This is a wonderful little creek, which is easily accessible from
both Rolla and Newburg, south of Interstate 44 almost exactly halfway
between Springfield and St. Louis. The majority of the creek jumps up
from a series of at least 5 springs, the most notable of which is Lane
Spring, the centerpiece of the Lane Spring Recreation Area. Trout fishing
continues for several miles downstream from the springs, although the
lower parts of their range are pretty tough fishing during the dog days
of summer.
Lane Spring Recreation Area is a part of the Mark Twain National Forest
and is managed by the Forest Service. The Recreation Area is beautifully
maintained with a playground, hiking trails, a couple of nice shelters,
numerous stationary BBQ grills, and a number of campsites available. By
the way, you can reserve these campsites and shelters by checking out
ReserveUSA, which
is the website through which you can make reservations for any and all
National Forest and National Park properties. To get to the Lane Spring
Recreation Area, take Highway 63 south from Rolla for about 10 miles,
and turn right at the big brown forest service sign. It costs $2 to park
-- be sure to pay it, or you will receive a sizable ticket in the mail.
Little Piney Creek has both White Ribbon and Blue Ribbon Trout Areas.
The Blue Ribbon area is so designated in order to protect a population
of wild rainbows. This protection is a relatively new thing. The Missouri
Department of Conservation has long known that there was a wild population
of rainbow trout present in the creek living along side the stockers, but
it took some time to identify how exactly they wanted to change regulations
to protect the fish.
Blue Ribbon Trout Area
Only flies and artificial lures may be used, specifically excluding soft
plastics. Daily limit is 1 trout at least 18" long.
This portion of the creek has a ton of character. If you take Highway
63 south from Rolla, you'll cross the creek in less than 20 minutes. The
Blue Ribbon area begins at the Phelps county line more than two miles south
(upstream) of the bridge near the creek's headwaters, but the best populations
of wild trout are found near and downstream of the springs near Highway 63.
In fact, there have been times when the upper end of the Blue Ribbon area
didn't actually have any water in it.
There is easy access to the creek below the bridge. Of course, there is
also easy access available at Lane Spring Recreation Area, if you don't mind
competing with swimmers during the summer. There is also access at Vida Slab
and Milldam Hollow, both of which can be popular with locals for bonfires,
beer-drinking, fireworks and swimming, but the locals are generally good-hearted
folks who are pleasant and easygoing.
Your best bet for catching some wild trout is almost always between Vida
Slab and Lane Spring Recreation area. Yes, you will find the occasional wild
trout between Vida Slab and Milldam Hollow, and, yes, you'll find fish even in
the itty bitty trickle WAY upstream from the Hwy 63 bridge. The water between
Lane Spring and Vida Slab, however, is usually much more productive. The main
upstream migration generally begins in mid-January (pre-spawn), and they don't
generally come back downstream until late spring or early summer, so upper
portions of the creek tend to heat up while the Vida Slab portion slows down.
The summer offers the most challenging fishing, when the water is low and
suitable habitat is at a minimum. If you can make a stealthy approach and
delicate cast, and if you know how to read the water, you'll find the trout
stacked up and feeding opportunistically in narrow feeding lanes. You'll
only catch one fish per spot, however, and you'll generally only get a couple
of casts before the fish get lockjaw. These pictures should give you a good
idea of what you'll be up against.
While the summer can be challenging, Autumn and Spring can be downright
exciting if you hit it right. A day or so after a good rain, when the water
is just a bit off-color and just a bit high, you can really tear them up on
little nymphs fished deep. When the water is low and clear, switch to little
dries. In fact, regardless of the season, you'll probably want to fish smaller
flies -- nymphs size #16-18 and dries size #14-16 tend to be consistently
productive. The fish will aggressively hit larger dries, but most of the
fish are smaller, and so your hook-ups will be limited. Nymphing in riffles
is a good strategy using pheasant tails and hare's ears, and small glo-bugs
can work well January through April. This creek also has some decent hatches,
and blue-winged olives, adams, tan midges, elk hair caddis all will get you
into fish. Cracklebacks and renegades also work well on occasion. As the summer
progresses, small grasshoppers and big ants cast along tall banks on breezy days
can be dynamite. One interesting and unusual thing about this creek is the brown
drake hatch, which typically happens in September (great big brown mayflies).
While the hatch is not enormous and doesn’t put the fish on a surface feeding
frenzy, it does get them all looking up.
This creek is really nothing terribly special, except that it is a textbook
little Missouri spring creek that happens to have a terrific wild trout
population. In fact, we receive a good number of emails asking about the
interesting colorations in our these fish and also the Mill Creek and
Spring Creek populations. At the very least, the trout here are a hybrid
of McCloud redbands and the Arlee strain trout stocked the Dept. of
Conservation (thanks to George Magyar for this info), but there are also
reports that there may have been a private stock of another strain
introduced previously -- perhaps Shasta strain. Regardless, these fish
are truly stunning (as are those in Mill Creek and Spring Creek), so go
catch one and see for yourself.
White Ribbon Trout Area No bait restrictions. Daily
limit is 4 trout, of which only 1 may be a brown trout 15" or longer.
The White Ribbon area of this creek begins at Milldam Hollow and proceeds
downstream to the CR 7360 bridge. While this stretch of water is more than
three miles long, the Department of Conservation only stocks a stretch
about 3/4 of a mile long. Take Hwy T south from Newburg, turn left on County
Rd. 7400, and follow that until you reach a "T". The natural flow of the
road would carry you to the right, but if you turn off to the left instead,
you'll get to the stocking area of the White Ribbon area. The road is a bit
rough and pretty heavily overgrown -- meaning full-size pickups will find it
a TIGHT squeeze. You'll find a small parking area about a 1/2-mile down the
road right near the creek. The road continues on for another 100 yards or so
before terminating at private property. This is the section that is stocked.
The fish naturally work their way upstream from this area, and you'll usually
find very few trout downstream. Enter the creek and slowly work your way
upstream. Streamers, rubber trout worms, in-line spinners and such work well
in the deeper stretches. The riffles also hold good fish that can be taken on
flies under surface or by drifting bait under a bobber. Remember, these are
100% stocked fish, so fly fishermen should seriously also consider using
attractor patterns like glo-bugs, marabou streamers, foam grasshoppers, and
the such. Resident fish will take more natural flies, as well.
In the heat of the summer, focus your attention toward smallmouth bass, because
the trout fishing gets downright slow. You'll find them in the deepest holes,
and you'll mainly catch them only by drifting your fly right to their nose. The
Missouri Department of Conservation does not generally even stock during the
hottest part of the summer, because the water temperature typically rises above
70 degrees in this part of the creek.
Call (573) 468-3335 for more
information
You can download a detailed conservation department map of Little Piney Creek
from our Maps Page, and you can check the USGS water
level changes in real-time by checking our
Water Levels Page
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