Cardiac Mountain Outfitters offers unique way to fish Ozark streams
by Kyle Wayne Stewart | info@ruralmissouri.coop
The blue heron stood low on a branch jutting from the shoreline. It had been following the boat for the last quarter-mile, keeping a safe distance, preening occasionally and taking flight almost inaudibly every 75 yards or so. Now, it craned its neck and looked with curiosity as the oars stirred circles in the spring-fed waters pushing the boat ever onward downstream.
With every stroke, the sunburned trout tattoo on fishing guide Damon Spurgeon’s forearm would become animated — its fins flexing as he plied the oars — swimming in permanent display just below the cuff of his rolled-up shirtsleeve.
The sun was over the ridge and the oars had been in the water for a little over an hour. Damon rested the oars in their locks, droplets falling from the worn wooden blades and rejoining the river. He dropped the anchor to hold the drift boat in place, 2 yards from the confluence of where the cold water of Maramec Spring feeds into the larger and more well-known Meramec River. The mist rising off the water carried a hint of magic and mystery.
“This has been a great spot for some excellent browns and some really nice rainbows,” Damon says. “We’ve been catching a lot of them right in this pocket along the bluff face.”
Although Damon has guided fishing trips for several species all over the state, his favorite one to target is trout. “Trout tend to live and do well in beautiful places and these habitats often make fishing more personal,” he says. “More times than not, you can see the fish in the clear waters, and it becomes a process of diagnosing which applications work or don’t work. It’s a lot like a game of chess when you’re fishing for trout.”
It wasn’t long before his promise proved true. A 15-inch rainbow trout sucked down a half-inch, copper-headed fly — pulling and thrashing against the pressure on the line once it realized its mistake. The trout put up an admirable fight but soon found its way into Damon’s net and then the successful client’s hands for a few photos before being placed back in the river and swimming off. “It’s so nice to just be able to be out on the water and get people on some really good fish,” he says.
Damon, who lives in Rolla but works as a pipefitter in St. Louis during the week, has been guiding fishing trips on the Meramec River under Cardiac Mountain Outfitters since 2018. The Intercounty Electric Cooperative member grew up in the St. James area, spending much of his youth fishing the Meramec with his father and grandfather, so, in many ways, this venture is a lot like coming home.
Cardiac Mountain Outfitters gets its name from “Cardiac Hill,” the imposing Ozark hillside that lines the northeastern side of the Meramec River Valley, which Damon became intimately acquainted with while fishing as a boy with his grandfather.
“It’s called Cardiac Hill because going down the hill is easy but going back up will really test your cardiovascular health,” Damon says. “The other side is known as ‘Suicide Hill,’ so I thought Cardiac Mountain had a better ring to it. Jokes aside, my grandfather was instrumental in instilling my love of flyfishing, and fishing in general, so I wanted to pay homage to him in the name of my guiding service.”
What makes Damon unique among many fishing guides in the Show-Me State is that instead of guiding in a traditional motorized boat, johnboat or jet boat, he navigates the Ozark streams in a ClackaCraft drift boat that he manually rows downriver. Piloting a vessel more akin to something you would see on the Western rivers of Colorado, Montana and Wyoming than in the Heartland, Damon received quite a few raised eyebrows of fellow fishers when he first started out. But it wasn’t long until he knew he was on to something.
“With a drift boat, you get a really smooth ride and plenty of room in the boat to fish compared with a canoe or kayak,” Damon says.
Damon Spurgeon has been guiding fishing trips on the Meramec River through his business, Cardiac Mountain Outfitters, since 2018. The Intercounty Electric Cooperative member grew up in the St. James area, spending much of his youth fishing the Meramec with his father and grandfather, so, in many ways, this venture allows him to grant others fishing memories that last a lifetime.
Additionally, with the smaller, man-powered vessel, anglers can access different streams and parts of the river that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach in a traditional fishing boat. “Drift boats are still relatively scarce in this area,” he says, “so it provides a unique experience that most anglers haven’t been able to enjoy in Missouri.”
Most of Cardiac Mountain Outfitters’ trips begin at Maramec Spring Park just outside of St. James before drifting roughly 10 miles downriver to the Scotts Ford Access near Steelville. With the Meramec’s reputation for being one of the most biologically diverse rivers in the country, fishing trips with Damon typically begin with targeting rainbow and brown trout throughout the first half of the day before targeting smallmouth.
Although Damon has guided fishing trips for several fish species all over the state, his favorite one to target is Missouri’s trout population. “Trout tend to live and do well in beautiful places and these habitats often make fishing more personal,” he says. “More times than not, you can see the fish in the clear waters, and it becomes a process of diagnosing which applications work or don’t work. It’s a lot like a game of chess when you’re fishing for trout.”
While the guiding business is not Damon’s main occupation, it’s his way of sharing the splendors of the Show-Me State with others, whether they live nearby or in states across the country.
“Missouri, as a whole, provides opportunities for any type of fishing you can imagine,” Damon says. “Throughout the state, we have just incredible opportunities to catch world-class native fish and even rainbow and brown trout, which have traditionally always been thought to only be available in the western states. My goal is to just spread the word fishing in Missouri can be just as good, if not better, than anywhere else in the country.”
For more information on Cardiac Mountain Outfitters or to book a fishing trip, call Damon Spurgeon at 573-263-9776 or follow the business on Facebook.
Stewart is a freelance writer from Jefferson City.