Outdoor living

As hunting seasons run down or out, a question I get asked often is, where do fishermen fish this time of year?

For many Missouri anglers the fishing season keeps going along with the new year.

A lot of fishermen hit the power plant lakes, while others hit the four trout parks for catch-and-release trout fishing, or fish for trout at Taneycomo and still others search for bass and crappie in one of the big impoundments.

For more than 10 years, several Iowa anglers, who work the Kansas City Sportshow, come to Missouri early to test the bass fishing at Truman, Stockton or Table Rock.

Paul Kitchen of Des Moines came to Table Rock even earlier last year. He hooked a seven-pound largemouth which was, by far, the largest bass he had ever caught in Iowa.

Kitchen said, "I only had two hits all afternoon, but I know some muskie fishermen who fish a lot of days without ever getting a hit."

After the KC Sportshow last year, Kitchen and two other Iowa anglers who had worked the show came down to Table Rock and caught six bass over five pounds after two days of fishing.

Said Kitchen, "I'm sold on winter fishing in Missouri."

Several winters ago, two Kansas City anglers hit it big while fishing for trout in Taneycomo and white bass at Bull Shoals.

After fishing for trout at Taneycomo in a snowstorm and catching limits of rainbows, they visited with Charlie Campbell who told them where they could have some fast action with white bass on Bull Shoals. When the anglers arrived at the spot Campbell had told them about, they found a dozen boats in a big circle and all the fishermen were pulling in fish.

"We could see the fishermen pulling out whites long before we arrived on the scene," said Bob Adams. "Using a silver spoon, we all had limits of whites in less than an hour."

There are also a group of anglers who spend a lot of time fishing in heated or covered docks catching crappie and an occasional walleye or bass. There aren't a lot of heated docks in the state, but more are popping up each winter.

On some of the large impoundments, crappie may be caught by fishing off docks where Christmas trees have been placed in previous years to make a crappie shelter.

Jim Bradley, Camdenton, is a winter angler who fishes hard in January.

Bradley said, "I have a job that is seasonal so I have more time to fish in the winter. For years I have put the family Christmas tree in the lake near my dock and it has really paid off with some excellent crappie fishing in the winter. We have crappie on the menu at least once a week during the winter. It's great."

Area anglers hit the docks at Blue Springs and Jacomo during this month and the veterans usually catch fish. Using small jigs and light line, Tom Atkins of Blue Springs recently caught a limit of crappie while another angler fishing nearby never caught a fish.

Atkins said, "You learn to know that you can't have a jig that is too small or line over two-pound test. I think the guy fishing next to me had 10-pound test line and was using a one-fourth ounce jig. You won't catch many fish in the winter with a rig like that."

Smaller lakes or ponds can be good in winter also. Last winter, a favorite pond that holds crappie found two brothers, Larry and Ben Wilson, drilling a hole through the ice to catch 10 crappie for dinner.

Ben said, "It isn't very often that we can safely fish through the ice, but when we can, we usually catch fish."

Fishing never stops in Missouri even when temperatures reach into the single digits.

WINTER SNOWS

Snow geese are becoming one of the wariest birds for waterfowl hunters. Always cautious, hundreds of thousands of snow geese can pass just above your decoys and just beyond gun range, almost as if they know your shooting limitations.

But just seeing and hearing that many birds is quite an experience. This month those experiences are ever-present in Missouri, for hunters and birdwatchers alike. Refuges in the state provide stopping grounds for the passing geese, while nearby fields and wetlands provide ample hunting opportunities.