Trout parks see silver lining after massive floods
Roaring River lived up to its name during the massive flood on July 7 that caused the popular trout stream to rise four feet in 10 minutes.
The flood pushed gravel, trees and debris along the riverway, and even closed the Roaring River State Park in Barry County for two days. But there was a silver lining for anglers after the floodwaters receded, according to Roaring River trout hatchery manager Paul Spurgeon.
The big pool at the cave entrance to Roaring River spring is off limits to anglers, and some rainbow and brown trout grow to lunker size as a result. Visitors who hike the trails can see them from a high overlook.
And when the flood hit, some of those big fish were washed out of the pool into areas on Roaring River where fishing is permitted.
“A lot of them end up downstream and people will start catching them,” Spurgeon said. “The locals know about it, and they were down here fishing a couple days after the flood. All told, there were several thousand trout, I think, that washed into the river, though we didn’t lose any fish from our hatchery pens.”
Roaring River is no stranger to big fish. The Missouri record rainbow trout — an 18-pound, 1-ounce fish — was caught there in 2004.
Spurgeon said many of the hatchery fish that had already been released in the stream fared better than people might think.
“Trout tend to hunker on the bottom when they can and many will stay in the stream, though they do get moved around a bit by the swift water” Spurgeon said. “A lot of the fish that were already in the stream got washed out into the surrounding areas and got stuck there. Our crews collected fish from these flooded areas and released them back into the stream.”
Many trout likely were pushed downriver, out of the Roaring River State Park, where special trout fishing regulations are in place. Spurgeon said some lucky anglers might hook some browns or rainbows farther downstream using any kind of tackle. They can keep four fish, and any brown trout must be at least 15 inches long to keep, he said.
Roaring river wasn’t the only state-run trout park affected by huge flood events in June and July. Hatcheries at Bennett Spring State Park, Maramec Spring Park and Montauk State Park also dealt with high water.
At Bennett Spring State Park, Hatchery manager Mike Mitchell said back-to-back floods in mid-June raised stream levels 20 inches the first day and 5 feet the next day.
The floodwater didn’t reach the concrete hatchery ponds so no fish were washed out. But Mitchell said debris that plugged up some screens leading to one tank caused the oxygen level in the water to plummet and 4,000 trout died. They were later removed and buried.
“Four thousand fish out of 630,000 we have on hand wasn’t too bad for us,” Mitchell said.
When the river rose five feet and churned at high velocity it turned muddy. But Mitchell said he didn’t think many trout were washed downstream out of the park.
“In a flood, usually trout will go toward the bottom, where there’s less velocity,” he said. “I did see some people catch fish near one of our parking lots, but I didn’t see any fish actually in the parking lot.”
Mitchell said there’s been an upside, of sorts, for anglers because of the flood.
“When the water was high and muddy the fish couldn’t see or feed effectively,” Mitchell said. “Now that the water is clear again they’re able to see and they’re really hungry. I’ve heard that since the water cleaned up the fish are really biting.”
After the floods...
Here’s a quick summary of flood impacts at the four trout parks in our region:
Roaring River State Park: Heavy rains on the morning of July 7 caused Roaring River to rise four feet in 10 minutes. More rain followed, which made a bad situation worse for the 314,000 trout at the hatchery. A series of flood gates regulates the spring’s flow into the hatchery’s pools. The flow into these pools must remain constant to ensure trout survival.
During the period when the flood-swollen spring was gushing forth more than 100 million gallons per day (normal flow is 20 million gallons daily), this was a challenge. Other concerns were keeping oxygen levels constant and preventing silt and mud from washing into pools and raceways.
While MDC hatchery staff were tending to trout, MDC heavy equipment operators were pulling debris out of the stream and clearing it away from banks and bridges, filling washouts along the stream and repairing roads During the week, MDC crews moved 1,400 tons of rock and gravel and hauled away more than 20 loads of debris.
Bennett Spring State Park: Bennett Spring’s flooding on June 17 was the result of residual rains from Tropical Storm Bill. As is the case at other hatcheries, battling rising water at Bennett was an around-the-clock job.
“Much of the work we do during times like this is very repetitive,” said assistant hatchery manager Mike Perry. “It is very hard physically to do the same thing over and over for hours at a time.”
Problems stemming from this flood caused the hatchery to lose approximately 4,000 fish. This number sounds large, but because Bennett Spring Hatchery contains between 600,000 and 700,000 trout of varying sizes at this time of year, it was nothing more than a small dent in the hatchery’s overall rainbow population
“This (4,000 trout) sounds like a lot of fish,” Perry said, “but Bennett has plenty of fish on hand so that we can continue stocking catchable fish with no problems.”
Maramec Spring Park: Eight inches of rain in a two-day period caused a significant rise in the Meramec River (the stream flowing through the park) on June 19 and submerged much of the park under several feet of water for a brief time.
“It rose and fell in a matter of hours,” Maramec Spring Assistant Hatchery Manager Ben Havens said. “It did not cause any damage to the park, just a lot of mud and soggy areas.” This flood did not threaten Maramec Hatchery’s trout-raising area, but Havens said when high-water problems loom, hatchery staff are ready.
“We keep a close eye on precipitation that has fallen and river gauges upstream of our park as well as downstream,” he said. “When we feel water levels could possibly rise high enough to reach our fish, we have special aluminum cages that fit over our raceways that keep fish from getting out of the pools. They don’t keep the swollen water from getting to the fish, but they keep fish safe from escaping out of the pools. Our staff may have to work late or come in early if we anticipate a high-water event.”
Montauk State Park: Though Montauk was not hit with water levels as high as what soaked other trout parks, Hatchery Manager Tom Whelan said the site has had three “high-water events” in the past two months. During these times, there was no fish loss at the hatchery and, despite damage to roads used by the stocking trucks, all of the daily trout stockings into the stream took place as scheduled.
Whenever high water rushes through a trout park, phones start ringing at hatchery offices from inquiring anglers. Spurgeon said those are calls all MDC hatchery managers appreciate getting.
“We do get a lot of calls from people who are genuinely worried about the fish and are worried that fishing will be affected adversely,” he said. “It’s a good reminder that people do really care about our hatcheries and the trout we raise.”
Missouri Department of Conservation writer Francis Skalicky contributed to this report