Roaring River is one of Missouri's classic trout parks — a small spring-fed stream bursting out of the Ozark hillside in Roaring River State Park near Cassville, stocked daily with rainbows and run on the state's tag-and-whistle park system that draws crowds the moment the season opens. Most of it is put-and-take park water fished shoulder to shoulder on opening day, but there's a catch-and-release fly zone and a winter catch-and-release season that give the fly fisher quieter, more rewarding water, and the spring keeps it cold and constant year-round. It's not wilderness and doesn't pretend to be — it's a friendly, accessible, intensely managed spring stream. Fish the fly zone with scuds, midges and soft hackles, lean into the winter C&R season for solitude, and take the park rules and daily tags as the framework they are.

• Limestone

• Aquatic life: Supporting