Mississippi River, East Alton, IL, August 24th, 2008- Fishing the Lock and Dam

Here are some great photos of the Melvin Price Lock and Dam near Alton, IL. This is a great place to fish- I forgot how much fun it was just to set some lines out and see what you can do. I got a new Ugly Stick 9' catfish rod, along with a new Tidewater reel, loaded with 30# Shakespeare red cajun line. What a great outfit! I cannot wait to take it to the Outer Banks next year to surf fish. I think that is one of the things I love most about fishing the big rivers- it reminds me in some ways of fishing the ocean. The rigs are the same, and the bait fishing concepts are the same as well.

Caught a little Flathead Catfish at first (I caught a couple of other fish, but lost the rig in the rip-rap). It was a small one, but fun to set the hook on. Later, I caught a HUGE smallmouth Buffalo. It looked like a cross between a Drum and a Carp. It fought me hard. I approximate it was probably about 32-33" across and probably weighted in at around 8-10#. Fought really hard like a carp. I brought it over to another person who was fishing, and he took the photo. I should have attached it- you would laugh! He got everything below where I was holding the fish up.-- note to self: always take one photo of a big fish WITHOUT you, just in case we cannot get the camera figured out. Oh well, no sweat. I will catch other big fish. Used night crawlers all day. Next time I am out, I am going to use cut bait as well (guy next to me caught a really nice Blue Catfish on cut bait, using the same rig I was fishing)

Fish ON!

MLT

Little Dixie CA, Callaway County, MO. August 6th, 2008: Plastic Worms the key

Here are a few photos of some nice slot size (12-15") bass at Little Dixie CA in Callaway County, MO. Bass are starting to fall into the tipical late summer pattern- catch a whole lot at once on a plastic worm, followed by a couple of hours of no activity.

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