Our trip to a trophy bass lake.

[carolina-rig-01]

A lot of you guys that are regulars in the chat room probably remember me saying a while back that Britney and I got a gift certificate to a trophy bass lake from my dad for Christmas. With all the stuff going on with the house being built and me changing jobs we knew that there would come a time that we needed to get away for a weekend so we held on to the gift certificate. Well this past September we decided we wanted to go up there and see if we couldn't catch a few big fish. I posted these pictures on facebook when we got back so some of you have already seen them, but now that I am finding time to come on here more often I thought I would post the pictures here as well. This place is a big strip pit that was dug decades ago for mining and offers very challenging conditions because the lake was totally dug out rather than filled by a dam, which means that all the natural depth changes or contour lines you find in a lake don't exist here. You can be 5 or 6 feet away from the bank and you might be in 20-30 feet of water. It still has some shallow areas but it really makes it overwhelming when you are looking around the lake trying figure out what to do. Anyways the owner of the property bought it and stocked it with Florida strain largemouth and has been managing it for trophy fish for around 20 years. During a conversation with the owner he told me that every year there is usually one fish in the 12-13lb range caught, and several 10lbers..........and he had pictures to prove it LOL. Anyways our trip was pretty much doomed from the word go, the weather was in the low 90's all week until the day we left and we had a cold front that dropped temps to close to freezing over night and highs were in the upper 50's and not a cloud in the sky. We stayed there for 2 nights and worked our butts off trying to find big fish but we had to settle for a good time and several average fish. This place sits on 2,000 acres and he has 3 cabins placed around the lake that he rents out to anglers and deer hunters. The cabins are all secluded and you have waterfront views and a dock with electric with each cabin. At no point did we see another person, and we only found one of the other cabins and that was because it is in the back of one of the coves we fished........we never did find the other cabin, you are certainly secluded here. The cabins are like no place I have ever stayed. All of them were built by the owner and are top notch places with all the comfort of home, they are beautiful. We had such a great time that we just called this last week and booked another trip for the end of April, hoping to hit it just right and get to do some sight fishing. Here are some pictures from our trip.

[bcklash]

That place is sweet, I know ya'll had a great time.

[kennethdaysale]

I predict you're going to rock their world in April. Looks like just being there was worth the trip, any fish are just icing.

I know what you mean about the topography of a pit like that. We used to fish Bienville Plantation down in N Fla a lot, bottom like a roller coaster-with no real rhyme or reason. First time we went I thought my finder was shorting out


**ps** I actually recognize every single name of the people logged in, can't remember the last time that was the case.

[bassinbob]

Sounds like a really great place. Sory the weather didn't work out for you. It's a different world when you can be somewhere there are no other people.

[fishnart]

Where is this and where are the pics of your fish, lets see'em

[WatterBoy]

Looks like an awesome place, Kory. Hope you have a great time again in April and that you get some trophies this time!

[carolina-rig-01]

Thanks fellas, we are really looking foward to our spring trip. The water in this place is very clear which will make sight fishing a lot of fun.

Originally Posted by fishnart

Where is this and where are the pics of your fish, lets see'em

We didn't take any pictures of our fish. Not really sure why other than we didn't catch any big fish. I think the biggest fish of the trip was a 3 1/2lber I caught on a crankbait. I did lose a fish on a crankbait that was bigger than that but I don't want to speculate how much bigger because I never got a good look at her.

[Jrob78]

It sucks that the fishing wasn't better but it still sounds like an awesome getaway! Glad you guys got to go.

[bamabassman]

awesum looking palce kory. gald ya'll had a great time. wish oyu had caught that trophy too. maybe next time buddy.

[Rebbasser]

Wow, Kory-that place looks awesome! Have a blast!

[bluebasser86]

Originally Posted by carolina-rig-01

A lot of you guys that are regulars in the chat room probably remember me saying a while back that Britney and I got a gift certificate to a trophy bass lake from my dad for Christmas. With all the stuff going on with the house being built and me changing jobs we knew that there would come a time that we needed to get away for a weekend so we held on to the gift certificate. Well this past September we decided we wanted to go up there and see if we couldn't catch a few big fish. I posted these pictures on facebook when we got back so some of you have already seen them, but now that I am finding time to come on here more often I thought I would post the pictures here as well. This place is a big strip pit that was dug decades ago for mining and offers very challenging conditions because the lake was totally dug out rather than filled by a dam, which means that all the natural depth changes or contour lines you find in a lake don't exist here. You can be 5 or 6 feet away from the bank and you might be in 20-30 feet of water. It still has some shallow areas but it really makes it overwhelming when you are looking around the lake trying figure out what to do. Anyways the owner of the property bought it and stocked it with Florida strain largemouth and has been managing it for trophy fish for around 20 years. During a conversation with the owner he told me that every year there is usually one fish in the 12-13lb range caught, and several 10lbers..........and he had pictures to prove it LOL. Anyways our trip was pretty much doomed from the word go, the weather was in the low 90's all week until the day we left and we had a cold front that dropped temps to close to freezing over night and highs were in the upper 50's and not a cloud in the sky. We stayed there for 2 nights and worked our butts off trying to find big fish but we had to settle for a good time and several average fish. This place sits on 2,000 acres and he has 3 cabins placed around the lake that he rents out to anglers and deer hunters. The cabins are all secluded and you have waterfront views and a dock with electric with each cabin. At no point did we see another person, and we only found one of the other cabins and that was because it is in the back of one of the coves we fished........we never did find the other cabin, you are certainly secluded here. The cabins are like no place I have ever stayed. All of them were built by the owner and are top notch places with all the comfort of home, they are beautiful. We had such a great time that we just called this last week and booked another trip for the end of April, hoping to hit it just right and get to do some sight fishing. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Was this Angler's Paradise in southwestern Missouri? I just found their website a week or two ago and the price isn't bad and it's an easy day trip for me and the pictures on the website are really impressive.

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by bluebasser86

Was this Angler's Paradise in southwestern Missouri? I just found their website a week or two ago and the price isn't bad and it's an easy day trip for me and the pictures on the website are really impressive.

Sure is! If you go you won't regret it. I was actually thinking about seeing if there would be enough interest from members from this part of the country to see about having a get together there.

[Rebbasser]

Kory, that is close enough for me to bring the boat. I missed the first get together in May of '09 when my mom passed but would sure like to make at least one.

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by Rebbasser

Kory, that is close enough for me to bring the boat. I missed the first get together in May of '09 when my mom passed but would sure like to make at least one.

That would be awesome man. Don, the owner of Anglers Paradise said that the spring time books up pretty tight for him so that probably wouldn't be a good time for us to try it because we would need to try and book all 3 cabins if we had enough people attend. Maybe we could try it in the summer or fall?