Lewis Boats Fall Bass Tournament - 10/24/2009

Matt & I fished our first tournament on Saturday. We prefished on Friday and did pretty good. Our plan was to hit all of our spots to see what produced. We figure we had 4 keepers in the boat, and could have had more, but lost a couple because I&...#039;m stupid. The problem came with the High front that moved in over night. Fishing conditions changed dramatically. We had a lot ov 14 inch fish Saturday afternoon and one that was 1/16" shy of making the cut. Luckily we didn't quit fishing and with about 8 minutes to spare, Matt put one keeper in the boat. The big bass was 6+ pounds and first place was 16.5 pounds. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to the guys at Lewis that put it on and to Derek for all the help!

Mississippi River - 9/6/2009

Today Adam and I took a trip out on the river. We were just going out to get a line wet and get out on the boat. We started by working the downstream side of a dike. Adam was using a snake and I was tossing a crank bait. This produced nothing, so we switched up to plastics and still nothing. We then started working some laydowns on the upstream side of the dike. We flipped jigs, tossed crank baits, threw spinners, you name it, we threw it but produced nothing. We didn't have much time but decided to work the current break where the water came around the end of the dike. We were both working the crank bait and it produced two stripers (or whites, or hybrids, or whatever they are). One was about 9 inches, the other was 13.5". These things put up a great fight. The bigger one was stripping line of my spool and was really giving it it's all. It was a lot of fun. I'll be targeting them again on my next trip out. -cld

Illinois & Mississippi River

Made a run by myself today. It was a beautiful morning. Put in around 7:30 AM and ran up the Illinois. WOT all the way up to Hardin will burn 1/4 tank of fuel. On the way back I fished every lake inlet, creek, creavis that entered the river. That produced 2 fish, both shorts. I threw white spinnerbaits, plastic craws and crank baits. Then I came back and fished Pole Star and the rock between Pole Star and Duck Club. Ran into a couple buddies at Duck Club. They were having the same luck I was having. Oh well. More boat ride today than fishing. Ended up burning up 18 gallons of fuel (1/2 tank). Maybe we'll do better next week.

Mississippi River - Pool 26

Mr. Maher and I hit the river around 6:30 and decided to try som sloughs. We tried the first one on the Missouri side as you head down river from Riverside. It was a bust. Current was moving way to fast through there. The next one we tried was where Eagle's Landing (aka Heartland) is. This one was more promising. Current was slower, but we just didn't have the confidence fishing these conditinos. Next was back to our favorite marina. We started by pitching to the docks as we worked our way to the back. This produced one 12" fish. Then as we got around the back side, Matt lost another 12" fish (gotta set the hook). As we made it around to my favorite hole, Matt put another 12" fish in the boat. My hole produced for me once again, this time giving up a 16-1/2" fighter. We had one more hit where it didn't take the hook, just the plastic and hung me up, bastard. It was a pretty good night. 3 fish in the boat and the potential for another 2 or 3 all in an hours time. - cld

Mississippi River - Pool 26 (Polestar)

Got out for a couple hours this morning. It was cool and a bit windy. Water was muddy, but not up too high. Went back into Polestar to try my luck. Started with a jig and didn't get anything. Worked the dock down the east side and all the pilings in the back. Switched to a craw to work the rocks and got one 12" fish out of a little hole where I had gotten bitten on before. I guess that's better than I usually do. Continued to work the craw around the rock and flipped it around the docks. Nothing more was hitting. Hopefully I'll get out again on Tuesday and then this weekend the family and I will be down at Table Rock. Going to try my luck at some Kentucky bass and smallmouth.

Mississippi River - Pool 26 (Dardene Creek & Pole Star

The discussion of tonight's fishing trip started early in the day. We had to watch the radar close as there were some pretty severe storms headed towards St. Louis. At 5:00 we decided the worse portion of the storms would be south of us so we were going to try to get our fishing trip in. It was raining when we got to the harbor, but isn't that why we spend all that money on good rain gear? We put the Skeeter in at Riverside and decided to just start working the shorline right there and work our way up into Dardene Creek. There was a lot of good rip-rap to work, but spinner baits produced no bites. There were a lot of bait fish jumping, but no bass. So we decided to make a run to one of my favorite harbors, Pole Star. By now the rain had quit and the water was just glass. A 65 MPH run down to Pole Star took very little time and we were fishing again. We have heard rumors that crappie can be caught around the docks here so the plan was to work the rip-rap for bass and then as we had to move around the docks, get the crappie rigs out and work the docks, the work the rip-rap for bass again. We worked our way in, throwing spinners off the front and the back of the boat. Up on the shoreline and out just a bit. Then we setup the 10' crappie rods with jigs and Power Baits. Worked these around the edges of the dock. As we came around the backside of the first dock I got a hit. I was a bit excited, I thought I had an awesome crappie on. Instead, I had to play out a nice 15", 1lb 8oz bass. This is on a 10' crappie pole with a itty-bitty crappie real and 4lb line. It really wasn't that bad, but it was a nice fish. We contiuned with our plan, alternating between the two poles as we made our way to the back of Pole Star. Right at the sunset I was working a plastic bait up on the shore in this little hole and my line moved from one side of the boat to the other. I reeled down and felt tention so I set the hook. Pulled it out of it's mouth. Quick fix the hook and I threw it back up in there. Nothing. Again back up in there, apologizing to Matt for holding this spot, nothing. Once again, up in the same spot, working very slow. Tap, Tap, Tap... I hold on. The bait starts to move again, I reel down, feel tention on the line and set the hook. Bait comes out of the water, no fish. At this point it's getting dark. I threw in there 3 more times and didn't get another hit. Matt and I decided to call it a day and run for the house. What started as a wet nasty evening turned into a great night on the river. Got a busy weekend coming up so it'll probably be next Tuesday before we get out on the Skeeter again. - cld

