Daryk Campbell Sr

JD, Home Depot in Festus has plenty of them, but as I understand they are just starting to migrate. I am told, that late June and all of July are prime months for the Jefferson County/St Louis area. I like the bluegill food idea. Another tip, with the Japanese beetles, the bait will attract the beetles from acres away, so you may be getting beetles in your trap that would have never been around your house. So, make sure to place the trap(s) far from your plants.

Ha, just for arguements sake, I have had this conversation with the wife. Sure it makes sense that a white roof would not attract as much heat as a black roof, therefore, in the winter time would it be beneficial? For the "savings" would it not cost more to keep replacing shingles? Oh, and the shingles are made of asphalt, which is oil based...... AHHHHH!!!! Lets all just live in caves, they maintain the same temp year round, and you dont need to roof it. Interesting tip on efficiency I have learned. If you take an old water heater, and dont hook it up to electric or gas, install it between your current water heater and the water inlet from outside. It will work as a pre-heater, and you will use less energy to heat up your water. The reason this works is your water comes in from your water inlet, is colder than room temp. By the water sitting in the first water heater that is not "working" but is in line, the water will raise to room temp. Then the water that is now say 65-70 degrees will be able to be heated to the pre-determined temp on your water heater quicker. Thus using less energy, and getting the same result. I am told that most water heaters that are not working and are being thrown away, as long as they do not leak, will be a great candidate for this idea, and will also save space in the landfills. :-)

Saltine crackers (any brand). Just leave them whole, place them into your trap. Within a couple hours you will have a good start. Raw bacon put into an old empty 35mm film canister or medicine jar will catch the crawdads. Put holes in the container you use for raw bacon and the crawdads can not eat your bait and it will continue to bring them in.

Wow, good job. Great fish.

Yes, that is the park, I have never seen anything come out of it. I have heard many stories, but I can not verify any. I was on the smaller pond, it was closer to the parking lot, and I didn't have alot of time.

Well, it could be said that I am not the best fisherman. But I am consistant in Wilmore Park. I got skunked yet again. I went during a lunch break, only for about 1/2 hour. I really wanted to see how well I repaired my ultra light rod. I did good. First time repairing a broken tip. I reused the tip that was on the rod, I tried to heat it up and pull out the piece of rod that was attached, but it just broke again. I was able to drill out the rest of the material of my graphite rod, and the tip was large enough to re-attach to my rod. Now the tip and the first eye are very close. Looks kind of funny, but it casted well. Back to the report. I had some tiny sunfish going after my white Marabou jig, but could not find the larger sunfish. I seen what I believe was a red eared slider turtle sunning itself on a brush pile in the lake. It was not spooked by me at all, got to within 6 feet of it. It was neat to see, the rear legs were out of its shell and seemed to be spread out (like a human would be in a relaxed position). I took a pic with my phone, I snagged a stick attached to the brush he was sunning on, and he did not seem to care about me moving the stick trying to unsnag. Did not catch anything, but, I kept my reputation at Willmore. Good luck to all. DC

An old liver trick is to use some kind of cloth to hold the liver together. Some people use old panty hose, some use old t-shirts cut into squares, some use netting, ect... Take a 3inch by 3 inch square of 'material', and wrap the liver in the square. Now put that on your hook and you should not have a problem. Another tip is to wrap the liver in a piece of cloth, and wrap it with string, yarn, thread ect. (it will look like a small version of an old 'Money Bag'). Put that on your hook. If you get out to the lake/river and realize you don't have any material to use, you can take a treble hook (not tied onto your line yet), spread open the liver, push the 'eye' of the treble hook into the center of your liver, then tie the hook or clip on to a swivel. It holds pretty well. ( warning treble hooks are not fun to remove from a catfish. ) All of this being said, I have never done "Great" with liver. Shrimp can get more expensive than buying catfish at the store. Cut bait and minnow traps seem to be the ticket. DC

... Well put.

Good job! Sounds like fun. Sorry to hear about the morning, but hey it turned out to be great.

Very nice article. Sorry to hear about your friend.

