Mark Twain Lake, Monroe County, Missouri: fishing was so slow, just had to write about it

Kayaking Mark Twain Lake, Missouri

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This is the path I took with the kayak on beautiful Mark Twain lake in northern Missouri.  I think this lake can be one of the more challenging lakes out there (I have caught nice sized bass in the past).  The lake is very low, just like all of the lakes in the Midwest.  I was throwing deep diving Wiggle Warts, 10" Mann's Jelly Worms, Chartreuse spinners, white spinners, Zoom trick worms, Red worms, almost everything I can imagine...it just goes to show, sometimes you "O-fer"...and that is alright.

I am looking forward to coming back in the fall to explore the lake even more....I love Mark Twain for its remote location.  It is chock full of structure, and reminds me of an undeveloped Lake of the Ozarks..

Fish ON!

Mike

Mark Twain Lake, Monroe County, MO, Sept. 27th: Front moves in, Fishing a little slow- very windy

The water temperature is starting to go down in the lakes across Missouri. The temperature was around 65 degrees (it was at around 72 the week before). Put the kayak out off Hwy J, Lick Creek access.

Was only out about 4 hours or so....Mark Twain Lake gets real choppy when the wind comes out. Caught a little drum on a nightcrawler bottom rig. Thinking back, probably should have thrown different crank baits, etc. Was throwing Texas rigged worms, as well as Rattle traps w/ no success.....

Fish ON!

MLT

Mark Twain Lake, Monroe County, Mo: Huge Flathead caught on black Culprit Worm from Kayak

Fished Mark Twain Lake Saturday, September 19th. I have not had my Kayak on a large body of water yet, so I thought this would be a good experience. I was kayaking/fishing the Elk Fork of Mark Twain. Started to kayak upstream so I could float back with the current. I think the lesson learned is that when rivers stop at large lakes, the current really becomes a non-factor. The wind and cloud bank was more of a factor than the current. Before I put in, I originally went down the elk to the Sante Fe access. The water on the lake appears to be about 4-5 feet low, so this was not a viable option for this day.

Started off throwing texas rigged Gulp Alive watermelon worms and Jig/Chomper hula grub combos along with the traditional slip bobber and night crawler combo.

Caught a nice Buffalo in about 10' of water (middle of the channel close to the boat ramp). The weather got changeable fast, so I paddled about 3/4 of a mile back towards the boat ramp earlier. After I fished the put in point for awhile, it looked like the weather was going to stay off, so I paddled toward the lake and went under the bridge into the waterfoul refuge area of the lake. It got real dark, so I went to a black Culprit worm. Spoke with a few boaters about the bass fishing....sounded like it was slow for everyone (very surprising with a front getting ready to move in).

Caught a really nice Flathead Catfish in about 4 feet of water laying close to shore. He struck on a Black Culprit Worm, texas rigged on a quantum rod and reel, 17# test. When I pulled up, I thought I had a snag, but the line started to move in the opposite direction...I knew at that point we had something good. I thought for a moment I was going to have to de-anchor the kayak to keep it from tipping over. As I was getting it towards the kayak, I still thought it was a large bass, but when it went to dive to the bottom, I knew I probably had a catfish. He was a good one!

Got back to the car soon after and headed back.....great day on the lake!

Fish ON!

MLT

Mark Twain Lake, Monroe County, MO, July 5th: Largest Bass of the Year!

Here is the largest fish of the season for me so far. We rented a pontoon boat and headed out on Sunday, July 6th. Torrential rains hit the day before, so water was a bit brown. Water in main portion of lake was real choppy, very windy. We got into a couple of coves and anchored up with no success. Really thought the black culprit worm would work. Even had a rod with nightcrawlers out. We saw a bass boat trolling that caught a really nice sized bass before (looked like they were throwing spinners), so after they left, we anchored close to where they were at. Charlie said that he noticed a shad run, so I took the black worm off and replaced it with a shad colored zipper worm. Big boy hit on the 3rd-4th cast- really fought hard! tried to run under the boat a couple of times as well.....was really glad I was able to land him!

Fish ON!

MLT