macfish

macfish here. Tippet7, here's another guy who flyfishes for carp and he seems to be a top notch guide, flytyer and bestselling author: Fumbling With a Fly Rod. His website is very nice!: http://www3.sympatico.ca/ianjames/index.html P.S. I forgot to tell you that his name is Ian Colin James, he's Scottish and he's very interesting. Jonathan

macfish here. Butts, as far as I know the access is legal because there are no fences or gates or anything like that but it is very difficult because it is a very hilly area and unless you have a boat you'd have to walk or rather climb in. Let me tell you where the warm water discharge is in relation to the boat ramp. The boat ramp is not too far from the power plant. You can see the plant as you're getting close to the boat ramp in fact you have to turn off the road that goes toward the plant to go to the boat ramp. There's a sign that will direct you there. When you go toward the ramp you'll see a small bay in front of you with a small stream coming in from the left. Looking down the ramp there is a bank across from the ramp. If you walk toward the stream (going around to your left) and then to that bank the warm water discharge is directly across the hill that's behind the bank (in other words if you reach the bank then face the boat ramp the warm water discharge is more or less directly behind your back). Walk up and down the bank until you find a path that climbs up from the bank. It's the easist way there. If it's at all wet it can be treacherous. It's pretty heavily wooded with lots of dropped leaves from the oaks with heavy clay mud underneath and you'd be climbing a couple of hills probably 30 to 70 feet high sloped maybe 35 - 45 degree slope. It's no cakewalk. Once you get in there I don't know if the fish swim and eat directly in the warm water discharge. I didn't have time to get down to that bank once I was there to fish directly in the warm water discharge. This place I have described is about a hundred feet in from where the discharge meets the lake which wold be down to the right. I did fish, however, at the point where it enters the lake (to the right). This place can be reached by following the bank around to your left going away from the boat ramp. You can't get to the point if you go down to the warm water discharge. Access to the point is cut off so you'd have to climb back to the bank and the walk around to the left until you reached the point. There were feeding fish there. We caught a couple of small channels but I'm sure there were also bass, crappie and probably other fish there as well. Where it enters the lake it would be probably 50 to 70 feet across and the water is coming out at a pretty high rate of speed, maybe 5 miles per hour? I couldn't tell how deep the water was at the opening to the lake but I'd guess at least three or four feet. I hope this helps. Jonathan

macfish here. Butts, I didn't take any pictures even though I had my camera with me. I'm familiar with both Sluggos and shad lures. I don't really know what they were using because I was pretty far away and couldn't really tell what they were. They were casting up almost onto the shore and the places they were casting at were reachable by either boat or by walking. Where they were fishing is a place I wouldn't have chosen. There weren't any other boats getting out or in when they were there but I still wouldn't have been right there. I know on Mark Twin Lake which is mostly administered by the Army Corps of Engineers they prohibit fishing at boat ramps. Now I'm not sure how far that means someone would have to be away from there to be out of the forbidden zone, but these guys were casting almost right at the ramp and catching there. Perhaps that type of restriction doesn't apply at Thomas Hill, I don't know. I'm planning on taking the camera and going back to Thomas Hill again and getting some photos. The only thing about getting to the actual discharge is that you have to climb some fairly steep muddy hills to get there unless you have a boat. It's very tricky place to get to, especially is it's at all wet but it's also somewhat secluded and very pretty looking. Jonathan

macfish here. Hey Butts (and all others as well), thanks for the welcome. I've only made it over to Thomas Hill one time so far which was on January 2nd, Monday. I know because I had off work that day so went fishing there with a friend. We went to catch carp and did, but there were quite a few other people there fishing for largemouth and catching a few from the bank, catching a few crappie (seemed to be mostly small ones from boats) and a few guys who were in a boat staying pretty close to the boat ramp which is in the warm water arm. These last two seemed to be targeting stripers and catching them. I don't think they were very large, maybe a few pounds, but what they lacked in sze they seemed to make up for with fight. Now actually, truth be told, I can't positively say they were stripers because they could have been white bass, that's just my guess. I forgot to say these guys stayed about twenty or thirty yards off shore then cast some type of white pastics toward the rip rap which is where the fish were. They cast right up to the shore itself and were getting good strikes and catching. It's a nice looking lake from what I saw of it and I definitely want to go back. The warm water discharge is wild. You can fish directly in it but there is a lot of current so I'm not sure if the fish are really in there or farther out when the water enters the larger lake body. Guys in boats were anchoring pretty far out directly in line with the warm water flow and seemed to be catching. I'm guessing crappie but who knows. There were even a couple of guys set up with long surf rods (10') with heavy spinning reels fishing for big cats, probably big channels and blues. Jonathan

