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.!

South Farm R-1 Lake, Boone County

I visited South Farm R-1 Lake (Boone Co.) twice this week (12 and 15 October 2011). It's only an eight minute drive from the house, so I'm a little surprised I hadn't fished there since May!

Actually, I'm not terribly surprised. It's a small pond, the water level dropped about three feet (the pond is used to water some corn fields for the University of Missouri) and the shallows are choked with vegetation from late May until winter.

Here's a look north, away from the better fishing areas along the "dam."

In the two hours I was there (one hour each day) I ended up getting distracted by birds, so I didn't really fish all that much. I was happy to pull out a total of four Largemouth Bass, including this "monster" 11 1/4" fish (by far the largest fish I've ever seen get pulled out of this pond).

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.

Grindstone Creek, Boone County

The South Fork of Grindstone Creek flows just behind our home in Boone County. It's not very big, but it has a few decent-sized pools. My favorite pool is about 250 meters away from the house. I'd guess it's about 20m long, maybe 10m wide and probably about 3m deep at best.

I took my 7' 6" 4 wt. fly rod with a self-tied chartreuse and white Clouser minnow (size 10) to see what might be around this Spring. In the past I've found ~12" Largemouth Bass, a smattering of panfish and some medium-sized Creek Chubs in the pool.

The Creek Chubs were there tonight. I only brought one all the way in, but I could see about a dozen or so swimming around the murky water. I also caught two of the smallest bass I've ever brought in on a hook. The first is estimated to have weighed only 0.8 ounces!

Weather

62°F

7 mph NE wind

Clear

Time Fishing: 5:40pm-6:00pm

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)