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

Lake Sherwood, Franklin County, MO, October 2008- Largest Red Ears of the Year!

Here are some great pictures from late October at Lake Sherwood, Warren County, MO. We caught these on nightcrawlers with rods strung up with barrel weights, swivel stops and about 10" leaders.....look at the size of these! The one I was holding measured out at around 15". The hits were not as fast as the summer, but they pounded these when they hit and were of larger size.

Fish ON!

MLT