Rule #1

[bfishn]

I haven't caught anything since I was fishin' where you just came from.

[cjgentile13]

Reading posts dating back years has been really helpful. There are many lakes that people have said to be good gems in the past - many of them still are. Public notification though has given the impression that these are holes frequently fished and hard to be successful on. However I have found a lot of good public water from scouring these forums, many of which have produced very nice fish.

[mjk86]

CJ-Agreed....I have found that on heavily fished public waters, about 90% of the anglers are just not very good. You will hear things like "all fished out" or "nothin but dinks in there" when in reality there may be a healthy population of larger fish, however the larger ones have often become very selective in their forage and will not chase baits that a smaller fish would. Living in the st louis region I have heard quite a bit about poor fishing opportunities around here, but ive always found quite good fishing around here.

[Greasy B]

CJ-Agreed....I have found that on heavily fished public waters, about 90% of the anglers are just not very good. You will hear things like "all fished out" or "nothin but dinks in there" when in reality there may be a healthy population of larger fish, however the larger ones have often become very selective in their forage and will not chase baits that a smaller fish would. Living in the st louis region I have heard quite a bit about poor fishing opportunities around here, but ive always found quite good fishing around here.

Your correct, only once have I seen a truly effective bluegill fisherman on my favorite public lake. It was kind of scary but as long as people like him and I tread lightly the lake should hold up.