Bennett Springs State Park
Between March 1 and October 31
The daily limit is 4 trout, with a minimum size restriction of 15 inches to keep brown trout. A daily fishing tag is required. Regulations vary by zone. Zone 1: flies only; Zone 2: flies and lures only, soft plastics specifically prohibited; Zone 3: only natural and scented baits are permitted, including soft plastics. Flies and lures are prohibited.
Between mid-November and mid-February
Catch-and-release fly fishing is permitted from 8:00am to 4:00pm Friday through Monday. A winter season tag is required.
Bennett Spring is what you might call the flagship of the Missouri Trout Parks. It draws the largest crowds, by far, and it boasts the largest spring of the four parks. It has a very nice restaurant, a nature center, a swimming pool, and tons of lodging and camping spaces. Once the park fills up, the rest of the visitors simply spill into the lodges and campgrounds that surround the park. The park boasts a nice tackle shop, and there are also some honest-to-God fly shops nearby.
The downside of fishing in any of the trout parks is the restrictive nature of the fishing regulations, the crowds, and... well... okay, it's mainly the crowds. This, of course, effects the fish and the fishing. Trout park fish don't usually act like how you'd expect "normal" trout to act. At the morning siren, you can almost cast anything and catch a fish or two. Later in the day, however, even the finest and most experienced trout fisherman can get skunked. The best method seems to be to fish small baits and lures, and sight fish. This means, drift your lure or bait in such a way that you can watch it, and cast directly to a specific fish. Pick your fish, and try to drift the bait right to its nose. Trout can be lazy, and they'll often eat something rather than move out of the way. A Bennett trout's natural food is mainly scud, scuplins and trout offal (AKA fish guts), but you'll actually see some decent caddis and midge hatches that can bring some fish up for dry flies at times. Lure fishermen tend toward marabou jigs, and bait fishermen will typically fish floating baits on the bottom or work plastic worms deep Bennett is northwest of Lebanon on Hwy 64. |