Brad70

Buddy and I are planning a trip around the 1st-2nd week of September to Lake Kinkaid in Southern Illinois. Have never been to the lake before and could use some help. Anyone have any advice or tips to tackle this lake? Appreciate any help.

The Enough Ramp is just that, enough to get a boat in. Most the boats launched there are 14-16 ft aluminum jon boats with a small outboard motor but I've also seen some Tracker 175 launch there. The ramp at the campground area is paved and easier to launch at but also costs $3 last time I put in there. Like Micheal said, it may be worth your time to go a little further and give Lake Wappapello and Clearwater Lake a shot.

I'm from the Farmington area Cyklops, I haven't fished Council Bluff a ton but visit it a few times every year. In regards to big bass, this is not the lake for it. It is 440 acres loaded with standing timber. We usually put the jon boat in at the southern end of the lake at Enough Boat Ramp. I have no electronics and just a trolling motor on the jon boat so we normally just work our way up the shoreline and hit the points and coves. We have had quite a few 20+ bass day but I will say that most of them are 10-12" inch range. Water is usually very clear and 4 inch senkos can be great, especially in a smoke pearl color. I've also heard from some good ol' boys that black plastics and black spinnerbaits/buzzbaits are terrific in low light/dark hours. I've never targeted them there, but Council Bluff has a reputation for some of the best red ear fishing in the state if you are after some meat. The lake I frequent the most would have to be Bismarck Lake, "Di Salvo Lake" as it known as now. It isn't a big lake, only 210 acres and it gets heavily pressured. On any spring/summer weekend expect over 15 boats to be out at a time. With that being said, I'd say 80% of them are crappie fishermen so it must produce excellent numbers of crappie considering the heavy pressure and the amount of people who continue to go there. The lake is shallow, usually 10ft or less throughout and in the summer is consumed in lily pads/vegetation. I can never catch a large number of bass there, but the fish I catch there are big girls. Water is always heavily stained/murky. I throw bright colors like fire tiger/chartreuse and black/blue jigs.

I watched a mink chase a chipmunk up a tree that extended over the lake a good ways. The chipmunk was at the end of the branch with the mink closing in and all of a sudden we here a big splash. The chipmunk jumped off the tree into the water and swam back to shore and got away. Also, in southeast Missouri at Council Bluff Lake last summer my fishing partner and I saw an alligator. It was maybe 3-4 ft long and we both did a double take and looked at each other thinking no way that was a gator in Missouri. I did some research, and apparently a guy had brought 50 baby gators to a county fair in Southeast Missouri and sold them all illegally to whoever. Well, apparently of those 50 gators only 4-5 were accounted for so I imagine there is a good chance someone in the area got tired of it as a pet and dumped it in the lake.

The space monkey has become my favorite creature bait. Tons of success with it. T-rigged, buzzed below the surface, buzzed on lily pads. Flat out produces! I have picked up some rage craws for this summer and I'm sure it'll be a huge success too.

I live in Southeast Missouri a.k.a. "The Lead Belt". Growing up, we had huge "chat dumps" in nearly every town around here. They were enormous mounds of mine tailings. Within the last 5-10 years the EPA has been working to take these down and relocate the chat. Many yards in my area have had to been completely dug up up to 6 feet deep to remove all the lead tail minings left. I would not claim that Lead is harmless, but my entire community, all my family, have lived upon lead mining waste in our soil and our river systems and we are still kicking! I just don't feel as if limited exposure from some fishing tackle is enough to worry out IMO.

Another good one to put on the playlist thanks Bluebasser!

Dunno where we draw the line with our bass fishing addiction if a song about it is going too far lol but I just heard this song the other day and thought it was a pretty cool song. Anyone else heard it? Weapons of Bass Destruction by Dallas Davidson. Check it out on youtube kind of clever!

What type of baits are you throwing with the ML? I want to make sure there's enough backbone for a hookset for a texas rig.

Would be interested to see that Fenwick rod a little closer when it is out. Thanks for all the suggestions guys I'm actually still looking and getting a feel for the perfect rod. Want it to be perfect so I'm being very picky.

Real or not that is one gorgeous smallmouth. A "monster" smallmouth in the Ozark streams I fish is 3-4lbs and I've only caught 2 over 3lbs but I was estatic. I would probably cry with a smallie like that!

Sometimes these crazy techniques just do the trick. I remember this summer I was tossing a buzzbait early in the morning and hadn't had a bite yet. I didn't stop the spool in time so I had some loose line on a cast. I didn't want to risk a future backlash so I sacrificed that cast, so I thought, and the buzzbait sank to the bottom and got drilled on the fall! I had fixed my line at this point and reeled in a fish. I immediately tied on a spinnerbait and let it flutter to the bottom and basically jig it and caught several more. Had never fished it like that but one "bad cast" on my part turned into a good technique that day.

I fish Ozark streams here in Missouri where a BIG smallmouth is 3-4lbs. I normally carry a baitcaster and a spinning rod for all my favorite techniques. Lately I've been finding my 7'0M Veritas spinning rod is too heavy for the type of fish I'm catching and would like something with a little less action for my small river fishing. 98% of the time this rod is for my plastics with a 1/8oz slip sinker with a 2/0 EWG gammy hook. I'm thinking I need to switch to a medium light rod for this type of fishing. I'm wanting to keep this rod under $100 as this is just some fun recreational float/wade fishing. What do you guys use for this type of fishing? I was thinking about just stepping down an action to the 6'9ML Verdict or even the Vendetta series because I love my vendetta baitcaster rod. Appreciate any help guys.

