Indian Point Bait Shop

[mdhave]

First, thanks to everybody who posts on this forum--it is a great resource and I have gotten sucked in to reading a bunch of posts! I am arriving at Stillwater Resort on Indian Point on Sunday for a week-long family reunion trip and am READY to get out and spend some time fishing. I am particularly excited to fish with my still-spry 88-year-old grandfather, who taught me to fish, and doesn't get very many chances to boat-fish anymore.

Does anybody have advice on a local bait shop that carries crappie minnows? I figure I can get crawlers just about anywhere and keep 'em in the fridge (out of sight of my wife), but I KNOW my grandfather will want to fish for crappie with minnows. It would be nice to have a source of them that is not too far away. I wonder if we can even find crappie shallow enough to keep the minnows alive...

I am planning to start looking for crappie around and under boat docks at various depths. If we're not having luck there, I will try and find brush piles of varying depths, sticking pretty close to the Indian Point area. I printed off some maps with brush piles on the MO GIS site and hope to find some of them with my crappy sonar.

I am not opposed to advice from anybody ahead of time. I know there is a lot on the site already. I am bringing a laptop and will try and post some results.

[ozarkgunner]

First, thanks to everybody who posts on this forum--it is a great resource and I have gotten sucked in to reading a bunch of posts! I am arriving at Stillwater Resort on Indian Point on Sunday for a week-long family reunion trip and am READY to get out and spend some time fishing. I am particularly excited to fish with my still-spry 88-year-old grandfather, who taught me to fish, and doesn't get very many chances to boat-fish anymore.

Does anybody have advice on a local bait shop that carries crappie minnows? I figure I can get crawlers just about anywhere and keep 'em in the fridge (out of sight of my wife), but I KNOW my grandfather will want to fish for crappie with minnows. It would be nice to have a source of them that is not too far away. I wonder if we can even find crappie shallow enough to keep the minnows alive...

I am planning to start looking for crappie around and under boat docks at various depths. If we're not having luck there, I will try and find brush piles of varying depths, sticking pretty close to the Indian Point area. I printed off some maps with brush piles on the MO GIS site and hope to find some of them with my crappy sonar.

I am not opposed to advice from anybody ahead of time. I know there is a lot on the site already. I am bringing a laptop and will try and post some results.

Check out the maps Lilley has put on the Table Rock forum. In terms of crappie, I haven't had much luck right by Indian Point. In fact, I don't think I have ever landed a crappie right around I.P. in almost twenty years of fishing there. However, Long creek has a bunch of them and Cape Fair has even more. Cape Fair is a LONG boat ride from I.P. so I would recommend trailering the boat. You can get minnows at Table Rock Bait and Tackle on hwy 13 going towards Kimberling City. I'm down DD highway which is really close to I.P. by water, but 45 mins. away by land. Hopefully someone down the other side of the lake will know of a closer bait shop.

[Bittle]

The Indian Point Boat Dock used to sell minnows. Its been awhile since I worked there but they sold them before. Might be worth a stop.

[mdhave]

Thanks Bittle for the info.

For the benefit of anybody else who stumbles on to this thread, I found the web site for the Indian Point Marina (http://www.indianpointmarina.com/) and was able to verify via email that they do have live bait including minnows.

[misterpbody]

I am not a local expert by any means, but I get down there a couple times a year. There is a small store/bait shop about a quarter or halfway down Indian Point Road, on the right side called Deer run, or something to that effect. If memory serves me right, they have minnows, as well as worms,etc.. Haven't been down since last Sept., so things could've changed by now, hopefully not.

[5 Keepers]

Rick at Lakeside Resort in Coney Island said he was going to start selling minnows this year. They are on the upper side of the T shaped peninsula across from point 6. Only about 4 or 5 miles by water from Indian Point. You might want to call before going over just to make sure. http://www.lakesideresort.net Also I think there was a post awhile back ( month or so ) about crappie in the Cow Creek area.