St. Louis County Park Lakes

[Haris122]

Me and a friend of mine headed out to Creve Coeur Lake today in the afternoon. Water was kind of choppy with the wind being a touch too strong for the first 2 hours or so for bobber fishing for catfish, but we kept at it. My friend hooked a small channel catfish a couple hours in, after the wind stopped a little bit, then around sunset I finally hooked one up myself, but it too was really small. Put that one also back in, and left for the day. No fish to brag about, but it was fun nonetheless catching them. Judging by the size of the fish I'm thinking these weren't stocked, but born there, which is kind of cool. Granted not hard to believe some catfish in that lake are wild, with a channel connecting it to the Missouri river, but nonetheless might help explain why I've had that much luck with catfish there.

[jpb2187]

Where was this at Bill?

The lakes are finally starting to come alive! I'm looking forward to going to my local county park to catch a few. I took some pics when I first discovered it but haven't lately. Here are some from '09 around this time. I am amazed how thick and healthy they are in a less than pristine environment. Get out there and catch some! Just let them swim another day.

[sitting fishing]

D,

You are correct, I guess I really never payed attention to whether or not St.Louis County cared if I put my little 9 foot yak in there.Hell, I put in on the Meramec @ the Kirkwood ramp and float down around the corner to right where Unger is and drag the yak up to the lake, fish leave and paddle back up stream to my truck.I guess I have been doing covertly enough that I have only seen a few hikers and frisbee golfers.I have never been questioned or asked about my fishing there once and that goes back about 8 years since I have been fishing Unger.I guess I've been lucky???? I have seen jon boats in there in the past...that's what prompted me to put the yak and canoe in there. It would suck to Flyfish from the bank there...lot's of roll casting if any at all.

I went out to Unger this morning and tried to fish from the bank. Nothing.

I did see a huge Bighead Carp carcass and several other dead fish on shore. What's going on with this place? The other dead fish were either shad or silver carp. Sorry, I'm not good with telling small silver carp from big shad.

I did see quite a few fish jumping, and, I know we don't want Asian Carp in our waters, but, when you see quite a few dead fish, it's got to raise a few questions. Anyone else noticing anything similar?

sometimes it is better tobeg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission andt his sounds like one of those times but they may slap your yak

[Haris122]

Anyone been to Unger Park Lake recently? And if so, had any luck? I'm starting to feel like there might not be anything left in there besides the occasional filter feeder (primarily asian carp), and maybe (big maybe) a very rare drum or two. Feels like over the past few years it's just been going downhill. I'm wondering if this harsh winter may have been the final blow to an already poor situation. I know personally I caught more turtles out of there than actual fish. And the one and only fish I did get was from about 2 years ago. Don't see it improving until there's a good flood bringing in some more fish, but I'd gladly find out that it's just me and not the actual lake.

[moguy1973]

That's the thing about both Unger and Simpson. Neither are stocked by the parks department and solely rely on the river to flood to replenish their fish stock. No big floods have happened the past few years to get up into those lakes to fill them back up.

[Haris122]

I think MDC actually stocks Simpson lake to some extent. Normally I take it as a tell-tale sign that when they have those yellow MDC placards with limits and regulations on them and it's a lake, that those actually get stocked. I know I haven't seem such a placard at Unger Lake, and I think I haven't seen it at Butler Lake either. And both of those are lakes that just get natural stockings from flooding, as far as I'm aware.

[WHARFRAT]

Though I'm not real big on bass fishing, but this is the time of year that I have caught some pretty nice bass on Simpson Lake. The bank straight across from the pavilion seems to warm up rather quickly and I've caught some 18" + fish while targeting crappie on small jigs. Most of the time more bass than crappie.

[WHARFRAT]

So, a friend of mine called me up yesterday wanting to know if I had my boat here in StL. Unfortunately for him, its now down at LOZ. But anyway his neighbor had an open spot for him last Saturday and they hit the Mississippi on both sides near West Alton. Said the bite was pretty good. Said they fished Dresser, across the river to the Alton Marina, then took out and fished Piasa Creek, and ended up fishing on the docks across from Pere Marquette.

Said Dresser was best overall, lots of small crappie, said they think they kept about 20 fish around 9". Nothing over 10". Minnows was the ticket about a couple ft down.

Alton Marina was ok, but nothing to write home about. Orange/Chartruse jigs, about a foot off the bottom. Nothing on minnows.

Piasa creek was also pretty good, but only 1 out of 10 was 8" or better.

Pere Marquette was slow, he went there by himself after this neighbor went home and said he was throwing jigs around and caught one 11 incher and one that was over 13".

That's pretty good. I used to fish there quite a bit years back, and I don't know if I ever caught one over 8 or 9". I told him that I'm going to check his ruler next time I see him. lol

[cart7]

I used to fish Bee Tree lake in the early to mid 90's. It was a much different lake than it is now. The two arms of the lake were difficult to get to, those walk paths weren't there, you had to walk through the creeks to get to some of the other side of the lake. There was a lot of downed timber in some parts of the lake (due to beavers), a beaver lodge and a lot of submerged timber under the water.

The Conservation dept, which manages the fishery, claims they used to shock a 10lber out of the lake. It wouldn't surprise me. I caught bass out of that lake up to 6 1/2 lbs and catching a half dozen 15" bass on any given trip wasn't difficult. Now?

They basically ruined the lake. They contoured some of the banks, dragged all of the submerged timber out of the lake and put in walkways around the lake that makes access to the other side easy. I've fished there a few times over the past 5 years and have never caught anything. I suspect, with little to no cover along the banks the fish are hanging further off the banks and thus, making it difficult to reach them casting from the bank.

[podum]

Ditto on Bee Tree. That lake was clear and full of big bass in the nineties. After the "improvements" it muddied up and the fishing suffered. Kinda sad.