Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, Lake 24, March 10th, 2010: Still have some smaller trout in lakes

This was an absolutely gorgeous day. The temperature got up to 70 degrees and felt AWESOME! Keep in mind, the water is still really cold. Good conditions for the remaining trout that are stocked in the lakes. These lakes were stocked this winter, and then froze over several times. I know there were people who were ice fishing them this year (probably one of the first years you could do that this far south), but I think there are still plenty trout.....just a little more challenging to come by.

Caught my first one on a single egg hook with a red trout bait nugget. The second one I caught was of better size, and I caught this one on a brown rooster tail. The muskrats are actively nesting, so that means spring is right around the corner. Lake 24 is one of my favorite lakes at Busch Wildlife CA for trout...great day to be outside!

fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, MO, Lake 28, March 29th, 2009: Powerbait Paste worked well for Rainbows

Very interesting start to the day....we had about 3" of snow on the ground, and by the time I got out to Busch Wildlife CA, almost all of it was melted. Got my hip waders on and proceeded to walk around the lake. Fished next to a Canada Goose nest...female let me past, but once the male flew in, it became an issue...secret is not to show fear- or they will attack. Instead they just hissed at me and I walked past. Caught the largemouth Bass on a Little Cleo Silver/Blue spoon real close to shore. Got to the corner of the levy- backside of the lake, and bottom fished with a small treble and white/red/blue Powerbait paste. Took back home (2) decent Rainbow Trout and missed on a couple of more. Got real windy towards the end.

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, MO, Lake 28, February 28th, 2009- Still a lot of trout in lakes

Got out to Lake 28 around 1:30 p.m. and fished until about 5:00. There are still a lot of trout in this lake. In November, December and sometime January they stock this lake and it is catch and release only...seem to recall they stock them with a couple of thousand or so.
Got my hip waders on and walked around towards the back of the lake (forest side, not Highway D side). Used a Silver/Blue Little Cleo spoon due to the overcast skies, but had little luck, so I hiked towards the parking lot and changed the spoon up to a Little Cleo Gold/Red spoon (my "go-to" spoon). Got in the water a little and caught a nice one fairly deep.
Man it started to get cold out...the guides were freezing and water was freezing on the line (this can be a challenge w/ 2# test). The real reason I stopped after a couple of hours was that my feet were absolutly freezing. The air temp was colder than the water temp, so when I got out of the water, it really started to get cold... note to self: make sure to put on (2) pairs of wool socks, not just one!

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, January 3, 2009: One Rainbow, One Brownie, and One Bass

Saturday, January 3rd, 2008: How is that for a title? Sounds like a George Thorogood Song, does it not? Weather was very warm (55 degrees or more) and most of the ice has melted from the lakes. Quite a large crowd at all of the lakes (typical for a warm Saturday). I just got a brand new pair of hip waders. I thought this would be a good day to break them in.

Went to Lake 22 first and proceeded to walk the entire lake. Lots and lots of people fishing w/ bait, so I went with my typical pattern, spoons and metal. Lake conditions are very high and murky to almost muddy (Lake 22 leaned towards the latter). Walked around the entire lake. Did not see anyone get on any major fish (one person caught one in the back part of the lake on bait, but that is all I saw). Caught a nice Largemouth Bass on a gold Kastmaster spoon w/ red slash- thought it was weeds until it started to move in the opposite direction. Went to the back corner of the lake where I had limited out last weekend (forgot to post a report on this site) and fished it for about 20 min. w/ no success.

Decided after that to go to the catch and release lake, Lake 28. Towards the back of the lake there was an ice patch (lost a spoon on it, thank you very much!) and started to fish the edge of the ice bank along the jetty. Caught a nice brownie! (see the photos and video below). It is amazing how bigger their teeth are than the Rainbows (thought I was thumbing a Walleye at first!) Fought hard and was a real joy to catch. Caught him using this seasons old reliable, Gold Super Duper

Walked around the side of the lake closest to Hwy D and hiked over a water covered jetty (hip waders came in real handy) and caught a nice rainbow on the standard, Gold Little Cleo spoon. He was deep near some structure. Debated getting the fly rod out and throwing jigs, but decided to head back.

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, Lake 22, December 21st, 2008: Trout are in clusters

Here is a good stringer picture from lake 22. This is an interesting lake. It seems like when you fish it, it is all or nothing. Lake 22 is a very easy lake to get skunked or, what I like to say, go "0-fer."

Hit a sweet spot- you could literally see the trout finning on the surface. One of the guys near me was getting strikes on his small bobber. Tore them up on gold Super Dupers....lost just as many. Super Dupers are great, but 9 times out of ten you hook them right on the kipe, which means you really need to be skilled in landing them or you end up losing them.

Cleaned them up at my parents house and "gave the gift of trout" this year. They said they cooked up real nice and were quite tasty...fresh, almost like a shore lunch up north.

