Table Rock Lake, Aunts Creek area, Stone County, MO April 2012....nice bass on Wiggle Wart!

Late in posting this one.....crazy business stuff going on that has kept me from updating.  This video pretty much says it all.  They were deep and not biting on a lot of soft plastics so I switched over to a Wiggle Wart and BOOM!
Table Rock is an interesting lake due to the fact that the water is generally more clear than other lakes, and the fact that it is so deep (mid channel on this arm is about 80' deep)
Great day of kayak fishing on the lake!

Fish ON!

Mike

Lake Atkins, Pope County, Arkansas: Great lake with lots of structure

Kayak Fishing Lake Atkins, Arkansas

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Lake Atkins is located in central Arkansas between Little Rock and Ft. Smith.  I brought my SOT fishing kayak, "The Bossy Flossy" along for the trip.  I was able to get a couple of hours of fishing in before the sun started to go down (I figured the fishing would turn on towards sunset).  I paddled across the lake and drifted along shore.  This lake is chock-full of trees, stumps and structure.  I had read that it was drained in 2002 and restocked with Florida-strain Largemouth bass. 


It is a nice sized lake, and looks like one that does not receive as much pressure due to the stumps and the location.
I was throwing a lot of stuff out trying to get something to hit.  I have not had a lot of success the last couple of trips, so I was really hoping to catch something (It is funny how if you do not catch a bass after about the 3rd trip you start to wonder if you can remember how to fish!!). 

I put out some white spinners, mini spinners with minnow, stand up jig with hula grubs, texas rigged dark worms.  What I had success on was what my go to has been for 2011- watermelon zoom trick worm texas rigged on spinning rod.  And sure enough, caught it in some trees, right about sunset.

Fish ON!

Mike

Last September fishing trip at Table Rock Lake (Aunts Creek) Missouri- Peaceful!

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

Busch Wildlife Area, St. Charles County, Lake 35, July 4th, 2008: Bass hitting on "spring like" lures

Hit Lake 35 about noon on July 4th. I decided that I was going to leave the live bait at home and just go for bass. Tried and threw quite a few different lures: Flukes on a spinning rod, Plastic worm, Hula Grub jigs, even tossed a wiggle wort around.
Here is what worked: A carolina rigged baitcast rod with a green zoom lizard. Caught the two fish you see and got more taps that I was able to miss. Here is what I have noticed about 2008: since the water is high, what worked in May last year is working now in July. I have even noticed this with panfish fishing.
Good news: Lake 35 is looking healthy for the first time in about 3 years. It still is a real mossy lake, but it looks nice and healthy.

Fish ON!

MLT

Bass fishing good today! Lake 33, Busch Wildlife CA

Bass fishing good today at Busch Wildlife CA. Water temp about 83 degrees, overcast skies that switched to sunny. Fished from about 8:00 to 11:30 on a boat. Went to drain some of the water out of the boat, and observed (4) of the biggest crawdads I have ever seen at Busch. So guess what I decided to throw? (can you say "match the hatch?")

Caught (3) bass this morning. The first was a 16" largemouth on a Jig (no skirt) and pumpkin Chomper Hula Grub. I was using one of my favorite rods for a Jig, my 6" rod with 14# Stren. Pulled back and the line started to move the other way (kind of like when you are cranking a crankbait that is out of tune), so I reeled back and really set the hook. That got the "fight on". Very nice bass, could have very easily missed the set.

Caught another smaller one (12") in the same area. They shut off for a while, so I took the boat down the levy a little. No action after throwing worms, senkos, chompers, and zipper worms, so I went back to the original spot (it was almost time to leave anyway).

Caught another good one on a Gene Larew black/gold claw Salt Craw. Nice fish (it is the one that you can see the red chair in the background). Used a 7' light/medium action rod with 12# Shakespeare Cajun Line. Measured out about 14".

Great morning of fishing. What a great lake for largemouths.

Fish On!

MLT

The Bass are back! Weldon Spring CA, St. Charles County, MO.- March 24, 2007

Great day of fishing. Caught a lot of smaller bass, some good size bluegills and belive it or not, channel catfish (on a gold/silver spoon!)

Charlie caught a 6# on a roadrunner with a pumpkin trailer in the shallows- What a fish! I think I had got a piece of it earlier or maybe it's brother. Lost a micro spin- snapped the line! We were both fishing with spinning roads and 6# test. Check out the photo of the bass Charlie caught!

Fish on!

MLT

Best of 2006: Fishing for Largemouths at Lost Valley Lake Resort, Franklin County, Missouri

This was a fall fishing trip that was a lot of fun. My brother-in-law, Rob (he is the guy standing in the photo), has a membership to this private resort. There are (2) lakes in the resort. We decided that we would fish the new lake (it has been around approx less that 6 years). What is great about this lake is that is has limited fishing pressure.
Rob has a small boat with a couple of trolling motors (we used both when we wanted to move "fast"). It was just big enough for the both of us and all of our gear.

We decided that we would get out early that morning- it was cool to cold, but not bad for a fall morning. The morning started out slow, but we started to get hits about an hour into it. Rob and I had tried many things, but the one thing we had a lot of success with was the Chomper Hula Grub on a stand-up Jig. I was using a bait cast rod with 12" test and Rob had a similar set up.
Here is what is cool about this rig and what makes it my "go-to" bait for largemouths (and smallmouths, by the way).
The way to fish this bait is to hit the shoreline, bring it in maybe 3-4 feet and then stop. Slowly move your rod tip up and down. When you get a hit, you will feel a "tap, tap, tap". That is when it is time to pull back with all you got and set the hook. The set is real important, because we were using a stand-up jig, and it has a brush weed guard right above the hook tip. If you do not have a strong set, you will lose the fish (I discovered that early on using these jigs)
Rob and I both had a real good day. If I can recall, both of us caught around 5-10 fish each (higher if you count the "misses").
I cannot say enough about Chompers Hula-grubs and stand-up jigs. I fished Lake of the Ozarks earlier in the year and caught (2) 5# bass using this same set up. I have found this is a great way to approach bass in Spring and fall. I have also had an incredible amount of good fortune using this set up fishing for smallies in small rivers.
Spring is just around the corner!

Good Fishing! MLT

You can wait until spring- or you can catch fish now!

What a great day of fishing at Busch Wildlife CA in St. Charles County, Missouri!
I am incredibly thankful that all of the lakes are now unfrozen- they had been ice covered for almost a month!
Take a look at the photo- the large trout on the stringer to the right measured out at 16". This is the highest water level on this lake in about 2 years (should be a good spawn this spring!)
Caught them like I have caught them all winter- 1/4 copper colored "Super Duper" and Silver/Lime green Lil Cleo Spoon- (2) 7' spinning reels with 4# test.
Here is something I found interesting about today's fishing. The first fish hit real close to shore (strike was around 2' from the shoreline. This got me thinking that the back of the lake (the more shallow portion) would be the best place (opposed to right on the dam). Once I found them, I caught my limit in less than an hour. They were shallow and up in structure (thankfully, I only lost one spoon). It was real windy and cold (at one point, it started to sleet fairly heavy). Temperature about 38 f. Water temperature was probably close to the air temp.
You can wait until spring- or you can catch them now!

MLT

Best of 2006- Fishing the James River for Smallies

Imagine this- it is summer time, 90 degrees and very humid. Not always the best for other types of fishing, but my favorite weather to fish for Smallies. The photos are the largest smallmouth I caught that day- around 15" in length. We caught this a couple of hours into our float on the James River on the east side of Springfield, MO. (before you get to Lake Springfield).
My friend, Kevin Hanks, and I grabbed a canoe and some cold ones and headed upstream, with the intent to float down. This is an interesting river. From first sight, it appears to be "dirty", but looking closer, it is a very healthy river- it just does not look like most ozark rivers. This is probably due to the fact that there are not many springs that feed this river- it does have the same rocky bottom, however, that most ozark streams and rivers have. There are some HUGE common carps in some of the deep pools upstream- very impressive!














I was using a bait cast rod and 10# Red Cajun Line, Stand up Jig and Orange/Brown hula grub (Chomper). I have a lot of friends that approach waters like this with ultra lights, and I can imagine that would be a lot of fun as well, but I really dig using heavier gear (especially with all the cover- look at the front of the canoe- that is where this smallie came out of)
We absolutly tore it up on this day- I caught around 15 smallmouths, a couple of large mouths (none of any real size), and some rock bass. We caught so many fish, my elbow was sore the next day- absolutly increadable.
Here is why I am writing this article- when all the lakes are frozen, and the fishing is real lean, it is nice to think about what is to come in 2007!

MLT