Mississippi River - Alton Pool (Hideaway & Pole Star)

All three of us (Adam, Matt & I) went out on the river this morning. We put in around 8:30 and ran south to Hideaway Harbor. We figured we cheat a little bit since they had a bass tournament go out of there yesterday. Water temp was running around 72° in about a foot and a half of water. Yeah, it was shallow. We fished the whole area clockwise starting at the mount and ending at the ramp. The quote of the day was from a guy on the ramp. Conversation went like this. "Doing any good?" "No, but it's better than sitting at home" "Yeah, I'm married too". It was pretty funny. About that time Adam threw a spinner up along the rip rap along the ramp and we had our first river bass. It was right at 13 inches. That was it for that area so we ran back up river to Pole Star Marina. I keep hearing that people were pulling fish out of this harbor and today, we would too. Matt had the luck in Pole Star. We fished clockwise again. As we came out of the pack area, Matt (from the back of the boat) threw a spinner into this little pocket on the bank about 10 times, and on the 11th cast, wham-o! Fish ON! It was a little nicer fish. Just over 14 inches. He had one more that didn't measure before we ran for home. Good morning on the river. Congrats to Matt & Adam for showing me up. - cld

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.

Mississippi River - Alton Pool (Pool 26)

Matt and I headed out on the Mississippi River again this evening. Overcast skies with a slight mist. The river was on the rise (it rained all day yesterday) and the barometer was also on the rise. We decided to check out the lower part of the river near Portage. We put in at Hideaway Harbor and ran south to the power plant. They weren't pushing water, so we didn't stay long. Next was a back slough I had marked. Turned out to be all dried up so we continued south to Harbor Point Marina. The bait fish were going crazy in there. We threw everything at them. Working the docks and the rocks. The depth throughout the harbor was about 5 feet. Water temperature was 62. We caught nothing. I really don't believe there are bass in the river, but people keep telling me there are. Matt did get hit with a Japanese Carp. Damn thing got us as we were leaving and slimed the bottom of my boat. I think the whole south end of the river is crap unless the water is high. Water levels at Grafton were at 17.42 and Winfield was at 23.56 at 8:00 when we pulled out. Hopefully this weekend goes better than our river trips have gone. We'll probably miss next Tuesday and pick it up again on May 12th. - cld

Mississippi River - Alton Pool (Pool 26)

Adam and I made a quick run on the river tonight. We got on the river around 6:00 or so and ran south to Aiport Lake. We rolled in there and it looked promising. Water temp was between 57° and 58° and really shallow. Majority of the time we were in 2 foot of water. The river is falling with Grafton at 18.36 and Windfield TW at 23.64. Basically, at Riverside it was just inside the bank across from the ramps. So if the water is down, you can't really get in there. But man it looked promising. We threw white and red spinners and then a black with a big carolina blade. Adam threw a black and blue jig and then a small Zera Spook. Nothing. I cannot wait until the first bass I (or anyone with me) catches on the river. Right now I don't think they are in there. At the same time, if we can learn to fish the river, we can fish anywhere. The boat ran great. We found out that when you slow down from 60 to go over a boat wave, you should probably slow way down, not just down to 50. Let me just say that both Adam and I were shaking a bit after we got the boat running flat again. But all-in-all everything keeps right on clicking with the boat. We've got a lot more places to fish. I haven't ruled out Airport Lake. We only fished the upper portion. We did not fish down around the docks where its about 3 to 4 foot of water. Bitch is, how in the hell do those boats get in there when the water is at normal level. We're fishing again Saturday morning, but we're taking Savannah so I doubt we run that far. Keep fishin' keep learnin' that's all we can do.

Pre Spawn Bass Fishing - Route J Lake

Henry and I got out EARLY on Friday morning, the water was very stained from the rain and snow but we finally figured out what they were hitting on. We threw everything from crankbaits to worms, the only bites we got were on black and blue jigs. When I was pulling in my first fish Henry was already tying on a black and blue jig before I got the fish to the boat. All together we landed 4 fish all day weighing in at a 14lb bag, not bad for two guys. As we were moving through the grass that was about to start growing big, we moved a ton of fish... each of these fish were 5lb+, no lie. Can't wait to get back there in a few weeks when the water is clear and pitch pig and jigs at these monsters.

