Current River

The Current River is the best trout stream in Missouri, and it earns that on cold water alone. It rises out of Montauk Spring near Salem — a run of Ozark springs pushing tens of millions of gallons a day of steady 55–58°F water — and that spring flow is what turns a Midwest river into a genuine wild-brown fishery. Below the Montauk State Park boundary, MDC manages nine miles as Blue Ribbon water down to Cedar Grove: flies and artificial lures only, one trout a day, and it has to measure 18 inches. That stretch holds a real wild brown population — on the order of 300 browns per mile between the Tan Vat and Baptist accesses — mixed with stocked and holdover rainbows. There's a legitimate shot at a 20-inch-plus brown here, which you can't say about most water east of the Rockies.

It fishes like a big spring creek up top and a float river below. The wade water near Tan Vat — locals call it the "Million Dollar Mile" — is undercut banks, big rock, and overhead cover you can cover on foot, but plenty of the river runs too deep to wade and gets fished from a canoe. This is Ozark National Scenic Riverways water, so canoe traffic is the reality of the place: summer weekends bring floaters by the hundreds, and the honest move is to fish early, fish the Blue Ribbon on weekdays, or come in fall when the boats thin out and the browns get aggressive pre-spawn. The most productive default is drifting scuds, sowbugs, and midges through the deeper pockets and below riffles; a sculpin streamer moves the biggest browns.

Below Cedar Grove the White Ribbon water runs to Akers Ferry — put-and-take rainbows stocked about monthly, four fish a day, no bait restriction, and much of it float-only. Trout thin out below Akers as the river warms; by the time you reach Van Buren you're in clear, big smallmouth and walleye water, not trout water. One quirk worth flagging: in Dent, Texas, and Shannon counties, porous-soled (felt) waders are prohibited on the Current — bring rubber soles.