South Fork Resort at Mark Twain Lake

Update 9/1/10

Ron — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:38:21 +0000

Hey, I got here on time this week for the report. Anyway, lake level is at 613 and it looks like the really cut back on pulling water today. Not sure of the significance of that. I think Iowa got hit with a heavy rain again so maybe the river was flowing high again. The crappie are scattered again, and the bite yesterday was off due to the weather that came through. we didn’t get much rain out of it though. Same old story, fish the piers, the trees on the channel especially where it comes close to a bluff, and still reports of some dandy fish coming from shallow water. It won’t be long before the pattern starts to shift to a more fall pattern, but for now stick with what is working for most. We had some dandy crappie come in for pictures this past week as you can see in the pictures. Right now it seems minnows are the hot ticket, though we went through a lot of Crappie Rockets again this past 2 weeks. —— The cats are starting to move again. We had that 45# blue last weekend and Mary said another 40 some pound blue and 48# flathead came in since Tuesday. I will post those pictures on Friday when I get home again. The ones this week came from lines while the one last weekend was on a rod and reel. It looks like they are getting them in the main channels.—-Have a great Labor Day weekend, and remember, it will be crowded on the water so play it safe!!

Update 8/27/10

Ron — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:59:51 +0000

Sorry this update is so late. Mary and I were in Minnesota as my mom passed away last weekend. Lake level is at 617 and falling. Crappie are still biting pretty consistently. Keep your bait just above the thermocline which is at 12′-14′ down. Check the pictures to see the 2# crappie brought in this morning. Fish the same summer haunts that have been producing but still don’t be afraid to try some of the shallow water cover as we have heard of some good fish coming out of 8′ water as well.—– Check the picture of the 45# blue brought in today. This fish was caught on a rod and reel. What a great fight. Obviously there are cats on the move.

Update 8/19/10

Ron — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:21:28 +0000

Lake level is at 618 and coming down. It sounds like they are going to be working on the re-reg damn so I assume they won’t be able to pull any water during that time. Water is pretty clear. —-Crappie bite was tough yesterday, but reports today are much better. Same pattern, fish the bluffs, the trees just off the main channels and still don’t be afraid to try around any shallow willows that might still be in the water. there is going to be a lot less of that cover available with the water level down. Also try any of the bridge piers. I am betting you can also pick some up on the riprap.—No reports on white bass, and of course the black bass fishermen never tell us anything. Also no reports on catfish this week.—–This weekend is Crappie Master tournament time. I haven’t heard for sure but I would guess there will be about 120 boats involved with that. The tournament weigh in is at the 107 ramp. They fish until 2:30. Come on out and watch the weigh in. It is surely something different to see.

Update 8/11/10

Ron — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:28:00 +0000

Lake level right now is 623.5. The Corp is pulling water pretty hard right now, to the tune of over 12,000 cfs. That is a lot of water heading down the river. It will sure be great to have all the ramps open again, as I assume they will be by this weekend.—– The crappie continue to eat anything that gets in front of them. As before, you will catch a lot of smaller fish in order to catch a limit of 9″+ fish. I would sure rather do that than have to work like heck to catch 15 fish in a day, even if they were all keepers. The bite is pretty much a typical summer pattern. Fish the deep trees on the edges of the channel, the bluffs, and the bridge piers. Change it up and try the willows in shallow water. You will likely find less fish there, but they should be bigger. Add a crappie nibble or the new GULP baits. —- White bass are traveling in schools and feeding up as well. Have a rod rigged with a white and silver spinner of some sort. Fish the islands, or as seen in one of the comments on the last post, on the concrete boat ramps. —–There have been a few cats come in and that should improve in a month or so.

Update 8/6/10

Ron — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:53:13 +0000

Sorry for the late post. Been a crazy week. Lake level is at 628 this morning. We will still be on high water ramps through this weekend.—–Crappie are still biting like mad. Lots and lots of smaller fish. If you are persistent you should be able to keep plenty to eat of 9-12″ fish. If you really work it you can find a few bigger ones to. Piers and standing timber are good places for lots of action. You will find fish in the freshly flooded willows as well. Depth is erratic so work the water column until you find them, just don’t bother going below the thermocline. As I have not been to the resort since Tuesday I have not heard anything on catfish action. Please take a look at the replies to the last post as there is some good information in them on ramps and such. Have a great weekend.

Update 7/28/10

Ron — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:15:46 +0000

Lake level is at 628.25 and on the way down again. It looks like it is dropping about 6″ per day, dependent, of course on the amount of rainfall we get each day. We should be on regular ramps by next weekend I would guess. Not this one, but next one.—– Has been a hot humid week around here, but I gotta say, the fish don’t care to much. Odie and I went out and had a great time on Monday, catching fish all day long. Well, at least until the rain chased us off the water. We caught fish on trees anywhere from 3′ down to 14 feet down. Also on the bridge piers. There is no doubt you will have sort through a lot of smaller fish to get a limit of keepers, but it can be done. It looks like we had another hatch of shad as we saw a lot of shad about 1.5″ long busting the surface. Minnows is definitely what they want to eat right now. Trouble is, you can hardly have enough in the boat as they will just eat them as fast as you throw them in the water. Fun stuff, and just think what the fishing will be like this fall and into next year with all those smaller fish growing.——Per some of the other posts you should be able to find some white bass late in the day. Fish the islands and points.—— Have no report on cats this week.—— The trick to tackling the ramps is to get out early and time getting off to stay away from the rush periods. If you get hit with a downpour you are just plain screwed as you will end up waiting. Be courteous, even though that is a challenge when you are stuck on the water while someone dallies around. It only makes matters worse to blow up, and your blood pressure won’t like it either. Sometimes it is fun to just sit back and enjoy the show.

