DiSalvo Lake, St. Francois County, MO April 17th, 2012: Largmouths pinging on spinner baits...panfish still on!

DiSalvo lake located on the Bismark CA area in SE Missouri is becoming one of my favorite lakes to fish.  I got a chance to fish this place for about 5 hours which was very exciting.  I started off fishing for panfish with a slip bobber and nightcrawlers (you can see the success I had a few post prior.  I was not disappointed, matter of fact, my stringer was large with larger size bluegills than the prior trip.  Had enough for a nice stringer of fish to take back and clean.

After I had a full stringer, I decided to start bass fishing with chartreuse spinner baits.  I was HAMMERING them.....these little pigs were so hungry.  I must have caught at least (7) bass, all really, really, nice sized.  I lost a HUGE pig that I was not able to get a photo on, but I was grateful none the less.  This lake has a lot of vegetation.  I was throwing the spinners parallel to shore and they were absolutely hammering them.

I am looking forward to coming back to this lake a little later this month....great spot for kayaks (not as great for larger boats, although people take them out)

Fish ON!

Mike

Des Arc Lake, Des Arc CA, Prairie County, Arkansas, April 10th, 2012: Bass in the spawn!

The is an outstanding lake in the central/eastern part of northern Arkansas to kayak fish, and especially kayak fish for bass.  I got out to the lake around 3:00 p.m. after work and headed out.  This was the first time fishing this lake, so I spoke with a couple of anglers out there before I set off.  Des Arc is also known for really nice sized crappie, and that is what the person I spoke with was fishing for.
I really though in setting out after a few hours of throwing just about everything and not getting one tap I was going to get skunked.  There was an older gentleman who had a little jon boat with a trolling motor catching a few nice bass by accident on his crappie rig.  I noticed that he was using some bright chartreuse colors so I switch the spinners to that.

Here is what happened that caused me to catch the bass for this day.  I had a texas rigged Zoom watermelon/red trick worm (6").  It got snagged and I lost the rig so I had to re-tie it.  The second time around I switched the bullet weight to a smaller size.....within (2) cast BOOM!  It must have had something to do with the way the bait was presenting itself to the bass.  Caught 4-5 before we needed to get back to the boat launch.

Lesson learned:  If you are not having a lot of success, instead of always switching the bait out, consider switching the weight and/or presentation.

Fish ON!

Mike

Kayak fishing Des Arc Lake, Arkansas

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Lake Sherwood, Warren County, Missouri April 8th 2012: Panfish are now ON!



Huge Green Sunfish from Lake Sherwood

I had had so much success at Lake DiSalvo in St. Francois County the day before, I decided to hit it again on Sunday.  Like I may have said in the previous post, about the only thing I like as much as bass fishing is panfish fishing.  Lake Sherwood is, in my opinion, one of the better sunfish lakes in the entire state when they are on, especially in regards to the redear sunfish variety.

Something I like about my fishing kayak is the fish finder I am able to use with it.  I fished for about an hour without much success, and then noticed on the finder that they were about 10' from shore in about 14-19' of water, suspended about 1/2 way down.   I went ahead and made the adjustment on the slip bobbers (my favorite rig in the spring) and then they started to turn on.  Came back with an entire stringer of really nice panfish, which I proceeded to clean when I got back home.....great trip at Lake Sherwood.  I am glad I was able to catch the adjustments!

Fish ON!

Mike

Nice Lake Sherwood string on the Miss Bossy Flossy!

DiSalvo Lake, Bismark CA, St. Francois County, Missouri: Hot and heavy panfish action

I got a chance to kayak fish Lake DiSalvo on April 7th, 2012.  I had been to this lake a few months prior, but the wind was so bad at the time (and water temperature so cold) I passed on kayaking this lake earlier this year.

Lake DiSalvo is located in the Bismark CA in St. Francois County, Missouri.  I have not had a lot of luck on bass using artificials to this point, so I was using basically nightcrawlers on a slip bobber set up.  I have to say, I love bass fishing, however, when the panfish are "ON" , I really believe there is nothing better.  On this day they were ON!  In the beginning, I was catching a lot of really small bluegill, but as I worked my way down the lake, the size started to improve.

By the time I got towards the dam end of the lake, the wind really started to pick up and whitecap.  I think that is why the fishing was so go, at least for all the bluegill and redear panfish.....I think the wind was working the forage in that direction.  I was only out for about 4 hours, but caught enough for a nice stringer to take back home.

What was funny about this trip was when I got back to my house (this is about 2 hours from where I live) I was SO tired, I took the lazy, east coast, saltwater method of cleaning fish:  I re-iced the fish on the stringers and went to bed...cleaned them in the morning.....and all was good!  Good tip if you get too tired to clean fish (or too intoxicated LOL).

Fish ON!

Mike