Mark Twain Lake in Missouri

Has anyone ever fished this reservoir in the NE part of Missouri? My fiance is applying to a med-school in the NE part of Missouri, so I looked at a map and this was the closest large body of water. I think B.A.S.S. has made some stops there and I was wondering if anyone has fished down there and what it is like. How is reservoir fishing different from the river and natural lakes that I am used to fishing up here.

Thanks,
Brad

I haven’t fished Mark Twain but I’ve fished a few other reserviors in Missouri and a lot of them in North Carolina. Biggest difference is no weeds. Structure is sunken timber (if they didn’t clear cut before filling) river channel and creek arms. You look for dropoffs, points and humps just like here. Problem is those reserviors are huge and you’ll have miles of shoreline to deal with and the fish move around a lot as the forage base is usually shad. You have to find the baitfish first. My advice is find a local fishing buddy down there ASAP or hire a guide a few times. Bait shop guys can also clue you in and there a few Missouri fishing websites. Not as good as this one but good enough. The upside is open water all year and no closed seasons.

I fished it once years ago. From what I remember, there is a ton of standing timber (much like Truman) and the channels are a little tricky to run. I hired a guide and he even had some problems. But the fishing was great. Caught a lot of fish (largemouth) and some nice ones too. As part of the deal I made with him on the price, he spent part of the time checking his crappie spots for an upcoming tournament. He caught a bunch of them between 12″ and 15″ long and was somewhat disappointed.

The biggest difference is the water level fluctuation. Based on the fact that they didn’t clear much of the timber before impounding it, I’d say the water level changes a lot. If you can stay in touch with what the water levels are doing, you can usually stay in touch with the fish.

Good luck.

Mark Twain is a big crappie and catfish lake. I have never fished it myself, but you will be a couple of hours from some other really great lakes; Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Lake.

Dave

Bomber . . . Twain is a decent lake and the bass are really coming back well. My brother’s neighbor in Columbia fishes there all the time and says that the fishing is almost as good as in the early 90’s.

Don’t limit yourself to only Twain. Buy yourself a Missouri Gazetteer. This book will show you EVERY lake in the state, as well as telling you about ramps and camping. Great investment !!

Also . . . it freezes, it’s not that far south !!

Like TazBBass says, Mark Twain is comming back. It’s very suseptable to water fluctuations though and can get almost unfishable in wet springs. He’s right though, get the maps and look for the smaller municipal type lakes. These are really underfished and loaded with bass. Also don’t overlook Thomas Hill and Long Branch a little west of Mark Twain. These are good winter lakes. You’re going to find so much bassin within a couple hours of Northeast Mo. though that you won’t know where to start.

Where in the heck do you go to Med-school in Northeast Mo.??

I fished twain on several occasions back in the early to mid 90s- lots of timber- spool up heavy and flip jigs in the spring. If you are looking for a small, manageable lake Fox Valley is in north east missouri -its probably 300 acres, lots of timber and football shaped bass. It is electric only but is a good time and probably pretty close. Ive also fished Thomas hill and Long branch- which i believe is a power plant lake with warmer water temps in the winter and spring! Good luck.

last time i was at mark twain you could throw a spook and catch plenty of fish

longbranch lake had a fish kill a few years back i dont know if it has recoverd yet or not before the fish kill our club had 2 bass over 9 lbs weighed out of it and usually lots in the 7 plus range

thomas hill i hear is coming back from a fish kill of some sort too i believe

the best lake in that area is macon city lake its trolling motor only and lots of nice ones

If you get on the right brush pile at Thomas Hill you can catch 20 lbs ! But the rest of the field will blank Long branch was a proverbial big fish lake but it is in a rebuilding phase. Twain can be good if you go during the week, once the weekend comes around forget it ,especially as the water warms up. It has some really nice fish if you can figure them out. There are 2 city lake around Memphis that can be good( Show Me ) and one at LaBelle. Henry Sievers also has some big fish. I fished the best tourny of my life there 3 years back. Had 2 over 6lbs! . Lots of good fishing in NE Mo.

BomberA,

I lived in Quincy, IL for ten years before moving back to Iowa five years ago. All of my fishing time was spent in NE Missouri. I never bought an Illinois license while I lived there. I really miss the bass fishing that NE Missouri has to offer. I still try to make a couple of trips down there every year. Mark Twain is a very good bass and crappie lake, but on the weekends can be a real zoo with all of the tournaments going on. There are many smaller lakes such as Hazelcreek, Route J, Labelle, Fox Valley, Deer Ridge, Henry Sever, Ewing, Long Branch, Thomas Hill, etc that offer excellent bass and crappie fishing. The toughest choice for me and my buddies was deciding which one’s to fish. Often we would hit two or three lakes in the same day. By the way, Hazelcreek located north of Kirksville has some pretty good muskie fishing also.

Oh yeah Hazel creek can be very good. 2 yrs back in our club the winner had 104 ” in 5 fish and he was done by 11:00 am. To bad it is trollong motor only but it is a honey hole We use to fish Fox Valley all the time also when it was new but it seems alot of those bass met the hot grease . It can be pretty lawless in this region