Stl County Park Lakes been any good recently?

[jackdizo]

I would not say that they are common by any means... But there are a good amount of 10lb bass caught every year in Missouri. Usually out of smaller lakes, private 100acre + or -and larger impoundments like Table rock. However, lakes such as Simpson lake being the tough body of water to fish that it is, in my opinion probably holds a few 10lb bass. Or very close to that mark. I personally know of an 8lb bass coming out of that lake this year. With the amount of fingerling asian carp in that lake that the bass can gorge themselves on as well as the shad, bluegill, etc, it would make sense that the lake has the potential to produce a bass of that size. The only thing holding it back is flooding and the influx of spotted bass that are inhabiting the lake due to the river flooding into the lake as well as gar and other fish that also feed on bass forage. This is just my two cents. I could be wrong. But hope Im not. Its still a dirty finicky lake that can be tough to fish, but usually if you grind it out you will run into some big ones.

[cart7]

Well, I do know the conservation department used to routinely shock a 10-11 lber in Bee Tree lake way back before they screwed that lake up by contouring the banks.  In fact, Bee Tree used to be a phenomenal bass fishing lake back when it was full of timber from the beavers taking trees down and before they built the pathway around the lake.  

 

Ever since they drug the sunken timber out of that lake, contoured the banks, got rid of the beavers and made the entire lake easily accessible by building walkways and bridges around the lake the bass fishing there hasn't been the same.  I quit going. 

[Old plug]

i see post on here about the STL park lales. doesn't anyone fish the Mississippi. Have no idea what its like now after having not been fishing it in 25 yrs but back in the day winfiels and Claraville tailwaters were a fine fishing this time of year. Especially cLarksville. i cannot begin to  count the number of Crappie, Sauger and Walleye we caught up there.

[WHARFRAT]

Mainly used to fish the Alton Pool area (Dresser Island) and up toward Grafton (Piasa creek), and not too far up the Illinois River, near Stump Lake.  Mainly bass and crappie.  Never had a stellar day, but always able to catch a few fish.  Crappie in the 7-9" range and lucky to catch a bass over 12".  Chain of Rocks could also be decent at times, but that was mainly fishing from the bank..

Haven't fished Simpson Lake in 3/4 years, but you could always count on catching a few.  Any bass I ever caught there was fairly large and pretty healthy.  Crappie were spotty at best, but you could get into a bunch now and then.  Caught some rough fish, Sauger, cats.  It definitely isn't the cleanest lake around.

[mjk86]

This is as good a place as any......I fish forest park on my lunch break if the weather is nice...which it has been amazing for december.  One of my most productive decembers in terms of fishing....not so much deer/woodland critter killing. :/  Anyhoo...in the spring and fall i can usually go up there and catch a few in the 45min i have.  Summer and winter not much, although ive had some exceptions.  Fish there are surprisingly good size, never any giants, but usually good 15-18inch fish.  Summer and fall i always use topwaters, but in october i switch to a jerkbait, as they stopped eating a topwater for me.  I was able to get them consistently on jerkbait up until december, then that just totally quit.  I probably went up there 5 times using jerkbaits and swimbaits and not a bite.  The other day i decided to switch to a jig.....nothing....then a flutter spoon....nothing...finally i switched over to a redeye shad and picked up a few, including one nice one around 18inches.  I find it odd that they wont hit a jerkbait, but will happily eat a lipless bait....seems like it would be the other way around as the water cooled...shows what i know!  The trout guys are catching fish one after the other, its wild.  I even got in on the fun with one i caught on a jerkbait.  Caught another one on a swimbait.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Nice!

[jpb2187]

1 hour ago, mjk86 said:

 I was able to get them consistently on jerkbait up until december, then that just totally quit.  I probably went up there 5 times using jerkbaits and swimbaits and not a bite.  The other day i decided to switch to a jig.....nothing....then a flutter spoon....nothing...finally i switched over to a redeye shad and picked up a few, including one nice one around 18inches.  I find it odd that they wont hit a jerkbait, but will happily eat a lipless bait....seems like it would be the other way around as the water cooled...shows what i know! 

 

Lipless baits and topwaters are king in FoPo. I switched jobs this year, and now I'm out in Chesterfield so I don't get to FoPo as much as I used to. I miss that place. Last winter the trout were inhaling the lipless crank as well. I would catch them every other cast. Just stand between the reeds on the west bank and fling it out there. 

There is a deep hole by the aerators on the east side that is a nice wintering spot. Brush piles are straight out from the low concrete (not the raised platform). 

[Haris122]

Went to Butler Lake today. Didn't get much but actually was expecting nothing at all. Ended up with a fat 13" Largemouth on a Beetlespin around 9. One of my two friends caught a 9" White Crappie towards noon on a swimbait, and that was the extent of our success there. The actual lake didn't seem particularly dirty (no distinct sewage smell) by Butler Lake standards but that's not saying much. The shoreline around it however was peppered with even more trash than usual.

[WHARFRAT]

Don't they have a warning to stay away from the Meremac from Fenton down?

[Haris122]

Well, yes they do but it's not posted yet (it's going to be interesting to see how they handle little indirect backwater lakes like that as far as signage goes). I was saying that to this friend of mine that wanted to go there, but he seemed to have his mind set on going there regardless. Since he hadn't got out in a bit, the whole point was to go fishing with him, so I said whatever, and secretly hoped Butler wasn't as bad as the Meramec proper was supposed to be. I just tried to minimize touching the fishing line as much as possible.