Busch Wildlife CA, St. Charles County ,MO. Lake 16, March 25th, 2007

Caught 10-12 bass and 4-5 bluegill on gold micro-spins with bleeding hook jig and metallic blue minnow. Bass are still hugging very close to cover and shore line. Average Bass very small, but that should change later in the year. This is the same lake I caught a HUGE channel cat on a Zipper Worm last summer.

The Bass are back! Weldon Spring CA, St. Charles County, MO.- March 24, 2007

Great day of fishing. Caught a lot of smaller bass, some good size bluegills and belive it or not, channel catfish (on a gold/silver spoon!)

Charlie caught a 6# on a roadrunner with a pumpkin trailer in the shallows- What a fish! I think I had got a piece of it earlier or maybe it's brother. Lost a micro spin- snapped the line! We were both fishing with spinning roads and 6# test. Check out the photo of the bass Charlie caught!

Fish on!

MLT

Fishing good at Bennett Spring- March 20th, 2007

Fishing was great at Bennett Spring on this day! Drove through some really heavy rain but it cleared up by the time I got to the park. Roads were still wet when I arrived- one of the local fishermen said it had rained real hard earlier, but the water was good- just a tad murky, but not bad.
Caught (4) trout in about 3 1/2 hours (not bad for late day!). Caught my first on a white/rainbow super duper, ultra-light rod with #2 test. Caught the rest on my other ultra light (same rig) with a mepps comet #0. Check out the incredible trout catch-and-release "action shot".

Fish on!

MLT

Best of 2006: Fishing for Largemouths at Lost Valley Lake Resort, Franklin County, Missouri

This was a fall fishing trip that was a lot of fun. My brother-in-law, Rob (he is the guy standing in the photo), has a membership to this private resort. There are (2) lakes in the resort. We decided that we would fish the new lake (it has been around approx less that 6 years). What is great about this lake is that is has limited fishing pressure.
Rob has a small boat with a couple of trolling motors (we used both when we wanted to move "fast"). It was just big enough for the both of us and all of our gear.

We decided that we would get out early that morning- it was cool to cold, but not bad for a fall morning. The morning started out slow, but we started to get hits about an hour into it. Rob and I had tried many things, but the one thing we had a lot of success with was the Chomper Hula Grub on a stand-up Jig. I was using a bait cast rod with 12" test and Rob had a similar set up.
Here is what is cool about this rig and what makes it my "go-to" bait for largemouths (and smallmouths, by the way).
The way to fish this bait is to hit the shoreline, bring it in maybe 3-4 feet and then stop. Slowly move your rod tip up and down. When you get a hit, you will feel a "tap, tap, tap". That is when it is time to pull back with all you got and set the hook. The set is real important, because we were using a stand-up jig, and it has a brush weed guard right above the hook tip. If you do not have a strong set, you will lose the fish (I discovered that early on using these jigs)
Rob and I both had a real good day. If I can recall, both of us caught around 5-10 fish each (higher if you count the "misses").
I cannot say enough about Chompers Hula-grubs and stand-up jigs. I fished Lake of the Ozarks earlier in the year and caught (2) 5# bass using this same set up. I have found this is a great way to approach bass in Spring and fall. I have also had an incredible amount of good fortune using this set up fishing for smallies in small rivers.
Spring is just around the corner!

Good Fishing! MLT

You can wait until spring- or you can catch fish now!

What a great day of fishing at Busch Wildlife CA in St. Charles County, Missouri!
I am incredibly thankful that all of the lakes are now unfrozen- they had been ice covered for almost a month!
Take a look at the photo- the large trout on the stringer to the right measured out at 16". This is the highest water level on this lake in about 2 years (should be a good spawn this spring!)
Caught them like I have caught them all winter- 1/4 copper colored "Super Duper" and Silver/Lime green Lil Cleo Spoon- (2) 7' spinning reels with 4# test.
Here is something I found interesting about today's fishing. The first fish hit real close to shore (strike was around 2' from the shoreline. This got me thinking that the back of the lake (the more shallow portion) would be the best place (opposed to right on the dam). Once I found them, I caught my limit in less than an hour. They were shallow and up in structure (thankfully, I only lost one spoon). It was real windy and cold (at one point, it started to sleet fairly heavy). Temperature about 38 f. Water temperature was probably close to the air temp.
You can wait until spring- or you can catch them now!

MLT

Best of 2006- Fishing the James River for Smallies

Imagine this- it is summer time, 90 degrees and very humid. Not always the best for other types of fishing, but my favorite weather to fish for Smallies. The photos are the largest smallmouth I caught that day- around 15" in length. We caught this a couple of hours into our float on the James River on the east side of Springfield, MO. (before you get to Lake Springfield).
My friend, Kevin Hanks, and I grabbed a canoe and some cold ones and headed upstream, with the intent to float down. This is an interesting river. From first sight, it appears to be "dirty", but looking closer, it is a very healthy river- it just does not look like most ozark rivers. This is probably due to the fact that there are not many springs that feed this river- it does have the same rocky bottom, however, that most ozark streams and rivers have. There are some HUGE common carps in some of the deep pools upstream- very impressive!














I was using a bait cast rod and 10# Red Cajun Line, Stand up Jig and Orange/Brown hula grub (Chomper). I have a lot of friends that approach waters like this with ultra lights, and I can imagine that would be a lot of fun as well, but I really dig using heavier gear (especially with all the cover- look at the front of the canoe- that is where this smallie came out of)
We absolutly tore it up on this day- I caught around 15 smallmouths, a couple of large mouths (none of any real size), and some rock bass. We caught so many fish, my elbow was sore the next day- absolutly increadable.
Here is why I am writing this article- when all the lakes are frozen, and the fishing is real lean, it is nice to think about what is to come in 2007!

MLT

Busch Wildlife stocker trout- success!

Just a photo of a trout taken last weekend- caught it on a silver "Super Duper". fished all day, weather pattern was moving in so had to deal with some rain.
Most of the bait people were not catching a lot either, so I did not feel as bad. I am starting to figure this "stocker trout" thing out- you need to fish the lakes within a week of stocking if you want to catch a large number of trout.
However, I will say this- I like the challenge of catching trout when the fishing is not as "easy". When you are throwing artificials, it teaches you to do a better job of selecting quicker and more efficient. Kind of like fly fishing, almost a "match the hatch" concept. The weather has been so bad here, it has been over a week since I have fished. Hopefully we can change that real soon!

MLT