Blue Springs Creek Trout Area Map

Blue Springs Creek

Missouri

There is no getting around the fact that the wild rainbow trout of Blue Springs Creek are hard to catch. They are some of the spookiest trout around, and the constantly gin clear water doesn’t help the situation. It is a tiny creek, and is rarely more than fifteen feet wide, or four feet deep. However, the trout are most certainly there. The stream holds about 290 trout per mile in the publicly accessible section of about three miles, which is an incredibly large number given the fact that Blue springs Creek is so very tiny. Just as a point of reference, the Current River, which is considered by almost everyone to be a top quality trout stream held 294 trout per mile the last time it was sampled. The Current is many times larger than Blue Springs. Also, every single trout in Blue Springs Creek is wild.

 

For those fishing at Blue Springs Creek, the pools are the place to go. For the most part, the riffles are just too shallow to hold fish. The pools are gin clear, and average about three feet in depth. The pools that contain rocks or root wads tend to hold the most rainbow trout. Blue Springs heavily resembles a small western feeder creek, but if you fish it that way, you will rarely catch trout. You need to be ever so careful not to make extra noise, or cast your shadow across the stream. If you see a likely pool, it is best to stay as far away from it as you can, get on your knees, and fish the pool from there. Flies and small spinners are best, as bait of any kind, or soft plastics aren’t allowed anywhere on the creek. There is a length limit for rainbow throughout the creek. Legal sized trout are rare. Besides trout, you can also catch suckers, smallmouth bass, and sunfish anywhere on the creek. The Meramec River at the creek’s mouth is a world-class smallmouth bass stream.

 

The stream is south of Bourbon, which is located on Highway 44. Take highway N, until you cross the creek at a slab bridge. Soon you will come to the first of several pull offs to access the creek at. The entire creek holds trout, but the upper half of the public portion usually hold the most, although the lower section can hold some very large smallmouth bass from the river below, as well as a fair number of trout. Blue Springs itself is located on Camp Mihaska’s property, which is affiliated with the Salvation Army. You can see this  private section of the creek from Highway N on your way to the public access, and even get a fleeting glance at the spring, (which puts out around 5 million gallons of water per day), but fishing in this short section is by permission only. This shot of steady cold water is what makes Blue Springs Creek the excellent wild trout stream it is.