Ohai

VWM is one of the first places my ladyfriend and I tried to fish when moving to Springfield. We just like being out and about, and it's close to us so we ended up spending quite a bit of time out there. If you want to catch bluegill, this is your spot. If you want to catch anything else, this is not your spot, lol. On the MDC website it says that the catfishing should be strong but I have tried a multitude of different baits and many hours out there and not a single cat. I would be very surprised to hear of someone catching a limit out there. As far as overcrowded goes *definitely* I have never seen so many people consistently fishing a small pond like that. Which can have entertainment value in itself if you're into the people watching kind of thing. Saw one family arguing almost to the point of fighting another family over something absolutely ridiculous. "this girl is gonna make me smack someone". "ohhh snappp did she just say she was going to smack someone???" lmao. People are crazy. Anyways, back on topic, good for Jerry Springer, not so good for filling your stringer.

So you can indeed! Thanks guys. Me and the lady friend gave this a whirl tonight. Didn't have any luck but we were cut short because she thought she might have been having contractions. Ran into an awesome guy on the way out that showed me pictures of his last adventure overnight out there. Huge channel cat, as far as channel cats go, and a couple flatheads. He said from 11-6 in the morning is really strong fishing right now.

Thanks for the advice voodoo! I haven't been down around the handycap dock because it's generally pretty busy on the weekends when I can go, but maybe I will wade through the people to see if I can catch something. The only problem with fellows is that you can't fish at night. The park closes at dark.

For a while I was fishing around the mdc brush piles, cove hopping along the north section of the lake since I am bank fishing. I had to deal with turtles but I was catching cats inbetween the turtle annoyances so it was worth it. Lately, since it has warmed up, I can't find them. I don't know if they have moved somewhere else or they have shut down for a short time due to the heat. I'm new to all of this and new to Springfield so I am not used to their pattern. I have tried walking the entire northwest section and fishing as close to the no trespassing buoys as you can get but didn't have any luck there either. Maybe I should try casting out into the main lake instead of fishing the coves?

Anyone had any luck lately? I've been really tied up with work and getting the house ready for our little man so haven't had any time to get out. Thinking I might sneak out for a bit sometime this weekend though and was just curious if anyone had been having any luck. Also I seem to run into a ton of turtles on Fellows, any advice on getting these dudes to leave the bait alone? Or maybe some baits they don't like as much? I generally use liver and worms but recently I've switched to dough bait trying to avoid the turtles a bit but so far I'm not really a fan of the stuff.

Good luck guys. I have been fishing it hard. I was catching channel cats every time but since the rain it seems like they all just quit. I've even been adventurous and walked the north west section of the lake until I was standing right next to the do not enter buoys absolutely nothing. Can't even find a bite

Going out tomorrow hope to have some of the luck that you did! Just bank fishing though so we will see.

Nice congrats man! Good to see you getting into some

LOL awesome! Thanks for sharing. Would love to get into a mess of those.

Well I hope for your sake slow yesterday means good today. Went up to Aldrich and had the slowest night since we found out about the place. Normally if we can't catch any cats we can switch to crappie or at the very least catch some bluegill. But yesterday we got there about 6:30 loaded up with livers, hot dogs, shiners, and worms and couldn't find a bite to save our lives. Finally gave up around 10:30. Fortunately it was very quiet out there and the sunset was beautiful, still an awesome time just not much going on in the way of fishing.

Me and the misses are headed up later on tonight. Hoping the clouds stay without the rain. I've been catching some cats on fellows the past week so I'm hoping I have the same or better luck up at Stockton.

I certainly didn't have any luck yesterday bank fishing north of Aldrich. Caught some decent crappie though.

We did pretty good north of Aldrich, started out pretty slow trying to fish a little deeper, then my better half threw a minnow in about 2 feet of water and struck gold. I caught my biggest crappie yesterday, it was only 14 inches but for someone who hasn't done a lot of crappie fishing it was pretty awesome. Yesterday was the first time since we moved to Springfield we have actually managed to bring enough fish home to fry! Still can't seem to catch a darn catfish though

Good to hear! Actually put our trip off until tomorrow evening. Had a graduation to go to but pretty stoked to hit the lake tomorrow.

I'm intrigued as well. Me and the misses are planning on making a trip up tomorrow. Hopefully we can do better this time than last time. I have learned a lot in the couple weeks since we went up.

Thanks all for the advice! We fished from about 5:30 to 9:30 and all but got skunked. We went just north of Aldrich. Quite a few other guys fishing next to us all seeming to have about the same luck. At about 9:30 or so some heavily intoxicated gentlemen trumped down the mountain and quickly caught a few very small crappie but other than that it was a slow day. We were using worms and cut bait but a friend I met on this forum suggested minnows so next time we go up I will try that. Will check out the riprap at CC very soon. Stockton is actually a lot closer to Springfield than I originally thought, and I feel like we will have a lot more success bank fishing up there than the local fisheries once we get a feel for the place.

My girlfriend and I have recently moved to Springfield and I was asking in another thread about local fishing areas. One fine gentleman suggested that we check out Stockton. As such we are getting off of work early around 3 p.m. and planning to head our way and should reach the lake around 4 p.m.. We are bank fishing and I'm hoping to catch some cat. Anyone have any suggestions on where to start? She is pretty new to fishing and I'm trying to get her into it but so far haven't had a lot of luck in the very local areas of Springfield. I searched the forum before I asked and a while ago some people suggested Aldrich. Is this still the spot you guys would recommend going to?

Thanks a lot for the advice. Me and the misses plan to go out to Stockton in a couple of weeks. I'll pm you an email address! We went out to Valley water mill again today. And once again today she caught a ton of bluegill as well as some really, really, small crappie. Yes, off of worms and most of them were pretty small but a couple stood out. She also caught a pretty nice sized bass.

Hello all and thanks for any help you guys can give me. My better half and I recently moved to Springfield from Lake of the Ozarks. We have just started exploring the fishing locations that Springfield has to offer, so far we have been to Valley Water Mill Lake and Fellows. At Valley Water Mill, we caught just about as many blue gill as you could possibly want. I mean really, if you can set the hook on these things you can get a bite nearly every single cast. Unfortunately, that's not what I'm into and I couldn't get anything else to bite, even though I did see some bass. This weekend we tried fellows. I stumbled upon a topography map that also showed the locations where they placed structure underwater, and also several different roads leading to the lake. There seemed to be about five different roads that lead to the lake based on the map. But all but two were blocked off by a closed gate. I didn't see any restricted area signs or do not trespass, just a gate that said only authorized vehicles past this point. Does this mean you can walk beyond this point you just can't drive your vehicle? If it's restricted why are these roads listed on the map as an access to the lake? Does anyone know why these are restricted? I have been reading other posts on this forum about Fellows being incredibly strict and not the most generous and understanding folk so I just want to clear things up before I go tromping through the woods lol. Also I'm looking to catch some cat from the bank, any suggestions or advice? It doesn't necessarily have to be at fellows, just any area around springfield. I have been thinking about trying lake springfield and also I have heard good things about stockton and table rock lake but the people I have been talking to were fishing from the boat. Do these areas also have room for bank fishers? Thanks guys! Oh and also the map I was talking about it on this page http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/05/2011_fellows__brochure.pdf