Anyone Fish Thomas Hill?

[gov]

Wondering about Thomas Hill and about the theory of Northern Crappie still behind us. Like to fish Hill and pull a double waterfowl scouting trip. Any help on Thomas Hill appreciated and what about northern lakes being alittle cooler and the spawn being later?

[JimDog]

Thomas Hill is a power plant lake - the water from the lake is used for cooling of the power plant. That tends to make the water warmer. So while it is true that northern lakes are cooler, Thomas Hill is kind of an exception, as it has an artificial warming mechanism built in. It is actually popular when it is cold outside, as the warmth actually slows it down when it comes to freezing over.

That said - there are definitely crappie up there, but my experience is that they run on the small side. Crappie seem to go in cycles with certain years being better for the big fish then others - but my experience on Thomas Hill is that the crappie there don't go through that cycle - they are consistently small...

[johnboat]

Thomas Hill has excellent crappie fishing and very large ones at that. I talked with the conservation guy from kirksville and he said it's one of the best lakes because of the shad population. We caught a limit of 14" fish on several trips over the last 2 years. Other times we've been skunked... The conservation fishing report has been poor every time I've seen it this year and I haven't been there yet because I'm fixing my boat trailer.

[Musky Bob]

Johnboat, thanks for the info.

the fishing prospects stated "White crappie are one of the most sought after species at Thomas Hill Reservoir. Our fall 2008 trap netting survey revealed that nearly 30\% of the crappie captured were 9 inches or longer in length, a considerable decrease compared to the 2007 survey The good news is that there were numerous 7- to 8-inch fish captured that should reach 9 inches during 2009."

The prospects were disappointing to me, as I remember catching several crappie around 13 to 15 inches a long time ago. It's good to hear that's possible today.

thanks again for your info. I hope to fish it sometime this year.

[Jigging15]

Welcome GOV and Jimdog from Truman lake. Great info. guys. I have been wanting to make a trip up there sometime.

[gov]

Thanks for the imput folks. Been out all day plowing foodplots. Couldn't get fired up about fighting the crowd at loz especially with the high water and all the color. Showers were to the south of us here today.
Best of luck to all this weekend.
Gov

[old fuzzy]

Havent Fish T/h For Some Time Then It Was Dead Of Winter And Colder Than,,,,well You Can Fill It The Lines,,,how About The Lake At Macon,Mo? long Branch I Think It Called,,, Been Several Years Since I Have Been There But Man Is There Some Nice Looking Spots As I Remember
Also Welcome Jimdog

[Maladroit1]

Did anybody hit Thomas Hill this past week? I heard it was kind of muddy but have not seen it for myself. I am headed up there later this week and was just curious if anyone was catching anything.

[Maladroit1]

Anyone? Anyone? :D

Thomas Hill is not my first choice of lakes to hit this time of year but unfortunately it's my best option. I guess most of you are fishing down south right now which is where I wish I was headed.

[C N]

We usually fish it every winter but didn't this past one. In past years we've caught consistently larger crappie than anywhere else. Multiple 13's and 14's were the norm. In fact, I'm not sure we caught anything less than 10". I've heard it's been muddy, too, but haven't checked it out.

http://www.anglersfishinginfo.com/fi...MAS%20HILL