Stl County Park Lakes been any good recently?

[Haris122]

Anyone have any luck lately at Simpson, Unger, Creve Coeur or such, regardless of species? And if so what? I've been to both Simpson, and Creve Coeur recently. Didn't have any luck at Simpson the last time, and caught a small bass (with a bad eye), and a small Channel Cat at Creve Coeur but that's been it.

[moguy1973]

Caught a few small bass in the swimming pools at Suson a couple weeks ago.

[WHARFRAT]

I haven't heard any decent reports coming out of Simpson in quite a while. I only live a few miles from there, so I talk to a few people that's been out there, but they haven't had anything good to say.

I did talk to someone, that fished a couple of subdivision lakes off of Baxter Rd, that said he was catching quite a few bass and some decent catfish. But I don't know the rules about fishing there. He said, as long as MO conservation stocks it, then it's open to anyone. But one of the lakes he was talking about, I drove by, there were signs posted that the lake was only for property owners of the subdivision, plus, I really didn't see any access other that walking thru someones yard to get to the lake.

I don't think I would want to hassle with this, if I knew I would be in the wrong. There's other places to go wet a line.

[Haris122]

Ive been to Simpson several times now, and only recently have I had any "consistent" luck. Which constitutes catching 2 pairs of White Crappie on two kayak fishing trips. 3rd kayak trip I once again got skunked. Before that I had caught 1 tiny Crappie, and 1 decent Channel Catfish there in numerous trips fishing from shore or dock.

The MDC webpage for Simpson mentions the Bass and Crappie population to be good, but to date I have never caught a Bass of any sort there, and up until recently had only seen one Crappie from it. I wish it fished better, cause it's one of the few "calm water" spots around St. Louis where you can go fishing out of a kayak, regardless of how fast and high the rivers are (I'll just conveniently forget about the Meramec connecting to it in high water events). As far as I can think of, Simpson Park, Unger Park Lake, and Creve Coeur Lake (George Winter being a little more at the mercy of river conditions) are the only such places immediately around here. Creve Coeur I haven't given a shot from the kayak yet, but Simpson and Unger have been pretty fruitless for me.

[fishinwrench]

The MDC webpage for Simpson mentions the Bass and Crappie population to be good, but to date I have never caught a Bass of any sort there, and up until recently had only seen one Crappie from it.

They always say that. They are ashamed to say the truth, which is... "we don't know"...because they think they know everything.

Of all the fishing reports you'll ever see, the ones from MDC will be the least reliable. I prefer to blame their biologists

[jpb2187]

I've been to Jefferson Lake in FoPo a few times lately. Been catching decent sized bass working a black blue jig or junebug worm slow out in the grass.

[moguy1973]

The problem with Simpson it and Unger are the only lakes that are not stocked by the County Parks. They let the river do the stocking, which it hasn't gotten high enough up into Simpson in many years for the river to stock it.

You can put a kayak in at Spanish Lake, although you might need a bullet proof vest under your life jacket

[Haris122]

They always say that. They are ashamed to say the truth, which is... "we don't know"...because they think they know everything.

Of all the fishing reports you'll ever see, the ones from MDC will be the least reliable. I prefer to blame their biologists

Well, every now and then they have the occasional "fair" rating for fishing a certain area. I feel like a lot of the times it's a relative term. So far out of Simpson the fishing has been relatively good for Crappie, in terms that out of the 6 fish caught there, 5 have been crappie, but bass on the other hand, nope. I need some better fishermen to go fish that place and find out how they do, so I confirm either that location just sucks, or I'm not skilled enough yet to use the lake to its true potential. Any takers?

The problem with Simpson it and Unger are the only lakes that are not stocked by the County Parks. They let the river do the stocking, which it hasn't gotten high enough up into Simpson in many years for the river to stock it.

You can put a kayak in at Spanish Lake, although you might need a bullet proof vest under your life jacket

As tempting as that may be, I think I'll pass. I've noticed I have a serious bias towards traveling west, and especially south of the main metro area for fishing trips. Not even bulletproof vest related, I just really hate spending any time in traffic going towards the other side of town when I can get out of the more congested areas quicker going south and such.

[Gavin]

Fishing sucks at all the County lakes. Bait fishing in flooded fields is probabably your best near town game right now. Circle hooks.

[cart7]

I fished Simpson back about 08-09. Launching a 18 1/2 foot Champion bass boat from that launch ramp was quite a challenge.

I probably fished there around a dozen times over that time period. Caught bass up to 4 1/2 to 5lbs. I've caught quite a few 15" + keeper sized bass. You won't catch a lot of numbers but the quality of fish was pretty good.

The biggest tip is to remember those are a couple of old strip pits. The banks drop off quickly and what I found was that most of the water around the lake wasn't worth spending time on as far as bass fishing. Area's where I caught the most fish. Around the ramp, about 50 yards or less on the left side (facing the ramp) and the bank on the right side that eventually winds back to the creek feeding the lake. Target the laydowns.

From that spillway and the bank that abuts the park area all the way to the fishing dock and then from that back corner to the right of dock (facing the dock) and all along that shore out to the point. I've especially had a lot of success on that bank fishing laydowns and submerged timber.

There's a little cove on the north side with a home towards the back end I've caught a few fish out of but basically you need to stick to fishing the shallower banks with cover and avoid those long stretches of banks where the water drops off quickly into 15 - 20 feet of water. BTW, despite the fact that sewer input on the West bank looking like a good spot, I've never caught a fish there.