FishnDave

Wow, beautiful! And what a story! What a day they had! A bunch of 40"+ Stripers! The stuff dreams are made of... This made me reminisce... Other than a 47.5" Longnose Gar that didn't weigh anywhere near what that Striper would have weighed (but was caught on a 9wt fly rod)... my 2nd longest flyrod fish was a 41.5" Grass Carp, estimated at @ 35 lbs, caught on a 5wt fly rod with sun-degraded and abraded 8lb test mono tippet. That battle DID last a good 20 minutes! It was epic...massive triple beaver-like tail slaps on the surface when I set the hook (unseen, it ate the fly I was using for bluegills), then it speedily porpoised across the surface to the middle of the pond and then dove to the bottom and then headed towards the main basin. It was a long back-and-forth battle, with me repeatedly getting it to shore, only to have it turn and charge back to the depths again and again. I didn't have a net! So awesome! May 31, 2015. I've caught @ 250 Grass Carp on flies since then, but this one remains my largest.

The hatch has picked up tremendously here in St Louis in the past few days.

That was really good! Loved the creek footage, and the underwater shots. In addition to rainbows, I believe I saw Southern Redbelly Dace, Central Stonerollers, and probably Striped Shiners. I bet there were more species there, but there was a lotta fish movement, and I didn't go back to review those parts a second time. I should tho! Thanks for making and sharing your epic movie! Would go great with some buttered popcorn!

Aw shoot! What kind of plant? Faceplant?

Checked outside this morning in Creve Coeur/Saint Louis. Hatch has started here!

29.25" Shortnose Gar:

I believe they are too dumbfounded to understand why anyone would WANT to fish there! I needed a bullhead for this year's flyfishing list.... and I was only there because my wife was at a work-related event in the complex. I drove her, and fished to kill time until she was ready to head home. There are some BIG Goldfish in there, but I didn't see many big ones last night. I caught one of the bigger ones I saw. It has a little bit of a "Wal-Mart" feel to it. You go, but you wish you had better options. Its a pretty spot, sorta, for an urban pond.

Black Bullheads: Goldfish:

Prettier than I'd have thought. Dang they have a tiny mouth!

Looks to me like a great opportunity for free (or paid to remove) woodchips for landscaping! Remove, chip it, bag it up and sell it! If you take me up on the idea, all I ask is for 5% royalty. Cheap! You're welcome!

Absolutely! Consider it done....

I didn't catch these with a fly. The got beached on shore, but were still alive, so I returned about 1/2 dozen of them back into the water. @Ham and others helped ID these as Slenderhead Darters:

Bighead Carp (foul-hooked in the eye socket...hey, the indicator went down, I set the hook!): 15" Gizzard Shad ATE the big fly!:

White Bass: Longnose Gar:

White Crappie:

Walleye: Pumpkinseed Sunfish: Hybrid Striped Bass:

Orangespotted Sunfish:

Grass Carp: Shortnose Gar: Common Carp:

Redear Sunfish: Largemouth Bass:

Black Crappie: Hybrid Sunfish: