Nice Topwater Fish!

[MOsmallies]

Just felt like sharing the story and pics of a nice fish I caught recently...

Every other summer my immediate family (All 27 of us including nieces and nephews) get together for a 4 day trip to Trout Lodge in Potosi, MO. I personally don't like the lodge itself as it is run by the YMCA and therefore has an insane amount of ridiculous rules. No swimming except for the designated areas, no playing rough with your nephews in the water, no beer outside your cabin, and most importantly you can only take their boats in certain areas of the lake. I know it's a family place with a lot of liability, but I need more freedom to be completely happy

But I digress...

I had caught a few good fish in years past, fishing in the areas where they allow their boats (Near the Dam), but I always wanted to explore the lake more. So this year I borrowed a kayak from a good friend (Smalliebigs) and used the public boat launch to access the lake. I now had the freedom to fish anywhere on the lake, not to mention, out of a boat designed for fishing. Well I got to the boat ramp at 4:45 am on Friday morning and got my gear ready to go. I was going to focus my efforts on the abundant shoreline vegetation that Sunnen Lake has to offer, so I rigged up a Stanley Ribbet (buzzing frog), a Tru Tungsten Mad Maxx (floating frog), and a 4" wacky rigged senko.

I launched my boat while it was still dark and just casted near the ramp until the sun started to peak over the trees. At that time I paddled across the lake to a series of pockets and small points. I only had a couple hours to fish, so I quickly started to cover water with the frogs. The first fish I caught was a 12" largemouth that whacked the buzzing frog on a rocky shoreline lined with water willow. Now I was coming up on a small point that had sparse grass growing all over it. The first cast I made with my buzzing frog landed on top of the point near the bank and I began my retrieve. After a couple turns of the handle, the water flushed underneath my bait. Suprisngly I waited until I felt the weight of the fish before setting the hook. I didn't realize how nice the fish was until I got her close to the boat and she began bulldogging. I finally scooped her up by the belly and got her in the boat. It wasn't a giant by any means, but a good solid fish in the 4 lb range. She measured 18 1/2 inches, but appeared to have swallowed a softball

I like the first pic the best, but for some reason it's coming out sideways...sorry folks

I know it's not a giant, but I liked the ways the pics turned out, so I thought I'd brag a little. I proceeded to catch and release 3 more bass that morning all between 12"-14" and all on the frog. Sorry for the long read, but I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Paul

MOsmallies

[Al Agnew]

Wow, it's been many years since I fished Sunnen Lake. Back in the 1970s we had a local bass club. None of us had bass boats back then, just an assortment of canoes and johnboats with little motors and trolling motors, and we mainly fished the smaller local lakes, including Bismarck Lake, Taum Sauk, and Sunnen. I don't think any of us ever caught a bass that big during any of our Sunnen Lake tournaments. In fact, there was one tournament where I had to work early that morning and couldn't get to the lake for the starting time. When I arrived a couple hours late, I hurried up and put in my little 12 ft. johnboat. On my second cast, right next to the ramp, I caught a three pounder. Now, you have to realize that we didn't have live wells back then, either...we toted our fish around on stringers or live baskets. I was thinking that if the fishing was so good I'd catch a fish like that on the second cast, everybody else in the tournament had to already have a limit by now. As a result of that mindset, I was hurrying to get the fish on the stringer in order to get back to fishing. I hooked it to the stringer and tossed the stringer overboard...without attaching the other end of it to anything. I watched the fish swim off towing my stringer.

Now I was REALLY bummed. Two casts later I caught a barely legal bass(12 inches in our tournaments). Now I was sure everybody else had a boatload.

For the rest of the day, I caught zero fish. And when we did our little weigh-in, I found that only one other guy had caught anything--he'd caught one barely legal bass. We had to weigh those two (under one pound) fish three times to decide who's was bigger, and who would win both the tournament and big bass. I won by 1/4th ounce.

[eric1978]

Cool report and a great fish, Paul. Well done!

[Stoneroller]

Nice fish and great report, I've been looking for some information on Sunnen Lake and haven't been able to find much, great timing.

[Trout Commander]

Nice fish and sounds like a great short trip that a.m.!

[Gavin]

Nice fish. We used to fish that lake allot back in the 1980's... My friends Mark, Mike, Rick and I were all in our early teens at the time and we would run around that lake all day long in a little jon boat equipped with a small outboard. We'd leave right after breakfast and our parents rarely saw us till dinner time. We used to catch some really nice bluegill in that lake but we never had much success with the bass. Thanks for the report.

[Smalliebigs]

MO, nice report from Trout Lodge where you can't walk, run, sit, talk and most of all drink!!!! Pretty soon I am going to call Malibu and tell them about your adventures on their kayaks and get you a job with them marketing their kayaks!!!! I have offically blown off the Jacks Fork trip, this river has to many people on it for me screw that. If I wanted to get on the water with this many people I could have gone to LOZ.

I am going to be back later today....call me.... time to hit something where no one is at hopefully!!!!!

Man you said that bass was fat but you didn't say it was Oprah fat, that thing wasn't missing any meals.

[FishinCricket]

Nice fish... Who was the photographer?

[ohmz138]

The YMCA ramp is for the public's use but you have to pay at the YMCA office to legally use it. You could get fined for not paying a pass. It not that expensive, maybe 5 bucks per time at most, but it's better than getting fined $300 or whatever. The YMCA owns it. The other ramp is on private property for Sunnen Products Co. employees's use only. Past the gate that says "Sunnen Employee Recreation Area", that shoreline, boat ramp, and land is all private. The whole lake is no-wake now as well.

[MOsmallies]

The YMCA ramp is for the public's use but you have to pay at the YMCA office to legally use it. You could get fined for not paying a pass. It not that expensive, maybe 5 bucks per time at most, but it's better than getting fined $300 or whatever. The YMCA owns it. The other ramp is on private property for Sunnen Products Co. employees's use only. Past the gate that says "Sunnen Employee Recreation Area", that shoreline, boat ramp, and land is all private. The whole lake is no-wake now as well.

My sister and nephew were actually out on the lake that morning canoeing, so she took the pictures for me.

Also, I paid the $4 launching fee, but Since I wasn't using the lodges canoe/kayaks I could go anywhere on the lake. If you use their boats, you cannot go back in any of the coves and you have to stay between the dam and their fish-feeding deck. I was glad to get away from the busiest part of the lake.