South Farm R-1 Lake, Boone Co.

The best place I know of to catch big Bluegill around Columbia, Missouri is my farm pond! This pond sits just southeast of where we planted our research fields every summer, so I was able to visit it frequently over the years. If you head to the dam on the south side and throw flies or little rooster tails about 30-40 feet from shore you'll start catching ~8" Bluegills left and right. I feel like there should be some monsters in there, but the best I ever managed was a 9 1/16" individual in June 2012.

Still, with my time here winding down I decided to visit 12 June before we planted the corn field. It started slow, but once I figured out the fish were hitting surface flies (a little foam and feather "ant" pattern I tied worked best) I did alright.

I only photographed the first fish (a bit over 8"):

I love how these guys fight like they're about four times their size. This one only weighed 5 oz.!

Whetstone Creek CA, Callaway Co.

Back on 04 June I decided to stop at Whetstone Creek Conservation Area in Callaway County on my way home from St. Louis. I hadn't really gone fishing at all since May 2013, and I hadn't gone microfishing since early April 2013! Whetstone Creek CA has a nice stream (Whetstone Creek) flowing through it, so I thought I'd stop there and see what I might turn up.

Unfortunately, Missouri was just starting its rainy period that week and Whetstone Creek was a raging flow of very muddy water. I had to abandon my microfishing hopes and instead focus on trying to catch a few fish in Horseshoe Lake, one of the small lakes in the area.

I pulled out the fly rod Diana's uncle gave me last Christmas and started throwing surface flies into the wind. I had a few hits on the fly right away, but nothing was really grabbing it. After about 20 minutes I switched to a smaller fly and landed a small Bluegill, my first fish in over a year!

I forget what this fly is called, but it works with sunfish whenever I'm getting skunked on everything else!

Grindstone Creek, Boone Co.

Last night, I ventured down the hill to Grindstone Creek behind our house here in Boone Co. I was hoping to target some Orangethroat Darters, but it was not to be. We've only had ~1/4" of rain in the past month, so I was expecting low water. Unfortunately, the creek was much lower than I expected.

This rocky path is actually Grindstone Creek.

I walked downstream a few hundred feet to my favorite deep hole, and was stunned to find that even it was nearly empty.

That puddle is all that's left of a hole that's typically 20 feet wide, 70 feet long, and up to 10 feet deep. It was full of hungry little fish.

I took my 13.5' crappie pole and rigged it with an Owner Smallest Tanago hook a few inches below some split shot. I threw a magenta Unibobber above it all, just so I could see where my line (8x tippet) was.

I've been experimenting with bait for microfishing lately. I started out with earthworms, but I don't like the smell, they're tough to corral, and they can be tough to get onto a hook. I've tried Minnow Bait, but it doesn't stick well to the tiny hooks. I switched to PowerBait scented, tiny pink worms, and they work pretty well, but they're still tough to get on the hook. Last night, I tried a rubber band dipped in crawfish FishSticks attractant. This was, by far, the easiest bait to get onto those tiny hooks that I've tried.

Maybe it was just the hungry fish in the tiny puddle, but the rubber band got slammed immediately.

A ~70mm Green Sunfish was the first fish I caught on a rubber band. I like the FishSticks attractant because it's like a glue stick and I can just dip the rubber band right into it.

I caught a couple sunfish, then I noticed that there were some topminnows on the far side of the puddle. Topminnows had evaded me up until then, so I focused on them.

A couple of the topminnows struck the rubber band, and I even hooked one, but I was failing to get one all the way in. I stalked the minnows to the other side of the puddle (which was still ~20 feet x 15 feet) and finally connected with one!

Lifer #35: Blackstripe Topminnow!

I forgot my little acrylic box for photography at home.

I walked down the creek another ~200 feet and found another puddle I didn't expect to find. It was only ~8 feet across, but it was at least 40 feet long. Based on the Common Snapping Turtle that disappeared, I'd guess it was still at least 3-4 feet deep.

I was getting tons of strikes on the rubber band, but the fish seemed too big for the hook. I switched to a size 18 fly hook tipped with a PowerBait worm and I landed a couple more fish before calling it a night.

This Common Shiner was the largest fish I caught yesterday.

Fish Caught:

1. Green Sunfish, 73mm
2. Green Sunfish, 80mm
3. Bluegill, 70mm
4. Blackstripe Topminnow, 63mm
5. Common Shiner, 117mm
6. Bluegill, 68mm
7. Green Sunfish, 94mm
8. Green Sunfish, 84mm

Gasconade River, Osage County

The Gasconade River in Osage County, Missouri stood in marked contrast to the Big Piney River. It was wider, deeper, faster, and generally poorer for fishing.

Looking downstream from Pointers Creek Access pre-sunrise.

 While the Big Piney had many deep holes with steep rocky banks, the Gasconade was full of featureless plains under the surface, which made fishing challenging at worst, and difficult at best. Still, Kyle and I managed to combine for ~30 fish through the day.

I had no problem catching small Largemouth Bass on the Gasconade River. This monster measured in at just over 9".

We floated from Rollins Ferry Access to Pointers Creek Access, which was roughly 8 miles. We heard from a fellow kayaker that the distance can be covered in a little over 2 hours when the water is up, but the water was way down last Saturday. In fact, it was only flowing at ~1300 cf/s instead of the average of just over 3000 cf/s! The slow speed of the river, coupled with our desire to fish more than paddle, made for a pleasant 6 hour journey.

The Gasconade River just as I like it: empty.