 
 
 
 

Mississippi River - Alton Pool (Pool 26)

First time out by myself. Got on the water around 9:00. Air temp was 60F with overcast skies. Sun poked threw every now and then. Electronics showed a rising barometer most of the morning and then switched to steady. Ran up to Cuivere Slough and headed up in a creek. It was 8' deep at the mouth but got deeper as I went back. 11' was about as deep as it got. Started throwing a blue jig w/a blue craw trailer at flooded timber, then switched to a shad rap along the edges of the creek channel. Water was out of the banks so I tried to keep it along the edge of the flooded timber. Had something bump it, but nothing other than that. Then I switched to a white spinner w/a bleeding hook, but nothing on that either. Then I made a run to Woodland Marina. On my way there I hit 67 @ 5300 going down river in a little chop. I was pretty stoked about it. I think I can get more out of her, but so far so good. Threw a shad rap and a jerk bait up in Woodland. Nothing. Water temp in the creek was 54F at Woodland it was a bit off of that at 52F. Water is still up, but falling.

Mississippi River - Alton Pool (Pool 26)

Matthew, Savannah and I went out on the Mississippi around 4:00 Saturday afternoon. We fished St. Louis Yacht Club Marina. Water temp was right around 50F but fluctuated up to 53F and down to 48F by the end of the day. We fished for about an hour. Both of us started with Jerk Baits and then Matt switched to a jig and craw and I switched to a Shad Rap (7'-11' suspending). We got 2 hits in the hour we fished. Both were out in the middle between the docks. They just tapped the bait. I'm thinking they weren't bass. It was a good trip & Savannah loved it. Air temp was about 65-68 with blue skies and a bit of wind. Water was up and over the bank at Riverside.

Lake of the Ozarks

This was the Tarlton Spring Bass Tournament. Shotgun start at 7:00 AM. Steve and I got to the ramp (Larry Gale CA) at 6:50 and had a 5 minute run to check-in. When we pulled up to the prep area there was a crappie tournament putting in. Luckily Dustin Norton was fishing a different tournament and was able to drive my truck in line while Steve and I prepped the boat. We made ran 5 miles in under 5 minutes and got there in time to hear the horn. A quick live well check at the dock and we were off. Air temp was around 35F it was windy and spitting rain. Water was still around 49F. Wind was out of the NNE at 10 with gusts up to 25. It was NASTY weather. We hit the first cove and caught a 15" bass on the same jerk bait we had been using. It was only 7:30 and we had a keeper in the boat. However, by 9:00 we were on our 3rd cove and had only caught shorts. Every place we pulled up to we caught fish, just nothing 15" or better. Then the rain, thunder, lightening and ice started. It poured and we waited it out under a dock. About 11:00 we were fishing again. Steve put a 2.6 pounder in the boat and that was our last keeper. We also caught one crappie on a jerk bait, but didn't keep him (11" crappie). Check in was at 4:00 and 15 pounds won the tournament. The boat ran great and toped out at 61.3 @ 5200 with both of us, all our gear, full tanks and soaking wet.

Lake of the Ozarks - Niangua Arm

Steve Moore and I fished this Friday afternoon as a pre-fish for the tournament we had on Saturday. We put in at Larry R. Gale Access, part of the Missouri Conservation Department. We ran up around the highway 5 bridge and started fishing a cove on the north side of the lake. We fished 4 coves over about 3 hours. It was partly sunny and the air temp was 45F. Water was right at 50F. A low front was getting ready to move threw overnight, so conditions were going to change. We were using crank baits in about 4' - 8' of water. Caught 4 fish between the two of us. Jerk bait (light green on top and white/silver on bottom) for 3 of them and a sexy shad for one. Only one keeper (Steve's fish). They were on small rock bottoms (pea gravel).

Mississippi River, Alton Pool (Pool 26)

First day with the boat. This was more of a test drive than a fishing trip. Adam and I took the boat through it's break-in period (or at least a couple hours of it). The air temperature was around 50F with water temp around 47F. We hit the water around 9:00 and just ran the boat until about 11:00. Then we headed for Lake Center Marina to see how she fished. We threw spinners and cranks, but didn't even get a bite. We finished up around 1:00 PM

Fish ON!

Bryan and I (Adam) did some fishing at the regular super secret lakes around town on Sunday afternoon. As you can see from the second picture the females are just about ready to bed. Biggest of the day was 23 inches (Bryan's) and my biggest (above) was 21. Caught around 30-40 in the 11-20 inch range also. We also caught about 15 crappie, a few keepers. Only got one picture of them below.

Air temp : 75

Sunny, no clouds.

Water Color : Gin Clear

Water Temp : Getting There. :)

1st Crappie of the year

Ok i didn't have much time and i got a pass to do a little fishing on Sunday. I went to New Town and didn't catch anything. I cooked it over to Cart and caught 3 fish. Two were little bass and one was a nice crappie it was a KEEPER!! The