Troutfishn

I was down all week and my report is that catfishing is slow, in about 10 hours worth of drifting skipjack and live shad I managed 1 25lb flatty a 20lb blue and a few small ones. Caught 1 nice 5lb bass drifting the shad, all drifting around the 18mm. Went over to MM 3 south side of the lake at a dock that is on a point of the main channel and hit the very last boat slip at 10pm and caught 25 10-18'' crappie and a few hybrid bass in the 2-3lb range and left by 11pm. The crappie were on fire in 45ft of water suspended in 20-30ft. They are in the middle of their summer pattern I catch them in the same spot year after year no matter what the conditions. But all in all fishing was slow for me.

Not to change the subject but here is my report. Last few days were SLOOOOOW, Today however heated up and many fish were caught. Here is today's slaughter. Biggest is 21'' 3.84lbs.

Yeah about a couple inches but be careful as some spots are only an inch. I saw one guy with rope tied around him to a tree....Guys just wait a few days til the ice is at least 4'' but you will not see me til 6''. with temps near 0 it wont take long. Every year a few people fall in.

I was thinking the same thing, but with so many lakes i doubt a lil info will hurt. The Hybrids are getting big, definitely not many people go after them. In the early summer I see them crashing the surface for shiners around 9-10am at lake 36. If you are standing where the boats are straight out at the lake to the left of the island. Same with Lake 34 just drive by lakes in the mid-am, if no surface activity go catch crappie at 35. Seems white jigs under indicators work. The one pictured at the bait shop was caught with a chicken liver on the bottom.

Kind of hard to understand sarcasm online SIO3 but it sounds like you were being serious. Look the key to busch is doing the opposite of every other angler out there. Meaning walk around and explore, don't just fish right there by the parking lot. People who say fishing is always bad are either new to fishing, lazy, or liars. What really makes busch VERY worth while is the fact that these fish are minutes from home. I have a nice pic with me at lake 35 holding 2 5lb bass at the bait shop at busch. Here is a pic of some big flatheads at lake 33. The muskie pics are on another workers camera.

Yes everyone who fishes lake 35 has their own monster fish story. 3lb crappie, 10lb bass, and monster muskie are not myths. After creeling thousands of fisherman I have come to the conclusion that the only thing busch needs is skilled anglers. I watch as fisherman hold their spinning gear upside down and then proceed to ask me why fishing is poor. Glad to see you all are willing to explore lakes in detail and therefore catch good representations. The reason busch has the excellent fishery present is because of marvin boyer. When he first arrived there was not a single plant present or much habitat at all, he transformed the place and really made it a trophy fishery.

hi

Lake 35 is the second biggest lake at busch. During the spring 09' we set 4 - 4'x4' trap nets for muskie. Checked the nets 3 consecutive days and had only a couple in the 12-20'' range and around 40 in the 30-45'' range. This of course represents only a small number of actual fish present. The lake only sees a handfull of muskie fishermen a year. The muskie have grown fast and are doing excellent. I like to use 12'' castaic baits made by rapala trolling around the darn area in circles around those deep brush piles. You also have a very good chance of hooking into a monster bass. Most big bass fisherman make reports of something goliath smashing their baits and breaking heavy line. I would rank lake 35 #2 on the most likely place in MO to catch a muskie. #1 being pomme de terre.

This is debate will not be decided by trout fisherman. The trout are simply there for convenience. MDC just wants to put trout in everyone's back yard to hook new anglers on trout to buy stamps and maybe so they later go visit a trout park. However 99% of the people I creel are men and 90% are retired. So the target audience is not being reached. I even heard Hoskins the old Director wanted to buy land 30 minutes south of STL to start a new trout stream. Yes the fish die june-ish when temperatures hit 70's but not very many. Those that go will tell you after a couple weeks fishing is tough, because MOST fish get caught. The only real debate I can see is the "natural setting" but if you like an ozark stream go to one. No matter how you look at it the urban trout program is a GOOD thing. The urban programs budget is set aside from other trout programs, basically if they did away with it then it would not provide more fish for streams or ANYTHING. It would be spent somewhere else probably trying to save the niangua river darter . Majority wins in this case some want progress and others want rehabilitation. Busch already has an excellent population of warm water species, if you cannot find what you are fishing for PM me or look for the blue stratus at busch. There is a new Director for MDC..... Hoskins was the trout fishing fanatic.... some of you may get what you wished for.

