FishnDave

Flyfished some pristine trout water today. Just kidding. Caught 7(?) species. 1 Bluegill, 1 White Bass, 7 Shortnose Gar, 2 Common Carp (and 1 Mirror Carp), 3 Grass Carp, 1 Silver Carp and 1 Bighead Carp(?). Biggest Grass Carp measured 31": Below on the right is, I believe, a Western Ribbon Snake.

Lets switch creeks for a day. 😁

I bet that went over well for everyone. 😅 Sounds like a scene from the classic college frat movie "Animal House".

Iowa doesn't have Longear Sunfish...I think a few were captured below a hatchery outlet near the Mississippi River a few years back...but that was an anomaly. Missouri doesn't seem to have a shortage of them, sounds like nearly EVERYONE here has already caught them. They are beautiful fish, I wanted to catch some. I received some tips from some of the anglers here on OA, on where I might get some of these Longear Sunfish not too far from where I live. It was VERY kind of these guys to share some places with me, I can't begin to express have grateful I am. I fished 2 creeks, and a river, caught Longear from all 3 places. I also caught a LOT of Green Sunfish, a few bluegills, a largemouth bass, and a common shiner. Saw some smallmouth, but they did not strike the fly I was using. The Longears are gorgeous fish...they don't get very big. I caught @ 30-some, they are fairly aggressive and typically would hit the fly and run at full-speed...almost like a miniature Hybrid Striped Bass. Very miniature. ;o) Common Shiner below, right?

Pepto bismol?

@tjm No worries, its not a big thing either way. I do the same thing you do...I mostly look at the recently posted Forum Topics on the Home Page, and read what I haven't read yet. Sometimes I'll search for things I want to learn more about...and see if anyone has posted about it. They almost always have...there's a LOT of good info here!

Seems like we have a number of members that live and fish around the St. Louis area... There's a subforum for the Kansas City area, for example....I thought there might be one for StL too...but haven't been able to locate it. Maybe there is one already and I just haven't found it? I can't really answer as to whether these other StL guys would post in it or not....they've been getting along fine for a long time...I'm pretty new here still. My thoughts are, if it was a subforum called "St Louis Area Waters", that would include the creeks and rivers, lakes, as well as the city and county lakes/ponds throughout the area. It might give folks a place to post reports or questions in a subforum that makes sense, yet allow them to avoid naming specific places. The small waters and high population density make for super-high pressured waters, as you can imagine...so most anglers up here do not want to post location names. There is already an August A Busch Memorial Conservation Area subforum, which is in the area...but there's many more ponds and lakes that aren't currently covered. Like @tjm just mentioned above, with my flyfishing posts, perhaps I could be using an existing subforum....but there's plenty of anglers around StL that aren't fly anglers. I dunno...just a thought. Its totally up to you, Phil. I'll find a way to work with whatever you do. Thanks for paying attention, by the way! I know you're a busy guy!

I was looking for a St. Louis area fishing subforum here...not seeing it. Is there one? Anyway, just wanted to share some pics of fish I caught while flyfishing Saturday. Location was a creek in the St. Louis area...can't be more specific because a fellow OA member shared the location to me...for which I'm very thankful. Caught my first Kentucky Spotted Bass on a popper: Also caught some white bass: These were all a welcome change from the sunfish I've been catching lately. Still hunting down my first Longear Sunfish...stay tuned!

That is cool. Everyone likes to see these, right? I wonder why its sticking around.... might be injured?

Yeah, that would be baaaaa-d. 🤠

Congrats all! I'm so far behind! 27 years for us this month. I spent the first 8 years of my life in a small town, then the next 8 on a rural acreage....we had a few cows and a horse, creeks, pastures and woods. My first jobs were in bean fields and corn fields.

I wasn't sure which ones had crappies and which ones didn't...but I does seem odd I haven't caught a single crappie there yet. They tend to suspend in the middle of ponds during the summer, so I'm probably just not reaching them.

Saturday was overcast. Hoped some bass would hit topwater in one of the big murky lakes. They didn't...not for me, at least. I switched to panfish flies and caught a bluegill and some Green Sunfish. Lots of other anglers here. Saw roadkill armadillo on the highway outside the park. Drove past it 3 times before it finally dawned on me what it was. 😅 I hit one of the C&R I'd been to before. Caught bluegills, hybrid sunfish, and green sunfish there. Also hit another C&R lake for the first time. Caught Redears (pretty small), bluegills, green sunfish, and 3 Golden Shiners at that one. I had plans to hit a creek this morning. After last night's rain (looks like St Louis got ~3.82" since Saturday afternoon), the creek was super-fast, high, and muddy. Impossible to fish. Backup plan...went to Busch and flyfished the final C&R lake I hadn't been to yet. As a C&R Lake, it is posted "no bait, no scented plastics". So of course there were people using bait and there were discarded bait containers along the shoreline. Really sad. I took a deep breath and flyfished it anyway. I caught at least 4 bass, some redear sunfish, and some bluegills. My apologies about all the Redear pics...they were uncommon in my former area of Iowa, so I really like catching them, and still take pictures of most of them!

Thank you. 😆

Redbreast Sunfish are pretty. I'll add those to my bucket list. You'd caught them before?

Thanks for sharing your experience, @Smalliebigs !

Glad you are OK! That's scary stuff! I haven't seen anything like that...the worst I've encountered was quicksand while wading a stream for smallmouth. Was walking on top of it, then immediately when both legs thigh deep into it. Figured nobody would find my body if I kept sinking. Fortunately I hit a hard bottom at that point.

I've certainly been catching plenty of Green Sunfish. 😬 @Ham and @Johnsfolly The advice I received to fish accesses along the Meramec or Big River is good. Both look like a lot of water and probably too deep to wade in most places, so it'd be tough to be very mobile when looking for these. I envision it would be easier to track these down in smaller, shallower, or clearer water. I don't usually get to fish a full day, so spending a few hours driving really cuts into the fishing time. Are there any smaller creeks with public access within an hour of STL? 90 minutes? I've been doing research, and will continue to do so... I see streams that really don't have much good access at all.

Go Cyclones! 😁

Has anyone ever fished the creek that runs along the north side of the Busch Conservation Area...north of Lake 33? Just wondering if there might be some Longear Sunfish there.... or anything else worth trying for.

Good looking fish! Sounds like you had a great day with a variety of fish!

I tried January-Wabash this morning. Talked to 2 other anglers. Both said there are Longears in the lake. I didnt catch any. I did catch a small bass, a Green Sunfish, a few bluegills, and a Redear Sunfish.

I did some looking on the MDC website. It lists January-Wabash Park Lake in Ferguson as a good place to catch Longears. Anybody know anything about the fish in that lake?

Nicely done! That’s a bunch of good-looking fish! And a happy girl!