Hot October - Urban Stocking Program

[10pointer]

They stock all of the St. Louis lakes with Montauk bred lunkers.  Funny to see them stock the absolute biggest lunkers in the Stl lakes rather than the trout parks and streams.  I think every single lake gets a handful of lunkers at a minimum...and seems they stock a few giants 8lb-12lb in each year over year.

[Johnsfolly]

I fished a couple of the urban lakes, Cosmo Bethel park in Columbia and Veteran's Park in Fulton. I only had about 45 min to an hour at each one. Only caught a single rainbow in each one. I caught both on a white 1/16 oz marabou jig.

[Geoff]

On 11/10/2016 at 1:43 PM, Smalliebigs said:

Well I know I said I thought the Urban Trout program sucked but, I figured with the taxes I pay in this state and City I live in I need to try it. I went to Walker lake in Kirkwood. I had no idea they stock big trout???.... I caught two fish in the wind as I dusted off my old Sage rod. I caught them both on what I would consider a bass fly.....a white clouser.....I am by no means a good fly fisherman anymore but, that being said one of the trout was pushing 4 to 5 lbs, way over 20 inches. the old guys fishing around the lake came over as I was fighting this beast in amazement. the second trout was also nice definitely over 2 lbs.

 

    I had no idea they put big ones in there in the Winter????

Walker Lake typically has some nice fish in it. They put in 3 that are considered lunkers. One of them is a dead, I saw it floating friday. Was probably about 20" and 4 pounds. It had been dead for a while, nice and rotty. I caught a 5lb fish out of there last winter, and my best one this winter yet has been about 3 lbs.

 

Couple years ago I caught an 11lb out of one of the lakes at Busch.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I think I remember that.

Did you post a picture?

[Geoff]

I did. Big ugly hen. Still thinking about having a reproduction made

Big Rainbow by Geoff Anderson, on Flickr

This one was from Kirkwood last year

 

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, Geoff said:

did. Big ugly hen. Still thinking about having a reproduction made

Geoff

Pretty impressive trout. Thanks for posting the photos. I have threatened my wife that once I catch a 6+lb trout, I'm putting a reproduction on the wall. My best up to this point is a 5 lb 4 oz brown, so I haven't broke that mark yet. So I would definitely advocate on getting that big one mounted.

[Geoff]

Thanks. Only thing holding me back is the fact its a 26" fish. And if a reproduction is $10-17 an inch...yikes....it ads up quickly. 

[Johnsfolly]

I know that there are a lot of folks that don't like the urban trout program, but I am a enthusiastic supporter of the program. It allows folks to fish for trout near their homes and more often than if they had to travel to the southern trout waters. I have fished eight different lakes and ponds over the last several years and even the lake at Bass Pro shops here in Columbia the year they stocked trout.. The latest was this last weekend when we were in Sedalia. I had about an hour to fish between 12:45 and 1:45 pm. I fished 2 # fluoroclear P-Line and a 1/16 oz pearl head, white marabou jig. I caught two rainbows on my first two casts (first one is pictured below) and landed three with a total of 7 casts. On the casts that I didn't land a fish, I did get bites, but didn't get a good hook set.

 

My daughter came over and within three casts caught this rainbow.

She only made a couple of more casts before giving me back my rod. I made two more casts and landed another rainbow. This all occurred in about 25-30 minutes of fishing. As I was processing these recent photos I got to reminiscing about trips to other urban lakes during the winter trout season. I have fished Here are some of those photos.

Bethel-Cosmo park Columbia - with and without ice. Yes I do force my daughter onto the ice and even bought her an ice fishing rod that we didn't use last year due to no thick ice.

Caught on a three salmon eggs. My daughter advocates giving them three under the ice.

We even made the on-line version of the Columbia Tribune when I had her out ice fishing when she was 6. Unfortunately I can't get those photos uploaded.

Spur Pond Kirksville

First rainbow at Coot Lake - James Reed WA

And no fish but a nice sunset at Plover Lake - James Reed WA

 

[Gavin]

Looks like you had fun and that is all that matters...Have an urban trout lake about a mile from the house, and rarely fish it...fun to stop by and watch other folks fish though.

 

[Al Agnew]

Hey, living where I do it would be easy to look down upon the urban trout thing, but I liken it to going out the front door and fishing my pond for bass and bluegill...not a "destination" but a relaxing way to spend an hour or so.  They are fish, and they tug, and it's a bit of a challenge to catch them.  You could ask for a lot more but it sure beats not fishing.