Lake Sherwood, Warren County, July 13th, 2010: Main lake home to huge Bluegills!

I had an opportunity to go to Lake Sherwood in Warren County after work, and I am glad I did. Very rarely will I fish the main lake and not have success fishing, especially for large Bluegill and Red ear Sunfish. This day was not exception.

I used the traditional bottom rig with a nightcrawler and paddled around the main island. I was fishing off the main "channel" of the lake. You can do this on a week day, but on the weekend there are too many skiiers and tubers who make it almost like ocean fishing (kind of like Lake of the Ozarks, except not nearly as bad). Only had a couple of people in powerboats, and it got real calm after 6:00 (that may be when no wake regulations come into place.

Finished around 7:00 p.m. and headed back home.

Fish ON!

MLT

Meremac River, St. louis County, MO. July 4th 2010: Paddeling was awesome, storm not as good

Paddled from the Route 66 State Park boat launch to the confluence of the Big River. I got a chance to film it with my HD camcorder (see previous post). This is one of my favorite stretches of the Meremac River. In the past, the fishing has been really good. This is the spot that I caught a huge smallmouth- my personal best so far.

I had a bottom rig out with some nightcrawlers and caught several drum....this part of the river has a ton of drum. I bet it has some large catfish as well. It is 2.75 miles from the boat launch to the confluence point. I felt the workout the next day, big time (close to 6 miles total)...because my thought was to paddle up, drift fish back for about 3 hours or so. In reality, I paddled up, and then had a thunderstorm on my back going the other way. So I had a "sense of urgency" to get back to the ramp. Did not make it....found a tree to hang out under until it blew over. I got soaked. There is a saying "cotton kills". This is a correct statement. I had a cotton sleeveless shirt on, and it stayed soaked the whole time. In a cooler environment, I could have got hypothermia (even in the summer!). That is why a dry bag with dry clothing is always a good idea (I usually keep extra cloths in the car, if possible).

Flow: 900 (cfs)

Gauge: 2.75 (ft)

Fish ON!

MLT

Lake Sherwood, Warren County, MO. June 26th 2010: Tore it up on large Bluegill and Red-Ear Sunfish- Big time!!

I have fished Lake Sherwood in Warren County many times in the past from shore, but this is the first time I have kayak fished the main lake at Sherwood. My opinion is that Lake Sherwood in Franklin County is the best Red Ear Sunfish lake in the state of Missouri, and is one of the top large Bluegill lakes in the state as well....what an incredible fishery!

I put in near the island on the main dam and paddled into the first cove past the island. The day started off with a couple of large bluegills. Started with a slip bobber, but soon moved to a bottom rig with a nightcrawler...that was the trick!

When I paddled back, I anchored up at a point and started to cast out...BOOM! I must have hit a whole school of large redears! We ended up with a nice stringer at the end of the day, big time. Ended up cooking the filets baked over cajun rice...yum!

Fish ON!

MLT

Lake Sherwood, Franklin County, MO, April 25th, 2010: Huge Redear Sunfish and Bluegill harvested, despite rain and wind

We got a chance Sunday to head out to Lake Sherwood for some fishing. I just had a feeling that the fishing would really be on. The weather was not very encouraging. It seems the best time to fish would have been on Saturday morning before all the really big storms moved in. On Sunday, the cold front had already passed and it was windy with intermittent showers, some were fairly heavy at times. That forecast usually spells for bad fishing. However, I do believe that the spawn is on, so sometimes, especially with panfish, that rule is not always applicable. In this case it was not.

We started out with slip bobbers down about 10', but soon found that the bigger fish were closer to shore. My nephew Hunter came out with Rob, and he tore them up...very, very large Redear Sunfish and Bluegill. The most productive rig was the rig that is always productive at sherwood- bottom rig with nightcrawlers.

We got out around noon and left around 4:00 p.m. or so....Rob and Hunter had 30# worth of fish, we came close to 10#....great day at the lake despite the weather!

Fish ON!

MLT

whetstone Creek CA, Callaway County, MO.: Black Culprit worms hit again!

A front was supposed to move in Friday, but the day ended up being incredible! I got a chance to head up to Whetstone CA in Callaway County, MO. to fish one of my favorite spots, Big Lake. The water temp is still real warm (75 degrees) so there is a lot of cooling down to do before fall.

This lake is so serene....it reminds me of going up north when I was a kid and fishing for Pike in Canada.

Started up by using the go-to bait for 2009, the Gulp Alive! watermelon worm. Did not have a lot of success with it, so as the shade spots started to form later in the day, I switched over to a 7" black Culprit Worm...boom! First cast caught a nice slot bass and threw him back in. I also had a spinning rod rigged with a barrel rig, leader and a circle hook w/ nightcrawler. Caught several nice bluegill with this method. I was surprised I did not catch any channel cats.

Decided to go ahead and harvest my catch...there is nothing better than fresh catch in the frying pan!....it is how God intended it for all of us!

Fish ON!