Three of us spent all day Saturday and half of Sunday fishing this wonderful place. No giants, but a ton of fish. I caught around 80 Saturday and around 70 Sunday. The other guys did almost as well. Half a dozen three's, a dozen two and a half's and two's, and a lot of one to one and a half pounders. Maybe a dozen dinks. The Fat Ika bite was hot most of Saturday. Caught most mine on a blue Ika, reverse rigged, and weightless. Tried a few on other colors, but, blue was it. The other go to bait for Saturday was a slim senko on an Ike's Spike jighead. Couldn't get much going on any other baits. I got a few on a Senko, but most of the fish were in 10+ feet of water. There was just enough wind to make fishing a senko that deep problematic. I'd tried the SwinSenko and the big Cut-Tail worm, T-rigged, and got very few bites. Tried an Evolution jig, with Power Craw trailer, with the same results. They just wanted the Ika or the Spike/Slim Senko. Alternating between those two baits kept me busy all day.

Sunday was a different story. We were on a different lake, and the active fish were much shallower. I wasted about an hour figuring that out. The hot bait was a SwimSenko with no weight. One of the other guys, in a different boat was killing them on a pre-rigged worm with one small split shot. Hearing that, I switched to the Swim Senko and started catching. I'd toss it right up on the bank and crank it back slow and steady. Did the same thing with a weightless Cut-Tail worm. Alternating between these two baits was the ticket for Sunday.

I missed the first 5 or 6 fish that hit the Swim Senko. I was fishing it on my Ika rod, a MH, fast action TD Light&Tough rod. I pulled it out of their mouth every time. I switched to a Setyr rod; a medium power stick with a very soft tip section. It's made for spinnerbaits, and I'd just about decided that I didn't like it. Well, I like it for Swim Senko's. That super soft tip lets the fish get the bait all the way in it's mouth before it loads up enough to take it out. I even gut-hooked a couple. I was going to try to sell the rod and pick up another Avid, but I'm going to keep it now.

I was using Roaswarrior's rig for the Cut-Tail worm; T-rigged, weightless, with a bead. I never asked what the bead was for, so I assumed it was used as an attractor, and put on a large, bright, shiny bead. It worked like a champ. I tossed it up shallow, twitched it out across what little flat there was, and let it fall down the drop off. Deadly. Thanks RW, I've always fished the Cut-Tail on a T-rig.

About the Slim Senko; *** now has a few colors of their version of the bait. I'm all out of the ones I had, and I'll be trying out Brent's version soon. I'll let you know if they work as well as the ones I had.

If you're anywhere near Missouri, you've gotta try this place out. I've been there about a dozen times over the last three years. My worst day fishing there was better than my best day fishing anywhere else. It's that good. I've had several 100+ fish days. It's an old strip mine. There are lots of pits, lakes and ponds to fish. There are boats stashed all over the place. The largest lake is about 250 acres, and has three boats on it.  There are several in the 50 - 75 acre range that have two boats on them. Smaller pits only have one boat. Fishing will not be crowded.

Cheers,

GK

Sounded like a real good time and it's only a 12 hour drive for me.......thinking.....thinking :

Sounds like a good time no matter how you slice it!

I also got the chance a few weeks ago to fish a private ranch out in California with Redlinerobert.  There's nothing like it.

WOW!

GREAT report. That's "killin' 'em!"

8-)

Man...It ain't that far from me. And, to me anyway, $100 is well worth a full day of fishing in waters that are that well stocked, taken care of, and have a large population of lunker bass. Something to consider come next spring for me.

Man...It ain't that far from me. And, to me anyway, $100 is well worth a full day of fishing in waters that are that well stocked, taken care of, and have a large population of lunker bass. Something to consider come next spring for me.

Nathan, I'll give you a call next time we go. There's always room for one more.

Cheers,

GK