HB: September 25-27, 2023

 My buddy Hamilton visited Saint Louis from Arkansas for a few days of fishing.  I can barely remember everything I caught, so I won't speak for what Hamilton caught.  Mostly we caught a lot of the same stuff, but sometimes we each caught a few species the other did not.

Day 1: 

We met up in the early afternoon at Simpson Park Lake spillway.  Water has been low.  I caught Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Longear Sunfish, and Hybrid Sunfish.

Then we went to a public park to fish for Koi and Goldfish.  I caught 15 Koi and 12 Goldfish.

Koi:

Goldfish:

We finished the day at a creek leading into a lake.  I caught Largemouth Bass, Green Sunfish, Bluegill, Hybrid Sunfish and (maybe? Longear Sunfish).

Day 2:

We went to an urban creek.  I caught Green Sunfish, Hybrid Sunfish, Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, Longear Sunfish, and a Grass Carp.

My buddy Hamilton caught a 31.5" BEAUTIFUL chunky Grass Carp!  Very cool!

 

Then we went looking to catch bullhead on fly.  I caught some Black Bullheads, and some really nice Goldfish.

We finished out the day at a "swamp".  Mostly I was acting as guide...showing where and how to fish,  and trying not to catch the fish I wanted Hamilton to catch.  Nevertheless, I managed to catch Green Sunfish, a Warmouth, and a Bowfin.

At one point, we'd seen an isolated rain shower in the distance.  We thought it might miss us... but weren't too worried since it was hot and it might even feel good!  It hit us!  The temp dropped at least 20 degrees, the wind picked up, then we had a sideways downpour with quite a bit of marble-sized hail!  We got drenched on one side, then the wind direction changed and we got similarly drenched on the other side.  We were both completely soaked... even my shoes were filled with water!  But we got a nice rainbow once the storm moved on.

Day 3:

Hamilton had a long drive ahead of him to get home in the afternoon. So, of course we headed further north a couple hours to get to another fishing spot.

I caught Bluegill, Black Crappie, White Crappie, Freshwater Drum, and Longnose Gar.

It was a fun 3 days of fishing!