Reflecting On This Winter's Urban Trout In St. Louis

[STL Matt]

Well, now that February is here, the "bucket brigade" has all but taken over, and all the grandchildren running around make back-casting a bit too trecherous for a beginner such as myself. So instead of hitting the lake, I figured I'd reflect a little on my winter of learning how to use my new fly rod at Jefferson Lake in Forest Park.

I first want to say how great the program is for city folk like myself who take an interest to fishing but can't necessarily afford (time or $$$-wise) to explore the obsession out on the rivers more than a couple times a year. In the past, I've spin fished at lots of the urban lakes, and at every one have found nice people and plenty of fish (provided you get there in the first few days after a fresh stocking). Spin fishing at Carondelet Park I recall getting tips from really old Bosnian men, sort of old black men, middle-aged Vietnamese men, and good old-fashioned twenty-something white-bred south city hoosiers, all of which worked. Boathouse Lake being a put-and-take location, I will admit to taking home a few fish from time to time, figuring they could at least die with the honor of having taken a rooster tail over powerbait.

When I got (for myself) a fly rod for Christmas, I started going to Jefferson Lake in Forest Park instead, since it's a catch-and-release lake and offers more back-casting room all up and down the west bank. It was a perfect place to go flail around until I learned to get the dang fly out at least fifteen feet or so, which is plenty far for a patient man to watch a bobber (er, "strike indicator") until a little stocker takes it under. Humbly questioning some of the fly guys around the park, I got plenty of advice on what flies to use and how far to float them below the indicator. When I first started, embarassment and actual danger of hooking others in the wind kept me from fishing too near others, but as my technique improved, I started talking to the regulars a lot more. Got plenty more advice, even some gifts of flies that were working on a particular day (of course, being a beginner, I lose flies at an alarming rate due to bad knots, premature forward casts, and over-excited hook sets, so no fly would last too long).

It being such a mild winter, the lake only froze over once, and even then the ice only extended about fifteen feet. Actually, this was a blessing for me, because it made me have to get better at casting to clear the ice shelf. During that icy week things started coming together, and I started expecting to catch at least a few every time I went. I started going every chance I had, which was more days than not, since I live the musician's schedule (gigs/rehearsals/lessons mostly in the evenings, days wide open). At first I would bring the spinning rod too, in case I couldn't get it together with the fly casting. By the end of January, even on really windy days I'd leave the spinning rod at home. I jumped on a bunch of fly-tying tools/materials I found on craigslist, and the last two-weeks of January I pretty much only fished stuff I had tied, all kind of wooly buggery or leechy things or just kind of marabou wrapped around a hook sort of things.

In lieu of pictures, I offer a few highlights:

-one of the bigger guys I caught (maybe 14", just a big stocker) I got on accident, just pulling back to recast and he was on there. Of course I played it off real natural in case anyone was watching.

-one day I was killing it off the dock with this little brown jig (I started calling it Lyndon B, after Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ=Little Brown Jig). But then as evening rolled in I snapped it off on a shitty cast, that kind where you hear the whip-crack sound which for me almost always means goodbye fly. A couple days later I walked up to the dock and happened to see good ol' LBJ laying on the concrete there, tied it back on, and proceeded to kill it again until a bigger fish revealed a bad tippet knot by breaking it.

-outfishing a guy using Gulp off the dock. Scented baits are supposed to be illegal til February, but since I never saw the guy catch one, I didn't say anything, but sort of delighted in his growing frustration as I pulled in my usual two or three on an ugly, chunky leech I had tied and he never seemed to get a bite.

-one day it seemed pretty slow for everyone, which all the regulars have advised me means you ought to go smaller, less conspicuous, and lower, but I kept catching decent fish on this big, orange, glorified hunk of maribou I had tied floated three feet below the surface for the simple reason that I had been too lazy to tie on more tippet when I got there.

So that was my winter. I thank all the guys (and one gal) who helped me out. Never caught or remembered most of your names, but I look forward to chatting more next winter. If any of you are on here, I was the guy in the yellow coat who was there all the darn time, name's Matt.

Now, what's next? I have some family in Salem, so I am picturing some Current trips in the spring, if I can get the gas money together and get my hands on a cheap pair of waders. Any advice on some places to start/flies to take? After a winter of watching indicators, I'm ready to cast some dries.

[BackCastingGolfer]

If I live in your area I would be hitting the Current as much as possible!