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, Lake 24, December 20, 2008:

As you can see, pretty nice crowd on this day....wind was really bad at times, made it feel colder than it needed to be. Circled the lake with the traditional items....started using power bait paste with no avail. After about an hour switched over to a silver Super Duper spoon....limited out within an hour. They were a challenging bite, but we were able to figure them out.

Many of the bait fishermen had fish, but not as many, and the action was not as fast.

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, MO, Lake 35, July 2nd: Lizards and Tubes

Hit the lake about 8:00 a.m.- started off a little slow at some of the "go-to" spots. Probably has to do with the water in the lake being high. On that note, this is a lake that looked like it was dead this time last year- it has come back nicely! Looks like they found the leak area and the lake is really starting to hold water well.
Salt tubes way to go (natural color) and the standard for this summer: Zoom Plastic Lizards. I took the one photo of the bass with the lizard just because I thought it was funny- The lizard is almost as big as the bass!
Used some deep diving crank baits and trolled a couple of times in the 25-30' water. Just wanted to see if any big bass or musky were awake- no luck this time.

Barometric Pressure: 29.92
Water Temp: 82.3
Solar Lunar Times: 12:34-2:34 a.m.; 12:59-2:50 p.m New Moon
Outside Conditions: Cloud bank early, then sun, hot

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife Area, St. Charles County, MO. Lake 35 July 27th: Some success on Lizards and Worms

Lake 35 was a little more productive than it has been in the last couple of weeks. Still getting some nice bites on Zoom Plastic Lizards with the Carolina Rig system. I noticed that the bass are moving into more of a traditional summer pattern. The larger bass was "laying in the salad" when he hit on the red 8" culprit worm, texas rigged. Barely felt the bite, thought it may have been a snag. Caught him in about 8' of water about 10' out from shore.

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, Lake 33 July 19th: Some success with Plastic Worms

Had a little success in the morning with a Texas Rigged red/black culprit 8" worm. Skies were cloudy and overcast. Bites were coming close to shore near structure. After the clouds moved out, started to get incredibly windy and rough (but sunny). The bites really started to turn off after that. Left around 5:00....probably would have had some success towards nightfall if I would have stayed out later.

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife Area, Lake 35, St. Charles County July 17th & 18th; Tubes seem to work good!

Here is a cool picture of a Large mouth totally engulfing a tube. I was down in Springfield last week speaking with one of my favorite tackle shops, Fin and Feather (on South Campbell). The owner of the shop and I were having a conversation about fishing heavily weeded lakes (which is real common this time of the year) and we got a discussion going on about flipping tubes in weeds. I was originally looking for the red Gamakatsu "Fluke Hooks" (the kind that have the weight molded onto the hook). He showed me one of the coolest hooks for tubes. You run the eyelet part of the hook thru the very top of the tube and then press the hook right thru the tube (so the hook is exposed on the other side, but throws out weedless). I will include a picture on some future posts.

The fishing on 35 is slow right now, but the lake is the healthier than previous years. The tubes seemed to work, and they are hitting on plastic worms. Later in the day and probably early in the morning (typical summer pattern)

Spent some time with a friend of mine, Art McCall. We threw a lot of different presentation. Got very hot and action was slow. Art had better luck than me, caught one on a red plastic worm thrown almost weightless.

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife Area, St. Charles County, Lake 35, July 4th, 2008: Bass hitting on "spring like" lures

Hit Lake 35 about noon on July 4th. I decided that I was going to leave the live bait at home and just go for bass. Tried and threw quite a few different lures: Flukes on a spinning rod, Plastic worm, Hula Grub jigs, even tossed a wiggle wort around.
Here is what worked: A carolina rigged baitcast rod with a green zoom lizard. Caught the two fish you see and got more taps that I was able to miss. Here is what I have noticed about 2008: since the water is high, what worked in May last year is working now in July. I have even noticed this with panfish fishing.
Good news: Lake 35 is looking healthy for the first time in about 3 years. It still is a real mossy lake, but it looks nice and healthy.

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife Area, St. Charles County, MO, Lake 37; Catfish turning on!

Check out the photo of the HUGE crappie I caught at 37! He hit on a nightcrawler like all of the rest of the fish. Landed a much larger catfish that I lost (when I fish this style, I use a thinner, sharper crappie hook and 6# test- makes the fishing more exciting!).
This lake has a good varity- good catfish, redear sunfish and, I guess now, crappies. I have never had a lot of luck with large bass- most that I have caught here over the years have been in the 8-12" range

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife Lake 33: Not much to report

Here is a great sunset photo. Fished Lake 33 about 3 times in april- not much success. I am glad to see the water level is up, but have not been able to figure out what patterns have worked. Crappie have been caught on minnows, but very sporadic. Usually this time of year, the catfish are really on, as well as the bass. Not yet.

Fish On

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, Mo: Lake 22 produces both trout and bass!

