Haris122

Rough fishing, but at least yours were on the better end for size. I know this year and last, there's supposed to be quite a few on the small side for every one of the bigger ones. 14" one must have been quite a sweet sight. Was it a mix of black and white ones, or were they primarily just one species. Also, did you guys fish any for any other types of fish?

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Aside from the mdc weekly report this is the only official report one I've seen so far. http://blog.southforkresort.net/

Kind of. It seems like there's a small group of people on here, that really go or are at Mark Twain much. But in general I don't see much mentioned about Mark Twain lake. It never seems nearly as frequently talked about as Lake of the Ozarks, and Truman, even on other forums. Last I've seen mentioned, they still aren't spawning depth shallow there. Seem to be still in the deeper structure areas near spawning sites. But this is all 2nd hand.

I plan on going up there in 2 weeks, but that's not of much help to you. I'll post how I did when I do go. I do know this year, like last, there's supposed to be a lot of sifting through small crappie. From the weekly mdc reports that started I think I heard the catfishing has been good though.

Any non-bass fish caught?

I was at Lake 33, afternoon into evening as well yesterday and did good too. Towards the evening seemed to be the best, but throughout the day the crappie were cooperating. Got maybe 16-17 fish total from the bank. 14-15 crappie, a channel cat, and a bluegill. Mostly dinks like usual though, but I did catch one that was 10 1/2 and then my gf pulled in one even fatter that was 11" and some change. We kept those, the other ones we let go. Most of them were still like 10-15 yards out though. But I don't think I had set the slip bobber so the tube was deeper than 2 1/2 feet, and most of the time it was even higher up in the water than that.

You went there today? I'm hoping to go again soon. But they were out ~15 yards from shore at the spot where I was at.

I've only had luck with the small crappie on lake 33 recently. But I have mainly fished for crappie there too. Did catch a 9" and 2 8" about 2 weeks ago but since, I haven't been able to connect on anything that size or bigger. Most of mine have still been out from maybe 10 yards out from shore though.

He wasn't feeling the goggle eye?

Looks like Fenton sewage treatment plant is back to being fully operational from what I heard on the news. Woohoo! Now just to give it a few more days to clean itself a bit more and I'm going to be back on it.

Can't tell you much about Turkeys but twice I've seen someone with some deer in their boats at the place I stayed at. I'm pretty sure they got them from coe land.

Sweet

Going through the online boater safety course right now, but still not sure how this relates to that. It seems to me like maybe those guys had been fishing on that side behind the bend, and maybe just got going. So that being said, what are you supposed to do if you want to fish that section behind the bend without getting run over by another boat, aside from hope someone isn't hauling butt right at you from the other side? Hug as close as you can to the shore on that side?

I don't think I would've been able to stay that calm about it.

To be honest I didn't do additional research on alternatives if the wind was too bad. Thanks for the tips, I'll keep those in mind next time. I actually had it planned out to go Monday, when it was less windy, but things came up and I was left with Tuesday before I had to work again today. I guess I could've waited longer, but I was really wanting to see the place. So I just went for it. I was hoping it was somehow going to blindly work out. 45 mph, darn, I knew it was bad but not that bad. A couple times my anchor got stuck right as it got rough but I managed from tipping over. After that, anchor usage got definitely cut down. It was funny too, at one point it was like paddling on a treadmill. The wind was pushing the paddle that was out in the air as much as I was moving water with the one immersed. No progress whatsoever. I was expecting the cypress trees to be even thicker and shielding wind more, but I still liked it a lot. Had a bit of that Louisiana feel to it that they show on TV with the flat land, the swamp and big cypress trees. Are those alive btw (do they grow leaves and such later on I mean, or are they just kind of there)? I'm going to give it another go again sometime when the wind is barely there. Hopefully next time I get a couple nice Pickerel and/or some of those big Crappie. Does the fish bite really die down on windy days there? I'm trying to figure out what I might have done wrong to not get even one bite.

How long did that take to bring in on the ultralight?

