wappapello report

[adamr]

went yesterday for a few hours. rained on me off and on. managed only 9 keepers, but they were all nice fish. caught them on silver/chart. and red/chart in 15 ft of water between pisos point and lost creek. when the rain would stop, they would do the same. rather odd.

[Hoot]

Hi Adamr

Fished there Fri. & Sat. last week and also had good results. Interesting thing is, in general the fish were larger than I've been catching. We caught several over 12"... I've come to believe that there were few crappie that large in Wappapello on average.

Hoot

[Rattler]

Hi there!. I am from the St. Louis area and travel to Southeast Mo quite often for business. I've been wanting to fish Wappapello for some time now. It looks to be the type of lake that you need a little help if your were going their blind of the lake. Any information that someone would provide me with would be greatly appreciated. I also fish Mark Twain quite often and would be willing to try and help someone out with if their planning a trip there.

[adamr]

the first and most important thing is to stay in the river channel when navigating. there are tons of stumps on this lake and many of them are under the water surface waiting for your lower unit. if you were planning on fishing in the high water months it would be a good idea to go over there before they start holding water and take a look at the lake. this will give you an idea of where you should and shouldn't go when they raise the water. like always, a map is also a must.

in the winter and summer, you can't go wrong fishing the river channel banks. find a bend or curve with some structure (most have it) and there will always be fish, it's just a matter of what depth(usually from 8 or 9 to 16). during prespawn through postspawn and in the fall, there are many places to fish. the easiest for someone that's new to the lake would probably be the possum creek and state park areas. Both are quite large and hold quite a few fish. all of these places are relatively close to the dam and don't really require you to navigate through dangerous waters. these areas do get "beat up" though, especially during the spawn so once you get accustomed to the lake i would recommend going up river and fishing other areas, noteably Lost creek. there are a lot creek channels and brushpiles that people have thrown out all over the lake that aren't to hard to find with some decent electronics. good luck

[longshot]

I am from SEMO and fish Wapp. a lot. We usually dont start fishing hard till after goose season, but the bite is on now!

We fished Wapp. Thur,Fri, and Sat. We were catching our fish in 3-4' of water 18" deep on flats by the river channel. That is the pattern we usually dont get untill late feb-march. We use a float and 2 jigs about 10" apart. This rain should have it rising along with good and muddy.

I keep hearing rumors about a limit of 15 fish 9"+. Anyone else hearing this. I have been hearing stuff like this for several years.

Good luck and good fishing
longshot

[Hoot]

I am from SEMO and fish Wapp. a lot. We usually dont start fishing hard till after goose season, but the bite is on now!

We fished Wapp. Thur,Fri, and Sat. We were catching our fish in 3-4' of water 18" deep on flats by the river channel. That is the pattern we usually dont get untill late feb-march. We use a float and 2 jigs about 10" apart. This rain should have it rising along with good and muddy.

I keep hearing rumors about a limit of 15 fish 9"+. Anyone else hearing this. I have been hearing stuff like this for several years.

Good luck and good fishing
longshot

Hi Longshot -

I heard the same for 2005 but recently I was told by a few that the limit won't go into effect until 07. ?? It's long over due, don't know why they would wait.

Hoot

[TAE73]

What is the limit on that lake?

[duane]

Hi Longshot -

I heard the same for 2005 but recently I was told by a few that the limit won't go into effect until 07. ?? It's long over due, don't know why they would wait.

Hoot

I myself like the 10" limit alot of the Missouri lakes have.

[TAE73]

Most of the lakes in KS have a 10" and had a 30 total limit, but dropping back to 20 fish a day.

[longshot]

I dont know what I think about a restriction on size at Wapp. I have no real problems with how the fishing is now. If you want to keep larger fish you can and if you want to keep small ones you can. I know that it is not Ky lake or reelfoot, but it is still good.

I do not know if a length limit on the fish will make the fish bigger. You have to have several things to make this work. One of the main ones is a forage base that will support a polulation of larger fish. You can say that Ky lake is an example of it working. Or....you could say that reelfoot has no size limit and has large fish also. SO.....what is the answer????? I guess the creel studies and tagging of fish were part of the research to find out about the fish population in Wapp. They will have to use that information to get the right type of restrictions to get larger crappie in general in Wapp. What about letting you keep as many fish under 9" as you want and only 15 over 9". That would give the bigger fish more to eat because there would be less small crappie to eat the food????

If they go to a 9" length and 15 fish limit it will not have much effect on most of the fishermen I know at Wapp, except making then go home with 15 instead of 30 a lot of the time.

food for thought
longshot