Update 7/21/10

Ron — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:11:09 +0000

Right now the lake is at 625 and rising. The water is not really that dirty as the level was already up pretty high so it didn’t pull so much mud into it. It looks like the North Fork will be the dirtiest as that is the one that had the most inflow. The ones I talked with that went out fishing today still had a pretty good day. They didn’t keep limits, but catches of 70 fish still is not a bad day. The are so scattered about the water column and lake depths that I doubt it will make a drastic change. It may not be quite as easy as it has been the past few weeks but we all knew that wasn’t going to last forever. The Chigger Hill tournament had a good turn out and the winning weight was right about 18# for 15 fish. Big fish was 2# 14 oz. Not a thing wrong with a day like that. My guess is we will be using the high water ramps for a few days again. We will post as we hear about any news on ramps. Remember, the Shack tournament is this weekend. Call the resort if you need info on that. I sure would not cancel any trip plans due to water level as I believe the fishing will be good throughout this high water incident…….in case you didn’t notice, I don’t get nearly as excited about this high water any more as we have witnessed it pretty consistently over the time we have owned the resort. It doesn’t seem to hurt the fishing and may even make it better. I think it is one of the reasons we have had good spawns the past 3 years as evidenced by all the smaller crappie we are catching and also by all the shad we are seeing. There are plenty of things to worry about in life without worrying about something we can’t control anyway. Might as well go with the flow. (no pun intended)

Update 7/14/10

Ron — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:04:26 +0000

Lake level is at 621.2 and dropping at this time. The water is more clear than I have ever seen it. You can see several feet down. Water temps are in the upper 80’s. As far as I know all beaches are still closed due to high water. —–The crappie are definitely on the feed. Catching a limit of 9″ plus keepers is pretty much the rule here lately. However you will likely have to weed through 100 plus smaller ones to accomplish that. Talk about going through some minnows. Went out the other day and 2 of us easily went through 10 dozen. And ran out! The fish are scattered up and down the water column. We caught them from 2 feet down to 12 feet in water depths from 15 feet to 30 feet. If you aren’t catching something rather quickly keep changing it up until you do, as the fish are feeding big time. —– Catfish are also on the prowl. If you look at the pictures you can see the numbers of those coming in right now. Some good flatheads are being caught, along with a lot of blues and fair numbers of channels. Quite a few people are catching channels while crappie fishing. —-Even the walleye are getting into the act. We keep hearing of crappie fishermen (and women) pulling the occasional walleye in, but look at the picture of the one taken last weekend. WOW! That was not accomplished while crappie fishing though. They work hard at walleye fishing.—- Not much word on white bass or largemouth, though we do keep hearing the largemouth are pretty tough right now.—— If you want numbers of fish, now is a great time to come and give it a try. There are enough big ones to keep everyone happy with plenty of action to keep the youngsters interested. Lots of crappie are still coming in from 13-16″. Makes for a great day on the water.

Update 7/9/10

Ron — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:24:25 +0000

Lake level is at 623 and falling. We got about 4″ of rain here at the resort this past week with 3″ of coming Monday overnight. It looks like it came in through all of the different arms with the exception of the Paris branch of Middle Fork. Visibility will be “stained”. That’s almost an automatic on this lake though isn’t it?—–The crappie are definitely biting. Lots of reports of limits being caught, though you will have to weed through a lot of smaller fish to get them. Just talked with a guy that limited out today but they caught upwards of 200 to get a couple of limits. That is fun stuff. Fish the trees and don’t be afraid to try up high in the water column. 2 to 3 feet down is not out of the question. As always you have to move and try different things to see what they want that day, but keep at it until you find them. They are out there and eager to eat.—–Plenty of catfish being caught as well. A lot of channel cats and even a few flatheads are showing up again. Find that water flow for the channel cats. —– It looks like we had a darn good shad spawn based on the amount of shad we are seeing on the water. They are busting the surface everywhere. That coupled with the good crappie spawns we have had the past couple of years means we are set up for some great fishing for the next few years. Enjoy the lake while you can. —–My understanding is the e-coli thing is not an issue anymore. At any rate the beach where it was found earlier is still under water anyway. I certainly would not worry about it out on the lake. I will however call the Corp office in the morning and verify that information.

Update 6/30/10

Ron — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:45:33 +0000

Lake level is at 623.5 and starting to come down. Water clarity is actually quite good with visibility of about 2′. All of the main ramps are open with courtesy docks in place. Some of the dirt ramps may still be closed. I don’t see much possibility of the beaches being opened for the weekend as the water is just to high.—–The crappie bite has been pretty good that past couple of weeks. Not easy, but good. Look at the link on our website and plan to be on the water when the Corp is NOT drawing water. Fish the tree’s, rock bluffs, bridges…all the normal summer haunts. Start about 8′ down and adjust as needed to hit the sweet spot. Minnows are pretty critical right now as the shad are definitely the main course. We are seeing a lot of frustrated jig fishermen so if you insist in using a jig at least tip it with something….a nibble, a minnow…..etc.—— Keep that extra rod rigged for white bass and toss it out whenever you see a bunch of shad busting the surface. Remember….white and/or shiny is the key for them.—– Not much info on catfish this week as we just have not seen a lot of folks come through that were fishing for them. Could be the flatheads are starting to get on their nests.—– Enjoy the lake this holiday weekend, but be careful. There will be a lot of people out doing the same, and they aren’t all as careful as we would like them to be.