Mountain Lakes

[jdmidwest]

Spent the weekend in one of my favorite parts of the state, the St. Francois Mountain Range. Saturday started early with a drive down scenic HWY E outside of Fredericktown thru the mountains. It is a narrow, twisty road, but the scenery is great. St. Francis River and bluffs, Marble Creek Valley, and of course 5 miles of gravel roughness to Crane Pond Lake. Arrived there around 6 and met my buddy who had already caught and released several nice bass. We proceeded to spend the morning doing more of the same in peace and solitude. We had the lake to ourselves. Around 10, we pulled out and off to the next adventure.

Taum Sauk Reservoir has a upper and lower lake, it is a pumped storage facility run by Ameren UE. A few years back, the upper lake levee gave way and flooded the valley. Millions was spent rebuilding it and its operational again. The lower lake is open for fishing. The tourist shop and upper lake is securely closed to visitors at this time. We fished here for several years. At one time it was stocked with Stripers and was unique for that. Since they pump water out of the lower lake into the upper lake to generate power, the water levels fluctuates alot, much like a tailwater.

We were not prepared for what we found. The lake was pumped out and lower than we had ever saw. New Berms and Structures of Rip Rap have been created. Timber has been killed out by flooding, the lake is filled with trees. The water is pure mud, probably a result of the additive they put in to settle the mud out after the flood and the new raising and lowering of generation. We caught a few fish, but it is a ugly place now and will take several years to regenerate.

After that, lunch at Bailey Joe's in Arcadia and fishing at a private pond for bass. Back again today to Crane Pond, different story. Front came thru, bass turned off. Wind whipping up whitecaps and fishing was poor. We were still the only boat on the lake.

The pretty lake at daylight is Crane Pond, the muddy one is Lower Taum Sauk.