Well I figured I could answer a few of those questions. I will be creeling the trout lakes at busch this year only as I did stocked catfish. I agree that the money could be spent better in other areas especially since the fish DO die June-ish when temps hit 70's. Most get eaten so fast by herons and turtles we never see them. I still find it an excellent place to play and sometimes work. Even into April there are TONS of trout, they school up in the deep water and are easy to catch. The thing is you must be using exactly what they want..... I will be there starting Wednesday, no particular reason. If your backyard is crane creek you are a lucky man, but to me busch looks pretty nice. Litter and poaching should be lower with an MDC vehicle driving from lake to lake every hour.

for bream put your walking shoes and polarized sunglasses on. They have been spawning in shallow flats as well as rocky dams. Just look for the round cleared beds. I saw some on 34 and 5. I see large bream on 33 and 35 spawning around boat ramps commonly. Crappie are a little rough lately you will have to fish deep. The same as usual though 35 and 34 are good. If it is overcast or a rain front is moving through as it will tomorrow then I would fish crappie if it is hot and sunny look for spawning bream and drop a 1/80 oz rubber leg jig in their face.

Yes. Bob, Dave, and of course Chris. In fact I need to talk to Bob real soon to do more ride alongs. Busch has been absolutely PACKED the past few days, so ohmz138 do yourself a favor and go on a weekday. I counted fishermen yesterday at the 7 of the catfish lakes and got almost 100 people. It's like the trout parks on the weekends.

9-12'' MONSTER redear are spawning in busch as are the crappie. I have located several beds of redear holding fish in lake 7-First jetty in parking lot 1. Lake 36-in the spadderdock patches near boat docks. I have seen and caught many of the spawning crappie at lake 5 but they are small (6'') Lake 33 also has many small (4-5'') crappie. Your best bet by FAR is lake 35, electrofishing and muskie nets show large numbers of crappie in the 9-12'' range and a fair amount up to 17''. The dam holds many as does the low water bridge down by the creek. I hear but have not seen in lake 34 on the far side of the lake in the first cove MANY 9-12'' crappie on the deep side of the weed line.

I work in the fisheries dept. at busch, this is year 3 for me. I would have to say your best bets at a lunker bass are 1.#33 around the islands and across the lake along the shore. 2. Lake 31 on the dam. 3. Lake 11 in the water lotus. Whenever you fish out at busch remember people like to park right next to where they will be fishing. If you are willing to walk you can bet your success will be 10x better. And of course take your kids to lake #12 the fishing there is equal to a private farm pond. It has very little poaching as does the no fishing lakes 15, 1, and 2....which hold all lunker fish of all species. I would give my walnuts to fish them for 1 day.

To catch good crappie at Mcdaniel avoid the bridge....When you arrive you will see a little cove area covered in trees on the eastern side, cut through the woods to the right don't worry you are NOT trespassing. I have talked with the security and they showed me a map of the public areas. Follow the trail made by me a only a few others all the way around the cove to the point where the cove meets the main lake. There at that point you will find the water levels are around 4ft. and very grassy with scattered cedar trees sunk. There is a steep drop off to about 15ft about 20 ft out from that point. Throw jigs out to the drop off and do a steady retrieve... no float. Start hitting that point here when you get nightly lows in the 45-50F range or when you start finding the grey morels. The only time I fish the bridge is at hot summer nights with the lantern to draw baitfish OR during June, July, to Mid Aug. for Excellent white bass. I like rattle traps, Cicadas, and white jigs for the white bass. (I moved back to saint louis so all my fishing hotspots in springfield are being given out here on OAF)

Interesting you chose ruby as an off beat path trophy spot.... I bet I can make a lot of people mad by saying this.... crane has many WILD rainbows over 20" and another small stream nearby (can't give secret spot just yet, NOT taney) has MANY browns and rainbows up to and including 12lb 8 oz. (caught 2 weeks ago). All I can say is EXPLORE streams up and down several miles and you may find a legendary spot that few have ever tossed a fly. Finding these holes where you may see on any given day a dozen fish over 5lbs swimming together is more exciting than opening day of rifle season. (Did I just say that?) But wild trout DO exist and they are not hard to find as long as your legs work.

