Fly Fishing in Missouri

A regional note specific to this state: the trout fishing here is a mix of tailwaters and freestone streams, and the state agency stocks heavily in the tailwaters and manages the freestone streams as wild trout fisheries, and the most productive water depends on the time of year. Missouri trout fishing is a small but technically fascinating tailwater fishery built on the cold-water discharge of three US Army Corps of Engineers dams. The state has three main tailwaters: Lake Taneycomo below Table Rock Dam, the East Fork of the Black below Clearwater Lake Dam, and the North Fork of the White below Norfork Lake Dam (the Norfork tailwater is shared with Arkansas). All three tailwaters produce trophy rainbow and brown trout, with Taneycomo holding the state record rainbow trout. The state's trout program is administered through the Missouri Department of Conservation, and the agency stocks all three tailwaters seasonally with rainbows while maintaining a self-sustaining brown trout population on Taneycomo. A regular Missouri fishing license is required, and the cost is $12 for residents and $42 for non-residents, and the daily limit is 5 trout combined in most waters with special regulations on each tailwater. The unique regional quirk is that Taneycomo is the only tailwater in the country that has a year-round fishing season, and the lake is the only one in the country that produces a 5-fish day of trophy browns and rainbows from a river that is technically a lake.