam is a joint venture between the Missouri Department of Conservation and Trout Unlimited. Missouri has 9 streams dedicated as blue ribbon trout areas. Essentially these streams provide excellent trout habitat and support naturally reproducing trout. The fish in these streams are more wary and less numerous than those that many chase in the popular trout parks. The program offers 3 levels of accomplishment for fisherman who catch a trout of any size in these streams. A bronze pin is offered after catching trout in 5 of the streams, a silver pin for 7, and a gold pin for catching a trout in all 9 streams. Sign me up!
https://huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/fishing/trophies-certificates/blue-ribbon-trout-slam
Lane Spring Recreation Area
Billy had a head start on me, having caught a few beautiful rainbows from Blue Springs Creek on a solo venture. He really had been itching to go fish Little Piney Creek, so we headed out and arrived at Lane Spring Recreation Area late on a warm but cloudy Saturday morning. This area is located about 13 miles south of Rolla and can be very busy during the season. However, during winter the gate to the main area is closed and you must walk in about 1/2 mile to get to the Creek. We found 6-7 cars in the lot already, including 4 fisherman who had just arrived. Busier than I had hoped.
Little Piney Creek
Billy and I walked through the woods past the crowd who were fishing all the nice looking holes near the picnic area. Once we had the creek to ourselves, we clamored down the steep bank and got to work. The Little Piney is your typical beautiful and clear Ozark stream. The creek is full of downed trees and sharp turns, and the woods hug the shoreline. However, the channel is wide providing plenty of room for fly casting for most people (not me – I snagged every bit of brush in sight all day). Basically, if you enjoy stream fishing, this is the place to be.
First fish
I’m really not a good fly fisherman. My casting technique is self-taught and inconsistent. My eyes are terrible so I struggle with knots and clearing tangles. But boy do I have fun doing it! My expectations were pretty low as far as catching fish, I really just wanted to spend a day outdoors with my son. Billy and I worked out our rustiness on the first riffle/pool with no success. Dialed in now, Billy led the way into a nice riffle and quickly caught the first fish, a beautiful wild Missouri rainbow trout. I followed up quickly with 3 more small ones from the same hole, including one with absolutely stunning orange coloration. We were already having a great day.
The good luck continues
We continued working our way downstream, casting to every likely spot along the way. I used assorted #12-#14 bead head nymphs all day, while Billy alternated between the same thing as well as some dry flies. We caught fish on pretty much everything we tried and couldn’t really point to any one pattern. In our deepest hole by a cutout bank we found the most success, and when it was all said and done we caught about 20 rainbow trout between us. I was hoping for just one so needless to say I was thrilled with the result
Walking out
The bite finally ran cold and nothing seemed to work anymore. We packed our bags and headed back upstream. Once at the picnic area, we took a few minutes to survey the spring. We watched an armadillo bouncing around in an open field, then trudged uphill towards our car in our cold-weather waders. The long walk would have been much worse if the fishing hadn’t been so good.
Heading home
I had a spectacular and memorable day with my teenage son on a perfect Ozark stream. I didn’t really want to the day to end so we stopped for dinner at Frisco’s Grill & Pub in Cuba to continue the conversation over a good burger. It was there that we started to make plans, trying to figure out the next stream to tackle in our Missouri Blue Ribbon Trout Slam. I’m not 100% sure why the MDC and TU created this program, but I am sure glad that they did. Hopefully someone out there reading this decides to take on the #MoTroutSlam, and I would love to hear about it if you do. E-mail me here or find me on all the social media channels. I always appreciate any pointers as I have a lot to learn about chasing these wild Missouri trout. Thanks for reading.
Information on Lane Spring Recreation Area:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/mtnf/recarea/?recid=21780
Our dinner location:
