Kayak fishing Whetstone CA, Callaway County, MO June 8, 2013: High and muddy= slow fishing!

Bit of a slow fishing trip.  The Big Lake on Whetstone CA was high and had a "chocolate milk" consistency about it.  Threw a lot of different lures to try and roust up some bass.  Had a slip bobber/night crawler set up that yielded a nice sized bluegill, but other than that, not many bites to speak of for the day.....maybe next time

Fish ON

Mike

 

Kayak fishing Whetstone CA, Callaway County ,MO

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Whetstone CA, Callaway County, MO April 22nd, 2012: Rainy but got on some fish anyhow

Whetstone CA in Callaway County, MO (between Columbia and St. Louis) has some great fishing opportunites not only in the big lake, but also in Whetstone Creek and the other smaller lakes surrounding the bigger lake.
The weather was not the best, but I decided to take my chances and get a day of fishing in anyhow.  I was throwing slip bobber and texas rigged Zoom trick worms.  The slip-bobber/nightcrawler rig was not working out to well, however, the trick worms were doing the trick.  I would not say this was the worlds best day of fishing, but I got enough action to make it entertaining.  What was interesting was the bass were not hitting the worm very hard at all.  It seemed like when I would pull my rod tip up, that is when I would know I had one on the other end....like they were putting it in their mouths like a cigar, or something.

Water temp was around 68 degrees, and it was windy and raining on again/off again.  Good news was I had the entire lake to myself....always a plus!

fish ON!

Mike

Kayak Fishing Whetstone CA, Missouri

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whetstone Creek CA, Callaway County, MO., April 17th 2010: The SPAWN IS ON!!

The title should say enough....THE SPAWN IS ON!! Got out to Big Lake on the Whetstone CA around noon or so and the fishing started off a bit slow. Hit the first cove that I had some success on a couple of weeks ago first, but only caught one smaller bluegill. What was nice about this trip was that we did not have 20 mph winds coming in from the SW, so I was able to get some decent paddling in as well. Paddled to the back of the lake and fished that spot for a short period. I had a strike on a Gulp! nightcrawler texas rigged, but that was it.

As the sun started to go down lower as it got later in the day, I decided to paddle to the east shore of the lake (where the sunlight was in direct contact). Parked the kayak and got out to stretch and shore fish for a bit...this is when they really started to hit. The bluegill are obviously starting to spawn about 10' from shore. Got on them using a slip bobber and night crawler outfit about 6-8' down.

The most exciting part was catching the large Channel Catfish on 6# test on a kayak...at one point he tried to go under the bow of the kayak...really thought I might lose him- what a fight! The fish are on again, off again, but if you follow water temperature, you should really do good this time of the year....finally, the spawn!

Fish ON!

MLT

Whetstone Creek CA, Callaway County, MO. April 4th 2010: First stringer of new year!

The wind was a challenge again, but that is why kayak fishing is part workout, part fishing. Found a nice cove and anchored the kayak in about 14' of water. Caught my first nice (9") bluegill on a treetop jig w/ spinner close to shore. The rest of the stringer was caught in about 20' of water with slip bobber and night crawler rig.

Fishing action was slow (as expected) due to the fact that the water temp is still quite cool. Whetsone has a slot on bass (12-15") with a limite of 6. The bass I caught was 11". Got the stringer home (6 bluegill, 1 bass) and fileted them on the back deck, and baked them and served on top of brown rice....great meal!

Fish ON!

MLT

whetstone Creek CA, Callaway County, MO.: Black Culprit worms hit again!

A front was supposed to move in Friday, but the day ended up being incredible! I got a chance to head up to Whetstone CA in Callaway County, MO. to fish one of my favorite spots, Big Lake. The water temp is still real warm (75 degrees) so there is a lot of cooling down to do before fall.

This lake is so serene....it reminds me of going up north when I was a kid and fishing for Pike in Canada.

Started up by using the go-to bait for 2009, the Gulp Alive! watermelon worm. Did not have a lot of success with it, so as the shade spots started to form later in the day, I switched over to a 7" black Culprit Worm...boom! First cast caught a nice slot bass and threw him back in. I also had a spinning rod rigged with a barrel rig, leader and a circle hook w/ nightcrawler. Caught several nice bluegill with this method. I was surprised I did not catch any channel cats.

Decided to go ahead and harvest my catch...there is nothing better than fresh catch in the frying pan!....it is how God intended it for all of us!

