Mid-lake 06/18 report

[nomolites]

I had serviced my boat and have a trip planned to AR so I wanted to test everything out; haven't fished MT in 25 years so I headed up there Sat. morning  - got on the water @ 0900 and only fished til 1300, WT was 84.6 in - 86 out and the lake was stained with only about 6" visibility.  Looked like a solid thermocline set up at 20' so I pulled up on a flat that dropped into the channel in that depth range and started dragging fire tiger flicker shads and wiggle warts - started picking up fish in the 15-18' range but only when the baits were banging the bottom - caught channel cat, white bass, drum, and crappie but no walleye although I saw some returns that could have fooled me.  Decided to pull stakes and try something different and casted a few bluff ends catching a couple more small whites on fire tiger jigs and one 16" LMB on the FT flicker shad just winding it back.  That's about all the time I had but I saw enough to interest me in a return trip with more time and maybe some crawlers for bottom bouncing.

There ARE fish in Mark Twain, seems like just a tight lipped bunch fishing her.  BTW - saw a number of boats running jugs or tied up to pole timber and that seems to still be the primary deal.

Mike

[WeekendWarrior]

Mike there are definitely some good fish in MT. It is spot specific and some tough fishing and with any Corp lake you never know what water levels will be. We used to have a good Buzzbait bite early in morning bass fishing, never really crappie fished. A buddy's cousin I know is probably one of the top guys on that lake and cashes checks regularly and has won the Bud Light tourney they have in the fall and he catches some good ones.

[nomolites]

I fished a few derbies up there way back and the weights were low by LOZ standards; back then you could cash a check simply by weighing a limit.  Used to occasionally pull a toad out of the cedars on a spinnerbait but it was grinding a black/blue jig most of the time.  Caught some big flatheads on that jig...

What I saw looked good, although in my old age I prefer clearer water.

Mike

[WeekendWarrior]

Our club used to fish there every year but just to many other lakes that are better fishing I think, some guys want to go back and fish it again because it is close to St.L. Back in 90s there were some big tourneys every couple weekends. Superbass used to draw 100+ boats back then.