Brad N Steph

I went fishing out at Ruark Bluff on Monday. The fish we’re biting and couldn’t get enough apparently. I caught a couple twice. I fished over by the swimming beach area and caught a keeper there. Caught a smallie by the dock in the cove, went over to the bluff across from the swimming area and caught a largemouth and a bluegill. Then I paddled into the cove and caught another smallie just off the point before the bridge. I ended up catching a few bluegill further up off points after the bridge right across from the boat ramp and a largemouth all in 3-4’ of water.

I'm fairly new to this part of Missouri. I was wondering if there were any kayakers out there that could give me an ideas on places to put in that are free and that dont have a lot of boat traffic. Thank you for your suggestions. I look forward to paddling around and exploring new areas and meeting fellow fishermen.

Look up “mo-yak fishing series”. On Facebook. Also download the tourneyx app and there are tournaments all over the state you can sign up for. Most of the tournaments on there, you don’t need to check in, in person . You take a picture of your fish on a approved measuring board and submit the picture and your score is your total length. Check it out.

I know there’s a few people on here who kayak fish so I wanted to put this out there for everyone. There is a kayak fishing tournament on Saturday he 14th from 7 am to 3 pm. If your interested check it out in Facebook and tourneyx. If you’d like more information let me know I’ll post links for you. Thank you

I hate those rubber bands. I don’t know how many times they’ve fallen apart.

If your interested I have a lot of kayak tournaments coming up

Not at all. I have a sit in so I’m not completely exposed to the wind. I also dress in layers and take breaks outside the kayak every few hours. If my feet get wet then they get cold otherwise it’s very enjoyable being in a kayak.

Friday was a great day to be in the water. I launched the kayak down in hawker pointe and paddles down around the campgrounds and watched the bald eagles for a bit. I ended up catching 2 white bass, a small crappie, and a nice 18” largemouth. The white bass didn’t want anything to do with anything but my small curly tail grubs, and the largemouth went for my flickering shad at sunset. Water temps ranged from 35 to 49 but my fish finder wasn’t acting right for a bit. The bass were caught in 3-5’ of water. White bass were feeding on shad

I fish from a kayak and I do quite well in ruark bluff. I usually drop anchor in one of the covers and sit and catch. If your fishing from a kayak in Stockton, anchor is a good investment

I read somewhere about a cheap easy lure retriever you can make from home. It works mainly only with treble hooks. Gets 3 or 4 lengths of chain, about 4 links each. Hook them into a clip. Tie on a long spool of sturdy rope. Clip to line lures hung up on. Lower it to lure, give it a few shakes till you feel chains hook onto lure, pull your lure out of whatever it's hung up on

Amen.

Sounds like a great time to put the kayak back in again.

Very Nice set up. I kayak also. I used to right in town in Clinton MO of Deer River where the river runs into truman. The only probably I used to run into was gar. The cove is closed off by trees to big boats, so no wake, quiet and peaceful.

If your interested in getting in to a kayak, I'd paddle around with you and see if we could catch something.

I'm hoping to go back out this weekend if we can get a dry day. I'm sure all the rain will probably make it a little tougher. I saw alot of fish on the fish finder on monday but they were in 20ft of water. The crappie I did find were right by the shore line. Once i got them on the stringer they went lifeless and stayed on the top of the water. Is this normal? I dont have a cooler in my kayak yet. I'm planning on doing a built in once i figure out how I want to do it but till then is there a good way to keep them healthy till they get back to shore? I really hope I can find more fish than I did monday.

I caught a couple really shallow. I picked up some crawlers because the bait shop was out of minnows but the fish were happy with my offering and hit hard for crappie. Not my worst day but getting out before the sun and enjoying the peace and quiet is what it's and about

I'm planning on going out early on Monday. Anyone know if the crappie are spawning yet or where they are? I hear it's supposed to get windy too, hoping I can catch a couple. Thank you

Exelent day fishing. I paddled around ruark bluff all day and caught fish all day. I caught a few crappie, 1 walleye that was feeding close to the shoreline. And several bass, mostly largemouth and smallmouth. All the fish I caught were in shallow water. I tried fishing deep with some grubs and jigs but they didn't want anything to do with it, everything I caught was on the flicker shad by Berkley. Same as in the fall.

In the fall was catching alot on bass oin shallow water on a rat l trap. Not sure if they'll still be that shallow but they seems to like the noise.

I've usually never had much luck fishing in wind. I did pretty good yesterday though. I found the fish on the rocks in sheltered areas out of the wind. I caught 3 fish over 15" and threw 4 back. I fished Roark from a kayak and I was off the water by noon. not sure if this helps the wind discussion or not but they seemed to want sheltered and they wouldn't take anything but the rat l trap. hunting on sound alone again I guess

I've been reading alot of post about people not catching many keepers. I thought I'd throw out what's been working for me, very well. I've been fishing using a yellow curly tail grub and throwing it on the rocks and letting it fall into the water. the bass have been hitting it hard. I also use the berkley flickering shad. I've been catching everything on that. catfish, walleye, bass, crappie. when I go out I usually come home with 3 keepers and the least. I've tried live baits and every time they go for the berkley instead. hope this helps. Tight lines

Yesterday was a excelent day out on the kayak out on the lake, I went out on CC boat ramp and within the first hour I caught a good size drum, nothing I wanted to take home, I swear he followed me around all day because throughout the day I caught about a half a dozen that were all the same size and I'm pretty sure I caught the same one more than once. I ended up catching a 5lbs catfish that made a big mess of my net and my lure. I ended up having to paddle to shore and cut the lure out of my net and patch up a small injury. I also managed to catch a Largemouth bass and a white bass. Still cant find the crappie

Are there any Kayak tournaments coming up?

Roark bluff has a dock on the east side in a cove, I watched a couple guys put one white bass after another on a stringer there, if you get there early enough I've also watched a otter eating breakfast down there. lots of brush by the dock

Excellent fish