Trout fishing warms up winter at Missouri state park

There aren’t enough fingers and toes for anglers to count how many trout they catch at Roaring River State Park. And that’s in an hour of fishing.

With the right fly, trout can keep a fishing rod bent in the shape of a rainbow all day. More power to any angler who can catch 100 or more trout. That’s all fine and good — as long as each fish is let go to fight another day.

Catch and release fishing season for rainbow trout opens the second Friday in November and closes the second Monday in February. During that time, trout may be caught and released Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Anglers need a Missouri fishing license and Missouri annual trout permit.

Only flies may be used, but a hair jig, commonly used in crappie fishing, is considered a fly at Roaring River State Park. Flies may be cast with any type of rod. Spin cast outfits and fly rods are both seen along the clear, cold stream.

This park, nestled in an Ozarks canyon 8 miles south of Cassville, Mo., is Missouri’s most visited park. One would never know it in the winter. Few anglers are seen, unlike catch and keep season March 1-Oct. 31 when the banks can be crowded. There’s room to spread out and fish with no other anglers in sight.

Craig Hull of Wichita, Kan., had the right fly on a chilly Friday, Dec. 2. He’d been fishing an hour and had no idea how many trout he’d caught and let go. A tiny midge or scud fishing fly gets a fish’s attention.

“This fly here is a size 18 black bead-head midge,” Hull said.

Size 18 is super small in the world of fly fishing. The hook is so small it can be difficult to get line through its tiny eye. Hull fished the midge 3 or 4 feet deep under a small float.

The angler visits Roaring River five or six times each year and typically stays two weeks. He fishes during catch and release season and also the catch and keep season.

“I like the fact that fish are released in the winter, and there’s opportunity to catch some big trout. I like the cooler weather and there aren’t as many people as in the summer,” Hull said.

When fishing is closed Tuesday through Thursday at Roaring River, Hull fishes Lake Taneycomo below Table Rock Lake dam. In August, he caught a 22-inch brown trout at Taneycomo.

“I’ve been coming here 50 years,” he noted. “The park is in better shape now than it’s ever been. It’s been managed very well.”

Downstream a ways, Doug Wills from Overland Park, Kan., tussled with trout after trout. Wills prefers egg patterns, gray scuds or a particular fly he didn’t happen to have that day.

“My buddy makes a fly he calls a pellet ant. It’s a cross between an ant and a fish pellet the trout are fed at the hatchery. I can catch ’em all day with that,” Wills said.

That fish hatchery is at the north end of Roaring River State Park. The Missouri Department of Conservation runs it and raises thousands of trout that are stocked at Roaring River.

When catch and release season nears, staff stocks several hundred trout initially, then adds more every two weeks, said Terry Gerke, assistant manager at the hatchery.

“This year for catch and release, we put in about 2,000 trout. Five or 10 of them were lunkers weighing 3 pounds or better,” he said.

More trout are stocked every other week because there is some mortality on the fish, even through anglers release each trout.

“The fish get handled when they’re released and that accounts for some. Herons, bald eagles and otters eat their share,” Gerke added.

For anglers, love ’em and let ’em go is the name of this winter fishing game.

Flip Putthoff can be reached at fputthoff@nwaonline.com or on Twitter @NWAFlip.

VIDEO ONLINE

To see a video of trout fishing at Roaring River, go to:

nwaonline.com/1323trout/