Fish ON!

whetstone Creek CA, Callaway County, MO. Aug. 23rd, 2009: Bass a little slow but some success

Got the kayak loaded on the car the night before and headed out to Whetstone Creek CA early in the morning....got out on the lake by about 9:00 a.m. There was one person on a boat w/ a trolling motor fishing, but they left a little after I put in. After that had most of the lake to myself for the rest of the day.

Was using some of the watermelon Gulp Alive! baits...these work pretty good sometimes compared to traditional plastic worms. Used them texas rigged on baitcaster rods. Tried some other things (spinner rod w/ minnows on shiner rig, hula grup on stand up jig, etc) but this seemed to be the only thing that worked fairly well for the day. Bite seemed on early, then it slowed down a little. Expected a late bite around 4:00 p.m. or so like last time, but it just never turned on so I headed back.

One item of note: There are some HUGE grass carps in this lake. I was on the south side and I casted out in some hydrilla...it spooked about 5-6 of them and it was like a shark attack! The commotion caught me off guard so bad I almost jumped out of the kayak!

Fish ON!

MLT

Big Lake, Whetstone Creek CA, Callaway County, Mo. August 9th: Deadsticking is the way to go in August!

Big lake was awesome today on the kayak. This is a nice, large, deep lake. Water quality excellent, not a lot of negative plant growth (that is something to be said for August). Paddled to the back and worked my way back toward the boat launch. Caught my first Largmouth on Berkley Gulp! minnow on a shiner rig w/ slip bobber. Was getting hits on Gulp Power Worm (recieved two of these for re-upping with B.A.S.S.).

Caught Channel Catfish on the slip bobber rig with a night crawler. Also caught a nice size Bluegill on a bottom rig....this was towards the south side of the lake around 2:00 or so. Ate lunch on the south side of the lake and started to paddle back (had the wind on my back). Got a little slow, so I started to think about the things that have worked in years past. You really have to retrieve slow in August. So I took a Gamakatsu 5/0 hook and a very, very light bullet weight (texas rig) and put a Wave Worm (Senko) Sweet Potato Pie colored and cast towards shore. These were the "hot" item a few years ago at Lake Sherwood, but have not caught anything on these in awhile. Success!! Caught about 6 or so right between 4:00-5:00 p.m. Got a lot of other bites as well....so much fun.

Life is better on a Kayak!!

Fish ON!

MLT

Whetstone Creek CA, Callaway County, MO, June 10th 2009: Creek up, black spinners seemed to work well

As you noticed, the title says "seemed" to work well.....we caught a few fish in Whetstone Creek, and as you can tell, it was up and muddy....like fishing in chocolate milk. The reason I used "seemed" is this is the hole that I caught a 15.5" Longear Sunfish a few years ago. That is a huge size for a longear. Come to find out the Missouri state record comes from Whetstone in regards to longears. It was great hiking in to the spot, so the few fish I caught were worth the hike anyhow.

Used a black rooster tail and a brown rooster tail. Also used black jigs on a fly rod and caught a few that way as well. This is one of my favorite conservation areas in the state....acres upon acres of gorgeous land, lakes and streams. We have even camped here in the past....very primative.

Fish ON!

MLT

Whetstone CA, Callaway County, MO; July 26th: Kayaks are the way to go!!

Here are some cool photos from our "Kayak Adventure" at Whetstone CA, Callaway County, MO. Morning started off overcast and then got real warm. We Kayaked from about 8:00 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m.
I had never been on a Kayak before, so this was a new adventure for me. My friend, Ray, is an expert kayaker (he is considering kayaking the Missouri River, which I think is totally "gung-ho" and very cool). Kayaks are interesting, because it is a bit of a challenging hook set. I am glad I brought my 5'6" rods and not the 7', or else it would have been real challenging.
Started off with baitcast rods and did not have a lot of luck. Switched over to spinning rods with nightcrawlers and tore them up. Lots of big pan fish and some nice bass.
When I got the fish home to clean (I always do it "east cost style"- load the fish in a cooler with ice and clean them later) I realized something. After cutting the heck out of my thumb, right in the same spot I hacked a month ago, while cleaning the fish I discovered something new. Bluegills have gill plates (small, but very sharp). You would think after cleaning all the bluegill in my life, I would know that- how weird!

Fish ON!

MLT