I'm currently stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, MO and am looking for some nice places to fish. Dont have any type of boat yet so i do alot of bank fishing. Anyone know of any place in about a 30 minute drive around here that yeilds a decent amount of fish? Any advice is helpful.

The Big Piney and Little Piney river are great places and they go through the base at a couple spots.  The Gasconade river is a little further away but is also good.  

Here's a link to the Mo. Dept of Conservation Atlas page that allows you to search by name, county or region.

http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/applications/moatlas/AreaList.aspx?txtUserID=guest&txtAreaNm=s

Thanx. I tried on base here a caught a total of like 10 fish. for me that aint bad but i want more. i've been fishless for about 6 outing now.

I'm also stationed at Ft. Wood. Where are you fishing right now?

I just got back from a float trip on the Big Piney, we lauched from the Six Crossing acess point. Caught several smallmouths in the 12" to 17" range.

Well, it's hit and miss alot of times around here. Right now, it's pretty warm, but you can still get good fish if you are patient.

On base, Penn's Pond, Bloodland Lake, and Bloodland Pond all have good fish in them. I am partial to Bloodland Pond myself. If you get yourself a base map, you can identify all the bodies of water (there's a bunch) and I find it useful to go talk to the Conservation Agents as they know the stocking numbers and they also do the surveys out in the fisheries so they have a real good idea of the numbers and sizes of fish out there.

There are ALOT of little ponds and such on FLW and many of them are stocked. Some only have numbers and you gotta know where to go to get there, but it'd be worth your time to go talk to the folks at Outdoor Rec, and the Conservation Agents to get a good idea.

I've been told numerous times by the guys that know that Penn's Pond is the place to be for the big bass. You can also rent a jon boat down at Outdoor Rec and float around out there (20 bucks a day). Good Luck!

Definately the Big Piney for beautiful scenery and pig smallmouth. I wish I lived closer so I could float it more often.

I must suck at fishin cuz i aint catchin much. my last trip last saturday yeilded 2 fish.  

Naw, it's pretty sparce at times. I went out Saturday mornin (early) to Lake of the Ozarks and we caught between 20-30 bass but only 3 where keeper size, around 2 1/2 lbs. Lots of small fish, but consistent action. All the fish where hanging out around points near deep water, and many where caught right of rock ledges with diving crankbaits (dt-6).

Dark colors seemed to be right for plastics..

I also hooked into a DRUM on a DT-10 that fought like crazy...

I used to go there every yr on vaction with my parents before i  joined to go see old friends when we were stationed there, and the gasconade is a good river to catch decent largemouth and some good smallies. we did our best for largemouths on spinnerbaits and frogs in small pools and under trees hanging over the bank. for the smallies spinnerbaits in white or chartreuse. good luck next time.

An update for our original poster,

I went out to Bloodland Lake this morning and caught 8 dinks in a couple hours out there from a boat. I was fishin a KVD sexy shad. Worked pretty well. I think there are some quality fish there, but it really helps to have a boat. The crappie where biting on jigs from bobbers too.