Water Hazards

[Cronic Nymph]

Hello All,

Any advice on where one would start if they are interested in fishing golf course ponds? Come on, I know some of you guys do it, lol. I'm mainly interested in Commons & Grassies on the fly.

[flytyer57]

Hello All,

Any advice on where one would start if they are interested in fishing golf course ponds? Come on, I know some of you guys do it, lol. I'm mainly interested in Commons & Grassies on the fly.

Ask at the club house and they might let you fish. But don't get your hopes up.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Great book on the subject . . . "Carp Fishing on Valium" by Graham Parker.

Springfield has 1 or 2 golf courses that really try hard to be something, and with water hazards so pretty and inviting they beg for trespassing in the 1st degree. But they're zealously guarded by Nazis and pinkerton guard dogs. Go at night, bring a weapon, and wear some plaid knickers and skip the carp and fly rod. Stock up at Dillons on west Sunshine and get a 12'er of Old Style, some Dr. McGuillicutty's Peppermint Schnapps and the bloodiest out of date chicken livers you can find. Scale the wrought iron fences there on the east side of 65 Hwy near that gigantic Baptist church, you know the one I'm talkin about, duct tape a flashlight to your Ugly Stick, superior firepower, superior intelligence . If you get caught, the plaid knickers will help with your story. Good luck.

[Ham]

Lots of the big boat docks on BSL (on TR and Beaver too?) end up having massive schools of carp around them. You can't fish directly from the boat docks, but I would imagine you could nibble around the edges especially if you are polite and use your head. Read the regs and ask nicely.

[RSBreth]

There's always a massive number of big Carp in Lake Springfield, and you only have to deal with semi-homeless fisherman at the spillway there instead of rent-a-cops.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Ahh, fertilizer fish!! My favorite. Pay the twilight green fee (discounted) in the late afternoon and enjoy. Most of the staff will leave as soon as they can and you'll have the late evening to yourself except for a cart boy and he won't care. By paying the green fee they really don't care what you do.

If it's a private course there's a good chance they'll bring charges. One of their esteemed members will probably be a lawyer or judge so it won't cost them squat to put the screws to you.

Covert ops are always warranted just for the extra rush.

Oh but the fish are big my friend.

SIO3

[kevthebassman]

In my intemperate youth I regularly snuck onto the local country club's course to fish in the evenings. My friends and I were a wild bunch, the big fat greenskeeper once tried berating a buddy of mine by the water's edge, and he ended up taking a swim. After that, they just called the cops on us. Being mischievous teenagers, that only upped the ante. We would fish until the greenskeeper ran down on his cart and told us that the cops were on their way. We would pack up everything but a single rod and be on the far side of the lake, so that when the great big fat cop came puttering up with the greenskeeper on an overloaded golf cart, they had to get off and come huffing and puffing around the lake to try and write us up. Well, we were teenagers. We weren't about to be caught by 350 pound officer glazed doughnut. We waited for him to get about 30 feet away from us, then bolted into the woods, leading the fat cop and obese greenskeeper on a chase through underbrush, brambles, swampy mud, seed tick beds, poison ivy patches etc.

We always snuck onto the course by parking in a cul-de-sac of a neighborhood that was separated from the woods by a half mile or so of woods. There was a nice trail that lead to the course, but we would never take that trail back when being pursued, much more fun to bushwhack it! They chased us a dozen times or more, never caught us though. To this day, I wonder what those numbskulls were trying to accomplish by waddling through the woods after a few teenage track stars.

[FishinCricket]

In my intemperate youth I regularly snuck onto the local country club's course to fish in the evenings. My friends and I were a wild bunch, the big fat greenskeeper once tried berating a buddy of mine by the water's edge, and he ended up taking a swim. After that, they just called the cops on us. Being mischievous teenagers, that only upped the ante. We would fish until the greenskeeper ran down on his cart and told us that the cops were on their way. We would pack up everything but a single rod and be on the far side of the lake, so that when the great big fat cop came puttering up with the greenskeeper on an overloaded golf cart, they had to get off and come huffing and puffing around the lake to try and write us up. Well, we were teenagers. We weren't about to be caught by 350 pound officer glazed doughnut. We waited for him to get about 30 feet away from us, then bolted into the woods, leading the fat cop and obese greenskeeper on a chase through underbrush, brambles, swampy mud, seed tick beds, poison ivy patches etc.

We always snuck onto the course by parking in a cul-de-sac of a neighborhood that was separated from the woods by a half mile or so of woods. There was a nice trail that lead to the course, but we would never take that trail back when being pursued, much more fun to bushwhack it! They chased us a dozen times or more, never caught us though. To this day, I wonder what those numbskulls were trying to accomplish by waddling through the woods after a few teenage track stars.

Good one...

[rainbow]

We used to do the same thing in a nearby cemetary. The grounds keeper would come around in his pickup and by the time he walked down the hill after us we scooted under the fence and on to our bikes. The had some monster bass and bluegill in about a 7 acre lake. They finally gave in and started giving out permits if you signed in at the office.

[Smalliebigs]

I was able to kick my golf and golf course lake fishing addiction about 17 years ago. I have relapsed on the golf for about the last year only because I quit softball, the two swings when played anytime near each other, for me, usually ended with dangerous results.

Now the golf couse lake fishing I completely kicked but, when I was on the pipe we had a complete guide with ratings on the different courses public and private.I was only busted once.

WE caught several huge bass in the St.Louis area and St.charles area courses. We basicly would rate them by the easiest to access without prosecution and the best fishing.

*best bass*

1) New Melle Lakes, the large lake is so full of huge bass it is beyound anything you can think of......several in the 5 to 7 pound class with average size around just under 3 to just over.::::: set backs the clubhouse is right with in clear sight of the lake and there are two houses on the lake which is probally 30 acres.

2) Westwood Country Club, both lakes hold huge bass lots of 5 pounders never caught anything bigger than 5.09 lbs, but the average size is off the charts.***** side note the smaller lake must have been stunted crappie, one time my buddy caught several 6 inch crappie in a row on a rooster tail and then two in a row that were both pushing 4 lbs....typical of a pond with stunted crappie. Westwood members had a rash of vandalism****watch out they don't mess around.

3)This one is interesting the lake is gone and there is a hospital there now::: The old Lakewood Golf course

That lake held lots of big bass and was owned by the same people that owned the next course on the list???

4) Quail Creek:::: easy to hit at night and has huge bass.....problem****other people were hitting it making not as good as it once was.

5) Columbia Bridges:::: very good fishing lots of 5 pounders caught there********there is also a nice pond ajacent to the course on the road we parked on that also held really nice bass

Old Warson...very good and still is I caught a nice one there last september on a caddy day my brother is the caddy master:::: Bellreive:: very productive and easy to hit, until they shut down and re did the course

I have twenty one more that we fished with reports and notes................we were loosers!!!!! bartend to all of hours of the night and go fish until dawn, that was my twenties