![]() Great blue herons are regular visitors to streams in Missouri, and fish account for the bulk of their diet. On top of contending with drought conditions, the resident trout of Crane Creek run the gauntlet of predators. Overall, the trout population fared well and appeared to be healthy despite the harsh conditions in 2012.” Even after such apparently disastrous situations, Crane Creek continues to provide a habitat for an introduced species of cold-water fish. According to a Missouri Department of Conservation report, “numerous portions of the state experienced severe to extreme drought resulting low water conditions in many lakes and streams, including Crane Creek. In July 2012, all 114 counties in Missouri were declared “primary natural disaster areas” following the worst drought in 30 years. Despite the reduction in surface water, this phenomenon does provide a benefit because the stream is protected from the harsh Missouri summer heat, thus retaining that 58-degree temperature longer.Įven with the natural occurrences of low water, there still exists the threat of drought. Many people who visit Crane Creek believe it has run dry, while a short walk downstream will reveal deep pools and running water. Limestone formations that lay under the Ozarks create a situation where stream water often disappears underground due to the soluble nature of the rock strata, only to reappear further down the watercourse. Part of the debate of whether or not wild trout have survived over a century in Crane stems from the creek’s status as a “losing stream,” a phenomenon of karst topography. In addition, the numerous springs feed the stream after passage through limestone, increasing its pH level, thereby making it especially fertile and capable of producing prolific insect hatches. Crane’s springs produce water from underground and release it at approximately 58 degrees, ideal for a trout stream. Trout, being a cold-water fish, require a water temperature range of 40–70 degrees, although they favor temperatures of 55–65 degrees. During the Civil War, Crane Creek was the site of an 1862 battle alongside the Old Wire Road, a telegraph line that followed the old Butterfield route between St Louis and Fort Smith. The area was already an established thoroughfare, with a leg of the Butterfield Overland Mail route passing through in the mid century. Records show that tracks crossed the cold, clear creek by the time the Missouri Fisheries Commission began stocking rainbow trout. Promising WaterĬrane Creek was probably chosen because of the railroad, the main form of transportation in the 1800s. So one would assume that after 1877, the fish from that hatchery could not be guaranteed to be genetically pure McCloud trout. The issue is further complicated because, in 1877, the California hatchery responsible for stocking the McCloud River began mixing coastal rainbow (steelhead) and Dolly Varden trout eggs with the McCloud trout eggs. The origins of the trout used for those later stockings is uncertain, although it is believed that later fish were more generally rainbow trout rather than the ancestral McClouds. The records are somewhat clouded as to whether Crane Creek was re-stocked in later years, although the current Missouri Department of Conservation believes the final stocking took place in 1920. By 1882, the Commission reported trout spawning in Crane Creek. Joseph, Missouri, where they duly hatched into fingerlings ready for release into selected streams, Crane Creek included. Eggs were transported from California’s McCloud River egg-taking station to the fish hatchery in St. ![]() While trout are not native to Missouri, we know that the Missouri Fisheries Commission first stocked selected streams with McCloud Redband trout in 1880. Could these primal trout exist in the Ozarks? They are a recent ancestor of the rainbow trout therefore, any currently existing stocks represent an earlier, yet still existing, part of the evolutionary line. The McCloud River Redband trout is renowned in fishing history because it is believed to be the trout subspecies chosen for Federal hatchery-raised rainbow trout in the United States and elsewhere. ![]() Whether this little gem of a stream is one of last bastions of the fabled McCloud River Redband trout is a subject that has been debated by experts and anglers for many years. The fact that a crystal clear, spring-fed creek flows through nearly 23 miles of this countryside is also indisputable. There is little doubt that the countryside in Stone County, Missouri, especially in the vicinity of the small town of Crane, is a wonderful example of beautiful Ozark scenery. Is a tiny stream in the Ozarks home to the storied McCloud River Redband Trout? ![]()
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