Another season of catch-and-keep trout fishing will soon be underway at Maramec Spring Park, with March 1 marking opening day. Park Director Wes Swee is anticipating one of the most crowded opening days in the past 10 years at the park, with thousands of anglers from across the state seeking their first catch of the season.

The park will open at 4 a.m. on opening day, with gear available to purchase for anyone who may have forgotten essential items. Volunteers will help direct parking. Throughout the rest of the season, the park opens one hour before fishing starts.

Daily trout tags are required to fish in the park. Tags can be purchased at the park entrance and cost $5 for adults and $3 for ages 15 and under. Missouri residents ages 16 through 64 are also required to have a fishing permit, which can be purchased online at the Missouri Department of Conservation website or at the park entrance. Annual permits cost $13 and daily permits cost $9. 

Maramec Spring Park is encouraging anyone planning to fish on opening day to consider purchasing their tags and permits ahead of time to keep traffic flowing smoothly through the park.

Parking is $7 per car, and $70 season passes can be purchased.

Each opening day, an honoree is chosen to set off the cannon at 6:30 a.m., marking the official start to the season. Skip Doak, a retired hatchery manager from Maramec Spring Park and lifelong conservationist, will do the honor.

“He’ll get to push the button, and then once that goes off, within seconds, there will be a kid running up with a fish still flopping around in a net to get that first fish of the day,” Swee said.

On a regular day, the park stocks two fish per estimated person. On opening day, three fish per estimated person will be stocked. Swee anticipates around 6,000 trout will be stocked for the day, with several sizable fish, including 50 to 100 lunkers, ready to be caught.

“I always call it the Super Bowl of trout fishing, because a lot of people, when they think trout fishing, they have this mindset of ‘mountain stream, out there by yourself, doing a fly cast,’” Swee said. “This is more of the very social, hanging out with your friends and family, and side by side fishing, and everybody cheering along as you’re reeling in a big fish or lunker that they put out the night before.”

Prizes will be awarded by the Chamber of Commerce in several categories, including first fish caught for men, women and youth, as well as for the biggest catch of the day.

The park’s March fishing hours run from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. until daylight saving time, when they will change to 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. to follow daylight. The season runs through Oct. 31, after which catch-and-release season begins.

The daily limit for the park is four fish, and the possession limit is eight fish. Most of the park’s fish are rainbow trout, which have no size limit to keep. Brown trout are also available, but must be 15 inches or longer to keep.

A handicapped accessible fishing sidewalk and jetty are located near the entrance of the fishing area.

Both the Chamber of Commerce and the Trout Fraternity will be serving coffee, hot chocolate and donuts. The Typsy Gypsy food truck will also be on-site.

Park employees are working hard to get the grounds ready for the large crowds by reopening bathrooms that were winterized for the colder months, fixing roads, replacing signage and restocking the store.

The extended weather forecast predicts that temperatures on opening day could reach the mid 50s with partly cloudy skies.

Missouri’s other three trout parks – Bennett Spring State Park, located near Lebanon, Montauk State Park, located near Salem and Roaring River State Park, located near Cassville, also draw large crowds for the day. In total, the state raises around 1.4 million rainbow trout every year. 

Maramec Spring has several annual fishing events for the season planned, including kids’ free fishing day on May 16, veterans’ free fishing day on June 14, women’s free fishing day on Sept. 14, and fall derby day on Oct. 31, which marks the last hurrah of the catch-and-keep season. On June 6-7, all fishers get in free.

The park, which is privately owned and operated by the James Foundation, contains the fifth-largest spring in the state. Many activities outside of fishing are available to visitors, including year-round camping and glamping, maintained hiking trails, fish feeding and wildlife viewing, rentable picnic shelters and more.