The best known New Year celebration came nearly two months ago when the Gregorian calendar changed from 2025 to 2026. This past week the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year, was ushered in with the first new moon since January 21. The year of the horse began on Feb. 17.
One more new year will be celebrated on March 1 in Missouri, and every spring it could be presented as the year of the rainbow trout. With a weekend opening day for the spring catch-and-keep season at Missouri’s four trout parks, big crowds are guaranteed.
Even though the fishing can’t commence until early Sunday morning, the party atmosphere will be obvious as anglers begin arriving on Friday afternoon. Missouri State Parks will be ready with extended hours at the stores and restaurants at Montauk, Bennett Spring and Roaring River.
The store hours are most important because that is where anglers purchase their required daily trout tags. The park-specific permits are $5 for adults and $3 for anglers 15 years old and younger. In addition, Missouri residents ages 16 through 64 must have a state fishing permit. Non-residents 16 and older are also required to purchase state fishing licenses, which are available by the day or year. Daily permits are $9 each. Annual fishing licenses are $14 for Missourians and $57 for non-residents. They are available online at mdc.mo.gov and through permit vendors statewide. Annual fishing permits are valid each year from March 1 through February 28.
At Montauk, south of Rolla near Salem, the park store will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 27, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, and from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. The park restaurant is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.
West of Lebanon, Bennett Spring will welcome anglers to its store for supplies and opening day tag purchases from 1 to 8 p.m. on Friday. The store will reopen at 9 a.m. on Saturday and continue to serve customers without closing until 9 p.m. on Sunday. The lodge restaurant at Bennett will be open from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Roaring River State Park is south of Cassville in the southwest corner of Missouri. The park store will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday. It also will stay open overnight from 8 a.m. Saturday until 8 p.m. on Sunday. The restaurant will serve customers from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. all three days of the weekend.
For more information on the three State Park facilities, visit mostateparks.com or call Montauk at 573-548-2201, Bennett Spring at 417-532-4338, or Roaring River at 417-847-2539.
Trout fishing season also opens March 1 at Maramec Spring Park. That property is between St. James and Steelville on state Highway 8 and is owned by the James Foundation. In addition to the $5 daily tag for each adult angler, Maramec Spring charges a $7 per vehicle entry fee.
The trout are supplied by hatcheries operated by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Fish will be stocked in the streams based on the number of daily tags sold and the anticipated number of anglers at each location.
The daily limit for trout is four at all of the parks, and anglers must stop fishing when they catch and keep their fourth fish. The volatile spring weather may affect the comfort levels for those who will stand in the icy spring-fed water on March 1, but it will not limit the crowd size or the celebration that welcomes the new year.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.