Catfish are biting river worms and shrimp

Bluegill good on crickets waxworks and river worms

Crappie fair to poor on minnows

Bass fair top water early am

Fishing Report by:     Wilderness Trail      

ANGLER'S EDGE 3RD ANNUAL TEAM BASS TOURNAMENT
OCTOBER 15-16, 2005
Entry Fee $200.00 plus $20.00 Big Bass (100% payback - optional)
Each team will receive 2 Free Falcon Rods and a Free Buffet Dinner at Mario's
Entry forms can be picked up at Wilderness Trail - Entry fees can be paid at Wilderness Trail also
For more Information call us at 870-445-2703

We finally broke out of the dog days heat this last week with temperatures dropping into the mid 60’s at night and upper 80’s throughout the day. Lake temperature has come down to 84.7 to 85 degrees, that is much better than 90+ degrees. Lake level this week is at 648.78, 5 ½ feet below normal pool, hopefully we will get some rain soon. With the pool draw down the thermocline has dropped a foot and the band is starting at 31 feet and stretching to 34 feet. 

White Bass became active again this week, pushing shad up on banks and into main lake coves late in the afternoon. White grubs, Spot Minnows and small spoons are the best baits. 

Crappie are returning to the brush piles that are close to drop offs. Crappie minnows, Swimming Minnows and crappie tubes are the best baits along with crappie spoons. Catfish are feeding at night and the guys that are using jugs are having great success. The entrance of the creek arms have produced numbers this week. Best baits have been Magic Bait, hot dogs, chicken liver and frozen shad.

Largemouth bass slowed down again this week, probably because of the pool draw down. Top water in the morning is still okay although it is hard find keeper size largemouth. Buzz baits, Zara Spook Jrs and Spit’N Image baits continue to be the triggering top water baits. Secondary points, docks and brush piles are holding largemouth during the day, fish slow baits around these structures (Spider Jigs, tubes, Centipedes and baby brush hogs). 

Smallmouth bass are foraging on shad and crawdads round points and steep chunk rock banks on the main lake and in the creek arms. Best bite is in the morning and late afternoon. Spider Jigs, football jigs, Centipedes and Zoom trick worms are working well. There is some top water action in the morning on the main lake points. Zara Spooks and Lucky Craft Sammy’s will trigger some aggressive smallies. 

Kentucky bass remaining unchanged from the last few weeks. They continue to swim with the shad, feeding at will. Main lake pockets, cuts and bluff wall ends are places to look for schools of shad and you will find Kentuckys. Best baits are live shiners, spoons or drop shot with a finesse worm.

Walleye are going on the feed around noon in 31 to 34 feet of water off points and do nothing pea rock banks that have some ledges. A number of techniques are working, long lining Reef Runners and DD22’s, long lining with lead core using Glass Shad or Hot’N Tots, vertically spooning with white or silver CC, Bink’s or Fle Fly spoons and pulling bottom bouncers with crawler or leech harnesses. The smaller walleye have been showing up this week and keepers are harder to come by.

LAKE RATING: Walleye are active, bass are slow but catchable if you work at it, crappie have moved back onto some brush piles and the live bait bite is turning back on. The rating is Fair.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good on Berkley Power Eggs in yellow and orange and Belgium red worms. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Super Dupers and Little Cleo's are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on olive Woolly Bugger, soft hackles, and olive scuds and sow bugs. The Brown trout are being caught on Countdowns, Flat Fish and nightcrawlers.

Remember to keep only what you can eat and release the rest for another day. Rick Culver of Wilderness Trail does the research for this report and the writing of this report.

Concordia fishing is really good now. the lake is full. 

Catfish excellent up l4 lbs. a 54 lbs cat was taken on perch minnow by rod and reel. 

Bass are excellent near the banks. I saw a 6 lb bass brought in using minnows. 

Crappie is good pan size about 6 to 8 inch a few larger but mainly pan size. 

Happy Holiday and Good Fishing. 

Art

Catfish are biting river worms and shrimp

Bluegill good on crickets waxworks and river worms

Crappie fair to poor on minnows

Bass fair top water early am

Channel Catfish GOOD

Largemouth Bass GOOD

Bluegill Sunfish FAIR

Redear Sunfish FAIR

Crappie FAIR

Cottontail Lake will be closed for physical renovation for the next couple of years. The lake has refilled and the stocking of small fish will occur this summer. After they reach a harvestable size the lake will reopen for fishing.

Honker Pond will be closed through the end of August for some renovation work.

Catfish: Good: Bruce and Jeanette did pretty good catfishing off the docks this weekend. They used nightcrawlers fished about 4’ below their bobbers. Cut shad bellies continue to work well out in the main channel. The fish are still in the deeper water until water temperatures drop a few more degrees.

Stripers: No report

Remember a bad day fishing is better than a great day at work.

Date: 9/8/05
Lake Level : 601.1
Normal Lake Level : 606
Water Condition: Clear
Surface Water Temp: 82 - 85

The rivers feeding Mark Twain Lake are starting to turn over.

