Float Tube Access (St. Louis Area)

[aftersh0ck]

if you go to catawissa and you look at the maps before walk around through the woods there are many smaller lakes and little ponds that are clear enough to see whats in them before you get close to them.

ive never seen anyone at the smallers ones and tore up the bass in them.

the main ones and the river area is definatley tube perfect.

not to mention ive caught lots of nice crappie and white bass there.

[drath]

Thanks everyone. This thread is moving in the right direction. Please keep the ideas coming.

SIO3-In regard to the Page Canal at CCL. Is that supposed to be a carp hotspot? I've been looking for a place to chase carp with my fly rod. Carp, Fly rod, float tube, sounds fun to me. When do they start patrolling the shallows? I'd assume the water temp has to be in the 60's-70's?

Aftershock- Thanks for the tips on the smaller ponds at Catawissa. Reminds me of a few strip mines outside Columbia MO when I lived there in the 90's. I never saw anyone fishing the little ones but I caught a lot of BIG bass. There's prolly not much room back there in the woods for fly casting. Would it be worth packing my tube back there and pumping it up pond side?

Thanks Again

-D

[Ted Calcaterra]

Drath - when you find that crap hotspot let me know. I have been looking for a long time. I have flyfished for carp in Lake Michigan and it as awesome. The water clarity was 20ft deep and you could spot carp 100 yards away. The problem with Missouri is many of our lakes have carp but visibility sucks at best. I have chased them at Busch Lake 33 with little success. I can see them tail and I sneak up on them but I don't think they can see my fly since a carp's eye sight is so poor. I have fished CCL and can catch all the gar I want. It was muddy and couldn't spot carp. Maybe I was there the wrong day. I smelled bad too. I have also tried Gravois creek but afraid I will die if I get any nasty water in a small cut on the leg. One needs a hazmat suit. That Catawissa lake looks awful interesting since I have a small jet boat and can weave in and out of the river. All I can say is that carp on the fly is sooo bad A$$.

[drath]

Ted- Will do. The best I've come up with for sight fishing carp is not close to home. Lake of the Ozarks when the water warms into the 70's the carp and drum come up around a seawall in front of my parents condo. Good times! But I"m always looking for something better, closer to home.

That .pdf of Catawissa may be a little misleading. I google mapped it and the two bigger lakes that look like they connect to the Meramec don't. At least not in the "Satellite" view that I was looking at. Maybe they took the pic during low waters and the map was made picturing normal pool or something. Just thought I'd mention it. I didn't want you to take your boat down there and be stuck in the lake with the ramp if you were planning on getting out to the river.

-D

[Al Agnew]

Haven't been to Catawissa in a long time, but when I was there last the access to the river from the lakes was somewhat dependent upon river levels. When the river is low you had to drag a canoe over muddy shallows a short distance. Don't know what it's like now.

As for using a float tube in the rivers...if you are cautious and you understand moving water, it's doable much of the time, but if you're inexperienced I don't think I'd try the lower Meramec unless the river was quite low. Your maneuverability in riffles isn't very good, and it's easy to get into trouble in riffles with lots of logs and sweepers, which is pretty common on the lower Meramec. Big River is probably safer, but here again I wouldn't take many chances unless the water was low. Check out the Richwoods USGS gauge for Big River, and if it's anything over 250-300 cfs I'd be very careful anywhere on the river around Washington State Park. Riffles are shallow, but often full of logs.

[drath]

Al, thanks for the advice. While I’m very new to float tubes I do have some experience on moving water in canoes (Current/Jacks Fork, Huzzah etc; spring, summer, and fall) and once or twice on a friends yak. My tube is a “U” style so, in case of emergency, I can get out of it easier than the “circle” or “doughnut” styles. It also rides pretty high. My bee-hind should be right at or slightly above water level and my knees should be at the same height. Nonetheless, I’m going to get some experience on lakes and/or ponds before trying the rivers. Other than the possibility of losing some gear, I currently don’t see how this will be that much more dangerous than the folks that party float on truck tubes. At least I’ll have some control/propulsion with my flippers. If I need to bail, I should be able to easy enough. When it’s cold enough to need waders, keep my wader belt as tight as possible.

Thanks for the gauge numbers. The cfs numbers mean nothing to me without a point of reference. I’ll be sure to check ‘em out.

-D

[drath]

Here's a pic of my tube from the companies web site.

-D

[exiledguide]

Here's a pic of my tube from the companies web site.

-D

I always carry a collapsable paddle attached to my tube since I had a flipper break into two pieces this past year. Good luck I fished strip mines in the Bellevile--Millstadt New Athens Ill area for over twenty years when I was younger and lived in St Louis. I seldom found better fishing any where since.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I've seen hundreds in the canal under Page. Especially when the cottonwood fluffs where on the water.

My experience is the same as Ted's. The water here in MO is too muddy around the St Louis area. I can catch a bunch with corn but they wouldn't take flys.

I've seen them rolling in LOZ while bass fishing and the water was a lot clearer than the mud holes around the city. I spent a long time trying to catch them on the fly after seeing a show on TV that was, coincindentally, filmed in Michigan.

I've only hooked one.

Pete

[mjcoussens]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but it contains a lot of great information and I'd like to add to that.

I brought my float tube and fished the main pit at Catawissa last weekend. Water was extremely silty, with visibility of less than a foot. I did not try to explore some of the other pits in the area, but maybe I should have. I ended up landing a half dozen longnose gar stripping streamers near the surface, but did see lots of carp and an alligator gar about 4ft long.

I'm still looking for that perfect float tube/flyfishing pond near STL. It may not exist. From what I've gathered, the lake at Bismarck CA gets pretty heavily covered in lily pads and may be better suited to a canoe/kayak.

Does anyone know anything about Port Hudson lake CA? From satellite views, it looks like it has a lot of timber structure. What is the water clarity like?

Thanks,

Matt