Tearin Up Topwater

None of us can QUIT fishing. It's in our blood. Once I get the fever, I can't stop thinking about it. 20-inch smallmouth? Man, I'd be happy to catch a few 14-inch fish. I'm hitting the St Francis River next week. I'll keep an eye out for poachers and scarred fish. I didn't realize it was this bad. Thanks for making more people aware and getting this moron fined. HAPPY SMALLMOUTH FISHING!

Photo shopped? HAHAHA! that's funny. If there were smallies that big in the river, this coward wouldn't have the balls to step foot in the water. Its mouth would engulf his enitre pinhead for F&$% sakes!

Good job guys! I'm glad there's really good people and authorities fighting for our native fish. Let's all protect our waters.

or turn in your Man-card.

Some of you guys sound so whipped. It's sad. MAN UP and go catch a man-fish!

Sweet city fish!

Thanks for the input. I encountered the same lack of fish, when I tried the large lake and smaller one a few years back. Never saw one fish come out of there or even swimming. I may try again soon for some post-spawn bass. Will let you know.

Has anyone every done any good at the Fountain Lakes in St Charles near 370? The lakes look good.

Ozark Mountain High playlists including: Allman Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, ZZ Top, then a little Bruce Hornsby and the mutha-f-ing Range. This is my fishing music only, mind you. Otherwise, I listen to metal.

Once again I decided to try August A Busch Wildlife Conservation Area this past Wednesday. And once again I came away without much to show for it. It was noon when I started out at the all popular Lake 33. After I lost 3 straight shakey-heads and 3 other drop shot rigs in the rocks, soon realized - you HAVE to have a boat to fish this lake. Period. But didn't feel like renting one without a trolling motor to fight the wind. I know, based on sampling, according to MCD that there are supposed to be 66% of bass larger than 15" and 12% larger than 18"; but I have yet to see any >10". And didn't catch a single fish this day. That lake frustrates me. (Could it be the catfishers keep all the bass they are catching with live bait? I wouldn't doubt it. I was there late spring and witnessed a group setting up a 10 man tent at the dam end of Lake 33. Didn't think camping was allowed.) Then I decided to try a C&R lake. Lake 32 looked very fishable from shore. While I was there a found a pattern using a watermelon red plastic craw on a 1/8 oz football jig. The bass I caught were up against the windblown banks in the rocks. But there weren't many and were <12 inches. But not many bites after circling the lake so tried another lake. I had Lake 7 all to myself. No catfisherman or anyone. It was beautiful. The same pattern worked, windblown rock banks and corners with brush held fish tight to cover. Lakes 7 is also said by MCD to be a "big bass lake" - with 25-55% of the bass population larger than 15" and 10% larger than 18 inches. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. I'm not too sure about that. Can anyone say otherwise? I'd like to hear about it. Everything I pulled out was about 10 inches. Do I need to use shiners? I'd hate to have to do that. Now that I live out in St Charles I determined to find these "BIG BASS" at lake 7 or similar so called "big bass" lakes there. I've been to BW many times and every time on the way home I tell myself I need to find more private lakes but every year I go back. What do any of you think? I know....."there's no fish in Busch Wildlife".....well I don't believe that but there may not be any keepers.

What a bunch of losers! Don't you just hate humans when you are fishing alone? They ruin everything. These are the people that really don't know how to fish like the rest of us. They read a book on fishing and spent a few hundred dollars on gear at Walmart but they don't really have a clue what they are doing. They don't have fishin' in their blood. Their dad didn't teach em how to tie on a hook at age 4 and sit a wait all day for a single bite in freezing weather while loving it. They can't think like a fish. We can outfish these people every time. We just have to be patient until they get the hell out of our way and realize they aren't going to catch many fish anyway before they give up. People suck.

I can't believe you guys are still talking about this. Go fishing. or I'd rather be Nailin' Palin!

I've seen that picture of the woman with the 20lb TRL largemouth before. Its great how fake it is! But a lot of people out there will think its real. Its on the internet, it must be true.

Yeah, hearing about all the sizzling summertime smallmouth being caught lately makes me wanna get out in this August heat. Might try Big River or Mineral this week. Hopefully the action stays hotter than the weather. If only my wife liked to fish........

That's nice, trying to back out now by saying you were joking. You got told and were made a fool of; plain and simple. Now guys, let's talk FISHING and not hate. I think the heat is getting to some people.

If you notice in the pictures, they/he even gave her their left shoe to make it up the boat ramp. Good story!

If any of you have seen the horror flick, Wrong Turn, you'd never step foot again on half these nice backwood spots. I'm sure many people would be too chicken to even get out of their truck on some of these lands. Could it be, Hollywood is unknowingly improving smallmouth stream fishing in states like MO?

I like Jimmy and Roland for comic relief. KVD is just a machine. Hank Parker and Shaw Grigsby are like the same person and they annoy me for some reason. You gotta love Bill Dance. But seriously, how many >5lb fish can an old man catch? Have you ever noticed he never catches anything under 5lbs? I'm pretty sure he goes to only private lakes stocked with only freakish, monster bass. And I don't think it matters what lures or fish spray attractant he's promoting that day, he's gonna catch fish. I'd like to see him catch these same quality fish at Table Rock?

Or if you ARE cheap like me, the Paca Chunk trailers from Bass Pro in PBJ and Watermelon Candy on a 1/2 oz Arkie brown&purple/watermelon football jig from Walmart works very well. It's a beast! What Bill said is exactly true of course. I tried this two weeks ago after he posted pics of the baits they were using and I was catching smallmouths by accident. They were all your standard 14" TRL bass but a helluva lot of fun. Chunk-rock/gravel transition type bank early in the morning.

Execellent point, Al. Couldn't have said it better. The 12-13 inch bass are the best eating. And a lot of our waters need to be harvested of them. Anything over 15 inches, especially smallies, are considered special, beautiful creatures in my opinon. Take a couple bragging photos and dream about catching them another day. That's the greatest part about fishing.

Going to Sam A Baker Park with the wife and friends later this week. I plan on trying for smallmouth/goggle-eye. I won't have a canoe so I'll be limited to just wading and just bring the flyrod and light spinning combo. I know there are a couple main access points in the park. Can anyone give me some good spots to try close to and around the park? I was worried about it being too shallow. Thanks!

The north lake in Fountain Lakes Park is a really big lake. It would help to have a boat to fish that lake as well. It took me quite a while to make my way around it with my gear. I tried a drop shot rig that I thought would surely produce. But not even a short. It didn't help that the heat index was 95 degrees that evening about two weeks ago. Maybe I'll stick to the south lake next time. I'm itching to get back to Busch as soon we get a "cooler" evening. Maybe a week night at 33, 35 or 31 for a little topwater action. Anyone else been out to there fishing lately?

Anyone ever try Fountain Lakes near 370 or Graus Lake way up 94? I tried Fountain Lakes a couple times with no luck yet. Maybe just picked bad days but a couple of the lakes look good, two of them may be too shallow and the small pond reminds me of a BW pond. Haven't seen a fish caught out there yet. Let me know if you did any good there.???

Coming to the Lake the week of the 27th. Hope the bite is still good that week. I'm fairly new to using the drop shot rig. What colors do you all recommend? I plan on finessing them if I have to, since I expect it to be even hotter that week. We'll be on the water 4am to 10am. Can't wait! Keep up the great reports.