What a better way to spend a day during an epidemic than to walk a beautiful, quiet trout stream in search of a few rainbows. Missouri has four trout parks; Roaring River trout park is the farthest west, located in the southwestern corner of Missouri, near the town of Cassville.
Catch and release fishing in the four trout parks is Friday to Monday from 8am to 4pm. Roaring River has three zones but only one zone allows wading. Zone 2 is catch and release year round and flies are the only source of catching fish in this zone.
While only about 300 yards long, zone 2 is a gorgeous piece of water that allows for short cast and plenty of trout. I used my 3 weight with a sink tip line and a jig-headed crème colored trout candy. 3X tippet proved to be the correct size as the trout chased readily after my trout candy.
If you are a camper, then campground 1 is open during catch/release. There is a restroom and shower house open. At $20 per night for electric (water at various places within the campground) a night or two camping is a cheap yet fun weekend.
There isn’t much around the state park in the winter … so, if you go and decide to camp, take along food, etc., and enjoy your time in nature. If you have questions you can contact me in the comment section below or by emailing me at flyfishingwithjeff@gmail.com.
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Jeff. Just watched your video of fishing roaring river during the winter catch and release season. I am presently down at roaring river 7/19/26 trying to fly fish with no success. (Very hot). I normally fish Bennett Springs but with all the construction going on not a very pleasant experience of late. I tried drifting nymphs under a strike indicator but wasn’t success for. It seems that the flow of the water in zone one doesn’t offer the same drift as Bennett??? I noticed in your video that you were stripping the flies with a lot of success. ANYWAY just curious if stripping is the way to go and if you have success drifting under an indicator
Bob, this reply may be too late to help but the hot weather is mostly the issue; the trout get pretty lethargic in the heat. Your best bet is opening hour or closing hour. Stripping a woolly bugger with a tad of weight would be a good idea….you need to get the fly down in the water column. I’d try white, olive or my go to color was buff brown. You can also find trout below the park, to the south about a half mile to mile in some deeper holes. Good luck….Jeff