good lakes within 2 hours of stl?

[1099gl]

I live in Webster and i have a 14' jon, are there any good fisheries that are mid to small size lakes within 2 hours of me? I usually travel to Illinois and fish some of the power plant lakes over there but i am wondering if i could find any good places in Missouri. 

[moguy1973]

What size engine do you have on your boat?  If it's 10hp or less you can go to Little Dixie out near Columbia, Council Bluffs and Sunnen Lake (YMCA lake) down near Potosi.  You can also go out to Thomas Hill reservoir which is north of Columbia and is a power plant lake and is a little farther (just under 3 hours).  There's also Clearwater Lake down near Piedmont, and Wappapello a little farther south from that.

[fishinwrench]

Whetstone creek WMA West of New Florence has a great little strip pit lake with Lilley pads and flooded timber.  I've never caught a biggun there but the numbers of 12-17 inch bass is good, and you just know there's a few Hawgs hiding in there.  

Marshall I Diggs WMA near Martinsburg has 2 15+ acre lakes.  One is better for catfish and bluegill, and the other is a great little bass lake.  I've caught numerous 5 pounders there in the past. 

There's another clay pit lake outside of Wellsville, I can't remember the name of it but it's next to a rifle range and looks awesome.  Lots of milfoil and laydowns but I only fished it once during mid-Summer and just caught a few dink bass.  

There are good gravel boat ramps at all 4 of those places but they are "Electric only".  

[cart7]

Little Dixie is a no-wake lake.  It was a 10hp lake years ago.

I'd add Washington County lake in Illinois just south of Nashville.  Plenty of bigguns in there.

Perry county lake just off the highway in Perryville.  

[harber01]

I've been fishing a lot of the smaller MDC lakes lately about 2-3 hours from St. Louis.  Did pretty well at Cypress Lake (Otter Slough C.A) - caught a nice 4 and my pb a 5.86#

Also fished Deer Ridge west of Hannibal - good quantity, but all about 10-14"

Did pretty well at Henry Sever Lake up between Hannibal & Kirksville also - quite a bit of 2-2.5lbs.