K4muskies

Thanks one more time. I have a pretty good idea on how to start. I will be staying at a cabin about 1 1/2 miles from the dam on the south side. Looking at the google maps the access is poor to get to the water so I may be driving to the other side of the lake. Also if I bring my boat how far up stream can I actually get with the boat? This is off topic question sorry...

Thank you guys. This was a big help in the right direction. I do have a little stiffer rod that I can try as well. Thank you again

Thanks for the reply. I totally forgot about the jigs, but since I never used any I wouldn't even know where to start, what type/kind of jiggs to get not to mention the color choices. In the "park" I usually fish on powerbait and home made bait. I do have three different rods I use. One is a 5' and the other two are 7' and 7'6 ultralight with 2LB test on it.

Hi All, I am planing on a trip to the Taneycomo lake in a couple of weeks. It turns out that I will have some time to do some trout fishing but not enough time to actually get into the real fly fishing stuff (fly rod etc) so with that being said can I use my ultra light spinning reel with a fly. If so what type of set-up would I use for this. I know that the flys can be tricky to get out without the right rod/reel combo but I just don't have enough time for a few classes. I have everything else. Simms waders, ultra light trout combo, etc... Usually the trout fishing I do is at the Meramec Springs park so it's not like I dont have any experience its just that I never tried using a fly. What fly to use and how to set up my rod for it? Any advise is greatly appreciated. Thanks K

This is what I got from the local MODNR biologist today in the email, on my question on fish stockings and popularity. So the fish cought on the other forum might have been stocked this January...

I was out two days ago and hooked into a smaller muskie. I did not measure it since the water temps are still on the high side and wanted to release the fish as soon as posible. I missed another bigger muskie Upper 30's on a figure 8 a few hours later. I dont think that there are tiger muskies in lake 35, because those fish prefer litle colder water then the spoted muskies (the one I caught). I dont know how big these fish can get. The people that work the outpost dont know anything about the quality/quantity of the fish on any of the lakes. All they will tell you "Yes they are in there" just to get you on the water.

When you see a lot of activity on the surface you can bet that there is a predator lurking underneath, whether its a bass or a muskie it is normal to see that. your crappie was just a nice little meal for that fish... I should rig a bluegill as life bait next time maybe it will attack it. Dont eat the muskie I don't think they stock them anymore...

That is good to hear that fish is in there, If that muskie don't get that crank bait off anytime soon it might die depending on how its hooked. If it cant hunt and eat it may be in big trouble. I have not spent a whole lot of time on Saturday fishing the flats southwest, I will give it a shot some more with large bucktails over the weeds soon enough... At this time of the year the fish should have moved in shallow again after a hot summer so we will see if I get on a fish anytime soon.

Fall is the ultimate prime time for muskie fishing. In Fall you get the perfect opportunity to land a true monster. But unfortinalty lake 35 is not an ideal place to expect such success. I am an experienced muskie angler and I have fished muskie waters in Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota for years, I was never interested in MO muskies since there are not many lakes in MO that have fair amount of muskies in it. From what I have seen Lake 35 has a pretty good muskie habitat a mix of weeds, shallow/deep water, and in some areas submerged timber. I have spent over 35 hours fishing for muskies last week (5hr-Tue, 4hr-Thur, 14hr-Fri, 12.5hr-Sat) that is more time spent fishing then I did that week at work. I have caught absolutely NOTHING. Sometimes if we don't catch fish we almost every time see or move some fish, but at lake 35 I have not seen a muskie or for that matter moved it. Very little people have been fishing last week, which is a good thing. I have covered every square inch of water those 4 days, I have tried small baits, medium sized baits, large baits, I have tried fishing topwater, shallow, mid-depth, deep, tried 30 different lure types from bucktails, spinnerbaits to shallow invaders, and depth raiders... NOTHING, not even a follow. On Saturday I was able to catch a small largeemouth bass on one of my spinerbaits. The Water temps were averaging 70F on Tue and 68F on Sat. Something tells me that there is a very small amount of smaller muskies in that lake, which might be the problem why I haven't seen anything. Usually Smaller muskies are boat shy and are confused by our baits that we throw. This is why you always see muskie fisherman land muskies that are 40+ inches most of the time. I have never caught a muskie that was below 36 inches. Unlike their cousins Northern Pike, small pike is not afraid to attack a larger lure but bigger pike is more careful. This is the opposite in muskie fishing, big fish will come to the boat side following the lure but smaller fish will almost 98% turn back. I will give it a few more trips this year, in a previous forum in 2009 someone from the DNR has posted that during that year in spring when they put out nets they caught 20 fish that were 40-44inch range. Im not sure if those fish are still there since I have seen a lot of people take Bass home and Im sure if they would have hooked on to some muskies that size those would be automatically taken home. Does anyone know if the DNR is still stocking this lake? Or does anyone know what is the percentage of this fish being taken home for dinner? I would suggest not to take it since it doesn't taste very good and because it has a fair amount of mercury in them, they are better of in the water then they are in the kitchen!!!! I will post more results once I get out there this week