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ST. LOUIS, Mo. — In 2019, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will celebrate the 50th year of the St. Louis Urban Fishing Program (UFP). The program has provided close-to-home fishing for St. Louis City and County anglers for five decades.
As part of the celebration, MDC is developing the FISH STL Cup event series for anglers from St. Louis City and County public and private high schools and other high school-aged groups. These groups of teen anglers will form teams to engage in a series of competitive fishing events in 2018 at St. Louis City and County park lakes to qualify for the 10-team tournament held during the UFP’s 50th Anniversary in 2019.
Competitive fishing events will be held at various UFP lakes from February through May. This series of catch-and-release fishing events involves competitions for bass, catfish, panfish, and trout. Points will be awarded for each fish landed, and the team amassing the most total points will be awarded the Cup.
Before fishing competition begins, MDC is seeking teams to participate in the competitions and help in creating the fishing events. Fishing teams and their adult sponsors are welcome to help MDC develop competition rules, scoring structure, event schedules, and participate in practice fishing events during 2017.
MDC invites high school teachers, coaches, mentors and youths to start forming teams now. Qualifying rounds for the FISH STL Cup will begin in 2018 with various fishing competitions. Practice fishing events will occur during fall 2017. Teams wishing to get involved in development of the FISH STL Cup or enroll in the qualifying round of fishing should contact MDC Fisheries Management Biologist Kevin Meneau at 636-441-4554, or Kevin.Meneau@mdc.mo.gov.
The UFP is the oldest and one of the largest urban fishing programs in the U.S. In 1969, the UFP began as a pilot cooperative project between MDC and the U.S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (USBSFW), and the City of St. Louis at five St. Louis City lakes. The goal was to provide close-to-home fishing opportunities for St. Louis area anglers. In 1972, MDC assumed full management of the program in cooperation with St. Louis City.
To help improve the UFP, MDC has developed management agreements with St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Ballwin and Ferguson to provide capital improvements to park lakes, including lake deepening, habitat installation, construction of ADA-accessible facilities, aeration, and construction of stocking accesses. Since signing these agreements in 1993, MDC has completed over $2 million worth of improvements at 11 lakes.
