Forest Park 6/22/13

[jpb2187]

I typically make a run out to Forest Park everyday on my lunch break, but this past week has been brutal. It was hot, there were a lot of people there, and the fish were not biting. I think i caught one dink all week and missed a few.

I decided to wake up early and make a trip out this morning. Woke up about 5:15 and was at the park by about 5:45.

The fish were nailing the topwater. I have three main areas I focus on at Forest Park that typically produce fish for me. One is a section of the lake where there is a split in the coontail that grows all over the lake. They are typically about 1-2 feet submerged underwater. I was focusing on the windblown side of the opening in the weeds.

The other is along the cattails on one section of the shoreline.

The last is another break in the weeds that drops off to the deepest section of the pond.

I was fishing a Kinami Jay Walker. I also tried an Arbogast buzz plug but the fish weren't interested in that or the senko or the soft jerkbait. The topwater was the ticket.

I fished it on a pretty steady retrieve basically two "walks" and a quick pause.

[Old plug]

I would think top waters or wake bates would always be the ticket there. They are shallow and and buzz baits would be my number one choice then poppers. Maybe even unweighted trick or wacky type worms.

[jpb2187]

Yeah it can be a tough place to fish at times.

[Tearin Up Topwater]

Sweet city fish!

[stlfisher]

I would tear them up on Horny Toads when I lived in the city, but swim it back just under the surface if the topwater bite is not on. If you hit it right in spring you can see some big bass spawning in that lake. Once they started stocking trout in the winter time...some of the bass have gotten rather large, but they aren't dummies. I might try a trout swimbait if it is not too weedy/mossy. Always ended up with lot's of green sludge fishing bottom in that lake. For a city lake it is actually pretty good.

[exiledguide]

Have they ever reopened all of Forest Parks water to fishing or is it still just limited to a couple of ponds? We were going to spend a couple of extra days after my wifes 50th high school reunion in 2010 in St Louis and fish the park as we hadn't fished it in about 30 year and we were told no. The pond in front of the Art Museum used to holm a lot of large mouth along the rock wall banks and the spillways used be productive in the drainage ditches.

[jpb2187]

Yeah, you can fish in any of the lakes or streams as long as it is not marked otherwise. I typically just focus on Jefferson Lake b/c i have seen some big bass in there and have caught a decent amount. Like stlfisher mentioned, you can see them in the spring when the get on their beds. Toons of coontail and green sludge, but its still fun to fish.

They were absolutely annihilating the spook and frog today. One of them knocked my spook probably about 3 feet into the air. they must have been stalking the bluegill beds, it was like a feeding frenzy. It was a really fun day.

[exiledguide]

That's great to hear, after I get my back repaired I'll put that on my list of places I want to fish one more time. That always produced more fish than I thought would be possible but back then there was really good fishing in a lot of the city parks. I had a shift were I got off work at 7AM and would be fishing in Forest Park I used the Forest Park expressway going home and I would exit where the drainage stream dumped into the big sewer drain and fish my way upstream. It seemed like the winter season produced the best bass fishing back then a 1/16 oz. Purple Beetle spin or a 1/8 OZ. Mepps bare hook spinner produced some nice fish not many over 4lbs but not bad for just a 1/2 block detour on the way home. I aqlso found that when you found the fish if the weather didn't change you could stay on the fish every day they never moved much there. We also found in the ponds fishing the shade was the key to catching fish. Wish I could be up there fishing again!

[Guest Brian B.]

Sorry fellas if I missed a detail- I am reading this off a tiny phone.

Hell I didn't even know those lakes had bass in them.

From what I read in your descriptions a Bass Pro "Stick-O" should tear them up.. If the water clarity is is at least so- so, then a white Super Fluke by Zoom would be in order as well- cool post, I had no idea.

(You don't step on any hyp needles there do you?.. Kidding..)