Fishing the Busch lakes and the Riverlands, and where to eat after

Thirty-five miles from the Arch, on Route D south of Highway 94, the Missouri Department of Conservation keeps 32 lakes open to fishing on the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area, and the department’s own prospect report reads like a tip sheet: flathead catfish “larger than 20 pounds” in Lake 33, channel cats over 10 pounds in 33 and 35, the best largemouth in 33, 36, and 38, crappie stacked on marked brush piles, and rainbow trout in five lakes from November on. Entry is free, the gates open at 4 a.m., only the department’s boats go on the water, and a Missouri fishing permit is $14 for the year. This is the fishing half of a day west of the city. The eating half is at the end, on Main Street in St. Charles, on the road home.

I write the guides on Smells Like Fish, a bait and tackle site, and I am a guest here. Top of St. Louis asked for the water. They supplied the tables.

The day, in order

Leave downtown in the dark and take I-64 west to Highway 94, then Route D. The Busch gates open at 4 a.m. Be on the bank of Lake 33 at first light with cut bait or live sunfish on the bottom for the flatheads and blues, or rent one of the department’s boats and work the marked brush piles for crappie; only electric motors are allowed, and only MDC’s boats. Fish the morning, then drive 15 minutes into St. Charles for lunch on Main Street. If you want an afternoon on big water, the Riverlands at West Alton, 22 miles from the Arch on the way back around, has free bank access on the Mississippi below Melvin Price Locks and Dam, where MDC puts the blue catfish “on the current breaks downstream from dike tips and notches.” Dinner is back in St. Charles before the drive home.

What is in the water

Catfish are the Busch story. MDC says Lake 7 gets channel catfish “averaging 14 inches” stocked April through September, lakes 33 and 35 consistently give up channel cats over 10 pounds, Lake 33 holds flatheads over 20 pounds, and blue catfish are “developing in Lake 33.” On the Mississippi, the department’s bank access list is short and specific: “Riverlands at West Alton, Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, and Cliff Cave County Park,” with blues on the current breaks below dike tips, channels in the slower side channels and sandbars, and flatheads around dikes and cut banks with wood. Best baits, in MDC’s words: “fresh cut Asian carp, shad, skipjack herring, goldeye, and live sunfish or goldfish.”

Largemouth and crappie: the big bass are in lakes 33, 36, and 38, with 6, 11, 21, and 28 next; white crappie are “plentiful in Lake 6 and 33” and bigger in 19, 20, 21, 23, 30, 35, 36, and 38, with the brush and pallet piles in 33 and 35 marked by signs. Lake 35 has muskie. White bass and hybrids show on the Mississippi in fall “near tributaries, dam tailwaters, or the Chain of Rocks area.”

Rainbow trout are the winter program. MDC stocked nearly 40,000 into 17 St. Louis-area lakes last winter, November through February: five at Busch (lakes 3, 7, 21, 22, and 23, with 7 and 21 artificial lures only through January) and a dozen city and county park lakes including Jefferson Lake in Forest Park, seven miles from the Arch, Carondelet Park, Suson Park, and Tilles Park. Some lakes are catch-and-release until January 31; from February 1 trout may be kept everywhere, four a day, with the $12 trout permit.

Where to fish from shore

• August A. Busch Conservation Area, 35 miles: 32 lakes, bank access throughout, a fishing dock, department boats for rent with electric motors only, open 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., free.
• Riverlands, West Alton, 22 miles: Corps of Engineers, free, Ellis Bay shoreline on foot on the mowed areas, Lincoln Shields open sunrise to sunset, below Melvin Price Locks and Dam.
• Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, 18 miles: MDC, at the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi, one of the department’s three named bank spots.
• Jefferson Lake, Forest Park, 7 miles: the closest winter trout lake, stocked catfish April to September, four catfish a day.
• Carondelet Park, 9 miles: Boathouse Lake and Horseshoe Lake, catfish in summer, trout in winter.
• Castlewood State Park, 26 miles: the Meramec from the concrete ramp and the River Scene, Stinging Nettle, and Al Foster trails; channel and flathead catfish, bass, walleye; free.

Permits, the trout permit, and the free parks

Anyone 16 through 64 needs a Missouri fishing permit; residents under 16 and 65 and older do not. A resident annual permit is $14, a nonresident annual $57, and a daily permit $9 for anyone, all sold online at MDC’s permit site and shown on a phone. To keep a trout you need the trout permit on top, $12 for residents and $24 for nonresidents in 2026, at any age. Missouri state parks and MDC conservation areas charge no entrance fee, and the Corps’ Riverlands is free. Carlyle Lake, 49 miles east across the river, is Illinois water and needs an Illinois licence: $10.50 for 24 hours for a nonresident.

The gear side

Which cut bait for a Mississippi blue below the dam, how to rig a live sunfish for a Lake 33 flathead, which crappie jig for the marked brush, and what “artificial lures only” means on lakes 7 and 21 in December: that is my beat, and it does not belong on a restaurant site. The full St. Louis fishing guide on Smells Like Fish has the map of all 13 spots with drive times from the Arch, the live Mississippi and Meramec flows, the full winter trout lake list, the permit links, the ramp table, and the tackle list.

Where to eat after

Route D runs back to Highway 94 and Highway 94 runs into St. Charles, so the road home is Main Street. These three are on the Top of St. Louis St. Charles list. The picks are theirs, not mine.