Mark Twain Lake (modified)

It finally happened. We went up to Mark Twain Lake this weekend to do a little crappie fishing and take my nephew fishing for the first time and we actually got into them. They were post-spawn, but they were just coming off the banks and setting up on the trees. It was a whole lot of fun. I went up Saturday morning and got on the lake around 7:00. The first stop was our honey hole up in Little Indian Creek. This area produced one crappie off a tree and a lot of sunfish. I actually left up there due to the amount of sunfish. Next I shot over to Dry Fork. This is where I started working the trees. I was finding them about 18 inches down, right on the trees. The water was fairly murky and about 75º with clear skies and a high around 85º with a steady to falling barometer. You had to lay your jig in there just right to get them to hit. The were lying in the shadow of the tree so you had to work not only the tree, but the shadows too. I had 6 in the boat (all over 9”, mostly 10”+) by noon when Dave and Ryan got there. Most of them were caught before 10:00, after that, the bite stopped. We took Ryan back up to Little Indian Creek and let him catch some bluegill since we knew they were stacked in there. He had fun and we only caught one more crappie before we pulled out around 3:30/4:00.


Sunday was a whole lot better. First thing that morning we made a run to Pigeon Roost. We hit a cove in there and tried to fish the bank. We had heard rumors they were still spawning, but this was just a rumor as after an hour or so, we had not caught a fish. We then switched back to working the trees in the same cove. Sure enough, we started catching fish. Conditions were identical to the day before except the crappier were spread out in the water column. We found them anywhere from 6 feet down to 18 inches down. Again, the 10-foot pole worked perfectly for this. Ryan was working a jig under a bobber and cast just beyond the base of a tree. He worked it up to the tree and let it stand. It took about 10 seconds and he was reeling as fast as he could. He put a 12-inch crappie in the boat, laid his pole down and said he had the biggest fish of the day and he was done. It was pretty funny and it was a really good fish. By the noon that day we had 9 fish in the boat and took Dave and Ryan in to head for home. They took the fish home to share with their family and Les got in the boat with me as we headed back to Dry Fork to catch 11 more which would give me a limit and enough to take home and feed us and our wives. Again, they were stacked on the trees about 4 feet down. The water temp was near 80º and murky. We didn’t use minnows all weekend. We were using a chartreuse jigs and Gulp! Crappie Niblets. I don’t know if I’ll ever buy another minnow again, unless I’m in Canada. It was a great tip that I have to thank the people at South Fork for. I got some more tips at the cleaning station on Sunday evening, but I’ll have to try them out for myself before I pass them along. We went out in the pouring rain on Monday, but didn't catch any keepers and after an hour of fishing in a downpour we threw in the towel and headed for home. It was a great trip and I’m looking forward to more trips up there this summer.

Mississippi River - Pool 26 (Harbors)

Saturday morning looked as though it was just going to pour, but the forecast was for no rain and the radar was empty. Savannah, Alan and I headed out on the Mississippi again for another try at those pesky river largemouths. The water was right at action stage and was on the rise from all the rain we got on Friday. We decided to stick to the marinas. As it turns out, there was also a bass tournament on the river today, so that hurt our chances a bit more. We started at Polestar Marina. They have a lot of rip rap on their shoreline. We were both throwing plastics today. I started with a jig and creature, but quickly switched over to a Texas rig. We worked almost all the way back but there were two other boats back there fishing the tournament so we didn't want to bother them and decided to try another spot. We ran down to Woodland and worked the back of their marina. They have a couple of culvert pipes that supposedly hold bass, but they didn't show us that. Alan did get a bite on a plastic worm, but couldn't get it to hook up. I eventually started throwing a spinner and got a bite, but again, couldn't get it to hook up. Talking to some of the other boats out there, they were catching fish. One of these days I'll get to catch a bucket mouth on the Mississippi. But it won't be today. - cld
Oh, forgot the conditions. It was overcast skies with a rising barometer. The water and air were both around 65° with the river on the rise.

Mississippi River – Pool 26 (Peruque Creek)

Jeffery and I headed out Tuesday evening to see if we could finally catch a fish on the Mississippi River. Up to this point I had not had much luck heading south (east) out of Riverside Harbor, so we headed north to Peruque Creek. I had been up there one other time and it looks like a place that should hold fish. A front was moving through on Tuesday evening. The weather forecast was for rain late Tuesday evening, but not until after dark, so we were going to miss any heavy stuff. However, the wind was picking up, coming out of the SSE which made the main river just a little choppy. It was quite a boat ride (I don’t know how to go slow). When we got to Peruque the water temp was 66° with a falling barometer. The water was high and falling. At 7:00 Winfield Dam TW was 25.12 and Grafton was at 20.57. We started with spinner baits. I was using a heavier white and red while Jeff stuck to the chartreuse. We thought we were getting small bites, but couldn’t figure out what it was. We switched to small in-line spinner baits (Rooster Tails) and again got small hits. We were watching the Japanese Carp rolling all around us and then we realized that we are probably just snagging up on them. Needless to say, we worked up and down the creek and threw everything at them including spinner baits, in-line spinners, jigs, you name it. We even stopped and bobber fished to see if there were any crappie or bluegill in there. No luck. So at this point the Mississippi River has yet to produce a fish in the Skeeter. We will continue to try. I’ve gotta learn to fish the River. It’s just too close to home to pass up. - cld

Mark Twain, Salt River & J Lake

This past weekend we got together for the annual bowling team fishing trip up at Mark Twain. Some took off on Friday, while the rest of us got up there after work. On Friday, the forecast was for rain and cooler temperatures all weekend. Luckily the rain didn't make it to us, but the cooler temperatures did. Jeff and I hit the lake at 7:00 Friday evening where we were greeted with high, muddy water and lots of trash floating in the Lake. The other guys had been up in Little Indian Creek all day and only had 3 fish, so we figured we would try somewhere else. We got the boat in the water and ran to Dry Fork. Dry Fork was really, really muddy and only 55#&176;. Not knowing where they were yet, we dabbled the edges of the shorline about 3-feet out with a jig and minnow combo, but caught nothing. We ran out of there about 8:30 and pulled out. The following day we ran north to Little Indian Creek and started with the same pattern we were using in Dry Fork. We dabbled the shorline edges about 3' out with a jig head and minnow (no skirt) and again, nothing so we moved to working the trees. This produced a few fish, but they were scattered and hard to find. The combo seemed to be 18-feet of water at about 3 to 6-foot down right against the tree. The water temperature was about 64#&176; in Little Indian Creek, while the air temperature started in the 50s and got up to the upper 60s. We worked several coves in Little Indian and then ended up working bobbers along the shorline, 12 to 18-inches below the surface at 1 to 3-feet off the edge. Between the two boats, this produced 6 or 7 fish, but only 2 keepers. For the first full day of fishing we ended up with 11 fish between 3 boats. Not a stellar day. Which is why we decided to try below the dam on Sunday. Being in fiberglass boats, we didn't pull up on the rocks right below the dam, so we tied up to some trees down below the rocks and worked the small eddies along the bank. We caught several fish, but only 3 that were close to keepers, and they weren't even that big. Water temp was only 55#&176;, with the air temp reaching the lower 70s for the day. After fighting the current for half the day, we decided to give J Lake a try. By 2:00 we were on J Lake. The water temp in J was 65#&176;, high and muddy. Similar to the rest of the waters we fished over the weekend. The lake edges are really shallow. We targeted bass, while some of the other targeted crappie. No one produced anything. We threw worms, spinners, jigs, buzz baits, you name it, we threw it. Oh well, maybe when the water coditions are a little better.