CASSVILLE, Mo. — It’s 12 degrees on a frosty Friday morning and John Gates of Rogers is trout fishing, casting a small jig into the stream that flows through the heart of Roaring River State Park.

He’s bundled from head to toe. Only his face shows through the warm balaclava he wears. Gates is the only fisherman in sight.

“This is worth it to have the stream to yourself,” he said.

Soon as the words left his lips, Gates’ line twitched. He set the hook and the fight was on. The graceful rainbow trout was a valiant foe, splashing and darting in the current. Gates had his gloved hands full with this trout that looked to weigh 3 pounds and trying its darndest to shake the hook.

“You can call it 3 pounds if you want, but I think it’s more like 2,” Gates said when he brought the trout to hand. A quick shake of the jig and the hook was out. The trout finned away and vanished in a deep pool.

Solitude and a chance at trophy trout are the attraction during the winter catch and release fishing season at Roaring River State Park. Fishing is with flies only, but marabou jigs are considered flies, according to the rules for winter fishing.Gates cast his black and yellow jig with a spinning rod. Others prefer a fly rod and conventional fishing flies.

Fishing is allowed Friday through Monday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. until mid-February. Anglers may catch fi sh until their arms ache, as long as they release every trout. Anglers 16 and older need to carry a Missouri fishing license and annual trout permit.

Catch and release season starts the middle of November at the park, situated in a deep Ozark canyon 9 miles northeast of Seligman, Mo. To kick things off, the Missouri Department of Conservation stocks more than 1,000 rainbow trout just before opening day. More trout are stocked every couple of weeks, said Dustin Back who works at the department’s trout hatchery inside the state park.

Trout average 12 inches long, but 150 lunkers were stocked in November that weighed 3 to 10 pounds, Back said.

He works at the hatchery but enjoys fly fishing in the park as well.

“Egg patterns are good to use. Pink, orange or yellow are good colors. Small woolly buggers in size 10 to 16 will work,” he said. Olive, black or brown are his favorite woolly bugger colors. San Juan worms are another fly he likes.

“Early in the morning, you can have some good dry fly fishing,” he said. Catching a trout on a floating fly is a thrill akin to seeing a largemouth bass hammer a top-water plug. A spring near the trout hatchery feeds the stream with 20 million gallons of cold, clear water per day pouring from a cleft in a gray wall of rock. Rain can cause a heavier flow and raise the trout stream substantially.

When the water is flowing heavy, switching to a jig is a good idea, Back said. Cinnamon, brown, white and olive are his favorite colors. He recommends a jig that weighs one-sixty-fourth of an ounce or smaller.

By midmorning, sun bathed much of the park, but it was still cold this clear Friday, Jan. 3. The trout were quick to bite and every fly was working, including woolly buggers, San Juan worms and scuds. Rod guides icing up were a minor inconvenience.

QUIET RIVER

During a full day of fishing at the park on Friday, no more than a dozen fishermen could be seen along the stream. Roger Thomas was one of them. He lives in nearby Eagle Rock, Mo., and savors the catch and release season.

“It’s the only time I fish here. Otherwise, it’s crowded,” he said.

The catch and keep season from March 1 through Oct. 31 draws many more anglers. The park’s campgrounds and cabins are open then. Thomas can understand the draw of the scenic state park.

“It’s a great family place in the summer,” Thomas said.

He started fishing at the crack of 8 a.m., standing in snow an inch deep. Frost covered the trees. Steam rising from the 50-degree water looked like a geyser at Yellowstone Park. Thomas caught eight trout in his first 30 minutes of fishing.

Red San Juan worms get bit with a vengeance, he said. So do white or pink egg patterns.

“When the sun first hits the water, bead-head flies aregood, anything that reflects light,” Thomas coached.

To test his advice, I tied on a brown bead-head woolly bugger to work along a bend in the river. Two trout on the first two casts proved Thomas knows what he’s talking about.

Just to experiment later, I switched to a tiny weighted scud. Again, two trout bit on the first two casts, including one fish that put on a leaping acrobatic show. Every fly that was tried produced at least one trout. A white San Juan worm was hot fly of the day.

BACK AGAIN

We’d hit the stream on the right day. Fishing isn’t always so good, as a return trip to Roaring River on Monday showed.

This morning was warmer, but recent rain increased the spring’s flow. The trout stream was 6 inches higher on Monday than on Jan. 3. The water wasn’t as clear and the catching was slower.

A small orange jig produced the most memorable rainbow trout of the trip. With such a bright color, it was easy to see the jig 3 feet underwater and watch the trout approach. “Take it!” I said to no one but the river.

The jig vanished when the rainbow bit. Lifting the rod set the hook and the fish did it’s shake, rattle and roll thing while I kept the line tight.

Once in the net, this trout looked like it’d been in the stream awhile. It was more colorful than your average Roaring River rainbow, with a little crimson among the speckles on its sides. It’s lower jaw had a hook shape.

Releasing such a royal fi sh is a rewarding sensation. It’s a feeling that occurs time and again during catch and release season at Roaring River State Park.

Outdoor, Pages 6 on 01/16/2014