MO_LMB

Do you have a push cart for your kayak? You can make one pretty cheaply if not. I find it comes in rather handy. I would say part of the challenge is learning the lake. Pick one or two lakes and just focus on those instead of hopping all around. You'll learn where the bass are relating to much easier after several trips to the same lake and get some milk run spots you can mark. If you want a quick trip, close to STL, I'd say River's Edge Park if you have a cart to pull your yak. Can also try Creve Ceour lake or Mallard. For river, I'd say the Meramec is a good spot. The farther you go the better... Sand Ford, Red Horse. There's also the lakes on the IL side as well: Baldwin, Coffeen, Rend, Carlyle. Bottom line is it's fishing. You can't expect to go to some lake you've never been and just tear it up unless you stumble upon some great day where they are happily munchin. When you get to new water everything looks good and like it will hold fish, but you have to fish it several times to know where the fish actually stay in that body of water. Gotta put in some work and find areas and baits that work for that lake. That's why I'd recommend picking one or two and just focus on those. I've got lakes where I've caught multiple 7lbs + fish, but there's been days when all I get are dinks. Just part of the process.

Table Rock was great. Saturday was a good numbers day. Fished the flattest main lake stuff I could find. Best bait was a tube, Watermelon Red, dragged on the bottom. Also caught some on the ned, underspin and ball head with a keitech, and a Tackle HD hidef craw. Tube caught the numbers HiDef craw caught the bigger fish. Bigger fish came off submerged trees... not the brush or bushy trees, but solid tree trunks. Sunday wasn't as good on numbers, but caught the bigger fish. Also figured out a night bite. They wanted a black colorado spinnerbait burned below the surface.

When the fish don't seem to be biting moving lures well, I always try to slow down and fish some main lake structure with bottom baits. Jig, Tube, Shakey Head worm. Try to feel whats going on on the bottom with the lure. Each cast should take you a minute or two to reel in. I just move the bait with my rod and pull it along, maybe hopping every once in a while. Find a point or hump or something, with a little wind moving over it, and fish slowly on the bottom. Should be able to pick up a couple that way on any lake. Just glancing at Navionics, I'd try these spots.

How's that old bank line pattern holding up? Any topwater to speak of?

When's the tourney? You'll have tons of flooded cover to flip an pitch, but you'll run into the issue of what to throw at... it will be everywhere and it will all look good. I'd probably be flipping bushes that are on points or throwing a spinnerbait around the cover.

Yeah, I'll be interested to see how the high water effects traffic this weekend. Once your on the lake I don't see many issues, but the weekenders might have some trouble finding places to park at ramps. Any deep bite yet that you've found, or have you just been flipping shallow?

Up - Up the river to the north Down - Down lake by the dam Also, keep in mind most tourneys launch out of Taylor's Ferry, and fish are typically released there, so you can always probably find a few transplants there around the takeoff.

Traditionally they say Ft. Gibson fishes shallow, and when the water is UP fish DOWN lake. If it's really 24 ft. above normal pool, you're going to have a ton of flooded bushes to flip if you want. If they are pulling water and the lake is dropping I'd be fishing a topwater. Ranger creek is a popular area, as well as Toppers. I'd probably have a buzzbait, spinnerbait, and a jig to flip bushes on. Maybe a shakeyhead/senko too.

Thanks for the help guys, I'll check back in next week to see if there's any updated reports.

Heading to Tablerock with my Dad to do some fishing at the end of June and Early May. Never had much luck at the lake. Not use to fishing that deep clear water. Any hints on what types of structure or what depths to be targeting for that time of the year. We'll be staying in the Kimberling City area. Spoons in play yet? Keitechs on a jig head or on a fish head spin? Topwater? Jig/Tube/Ned? Not looking for any specific spots (unless you're feeling generous in a pm... C&R angler here) just a sort of crash course on what spots to find while looking at a depth chart.

I scarred a pack of Manatees about 5 feet away from me in Florida once while I was in my Kayak before first light came. My kayak was rocking from the waves they caused. Pretty sure I could hear my heart thumping against my chest.

Big, Meramec, Mineral Fork, Huzzah, James, lots of options

From what I can see, they are cool, but I think you could find something else for much cheaper for what you want to do. NuCanoe, Pond Powler, Kayak, Sqaure Stern Canoe. All seem like they be a bit more wallet friendly and do the same thing.

#31 is decent, haven't really fished the others to know much about them. All the lakes are pretty pressured. It's one of the only large public fishing areas in a populated metropolitan area so you get a lot of people visiting it regularly. I'd say the majority of people are fishing for crappie and catfish so that helps somewhat, but there is still a lot of bass pressure. I usually stick to 35 since it is rather large and a bit more diverse compared to the other lakes. Also, it has Musky in it so there is always the chance you can hook into one of those on 35. 33 is supposedly the best lake for big bass. http://fishing.mdc.mo.gov/reports/august-busch-memorial-and-weldon-spring-conservation-areas Got this one on a buzzbait on 35 back in Oct. Yes, you are supposed to go back to the bait shop to switch out keys for boats, but I think they are the same key for all the boats.

Are most of the lakes similar when it comes to depth, structure & cover or do they vary quite a bit? Yes, most the lakes are pretty similar, deepest parts are usually near the man made dams, with lots of shallow flats. What is the predominate form of cover and is it dense or sparse? A lot of the lakes by this time in the season have grown pretty thick with hydrilla and matted grass on the surface of the water in the shallower areas. Crankbaits are going to be hard to fish, unless you are willing to clean the lure off very frequently. How accessible are the shorelines for most of the lakes? Can you fish most of the perimeter or are you stuck with designated fishing locations? Almost all the lakes have large expanses of shoreline to fish. Do the shorelines vary in depth & rate of drop off or are most of them the same? If the latter, what kind of depth are we looking at? Except for the dam on lake 35 most of them seem pretty similar. Some areas are large flats, some are gradual drops to 10ftish. If I head up there on my lunch break tomorrow I'll try to snap some pictures for you. Some things to note: -You can rent a boat for $5, comes with oars if you want to paddle yourself, or you can put a deposit down on a trolling motor and battery and use that. http://www.outpostbaitandtackle.com/ -I'd recoommend 33, 34, or 35 as they are the bigger lakes and I have caught a few good sized bass out of 35. 35 is very grassy/hydrilla though. Think Florida flippin/Punching. - I have been having some good success on weightless flukes the past few days.

Bingo. We ain't getting those beasts in MO.

I was thinking St. Charles City. I guess St. Charles County would border the MS.

Could you do two sets of them? One by the battery, and then splice the transducer wires near the tranducer and have a quick connect/disconnect when you take the motor off.

Gotta be your spool tension knob.

You can get something like this to do like a quick connect to the wires. http://www.walmart.com/ip/29370800?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222227019661237&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40971507032&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=78914216672&veh=sem

I used to have one. I like the idea of creating some kind of bar mount from the two oar locks, and you could set up a sort of dashboard on it if you wanted.

Find a used square stern canoe and a 4 hp motor. Should be able to do that for under $1000. Plenty of room for gear, 2nd person, and relatively stable.

I'll take a bonus entry, why not?

Creve Coeur is Trolling motor only. As for closeness your best bet is the river - Missouri that is if your talking St. Charles. Mississippi if you are closer to the city or farther north. There a few lakes in IL as well - Horshoe lake right across the river has a 50 HP limit. Carlyle has no limit and it is about 1hr from Downtown. LOZ is about 2.