So I've got this friend. We'll call him Paul to protect his anonymity. Anyway, Paul and I wanted to get together to do some fishing in the Columbia, Missouri, area. Columbia is halfway between where I live near Kansas City, Missouri, and where he lives in Missouri. I'm not sure if he wants me to share his location or not, but let's say it rhymes with Paint Rewis. Anyway, we decided on a location called Rocky Fork Lakes Conservation Area.
We really didn't know anything about the area other than there was a decent sized lake with a boat ramp, a dock, and a shooting range on site. I tried to do some research online about what the fishing was like on this lake and found almost nothing. I then tried to ask a buddy that graduated from Mizzou and he said he had never even heard of the area. Needless to say, I was a little skeptical about having success on this lake. I figured it was a bass, bluegill, catfish lake like so many are in central and northern Missouri, and just hoped to put a few fish in the boat. To add to my skepticism, it was new water. It usually takes me a few outings to get the handle on a lake and to gain an understanding on what techniques work and which ones don't. However, when we arrived, I felt a sense of hope and promise because it looked like so many lakes I have fished in the past.
Shores lined with timber as well as moss and vegetation along the edges made me feel right at home. It reminded me of lakes like North Lake near Harrisonville, Missouri, and Lake Remembrance near Blue Springs, Missouri. And in a strange twist of fate, it pretty much fished the same was as well. I was able to pick up some small bluegill of which some were 8 inch males that fought REALLY hard. I also picked up a ten inch crappie and a couple of small channel cats. What I wasn't prepared for was a ten inch crappie, a ten inch redear sunfish (one of the biggest I've ever caught), and a sixteen inch bass. All of my fish came on a John Deere jig under a float. Not be be outdone, Paul landed 3-4 bass with one of them being 16-17 inches long and 2 pounds. He landed his bass on Berkely Power Worms and a lizard of unknown origins.
All in all, it was a fun morning on a new lake, with a good, old friend, and a few fish boated. If you're interested in fishing at Rocky Fork Lake, take a look at the link below. And one more thing, don't let Google give you directions to this place. It will put you on a dead end gravel road in the middle of nowhere which just so happens to resemble where the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family lived.
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