Ive been great, I graduated in Dec. and now I am working with MDC in Saint Charles as a creel clerk surveyor. I have been preparing for this season I just got my 10/0 hooks and 5 oz sinkers in I ordered. Plus for x-mas my girlfriend got me a 10ft heavy rod and reel. I will have a boat this year too, although it might have a prop on it . I don't care if I have to get out and walk it upstream a lil, I know now I can do it hahaha. I haven't heard a thing about spawning runs or high water levels yet but we can find em. I assume you are finishing up in Springfield still? I don't have your number but I am going to come down at least 3 weekends this season. Probably 1 time this march and 2x in april. Why don't you PM me your number so we can hit the water.

Well I want everyone to know especially seth that there are NO paddlefish in the james. You are wasting your time trying to snag in the james. If there were paddlefish in the james trapped up there by the dam they might have been there in late october under the old cottonwood. If you don't know the old cottonwood you don't fish the james. I saw some good ol boys that looked like the guys from OC choppers down there "trying" to snag paddlefish with deep crankbaits in october, they may have been successful. Then again there are NO paddlefish in the james to talk about anyways . Phils secret spot should be just fine for this spring. I am only going to be making 2 trips myself since I graduated and moved back to st.louis. All this make believe paddlefish non-sense it's all a big rumor!!!!

Ahhhh yes a common curse. So was it a thermostat problem? BTW I went up to Indian hills yesterday and caught my limit of crappie. It is a much better year than last year, seems to be more and the average size is probably 10-12''. They are heading towards shallows suspended in 8-12 ft along points with structure, I was using jigs.

Ain't nothing you want to waste your time with seth. Just some old prehistoric fish that may or may not exist. You best keep away from the James if your not a local boy

Season is OVER Ended it for me tonight and it was a blast. I caught 15 and lost at least that many. It was a great season and I will be eating paddlefish and morels for many many months. Tonight the fish were moving and rolling like crazy. I saw 2 other groups and they had limits too. I had a couple females over 50+ full of dark black caviar .

vonreed I am not disagreeing since it came from a game warden but that just sounds wrong. I have always heard once you have that last fish on the stringer you cannot even cast. Since if you caught another you would technically HAVE 3 fish. Many of the fisheries biologist I work with will not fish with me since the rules are so vague. You pretty much have to use good judgment on things like using a gaff and your "possession" limit.(unless you talk to the county agent like you did) The fish are still active and I think the recent warmer weather and rain is pushing them back up to the dam just FYI.

You were one of the only ones I remember from this forum on paddlefishing. When he said he was from evangel it clicked in my head and I figured you two were buddies from previous posts. I was following some adice given to me and exploring when I came across Leg Buster, really nice guy. I didn't catch anything big enough to weigh but there has to be something in the 100lb range roaming. My dad is the same way I think if I put him on with a paddlefish it would be on for a few seconds before *snap.

That would be my reel that broke HAHAHA! Well it was a fine evening out there, just got back caught a few more after buying another reel from bass pro. It was dark so I just let them go, I didn't feel like cleaning in the dark. You really can't go wrong out there and the warm rain coming should get them to gather up even more. (Morels are also going nuts too)

Water looks terrible as does the current..... I think it's funny to hear people get mad at "bait slingers" as if they have NEVER used any form of bait. With the current as high as it has been I went and fished bait just to catch lunch. The best way to catch the fish may not be your preferred method so don't get mad and there is certainly nothing you can do about it. You have zones 1+2 so why want it all? Is the grass greener on the other side? It is my opinion that the "bait slingers" are actually the nicer crowd. Many of the fly fisherman want a ton of room to back cast and god help you if you cross their line. I am not too bad at casting but many of the older crowd expect everyone to be pro's, you gotta learn sometime. In fact the dirty looks from fly fisherman in trout parks that are the reason I stick to waters like hickory, crane, and taneycomo. There are good and bad attitudes fishing in every body of water, I always offer my best and it usually reciprocates.