small lakes close

[Luke]

anyone know of any lakes that are in the central part of mo that are big enough to get a boat on?
lookin for somethin smaller thats close to me...im in Sullivan,MO....would be nice to take the wife and kids out this year and not have to drive for 2 hours to head to any of the other lakes
weather it be an idle only or trollin motor only lake will work

[cmcduck]

Theres a conservation lake near St. James, cant think of the name right now but fished it a couple times and there are crappie in it. has a 30 crappie limit on it. Its not far off of hwy 44

[wharfrat]

I think it's called Little Prairie Lake. It's on the north side of hwy 44 between St. James and Rolla. That's all I really know about it.

[perchplucker]

Howdy. We live about 11 miles from Sullivan. Just out 185 near Springbluff. Have you ever tried Port Hudson Lake. It is a Mo. Dept. of conservation lake off of hwy. C between hwy. 50 and New Haven. Hwy. C is between Gerald and Leslie. The lake is trolling motors only. It gets a lot of fishing pressure and is full of trees. But it has deep water and is 55 acres (?). It has bass, bluegill, catfish & crappie. The fish can be hard to catch because of all the fishing pressure. It is a good place to go and kill some time fishing. There is also Beouff Creek which is off of Hwy 100 new New Haven. But the only time you can navigate this creek is when the Missouri River is up and has the creek backed up. It can be fun to mess around on but it is narrow and other boat traffic can be a real pain. Especially when a big boat goes flying by and doesn't slow down. It is better to go up the creek fromt he boat ramp. Boat traffic isn't as bad. Most go down the creek to get to the river.

[osagemo]

Don't know much about your area. Little Prairie has some decent crappie in it though. Heavy fishing pressure but I don't know if there's a lot on the crappie. Good luck. There is a MDC lake over around Chamois too, that might be too far for you. Dave