Anyone ever fished it? From what I've read it's supposed to be the best big bass lake in the state with lots of fish from 20" to over 23". Thinking about camping up there a couple days but I read in an article from '09 that you can't bring your own boat but it said that might change as soon as later that year. It says it has a boat ramp but didn't know if that was just to lauch the rental boats or what? Thanks for any help.

http://extra.mdc.mo.gov/fish/prospects/?m=13#a42

Looks like you are good to go. The aerial images of the lake remind me of Hazel Creek.

Good luck.

Thanks for the research man! I thought I'd looked all over their website but I guess not. We'll probably be headed up there at the end of the month to check it out.

Largemouth bass are moderately abundant in the lake. Anglers will find fair numbers of bass that are 9-12 inches with fish 15-19 inches occurring occasionally. Fishing spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and soft plastics around timber, emergent vegetation, and submerged weed edges should result in success for bass anglers.

15-19 OCCASIONALLY???

LAKE PAHO

It’s unlikely that more than a handful of Missouri’s several hundred thousand bass anglers know the state has a Mercer County, and even fewer could locate it on a map. That’s just fine with lunker ***s lucky enough to live in or near Princeton, because the more unknown “their” local honeyhole remains, the better they like it.

Sorry fellow bassin’ guys and gals, but Lake Paho’s 273 acres of lunker heaven is simply too good a secret to keep. At least that’s the impression I got from MDC fisheries biologist Jerry Wickman when I asked him to name northwestern Missouri’s No. 1 MDC owned or managed impoundment specifically for big (4-pounds or larger) largemouths. He scarcely drew a breath before replying, “Lake Paho.

“There are several other very good big bass impoundments in Missouri’s northwestern quadrant, of course,” he explained, “but you asked me to name the best one.”

I learned many years ago to listen when biologists speak, but that didn’t keep me from wanting to know exactly what it was that made him so quick to flag this out-of-the-way body of water. First, he wowed me with statistics by noting that, in 2009, 75 percent of the bass the agency sampled in Lake Paho were more than 15 inches long. A significant number of those fish ranged from 20 inches to more than 23 inches in length. If the mere thought of a 23-inch, broad-shouldered largemouth doesn’t make your hands shake, you probably shouldn’t be reading this article!

That's what I read that got my attention. My concern is that this article is from '09 but barring a big fish kill or something I wouldn't think much would change in a lake with a 2 fish over 18" a day limit as long as it's being enforced.

Survey from Lake Paho: "the number and condition of largemouth bass have improved with sustained high water levels since wetter conditions began in 2008. Electrofishing surveys from 2009-2011 support observations of increased bass reproduction, survival, and growth. Larger bass (15"-24") were common in flooded shoreline vegetation during spring, with some movement over the summer to submerged brush piles and open-water channels."

H.S. - I think you were reading the survey for Lake Remembrance just outside of KC.

Paho looks good.

Wish I had time to make it down there!