I wonder if the cell phone service has been improved. I camped there with the family a few years ago, short story long, my son kept opening the door to the van, left the lights on inside and the battery died. I have a motor club memebership and was going to call them in, figured I pay for it, may as well use it, and give the local towing business a bone. My cell did not work No service whatsoever. As is usual the campground host was more than willing to help us and we got it back to be able to start. Good thing too, later that night the remenants of Hurricane Ike came through and flooded the campground we were camping on. We were evacuated before the storm came through, and were camping on higher ground, but still we had nothing dry that was inside the tent. The campground we were camping at was completely covered deep water, and the River was definately Roaring. :-) Good times.

Maybe it is Mother Nature's way of controlling the beetles. Just a thought...

Nice addition to the site, I like the pictures and the commentary.

I don't know about down there, but around me, there are many rental shops you can rent a Cherry Picker/Engine hoist for a reasonably cheap amount. I do have one, and would surely let you borrow it, But I am about 30 minutes south of St Louis. It would cost you more in gas one way then to rent one.

I don't like the idea of puting more species on a "tag" basis. I can agree that our license is very reasonably priced, and some do fish for food. I like to keep some of the fish I catch when I can get out there. Some people are not as fortunate as others and $100.00 may not be alot to you, but to MANY $100.00 would be off limits to spend to have the priveledge to fish even if it were for survival. If the system is not broken Why should we try to fix it. Give perodic maintenance and all will continue to be well. Just my 2 cents (can't afford much else). HEY, remember, MDC accepts donations for all of you rich guys.

Welcome to the forum, I also live in St Louis, Grew up fishing Carondelet's lakes. Night crawlers seem to produce the best results for me, but recently I have learned that shad, and green sunfish are the same as candy to large catfish. Stone, good tip on IL lakes, I have access to a private lake over there which is much nicer since it is not well known. I have not fished any public lakes over there, but may look into them.

I quit about 5 years ago, was in the hospital due to an infection, was told a story by a guy in the room about how he was in the same hospital a few years prior, and had his veins in his legs all stripped out due to the nicotine restricting his blood flow, and he was in the hospital for a few months and missed the major hollidays with friends and family. Long story short, I have never before heard about nicotine collecting in your veins, and kinda blew it off. (this guy was a friend of the roomate I had in the hospital). My doctor was out of town for a couple of more days so a fill in was looking after me. She asked the normal list of questions including "Do you smoke?". I answered yes, kinda had the attitude of I know it is your job to tell me to quit. She proceded to tell me that if I continue to smoke it will restrict the blood flow in my veins in my legs and cause me more problems than I already have. ( my legs hold water like nothing you have ever seen. I look like the elephant man if I dont wear my elastic stokings). My doctor has never told me about this, and he knows I smoke, I asked him, he confirmed it as a possibility. Thank you to Dr. Paula Bruggensmith for putting it into words that made it personal for me to quit. I have had my stumbles when drinking, but for only the night I am drinking. To those of you who are just now quitting, the dreams you have of smoking again, are very vivid and will make you feel like you did something wrong. It is OK, we all have been through it. Keep your head up and as Chief said, "You guy's can do it. You just have to have your mind made up that that is what you want. If your brain is not in it, you won't quit. You have to be determinded!"

Very cool. Good job on the carbs, they can be tricky sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago I seen some kids walking about halfway out from the Flamm City Access of the Meremac. They were not even waist deep. Hopefully with the rain we had this morning it will help. Pretty scary stuff.

I would guess the wardens have a scientific way of deciding where to check. I have been checked a couple of times in my life and they have been some nice people. One was in uniform, and one was not easily detected (until he identified and showed his badge). The one in full uniform came upon my son and I while throwing rocks on the upper Meramec. It was youth Turkey season, and we stopped hunting to have lunch and do some fishing. We were not doing well with the fishing so decided to throw rocks (it was his weekend). Any how, he was very stealthy and my son spotted him first, pointed him out and I guess he realized that the was caught and he came down to talk. Very nice guy, asked how our day was, and even gave us some pointers on hunting the conservation area we were next to, he also explained to me that alot of the roads that are usually marked for authorized vehicles only were open for the youth hunt. He checked me after I told him that we had been fishing, but stopped. A very pleasant guy, and seemed to be doing the job appointed to him.

Nice pics, thanks for sharing your info of the trip.

They look good. Eat-able size.

Very neat fish. Thank you for sharing with us.

Yes, Jerry that is interesting. Neat to see records broken, but tied is cool also.

I have seen a few of your videos before. Good stuff.