Mid-MO

Thanks punch and Frydog. Given me plenty to look at! Ready to go right now.

Thanks for the advice. Guess I'll have to look at a bigger lake. Any suggestions? What are the best lakes in Central Minnesota (beside Mille Lacs)?

I've never been further north than Omaha, but I'm thinking about going to Minnesota next summer. I'd be bringing my family and another couple or two - all with younger kids. I'd also pull my boat. Looking for a rustic cabin (privately owner or lodge/resort), on a smaller lake (don't want tot be overwhelmed with a huge lake), with good small and/or walleye fishing. Anyone got any suggestions, been looking around on VRBO little - so many places and spots - thought someone might have a suggestion here.

FishedSaturday around the dam from about 8 to 3. Lots of boats - several tournaments going on. Steady rain most of the time we were on the water. Water temps right around 54. We caught 8 keepers - all fairly skinny - all between 14.5" and 16.5". Just about all of them were right on or close to secondary points. Most were right on the edge of the brush though we did catch a couple just in front of the bushes. 4 keepers on a jig, 1 on a tube, 1 on a beaver, 2 on a c-rig. The jig fish all hit it on the fall, the texas rig fish when it was being drug on the bottom. Saw a lot of boats throwing spinnerbaits, couple c-rigging. Curious to here what the tournament results were (ABA, Joe Bass on Saturday, AIA on Sunday).

Went today from about 8 to 2:30. Spent the whole time in the mid to lower Pomme. Started pretty slow caught a few random fish - small Pomme keepers early. Also caught one big Muskie. As the wind picked up, so did the bite. Caught our best fish on the main lake, in the wind. Probably caught almost 20 bass, most smaller Pomme keepers. Did get in one stretch of bank where we caught 3 between 3 and 4 pounds. Ended up with almost 15 lbs on our 5 best. Most of the fish came on a wiggle wart or spinnerbait - caught a few on a jerkbait. Water temps were in the low 50's, had at least 3' of visibility around the darn. Was cloudy and windy all morning - sun poked out a little later. Our bite died off about noon. Good day to be on the water though (lots of others thought so to - lots of boats out).

Did you end up fishing? I haven't been in weeks!

We struggled. Just caught a couple of small keepers in a little over 10 hours on the water. Didn't catch a whole lot of shorts either. Saturday was better than Sunday for some reason. Fished in the 28 to 30MM range on Saturday. Water was about 72 in the morning. Stained. Fished from the mouth to the bridge of the Niangua on Sunday. Little cleaner water and about 76. Mainly fished secondary points - thought we'd run into some eventually. Fished a few main lake points too. Went and fished the back of a cove and pocket a couple of times. Flipped some soft plastics, drug a carolina rig, shakey head, and a football jig, tried an Alabama rig. Caught a few early on a popper.

Heading down tomorrow. Going to start around Linn Creek. Anybody know what the water looks like in that area? Fish still in the creeks or are they moving back out?

Fished a small tournament on Saturday on Pomme. Didn't get down as early as I planned on Friday but did get to fish about 3 1/2 hours. Had 7 bites on a jig but only hooked 3 of them. Had a 4 pounder and one about 2. Found them on secondary points leading into small pockets. Met up with Derek and fished the tourney on Saturday. We struggled early. Derek found some fish on a jerbait out on the main lake just in front of bushes in the wind. We were able to catch 7-8 keepers in these types of spots with the jerkbait. We also caught two in the afternoon on jigs. Ended up with 5 that went about 10 pounds. We never could find a bigger bite. Pomme got a lot of rain and the lake was coming up. Friday was cloudy and a little rainy. Saturday was sunny with very few clouds. We fished quite a few secondarys and down some channel banks without much luck.

I don't fish that far up very often but have at times. Lots of good creeks in that area - Cole Camp, Turkey, Deer, Buffalo. All of them are pretty popular. A little further down lake around Rainey has some really good fishing. That area can be pretty shallow in spots, especially with the winter drawdown every year.

I used to fish it quite a bit. It's got a lot of grass and standing timber and some lily pads in it. The conservation department also put a lot of stuff in it when they built it (humps, rock, brush, etc). Two of the three arms they left most of the timber standing. There used to be some decent fish in it (Edwin A. Pape was always better for big fish). They had a fish kill out there a few years ago and the last time I was there (sometime last year) I saw 3 or 4 decent size dead bass on the surface - don't know if they had another one or not. You should be able to get ahold of the fisheries report from the Dept of Conservation and they will give the outlook on the bass fishing for this year in it.

We put in at Hermitage today about 9:30. Fished till 3:30. Only saw two other boats all day. Water temps were anywhere from 41.7 early to almost 45 (late in the back of a wind blown creek). Fished mainly around the dam. Lake is at normal pool, pretty good water clarity. We had a hard time holding the boat in some spots with the wind gusts. We caught 7 keepers all on jerkbaits. We threw a wiggle wart and swimbait a little - but stayed with Megabass and McSticks most of the day. Our 5 best went just a little over 14. Two biggest were 3:9 and 3:8. Both of those came late in the day within a hundred feet of one another on a channel bank with some trees, wind, and big rock. One was pretty shallow, the other out in 15' or so. Had a couple hammer the jerkbait, the others we barely even knew they were there. We caught a few in 4'-8' and a couple more in about 12-15. Some on secondary points, some on channel banks. Never caught one on a main lake point. All had a little wind - we stayed out of the strongest wind most of the day. We talked to one other boat and he had caught 9 keepers - nothing very big he said. Great day to be on the water.

