Monday, August 4, 2008

gone a' fishin'

My father and i were licky enough to spend a weekend down on truman reservior. I fished from the docks on the state park's marina; my father fooled around on his boat. The fishing is some of the best Ive had at the lake!

Caught and released dozens of crappie, panfish, bass and catfish! I used mostly a minnow in 10-15ft of water, 5-8ft down. On saturday, for only the few hours I fished, I kept three crappie tht measured 12-14inches (excellent fish!), and a channel catfish about 15"..
The water was incredibly smooth... no wind at all!, though there was a bit of boat traffic. It was waaay to hot... the bank thermometer in the near town of tightwad, Mo, read 101 degrees... at 1pm .

The lake is still a bit high, but nothing compared to what it was! A jugline that I had left tied at the waterline a few weeks ago was hanging from about 20ft in the air! Those giant, fleshy, gooey, slimy, nasty carp? eggmasses are dried onto the brush as far as a few hundred feet on shore, where they were laid during the flood.

Heres the report:

LAKE LEVEL: 710.50
WATER TEMP: 83 deg.
WATER CLARITY: Clear to light stain.

Bass: Excellent!... I caught a lot of smallr fish, to 16", on small, silver or white jerk baits in or above the flooded brush. The two larger fish I landed were suspended among the trees, caught on a red/white medium spinner bait in about 20 feet of water.

Crappie: Very Good!.... Minnows; off bluffs and in coves in water 10-30feet at 8 feet deep. Saw a few good creels come in from the trees, and I caught a handful on a small blue/white jig. My six large fish came from about 10 feet deep in only 15 feet of water, on minnows. They bit best in the late afternoon.

Cats: Just Okay... The report is jug lines, 8-20 feet of water, cut shad or live panfish at 3-6 feet off the bottom- the closer to deep water, the better! I saw a pair of ~8lb'ers come from the trees near the dam. I caught a small handful of them while fishing for crappie on live minnow.

Well, the sun was good, the water was good... nice, relaxed trip!

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