fishing planet - trophy largemouth bass missouri

“There’s some pretty decent-sized hybrids in there now,” Wiechman said.Ĭrappie are numerous in the lake but generally small. They must be 20 inches before anglers can harvest them, and fish from the first stockings are nearing or exceeding that size. MDC began stocking hybrids in Lake Paho in 2007. They’re a hard-fighting fish capable of reaching large sizes. But also feeding on the shad are hybrid bass, which are a cross between white bass and striped bass. Gizzard shad in the lake provide a good food base for big bass. In coming years, MDC crews will be using barges to sink brush piles along the lake’s western shore. Bass congregate near the brush piles, which gives anglers a good place to fish for them. But in the past two springs, the percentage of small bass in the population surveys have increased, so the overall bass numbers are on the rise.īrush piles are submerged along the lake’s eastern shore at depths from six to 12 feet. That caused water levels in the lake to fluctuate in spring, Wiechman said, which hurt spawning success for bass. Water from the lake was used to fill those ponds. MDC in 2010 phased out catfish rearing ponds downstream of the dam. Habitat improvements and management changes bode for even better fishing in the years ahead. “We’ve seen a number in the 18- to 22-inch length range.”

“Paho has consistently provided some nice-size bass,” Wiechman said. The crew led by Jerry Wiechman, an MDC fisheries biologist, shocked up good numbers of bragging-size bass. “This is also a pretty good channel catfish lake.”Īn MDC crew recently used electroshocking to study Lake Paho’s fish population. “I’d say your chances of catching a three- to six-pound bass are pretty good here,” said Darrel Cunningham, an MDC resource technician at Lake Paho. Anglers can harvest only two largemouths per day and they must be longer than 18 inches. The 273-acre lake was built in Mercer County by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) in the late 1940s, making it one of MDC’s oldest public fishing lakes.īut the centerpiece of the 2,350-acre Lake Paho Conservation Area is also becoming a good place to catch a lunker bass. History lurks among the coves and fields, too.

– Most people visit Lake Paho to catch trophy largemouth bass or to enjoy the green rolling hills of northwest Missouri.

Fishing planet - trophy largemouth bass missouri