Anybody been recently?

It's been quite a few years ago - but I thought it used to have a decent reputation and get fished some. I never hear a word about it anymore - was shocked to see it in Bassmaster. I've drove around it once but never fished it. Curious to see if anyone has fished it lately.

Fished Pomme today from about 8:30 to 4. Put in at Nemo and started at Haverstick. Bounced around to a few main lake points, went down around Pittsburg, and finished at Nemo. Water temp was 56-59 down there with limited visibility, especially way up the Lindley. Never put anything consistent together. We caught a couple of a square bill, one on spinnerbait, one on a jig - missed more bites than we caught - and nothing very big or even close to it. By about 12:30 we decided to head to the dam. Got over on the Pomme and found a little warmer water and a little cleaner. Started in a cove out at the main lake. Worked a shallow stump filled pocket without much luck. Started down the bank and caught a solid 2.5 on a spinnerbait on a flat, empty bank. Got back into some stumps and kept working down the bank with some docks mixed in. Caught a couple off some docks then started catching them shallow on the spinnerbait. Almost had to thrown it on the bank. Worked about halfway back into the cove and then came back out the other side - kept catching fish extremely shallow. After we had worked that cove, we decided to move to a similar cove and couldn't hardly find a fish in there. We did miss one on a swimbait and caught another solid 2 on it - same thing shallow points. Both of these coves had some big gizzard shad up in the shallows. The wind had really picked up by then. We went back closer to the dam and caught another 2.5 in the wind, shallow on a point. Finished with a couple more keepers. Ended the day with about 15 keepers - best 5 went about 11.5 pounds. Never found anymore fish as shallow as we did in the first cove in the Pomme. Still caught them in less than 3' of water but not in inches like we found them stacked in that first cove. Don't know if the fishing was that slow up the river (as we struggled all morning) or if the afternoon bite was just better.

I fish down there some in the early spring before the big boats get out.

What part of the lake will you be on? My family has a cabin at the 51MM.

I've been thinking about signing up too - just waiting till a bit closer to make sure I'm free that weekend. Sounds like a well run event and definately a good cause.

We fished from about 7 to noon Saturday. Put in at Lightfoot (haven't fished this area but a couple of times). Started on a flat with lots of wood and docks that led into a small cut. Caught 4 keepers in a couple hundred yard stretch. Nothing bigger than 2 1/2. Went on up the river, hit a few random spots and kept going until we hit a lot of boats already fishing the laydowns and cover along the banks. Tried to idle past them but promptly hung on a stump and decided that was far enough. Turned around and fished a couple of cuts full of trash/laydowns, and a couple of other spots heading back towards the ramp. Found one more 2 1/2 pound keeper on another flat with laydowns and docks. Ended with 5 keepers that went around 8. Lots of small baitfish in the river, water temps were around 83. Caught our keepers on a crankbait, 10" worm, and tube.

Are you slow-rolling that chatterbait between the docks? Thought about doing this but need to buy a little heavier bait to do so probably.

So you are fishing between the docks on LOZ. I'm never sure whether to just focus on the docks or to fish the docks and in between them. Normally though what I'm doing around the docks (flipping something) is different than what I want to do between them (something I can cover water with a little faster). That's always made LOZ a little tougher to fish for me.

Just looking for any advice on fishing flats. I haven't done it much (mainly fish a lot of points, secondary points, and channel banks/swings). Fished some last year on Truman in the fall and then fished some last weekend on Lake of the Ozarks. I know any kind of ditch or cover on a flat is going to be a key and relationship to the channel is important too. But I'm looking at covering big chunks of water to try to find sweet spots - using HD maps to try to help but still no substitute for actually covering water (especially at Lake of the Ozarks with all the docks). Any tips or things to think about?

Congrats on the win! Which arm have you been fishing?

I keep all my plastics in the original bag. Used to put them in plastic shoeboxes from Wal-mart. Switched to soft sided tool bags that you can get pretty cheap at Lowes. Got 6 different bags (creature baits, worms, finesse baits, swimbaits, trailers, & beavers/flippin tubes). Labeled each - keep in one of the rear storage compartments of the boat.

Didn't get away as fast as I wanted this morning but was on the water by 7:30. Decided to fish above Nemo - starting around Haverstick (only fished this spot once before). Started on some main lake bank, close to the channel, with timber. Didnt' have a bite by 9:30. Moved on up the lake and fished a main lake flat and caught my first 3 keepers in about 15 minutes on a football jig. Worked way on up and caught 3 more keepers flipping laydowns. Quit at 11:30 to meet the family. Water temp was anywhwere from 85 to 89 with visibility from several feet to less than a foot up around Pittsburg. Boats were everywhere - really got bad around noon (we went out on the jet ski and it was packed).