First time on MTL

[ktjones]

First of all, thanks to everyone for all the great advice. I had a great time this weekend. I have to say that MTL might just be my favorite lake I've been on so far. It might be because the lake is so nice, or because there aren't an inordinate number of idiots in giant cigarette boats or just that I had a great time and for the first 4+ hours each day the lake is like glass and just plain fun to run to your spots.

Ok, that being said, I'll bet I caught 70+ fish this weekend, but only probably 4 were keepers and 2 of those were bass. I was crappie fishing but the bass were chasing on top of the water yesterday so I threw a couple and caught two real nice keepers in two casts. Nothing for about 10 more minutes so I went back to crappie fishing. The vast majority of the fish I caught were between 6-7". I was in 25-40 FOW and they were mostly about 11-14' down. I did see a lot of fish on the graph at 25' right on top of a thermocline and caught several at that depth as well, but still small fish. Seems like most everyone I talked to was saying the same thing, lots of small fish very few to no keepers. Still had a great time.

[Route U]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your time at Twain.......and good work on the catchin. We beat out 2 limits (3 guys fishing) of "keepers" after getting on the water a bit later than I wanted, but had to make dad breakfast for Father's Day. I actually gathered all of the information I have read about on here and decided to pull cranks, and, it worked. (Thanks South Point) Also caught stripers and drum.......man if there were ever a tournament on drum, I'd be king. No matter what lake, those things find my jig, my crankbait, or anything else I have in the water.

Anyways..... it will get better.

Take it easy on the lake for the next couple weeks, I'm headed overseas......no crappie over there!

U

[ktjones]

what kind of cranks were you using? Were you up in the creeks or on bigger water? I'm trying to figure that lake out. I caught two nice keeper smallies in two casts and told two people who fish there a lot and both said they have never caught small mouth there. Almost all of the crappie I caught were on blue and silver tube jig with chart crappie nibbles. Tried minnows alone and same jig tipped with minnow and the chart nibble worked the best. Tried a couple of other jigs with the nibble and didn't really work well.

Wow, going overseas. Work or pleasure?

[Route U]

We pulled Bandit's.........200's and 300's, best luck was on pearl white, white spackle, and white/chart (you can see the pattern)..........unfortunately my pink 300 never got a single strike! We were up in the arms........moreso to stay away from the boaters than anything else.

Have never seen a smallie come out of MTL and I've been fishing the lake since I was 8 years old (been fishing it for 21 years now)......although the same can be same for walleye until 2 weeks ago! I know the Salt River has them, which makes sense they would be in Twain.

Overseas for work.....outside of somewhere tropical I don't think I'll ever travel out of North America for pleasure.

U

[TwainGang]

Also caught stripers and drum.......man if there were ever a tournament on drum, I'd be king. No matter what lake, those things find my jig, my crankbait, or anything else I have in the water.


Take it easy on the lake for the next couple weeks, I'm headed overseas......no crappie over there!

U

Are you sure the stripers weren't really White Bass? Many people on that lake seem to confuse the two.

[DEADEYE]

We pulled Bandit's.........200's and 300's, best luck was on pearl white, white spackle, and white/chart (you can see the pattern)..........unfortunately my pink 300 never got a single strike! We were up in the arms........moreso to stay away from the boaters than anything else.

Have never seen a smallie come out of MTL and I've been fishing the lake since I was 8 years old (been fishing it for 21 years now)......although the same can be same for walleye until 2 weeks ago! I know the Salt River has them, which makes sense they would be in Twain.

Overseas for work.....outside of somewhere tropical I don't think I'll ever travel out of North America for pleasure.

U

Back when I use to bass fish,I weighed in a smallie at one of the first Bud light tournaments.

[Route U]

Are you sure the stripers weren't really White Bass? Many people on that lake seem to confuse the two.

Sorry, white bass......used to catch "stripers" on the river and it's just habit!

[south point]

have fun overseas, Robbie! glad ya got on them crappies! and dont feel bad, I have never seen or heard of a smallie coming from twain, either. until just now. I'll be danged!

[mongo82]

A little reply for types of fish:
Was fishing MT 25 years ago with son for crappie under 107 bridge, was catching so many crappie got tired of catching them ( only about 5-6 inches on all of them ) son got bored with them and instead of fishing pier threw towards bank and caught small mouth bass 14" Now to species of fish, Lake was stocked at one time because of a fish kill ( at least what I can remember ) they had put in 345,000 each fingerlings of all the game species and 12 million walleye....I'm thinking some Politian wanted a walleye lake... I personally have never caught a walleye on that lake but have seen them caught in are bass tournaments back in the 80's and early 90's.

[ktjones]

These were certainly smallies, I'm not the most experienced fisherman, but a small mouth isnt as easily confused with others as say the Kentuckies and large mouth. I had a hard time telling those two apart for a while until I really studied them and learned the difference besides the rough patch on the toungue. Defainately not whites or rock (goggle eye). I would have kept them if they were goggleye that's some dang good eatin.

Regardless of the catch (and the fact that my tent leaked pretty bad in the storm), I had a great time on that lake and I really like it. I'd be back this weekend if I didn't have a military obligation. Maybe next weekend. I want to have a big fish fry for the guys in my detachment and the only thing I'm lacking right now is the fish.