When we launched the kayak at 6:15am there was only one other group in the parking lot, and they headed upstream after launching their jetboat. We wouldn't see another group for ~6 miles, and in the end we only saw two other boats total. We were surprised to see a handful of empty trailers at Pointers Creek around 12:30pm and over a dozen upon our return to Rollins Ferry at 1pm! I was thrilled to generally have the river to ourselves for the entirety of the trip.

The day started out cool and cloudy, but it didn't take long for the sun and heat to overtake the river.

I had trouble right from the start. After having a perfect trip on the Big Piney, I quickly lost two lures and a lot of line to the Gasconade. I believe I ended up losing five lures due to my own miscasts.

At the time of this photo, this was my personal best Longear Sunfish (6 1/8").

Still, we eventually found some fish with the lures. I was king of the Largemouth Bass, while Kyle seemed to exclusively hook Smallmouth Bass. I also managed to bring in some good-sized Bluegill (8 1/8") and Longear Sunfish (my personal best, 6 3/8"). Kyle also brought in a Goldeye! Forgot to get a photo of that one, though. He also managed to lose a very large Largemouth Bass that was likely over 2 lbs.

It's always fun to catch big Bluegill. This 8 1/8" fish was photographed underwater just before bringing him into the kayak.

The trip was relatively uneventful until we pulled up next to a half-dollar sized map turtle. Kyle lunged at it with his hand, and the next thing I knew we were both bobbing in the water with an overturned kayak! Kyle ended up losing his rod and reel, while I lost a box containing my favorite lures, my folding net and my fishing journal. We also both lost our cell phones to water damage. The worst part was that we were only 1000 ft. from Pointers Creek Access!

South Farm R-1 Lake, Boone County

Last night I visited A. Perry Phillips Park in Boone County. Phillips Lake looks like it could have some decent fishing, but the shallows were choked with algae and I didn't fancy removing algae from my lure after every cast, so I moved on to South Farm R-1 Lake.

I spent about an hour catching nothing. At one point I had something on the line, but when I went to tighten my drag (it was almost all the way open to start with) the fish got off the hook. Then, all of a sudden, fish started biting!

I caught two small Largemouth Bass and a decent (8 1/8") Bluegill before it was time to go home.

Little Dixie Lake CA, Callaway County

On Friday, I went to Little Dixie Lake Conservation Area in Callaway County, which is about 10 miles east of Columbia. Little Dixie Lake has a surface area of 205 acres and is my favorite fishing spot around our home.

It was raining Friday, but Diana was out of town so I headed to the north side of lake to try fishing in the rain for the first time. My goal was to catch a catfish, so I threw a nightcrawler on a hook, tossed it in and waited. I'm not a big fan of just sitting and waiting, so I also put a buzzbait on another rod and quickly pulled in a small (9 1/4") Largemouth Bass. After going 20 minutes without a nibble I moved to the disabled access jetty on the east side.

I started out the same way as on the north side and caught another little (9 1/4" again) Largemouth Bass right away. As I was putting it back in the water I thought, "Where did my bobber go?" Right then it popped back up! I reeled it in and my worm was gone.

I put another worm on, watched the bobber and tried for the next 20 minutes to set the hook in whatever was eating my worm without luck. Since I was running out of worms I switched to shrimp and crossed my fingers that the fish would take the shrimp. Sure enough, the bobber started bobbing and the next thing I knew there was no shrimp on the hook. I was positive I had a catfish down there messing with my hook, so I added more shrimp and waited.

After another 40 minutes of playing with me, I finally hooked the fish and got it to shore. To my bewilderment it was a 6" long Green Sunfish! Still no catfish for me.

This morning I was at Little Dixie Lake around 6:15am, armed with my favorite rod and reel combo. In about 2 1/2 hours I managed to catch seven Largemouth Bass, two Bluegill and a Green Sunfish. I lost several bass when they shook my lures loose on some fairly decent jumps. I had never seen Largemouth Bass jump clear of the water until this week.

Toward the end of my trip I caught my largest Largemouth Bass yet at Little Dixie Lake:  13 1/2" long, 1 lb. 5 oz. On the very next cast, with the exact same lure (a chartreuse 1/4 oz. rooster tail) I caught one of my smallest Largemouth Bass: 5 1/16" I couldn't believe such a little fish would try to eat something so large!

South Farm R-1 Lake, Boone County

This evening I fished at South Farm R-1 Lake near Columbia in Boone County. This little lake is owned by the University of Missouri, but stocked by the Department of Conservation and open to the public for fishing.

The south end of the lake is rocky, the east side is mowed grass, and the rest gets pretty weedy by the end of the summer. The "lake" is also already filling up with algae, so it may not be a fun place to fish in a few weeks.

Yesterday, I was able to pull out a few 8+ inch Bluegill, but today was pretty slow.

 

This evening I used my MicroLite with 4 lb. mono-filament and I brought in a 9 1/4" (~6 oz.) Largemouth Bass on an orange 1/16 oz. rooster tail on my third cast, then went the next 70 minutes without landing anything. I had bites on a pink 1/16 oz. rooster tail, a 1 1/2" Rattlin' Rapala, and mini hopper crank bait, but couldn't bring anything in.

I also had a line with a Carolina rig trying for catfish, but had no luck with cheese scented Catfish Charlie dip bait. I think the big problem with this rig was that it was smothered in algae every time I brought it back to shore to re-cast. 

South Farm R-1 Lake might have some decent fish in it, but the excessive amounts of algae (already!) were enough to make me not want to head back any time soon.

Weather

55°F

12 mph NW wind

Clear

Time Fishing: 6:45pm-8:10pm (Sunset 8:15pm)