macfis here. Lilley, thanks for the welcome. It seems to be a very friendly group of folks. I'm looking forward to meeting more people and learning more about fishing in our wonderful state. Jonathan

macfish here. Brain, I'm new to the forum but not to fishing or fly fishing though it's been a few years since I have done much fly fishing. I have been targeting mostly carp over the last 18 months or so and done pretty well using mainly what are called hair rigs (a European way of getting carp hooked with less effort), packbait on a method feeder and boilies. These are all pretty much European innovations except for the packbait which is an American bait. I'm hoping this year to get the fly rod up and trying for carp on it. Most of our streams up this way tend to be pretty muddy/silty so I'm not sure I can sight cast to the fish. Of course I've heard that potato chips make a good chum and if the carp are hungry for them and get feeding on them then I could cast to the feeders on the surface. I see this thread goes back to January 6th so it may not get many responses. We'll see. Jonathan

Hey folks, macfish here. I'm new to this board but not to fishing or fishing sites. I've posted quite a bit at a couple of species specific sites but I'm glad to be on a board specific to my state where I can talk to others who fish these waters. I live in Northeastern Missouri in Monroe City. I live all of about ten minutes from Mark Twain Lake and fish there and several other places locally especially what's called the rereg dam which is on the Salt River at the tail end of Mark Twain Lake below what the Army Corps of Engineers calls the Reregulation Pool. I mainly target carp and catfish, am a catch and release man but will fish for almost anything that swims. I also fish Hunnewell Lake, Thomas Hill Lake and a local lake called South Lake. I don't have a boat so I'm a bank fisher but that's okay because carp and cats are usually within reach where ever I go. Anyway, glad to be here with you. Jonathan

macfish here. Well, now I 'm here I guess the party can get started! Just kidding. MoCarp, great to see another friend here, thanks for the heads up on the site. I already posted a bit of info on Mark Twain Lake. Great to see you sharing a bit about carp fishing as well and the trout. I never did get one while I was there with you. It wasn't really what I was after at the time but I've only caught one in all the times I've been trout fishing and of course that was with a fly rod which means it's a bit more difficult to catch them then, at least it seems that way to me. The one I did get was only a parr about 5 inches long. MoCarp, I forgot to tell you that I did get my new gear. I've gone Euro! I got three 12' 3.00 TC spinning rods which are an inexpensive French brand called Geologic. One is called a Get Carp 300 and the others are called Carpe Big Runner. I also got two Shimano 3500 Baitrunners reels. They are a sweet combination! I also got a very large salmon net that's almost as big as your and Jim's carp nets (the frame) and the handle is 1 1/4" aluminum, 6' long so 7 1/2' length. I got it for $30 which must be a pretty darn good deal because I saw the same net on a website for about $75. Only thing I don't have yet is a bank sticks/rod pod setup. Got to run. Talk to you later. Jonathan

macfish here. I'm new to this board but have done a lot of posting on other boards. I live in Monroe City and I'm from Quincy, Illinois originally so I have spent a lot of time in the areas Moose 50 is talking about. I don't have a boat so I haven't done a lot of fishing at Mark Twain Lake except mostly at the areas where it is really easy like at the Reregulation Dam which is located on Route A (goes East/West) between Route 61 (North/South)and Route J which goes south to Cannon Dam and on to Perry. There is another smaller lake on Route J which is pretty nice to fish called Route J Reservoir which is jointly regulated by Monroe City and the Missouri Department of Conservation and owned by the town of Monroe City. I believe they allow power boats on the lake and they have camping facilities there as well. You have to get a camping permit at city hall in Monroe City. I have caught some of those big catfish at Mark Twain Lake, mostly big flatheads which I have released. One 25 lber and a 35-40 lber at the rereg dam and one that was 40" but unweighed at Stoutsville boat ramp. I mainly fish for carp but also catch cats, bass, crappie, buffalo, walleye, freshwater drum (called perch here usually) and even Asian carp (silver and bighead) at the rereg dam. I pretty much fish for anything that will bite. I just like the challenge of catching. By the way, it's called Hunnewell Lake after the town of Hunnewell which is where it's located north off of Route 36, not Honeywell, but Moose probably wouldn't know that having been there only once. Hunnewell Lake also has flatheads, channel and blue catfish, nice shellcrackers (redear sunfish), crappie, sunfish, etc. I've fished there several times and caught bass, sunfish and channels but none of the others yet. Jonathan