I first learned about Missouri's trout program from a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Steven's Point in the late 1960s. (And, yes, I said "1960s" -- that's no misprint.)

Many instructors use Missouri's four trout parks as an example of a conservation agency using hatchery-reared trout economically: Trout-park trout anglers pay for the trout -- ponying up, in other words, both to the Missouri Department of Conservation for producing and stocking the trout and to the state's Department of Natural Resources for operating Missouri's four trout parks. A great program -- but is it really trout fishing in the traditional sense?

The short answer is no; the long answer is rooted in the history of Missouri modern trout program.

Before 1880, Missouri had no trout, but in that year, the Missouri Fish Commission first stocked rainbow fry in spring branches along the railroad line between St Louis, Springfield, and Joplin. Some streams stocked included Maramec Spring branch, Spring River, and Crane Creek. By 1882, anglers reported rainbows spawning in Spring River and Crane Creek.

Although the commission had evidence that some spring branches could support wild rainbow trout without stocking, they established hatcheries and state fishing areas -- read "trout parks" -- at Bennett Spring, Roaring River, and Montauk in the 1920s and '30s; there, the state raised and stocked trout for anglers.

This early trout program morphed into a bigger deal in the '60s, the trout parks becoming a quartet with the addition of Maramec Spring Trout Park and a put-and-take trout stocking program being instituted in a few streams outside the parks.

By the '70s, biologists began to question this approach, having discovered several small wild trout populations in spring branches such as Mill Creek, Spring Creek, Crane Creek, Little Piney River, Blue Spring Creek, and the Eleven Point River. They also began stocking brown trout in a few streams to create a trout fishery at which anglers could expect to catch trout larger than those normally found in the trout parks or the put-and-take streams.

Unfortunately, they also discovered that brown trout couldn't reproduce successfully in Missouri's spring branches; the exception to this was Lake Taneycomo. Consequently, the brown trout fisheries would have to be maintained by annual brown trout releases.

Missouri's modern trout program includes about 165 miles of coldwater streams associated with springs managed for trout and one tailwater at Lake Taneycomo. The trout program has four trout parks, put-and-take streams that the MDC stocks several times annually (White Ribbon Areas), streams supporting wild rainbow populations with either no stocking or limited brown trout stocking (Blue Ribbon Areas), and streams into which the department stocks brown trout (Red Ribbon Areas).

This history, as you might realize, is much more complicated than what I've depicted here. Let's focus on spring branches and trout streams outside Missouri's trout parks -- streams at which trout anglers can expect to fish over large wild rainbows and browns, some exceeding 10 pounds. I'll recommend trout streams to fish this year, areas of those in which to fish, and techniques that work, and provide phone numbers for obtaining additional information about each of the trout streams.

BLUE RIBBON TROUT STREAMS
Streams designated Blue Ribbon Areas include Missouri's best and most productive trout streams, all supporting wild rainbow trout populations and, in a few larger streams, large brown trout. In these special streams, all trout must be 18 inches or larger before you can take one home, and anglers must use artificial lures and flies only to reduce catch-and-release mortality. These streams all have the potential to grow large individuals. The restrictive regulations allow this to happen while providing great catch and release trout fishing.