Crappie reports have been a better lately. A lot of small crappie are still being caught. However crappie at least 9 inches and better are becoming more common. The reports have been has varied as the fishermen that are catching them. Over the weekend we had several fishermen catching good size crappie 1 - 5 feet deep. It's as if some crappie are starting to move into a fall pattern. Lately the most consistent depth has been from 6 - 12 feet deep. The best bite has been near main lake points and banks with good tree cover. Minnows have been the best bait.

Bass fishing has been fair.

Catfishing has been good. Rod and reel fishermen have been catching channel cats using nightcrawlers and cut shad. Trot liners have been doing better lately, catching flatheads with gold fish and perch.

White Bass fishing has been good. There have been a few reports of fishermen catching good numbers of white bass.

Crappie - No Report

Bass - No Report

Black bass slow on plastic worms early in the morning

White bass slow trolling on the flats using rooster tails

Crappie slow on minnows around trees and structures

Catfish slow on shad and worms

Bluegill slow on worms 12 to15 of water

Walleye/Muskie slow.

Bass slow using spinners near the brush piles

Crappie good try above the thermocline from 4-12' down. try minnows or tube jigs under a bobber around timber

CRAPPIE: Fair: The fish are really scattered so you have to keep on the move to catch a limit of keepers. Still plenty of smaller fish, just fewer of the big ones. They are still in their summer patterns. Fish the brush piles and tree lines in the deeper water. Catch one or two nice keepers and move to the next tree. The fish are in 8' to 24' of water approx. 10' feet deep. This pattern should hold true for the rest of the summer. Minnows seem to be the preferred bait.

BASS: Fair: There seems to be some main lake action starting. Some nice fish are being caught occasionally but not consistently. Worms, jigs, brush hogs seem to catch the majority of the fish. Some are coming on spinner baits and cranks. 8' or less of water seems to be the areas to concentrate on.

CATFISH: FAIR: The crappie fishermen are catching some nice ones in the deeper water on minnows so try the 20' of water areas with your favorite bait. Also other fishermen are reporting fish in shallow water back in the coves. Dip baits are working very well in the lake and in the rivers. Since they are letting some water out of the lake the spillway should start producing some nice fish.

White Bass: Good: The rest of the summer should continue to produce nice stringers of whites. Fish main lake points early and late by throwing small crankbaits in the 2' to 8' water depths. If the fish don't show up on the points just back out to 15' of water and try pepper spoons on the bottom. Watch for surfacing schools. During the day troll to find the schools which are roaming following the shad. The size of most of the fish is excellent.

WALLEYE: Poor: Still no walleye. The wallies have sort of vanished for the time being. They are either buried in the grass of laying in deep water either making them difficult to get to. Use crankbaits or a jig and leech or crawler.

No Report

GENERAL COMMENTS

Water off more than on!

Water Conditions: Over the past five days, water has been off more than on. Running water in the afternoon anywhere from two hours to six hours.

FLY FISHING TROPHY AREA (dam to Fall Creek)-SHALLOW WATER-WADING-

Fished with friends over the weekend. We all had several good fishing days. Soft hackles, size 18, dark olive were working very well in the shallow area across from and just a little above the boat ramp. Black tunghead midge, size 16 was working great for Shirley. She stood in one spot just below the riffle at the Rockin Chair area and landed 15 or more fish in a three hours each of the two days she fished. Worked a new sculpin pattern we found from Umpqua. Tan and white rabbit strips, size 6. Tail was too long so lots of short takes. Finally got the tail the right length and caught several nice fish on this, including a Brown. Also fished this across from and just a little above the boat ramp on an edge where the water deepens up. Fished this using the intermediate sink-tip section added to my fly line with a 6' 5X leader. Real fun to fish with lots of action. Couple out Tuesday. They boated 30 plus fish using the rusty zebra in the morning. About noon the fish shut off this color so I switched to olive. Several fish in the 15 inch range and up. Fish are really looking good, lots of fight and great colors. Don't forget if you are out fishing with the water off. If the horn sounds, don't roll it up. Get yourself to a safe place from the water rise and change to a larger, weighted scud (12) or a San Juan worm (worm brown was really good this past week), add some split shot, a large indicator set pretty deep depending on where you are fishing, and fish the rise. You don't have to cast out very far. Look where the fish are sliding in toward the bank and fish those edges.

STAN'S TIP: Everyone has had it happen. You put your rod pieces together and can't get them apart. If this happens, and you have tried all the other techniques to get them apart, try putting ice around the joint. Let it cool down for a bit then try to get them apart. This usually works after everything else has failed.

Fishing Report from Sterett Creek Marina 9/7/05

With the holiday over and the boat wakes subsiding the fish are starting to come back out of their hidy holes. Seems like busy weekends sends them somewhere and it takes a couple of days to come back to their normal behavior. The water temp is still holding steady and the clarity is good in our area. Have seen some nice white bass and black bass come in the last couple of days. Looks like the fishing is going to pick up nicely.

Fishing for Cats was real good on Monday caught 12-15 per hour using cut bait in 4 to15 feet of water on the flats 'no big fish'2-12lbs tops lots of fun

No Report