G-man's finesse and Elite G swim jigs have been outstanding for me. I fish Ozark Rivers primarily and the Missouri Craw color has been money. In fact, fun little story. Passed another little jon boat on the water yesterday as they were taking out/I was putting in the river. I asked how they did and were very rude and told me don't waste your time you wont catch anything fishing behind us. Well after they were passed by me I made my first cast with a G-man jig and boated a very nice smallie that they witnessed. I guess a previously caught fish will come back and hit a G-man Jig

Been wanting to try some new water out. I primarily fish Big River here in Southeast Missouri because I have a 14ft jon boat with a trolling motor and it does well on this Ozark Stream. I've been to a few bigger no wake lakes locally and have managed just fine so I was wanting to try out Council Bluff. Is anyone familiar with this lake or can offer some helpful insight on how to approach it?

90% of my fishing is done on Big River in Southeast Missouri. I honestly havent fished too many other streams/rivers in our neck of the woods so I'm not very familiar with the Elk. I've only done St. Francis and Big River. By the way all I ended up with the 7'0 M Veritas spinning setup and tried it out this morning for a bit. It is a bit heavier than my previous 7'0 M Lightning rod and I feel this medium action is more like a MH. With that being said the sensitivity is remarkable on this rod just like you all said. Fishing some swift current spots drifting a tube along I was able to distinguish between rocks/bites very easily. Only fish caught on the new rod was an 8 inch smallie and a 12 inch largemouth before I switched over to the ML rod and rebel craw for a little more fight. Not too much excitement fighting a dink on a veritas rod lol. With that being said this was a "weak" section of Big River with very shallow water. Next trip will be back to my favorite section of Big River with deeper pools and big ol' smallmouth.

I will be sure to examine the rod closely. I have a vendetta casting rod and love it so I hope the Veritas is just as good/better for me. After all the research I've done and reviews I've read, I've seen horror stories on just about all the rods at some point. I started fishing with the Cherrywood and Lightning Rods and never broke one untill recently when I wasn't even fishing with it I just broke mishandled it and have always heard terrible things about those rods. Heading to bass pro in a few and hopefully make a good choice and will be breaking her in tomorrow on an Ozark stream doing some smallie fishing.

Pretty brutal stories guys. I was fishing this last Saturday with my brother and he kept refusing to wear the polarized sunglasses I had brought for him to wear because he dislikes any glasses. Well I keep my own 24/7 while fishing because I have a fear of a hook in the eye. Well sure enough he got hung up and finally popped it free and it came flying back and drilled me directly in the right lense. I truly believe if I didn't have the glasses on I may have lost that eye or done some serious damage. Needless to say, he immeditately took my advice and kept his glasses on.

I'll have to hold them both in hand at Bass Pro tomorrow and make a decision I suppose.

Also, if someone would like to reccomend another rod in my price range I'd like to hear about it as well.

I recently broke my old spinning rod I had used for 4+ years. It was a 7ft Medium action Lightning Rod and for being a cheaper rod it caught me a lot of fish over the years. Well I finally broke it mishandling it and decided it was time for an upgrade. This rod serves several purposes for me. I fish mainly Ozark River/streams for smallmouth and throw t-rigged tubes with a 1/8 oz weight 90% of the time. I'm looking to keep the rod under $100 and have heard great things about both rods and they are the same price. Which would better serve the purpose for my fishing applications or does it just come down to brand preference?

I picked up some Zoom Horny toad hooks today so we'll see if that helps any. I know I can't get all the frog bites but it would be nice!

The rest of the gear I'm using seems to be more than adequate. I have a 7'2 MH All-Star rod with 30lb braid and that rod is flat out stout for a MH.Some of the blowups I can understand not setting the hook because the fish simply missed the bait or something of that nature but there were a bit too many circumstances when the fish had the frog and came off. I think I may try both hooks and sharpen them and see if I notice an increase in the number of fish being caught.

I'm wanting to increase my hookup ratio on frog fishing and have traditionaly used a 5/0 EWG Gammy hook. After my outing today tho I feel like I lost more fish than I should have frog fishing. Has anyone used the Double Take and/or Horny Toad hook and feels a distinct advantage over say a 5/0 EWG hook? Which do you prefer or is there another frog hook one would suggest? ?

There is a quarry pond less than 5 minutes away from home that's a little bigger than an acre. It is deep and very very clear. It doesn't get fished much and has what appears to be a significant population of decent sized bass. Anyway, today I stopped by for a bit and I noticed some unique to me behavior. The first bass I hooked into was following by another bass closely. Every turn and change in direction had this bass shadowing the one hooked. I had never seen this before. The next fish was the best fish of the trip and was a bit over 3lbs. I counted 4 other bass (all much larger) that had the same behavior and followed this fish every which way untill I landed it. I was trying to make sense of this but wasn't quite sure. I have noticed the bass in this pond always tend to travel in groups. Anyone care to explain?