Went down there yesterday. Beautiful place but with the wind as crazy as it was, fishing from the kayak turned out to be an exercise in futility. I went to the southeast corner cause the trees to the south and the levee blocked the wind a little. But whenever I tried to go out a little further, close to the cypress trees, the wind would really pick up. I tried some lilie pads, some of the cypress trees, some of the open water between the trees and shore, near the bank, near the bank by the rental boats dock, and I couldn't even buy me a bite. It's a beautiful place, but the darn wind sucked. I don't know if it was the wind or what, but the fishing was also really disappointing.

I have a few days I took off early May. Hope to go up there during that.

I didn't see any out when I was there.

The thing about Lake 35 for me, is that even though it's such a big lake, half or so of it I feel I can't even fish because of all the milfoil.

I was at 35 Tuesday evening for a bit. It was really windy. Only made it out there for a short while after work, but fishing a little plastic minnow on a jig in the spirit of what mjk said got me a 11" LMB near shore. Eventually I switched to a roostertail and got another 2 fish, but real dinks at that. 1 tiny sunfish of some sort, and then a slightly bigger Black Crappie. Then yesterday I went again. Windy as well. Tried lake 38 first, hoping the wind was more manageable there. Got a few bites from something tiny and nothing else. Then went to 35 after, towards the end of the day and there wasn't much going on there either. Spinnerbait, the plastic minnow on jighead, a crappie tube under bobber by the christmas trees, they all were not getting any bites. Finally, got a very small bass on a white roostertail again, and had to leave it at that. From the past few days I think 35 at least, doesn't have the crappie real close to shore yet. It seemed like they were still further past the trees some, at least on the dam side where I fished both days. Maybe they would've turned on some more later on yesterday too, but I couldn't quite wait as late as the day before. I'm ready for the boats to come out.

Last time at the springs during catch and release, and then most of thel times below it in the red ribbon section, I was hammering them with roostertails. So I figured maybe it was cause I was finally using 2lb test for leader and using a very small weight above a very small swivel, that I was getting that many bites. Thought I finally figured out how to rig it up just right. I mean even in the past I could usually squeek out a few bites on them, and get a fish or two, so it got me thinking things would start happening for me, I just had to get to the right spot. But nope, wasn't the case. And I didn't want to spend the time rigging up something completely different like a slip float with a jig or trout magnet under until it was too late to bother doing so. Bit of a bummer to go to a trout park and not even get a trout. Oh well, at least a couple small fish felt like biting. Didn't lose out on the rush of the fight, however brief, totally.

I drove down there today again and had my rear handed to me by the trout. First I was going to fish the red ribbon area at Scott's Ford, plan being to wade upstream as far as it let me, but I don't know how to gauge at what point a low water bridge is not safe to cross, and since there was a good flow of water going over it, I decided not to try crossing it to get to Scott's Ford Access on the other bank. So next I figured I try the red ribbon access at Hwy 8. Got there, geared up, saw the water was high but figured I try it anyways. Once I started wading I came to the conclusion that the flow was too much, to really wade any distance. So back to the drawing board. Immediately I decided I just stick to within Meramec Springs, and not try anything more adventurous anymore, as time was passing me by fast. Bottom line I started up around 1:40pm at Meramec Springs. Tossed a variety of Roostertails most of the day and didn't so much as get a bite. I saw plenty of good stringers, but hardly anyone else catch anything while I was around. I eventually changed to a little minnow type crankbait after making my way all the way down, and a little back upstream with the roostertails. The trout still wouldn't have any of it. Once I got back to the parking lot, around 5:20 I finally came across a bite. The fish jumped, but couldn't shake the crankbait, and I finally caught a fish, a tiny Smallmouth. In the end I wound up with 4 fish, 1 smallmouth, 1 sunfish of some sort, and 2 Rock Bass, all caught within the last 40 minutes, and all a lot smaller than what size fish I was hoping to catch. Probably the only decent fish (for it's species) I got was the 2nd Rock Bass, that was about 8". I should've tried other stuff, but I didn't want to lug around anything aside from 1 fishing rod and what little I could fit into the pouch in the waders, and I had too much faith in the roostertails eventually catching me something, so I didn't keep trying different types of lures, or rigging to find the technique that works.

Mine alternates between a 60 hour week and a 24 hour one. Needless to say, it's nice on the short weeks. Actually have enough time to drive a little further out of the way if I so desire.