I did not know if I was going to be able to get some fishing in Saturday due to all of the rain that was predicted, but it looked like it was heading south so I decided to head out to Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, MO.
Started off slow. My daughter and I went to lake 24 yesterday afternoon and did not catch a thing. Walked along the dam and threw rooster tails and little cleo spoons- no success. Started to get colder, so I almost entertained the thought of going back to the house.
I am glad I decided to go around the lake. Started to throw a gold/red little cleo spoon (my favorite in water that is high and murky). Caught a typical stocker sized rainbow right away (about 13").
A little later on caught a really small rainbow on a bobber w/ Mike's Atlas Shrimp Salmon egg close to shore- real small one!
I set some rods out with blue/green power bait and orange power bait on the bottom- not a touch! It started to get around 5:30, so I was getting ready to pack up. Threw the little cleo spoon out and BAM! got a big hit! It was a 14 1/2" bass (measured it) caught on my ultra-light spinning rod, 2# test in cover- What an achievement! I really thought I was going to lose him due to the light tackle and all the cover I had to pull the fish through. What a rush! First bass of the year!

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA St. Charles County, MO: Lake 24 produces after a 3 week freeze-over

Here is a photo of my limit as well as my friend, Ray Schrader and his limit. We had both fished this lake earlier in the season with some great results. We had fished on of the other lakes earlier that day, due to the fact that 24 was still frozen over that morning. We waited until after 12:00, got some lunch, and then hit 24

We limited out within 2 hours. Once again, PowerBait paste on a small treble hook, with a slip sinker rig, 2# test was the key. Ray used Orange and I used both purple nymph color and Rainbow Orange (Mike's Atlas Bait- more of a anise smelling paste).

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, January 6th, 2008: Lake 24 trout fishing very good, caught them on Powerbait!

The weather today was unseasonably warm. When we started fishing there was still a thin layer of ice on the lakes. Toward the end of the day, it seemed to be around 70 degrees and very windy.

We started at lake 22. My friend, Ray, caught a small one on a gold spoon. It was really slow other than that, so we decided to grab lunch and then hit Lake 24.

This lake started out slow as well. We walked around the dam with super dupers and gold little cleo spoons. It was incredibly slow, so we went back to the parking lot and traded out the spoons for power bait and slip weights. Around 2:00 the fishing really started to turn on. We both limited out around 5:00 as the sun was starting to go down. Incredibly enjoyable day of fishing. I cannot wait to go back. The time went to quickly.

Fish On!

MLT

Busch Wildlife Conservation Area, December 30th: Trout Excellent once again

Another great day of fishing. Fished Lake 24 (one of my favorites). The lake had a partial freeze toward the road, so went out near the dam. They were hitting right where the freeze line hit the non-frozen water. I really think that the depth of the water had more to do with it than the ice, however. Went out around 1:00- had my limit by 2:00.

Once again, Spoons are the key. I think with spoons, Super Dupers, Rooster tails, the action is different than bait. It seems that when you do hit, the action is WILD! and when you do not catch any, you do not catch any for hours.

I am glad I limited out- we smoke these for the new year- it is our annual event.

Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County, MO, December 29th: Trout Fishing Good

Trout fishing was good, but not at first. Walked all around lake 22 (needed the exercise, anyhow) with no luck. It is amazing to me how low these lakes still are. We need a heavy snow this winter to get them up again.

Most of the people out were fishing baits (power baits, some hatchery powder baits) and having some success. After fishing about 2 1/2 hours, I almost changed my approach. I forgot my tackle box that had all the baits- I was getting ready to switch over to bait fishing. I am glad I stuck with my guns, however.

Around 4:30 got to some brush and BAM! They started to hit on the little cleo gold/red spoon. I limited out within about 1/2 an hour, and came out with more fish than the guys who were bait fishing it.

Lesson learned: When you have experience with something that works, and you know it will work- never doubt the "game plan" you started with. I think most of my "non-success" in the past had to do with second guessing the "game plan."

This sounds like something I could use in one of our business talks. Principles in fishing and business really have a lot of similarities, do they not?

Fish ON!

MLT

Busch Wildlife CA, Lake 37 St. Charles County, MO.- Catfish and redear sunfish! Sept. 16th

Great day of fishing. Overcast all day. water temp around 73. Nothing artificial worked (could have left baitcast rods and big tackle box at home) but they were hitting on nightcrawlers! Used slipbobbers and had them about 8' deep in 14' of water.

Took 5 redear sunfish (the largest was 10") and two catfish (the largest was 20"). Caught several small catfish and bass (the largest bass was 13")

This lake is turning into a really good redear lake. The key to redear fishing is being able to go were timber and deep meet (you need a boat) and fishing it deep enough.

Very productive day

Fish On!

MLT

Busch Wildlife Area, St. Charles County, Lake 33- Catfish are back

Good day of fishing. Cool and foggy when I set out, fish hit hard up to noon. Used my traditional live bait set up, slip bobbers and nightcrawlers. Hit close to cover, as the photo shows.

Lost one of good size in the timber (snapped the line), but soon came to realize later, I was having gear problems (reel is so old, it is nicking up the line- damaged carrier) so I will probably have to retire that reel and break down and buy a new one.

Fish was good! took them home, cleaned them, and baked the filets in the oven with lemon and cajun seasoning.

Fish On!

MLT