Monday, March 26, 2007

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County ,MO. Lake 16, March 25th, 2007



Caught 10-12 bass and 4-5 bluegill on gold micro-spins with bleeding hook jig and metallic blue minnow. Bass are still hugging very close to cover and shore line. Average Bass very small, but that should change later in the year. This is the same lake I caught a HUGE channel cat on a Zipper Worm last summer.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

The Bass are back! Weldon Spring CA, St. Charles County, MO.- March 24, 2007





Great day of fishing. Caught a lot of smaller bass, some good size bluegills and belive it or not, channel catfish (on a gold/silver spoon!)

Charlie caught a 6# on a roadrunner with a pumpkin trailer in the shallows- What a fish! I think I had got a piece of it earlier or maybe it's brother. Lost a micro spin- snapped the line! We were both fishing with spinning roads and 6# test. Check out the photo of the bass Charlie caught!


Fish on!


MLT

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Fishing good at Bennett Spring- March 20th, 2007






Fishing was great at Bennett Spring on this day! Drove through some really heavy rain but it cleared up by the time I got to the park. Roads were still wet when I arrived- one of the local fishermen said it had rained real hard earlier, but the water was good- just a tad murky, but not bad.
Caught (4) trout in about 3 1/2 hours (not bad for late day!). Caught my first on a white/rainbow super duper, ultra-light rod with #2 test. Caught the rest on my other ultra light (same rig) with a mepps comet #0. Check out the incredible trout catch-and-release "action shot".

Fish on!

MLT

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Best of 2006: Fishing for Largemouths at Lost Valley Lake Resort, Franklin County, Missouri

















This was a fall fishing trip that was a lot of fun. My brother-in-law, Rob (he is the guy standing in the photo), has a membership to this private resort. There are (2) lakes in the resort. We decided that we would fish the new lake (it has been around approx less that 6 years). What is great about this lake is that is has limited fishing pressure.
Rob has a small boat with a couple of trolling motors (we used both when we wanted to move "fast"). It was just big enough for the both of us and all of our gear.

We decided that we would get out early that morning- it was cool to cold, but not bad for a fall morning. The morning started out slow, but we started to get hits about an hour into it. Rob and I had tried many things, but the one thing we had a lot of success with was the Chomper Hula Grub on a stand-up Jig. I was using a bait cast rod with 12" test and Rob had a similar set up.
Here is what is cool about this rig and what makes it my "go-to" bait for largemouths (and smallmouths, by the way).
The way to fish this bait is to hit the shoreline, bring it in maybe 3-4 feet and then stop. Slowly move your rod tip up and down. When you get a hit, you will feel a "tap, tap, tap". That is when it is time to pull back with all you got and set the hook. The set is real important, because we were using a stand-up jig, and it has a brush weed guard right above the hook tip. If you do not have a strong set, you will lose the fish (I discovered that early on using these jigs)
Rob and I both had a real good day. If I can recall, both of us caught around 5-10 fish each (higher if you count the "misses").
I cannot say enough about Chompers Hula-grubs and stand-up jigs. I fished Lake of the Ozarks earlier in the year and caught (2) 5# bass using this same set up. I have found this is a great way to approach bass in Spring and fall. I have also had an incredible amount of good fortune using this set up fishing for smallies in small rivers.
Spring is just around the corner!

Good Fishing! MLT