Small Lake Profile- North Lake

There are a lot of great fisheries in western and northwest Missouri that I have had the privilege to fish.  Most of the lakes that I spend my time on are fairly small in size.  When I say small, I mean smaller than the Lake of the Ozarks, Truman Lake, Table Rock, and Taneycomo.  When I refer to small lakes, usually I mean a lake around 30 acres or smaller.  I target these lakes because I can put my small Bass Hunter boat or kayak on these lakes since they are usually electric motor only.  I am usually fly fishing and smaller lakes give the fish fewer places to hide which helps put the puzzle of the lake together a little faster.  It is much easier to figure out where the fish are and what they are biting on in a small lake.  This can take a couple of hours as opposed to fishing a larger lake which could take many hours or even days.  I don't have that kind of time available so I typically hit the smaller water in the pursuit of a higher success rate.

As always, the point of this website is to both entertain and help you to catch more fish.  I hope that these lake profiles will either provide you with some information about a lake you have never fished or help you understand a lake from someone else's point of view.  As always, I am not claiming to be any sort of expert when it comes to these lakes or fishing in general.  These thoughts are just my own observations for you to use as you see fit.  So without further adieu, here is the first "Small Lake Profile" .

Name
North Lake

Location
North of Harrisonville on 291 Highway and south of Lee's Summit. Here's a link to an webpage that the Missouri Department of Conservation has assembled:
http://mdc7.mdc.mo.gov/applications/moatlas/AreaSummaryPage.aspx?txtAreaID=9230&txtAreaNm=s 

Species to target
Redear sunfish, bluegill, and bass

A buddy of mine with the first redear he ever caught.

Same guy, same day, bigger fish.

A 5.7 ounce bass caught on a shad rap crankbait in then main channel of the lake.

Spots to try
This lake is almost completely surrounded by aquatic vegetation and timber.  There are 2-3 spots that allow you to fish from the bank or the dock, but that's about it.  If you don't have a small boat of some kind, you might want to stay away from this lake.  I personally like fishing along the east bank in the morning and the west bank later in the morning.  The east bank has a healthy amount of aquatic vegetation and moss while the west bank has more laydowns and structure.  I like fishing from the boat ramp to the spillway along the east bank and along the entire west bank until you get to the cove on the far south side of the lake.  Also, during the summer months, large bass suspend in the middle of the lake.  If you have a fish finder, try to mark these fish and go after them with sinking line on a fly rod or with a crankbait on conventional tackle.  The north end is shallow with a lot of moss, seeds, and aquatic vegetation.  Topwater flies and lures are useful here.  There is also a concrete pillar located on the south end as well.  I have not had much success here, but it stands to reason that there should be some fish hanging around this structure that is also located in deeper water.

My buddy Jordan with a nice bass caught on the south end of the lake.

Jordan with a nice bass caught on a hollow body frog on the south end of the lake.  He was catching them in the thick moss using a baitcaster and braided line.

Flies/Lures to use
You can't ever go wrong with a wooly bugger on this lake.  There is a lot of baitfish in the water and throwing a similar pattern in olive, white, and/or black is a deadly combination.  By far, I have had my best luck by throwing a John Deere mini jig about 18 inches under a float.  This has yielded small bass, lots of bluegill in various sizes, and a few really nice and almost trophy redear sunfish.  There are also channel catfish in the lake and I have seen a few of them caught on this method as well.  As far as the big bass in the middle of the lake, I think shad-imitating flies would be the way to go if you want to try and hook one.  The Brave, deceivers, clouser minnows, and zonkers might be the trick here but make sure they are weighted.  These 4-6 pound bass usually suspend at 8 feet and it is going to take a while to get your fly in front of them.

Wooly Bugger

Clouser Minnow

John Deere

Wooly Bugger

Wooly Bugger

Zonker

The Brave