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, 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 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.