Blue Springs Creek Fishing Guides and Conditions, Missouri

About the Blue Springs Creek

Blue Springs Creek runs four miles from Blue Springs to the Meramec River in Crawford County, a couple of miles south of Bourbon and close enough to I-44 that it is an easy stop off the interstate. Four springs feed it, together putting out somewhere between four and seven million gallons a day, and they keep the creek cold and clear the whole way down. The catch is where those springs sit. All four are on private land adjoining the conservation area, and so is the top of the Blue Ribbon section, which means the reach named in the regulation is not the reach you can walk.

What is public is the lower part, on Blue Springs Creek Conservation Area, 907 acres that MDC bought from the Army Corps of Engineers in 1983 and added to in 1992. Parking is along Highway N and Blue Springs Creek Road. MDC asks anglers plainly to respect the posted boundaries on the upper creek, and it is worth taking that seriously here because the property line and the regulation line are not the same line.

The trout are wild, descended from fish raised at a nearby coldwater hatchery that closed decades ago and left its stock behind in the creek. MDC’s recent sampling has been encouraging: catch rates across all sizes have come up with a run of wet springs, and the department expects relatively more six, nine and twelve inch fish than the creek has historically held. Young-of-year fish under six inches are the most abundant class by a distance. Fish over fifteen inches stay rare, which is worth knowing before you carry a tape for an eighteen-inch limit. The water is clear, the vegetation hangs low over it, and the fishing rewards light line, short accurate casts, and a slow approach to the deep holes below the riffles.

All six Blue Ribbon areas carry the same rules: flies and artificial lures only, no soft plastic, natural or scented baits for any species, an eighteen-inch minimum length, a daily limit of one trout, and no porous-soled waders. Gigging, bowfishing and atlatls are prohibited. Read the MDC page for this water before you fish it, because the boundaries are specific and posted, and a trout caught outside the marked section does not count toward the slam.

Access

Blue Springs Creek Conservation Area (MDC), 907 acres - from Bourbon, Route N south about 2.5 miles to Blue Springs Road. Parking along Highway N and Blue Springs Creek Road.
The fishable water is the lower reach above the Meramec confluence, on the conservation area. Blue Springs itself and the four feeder springs are on adjacent private land, so the upper part of the regulated section is not publicly accessible - respect the posted boundaries.
Area hours are 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., with fishing permitted around the clock where allowed. No camping and no target shooting. Pets leashed.
Walk-wade only. No gauge on this creek.

Seasons

Spring: the strongest fishing, and the season that has driven the recent rebound in numbers. Wet springs put more young fish in the creek.
Summer: the springs keep it cold, but the water is low and glassy and the overhead cover makes casting the limiting factor.
Fall: excellent and lightly fished, with stable spring flow and cooler air.
Winter: open. Wild rainbows spawn from December into mid-March, so watch where you put your feet on the shallow gravel.