Blue Springs Lake Advice Needed

Does anyone fish Blue Springs Lake? (suburb of KC) I live about 3 miles from the lake and would like to fish it more than I do. The few times that I fished it, I didn't have much luck. (Too busy dodging skiers.) The crappie I've caught have been mostly very small. I catch myself with a few hours spare time and I won't even go because I have zero confidence in the lake. If anyone has any advice/suggestions, I would sure appreciate it.

I've caught some bass there but nothing very large. The east end (east of Woods Chapel bridge) has a lot of timber but it is very shallow. Anyone ever do any good back there for bass? Or anywhere else for that matter?

The lake does have some hybrids but I have never intentionally fished for them. Has anyone had any regular success fishing for them?

Like I said, I'd really like start fishing the lake more since it is so close so if any of you have any suggestions for crappie, bass, hybrids I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

I have fished it a few times this year for crappie.....no luck, but I Think there is probably some decent fishing there. its just a matter of spending time and finding those sweet spots.
Have not done any bass fishing there, but have caught a few small one fishing for crappies.
I'm not to sure if the water is deep enough to hold crappie in the summer time north of the bridge. Hopefully someone will chime in with some helpfull info.
I like BS lake and also Longview is a really nice sized lake here in town.

Sorry not much help.

I watched a guy 2 years ago catch small crappie while ancored. I watched him for about an hour while I fished up and down the banks of the same cove. I didn't catch a single crappie. As I passed him, I asked him about crappie fishing on the lake. He said there is about only 3 places he has found that he can ever catch any crappie. He was parked on one of them. After he left, I moved into his spot and I caught about a dozen before they quit. All 6"-7" dinks.

I read on another post that some fish were caught off the dam recently. Maybe I will try that next time I go. Regardless, if they are all going to be small I may give up on crappie fishing and try for the hybrids or bass.

If anyone has any suggestions on anything (except carp) , please let me know. Thanks

blue springs lake is a real good lake for crappie,i have 3 spots that when the time is right you can catch 12 to 15 inch crappie,fishn off the banks,Im 15 minutes from there but dont fish it as much as i should.HOOOKED ON TRUMAN.......

when i was out there a few week's ago we managed a few keeper's off the damn throwing road runner's and crankbait's. caught lot's and lot's of chip's as well. don't have much experience at all on that lake but i do know there are some nice crappie in there.

Well I gave it a shot on Sunday for a while. I fished from about 11AM to 6PM and didn't do very well. (I know...worst time of the day.) I caught 5 species of fish but less than 10 total.

The lake was RIDICULOUS with all the big ski boats on that dinky lake. I have a 16' aluminum V bottom with a 50 hsp and I felt like I was on a blow up mattress in the ocean. Holy Cow! What a circus. They need to do something about that lake before someone gets killed. I couldn't even get on plane with my boat the water was so rough with boat wakes. I could only fish in the back end of the coves and even then was getting wave action. I am sorry I even wasted my money on the lake permits. The skiers/partiers are out of control. This is a tiny lake of just 720 acres. Is a 25' boat really necessary? They really need a boat size limit on that lake and/or limit the number of boats allowed.

I think I need to just fish early or late on that lake until fall comes. I don't think I will even bother with permits next year for this lake. I will just fish a little less but when I go, drive to a real lake (Truman) and leave Blue Springs to all of the crazy water sports people who are pretending they are at Lake of the Ozarks.

Crappieslayer... I was planning to fish the dam area when I got to the lake but if I had I would have ended up beached into the rocks. My little boat could not have handled that. Even a 20' boat would have been swamped. From my experience, most of the skiers don't tend to be too courteous when they see fishermen.

Sorry ...just needed to vent...

I stopped trying to go to Blue Springs lake last year for the same reason. Longview lake is not much better but at least you can go beyond the buoys near the beach and they can't follow you. I've never understood why the jetskier's, tubers, waker boarders, and water skiers all seem to believe that we want them to run as close to the fisherman as possible.

I was fishing Prairie Lee Sunday when someone was trying to learn to ski. I was anchored off near the dam and they insisted on staying right near me. They were using a ski rope that was only about 6' long and were barely moving causing a huge wake that had breakers coming over the side of my bass boat. I gave up at that point and went home. Frustrating because I was catching fish but not worth all the trouble I was having just keeping control of the boat.

I haven't fished there in a couple years, but if you go out at first light and get off the water by 10am or 11, it was ok to fish. Otherwise, get back in the tree cove, under the bridge, you can fish crappie, bass and catfish.

blackdogs... do you ever catch anything back on east side past the bridge? Most of the water back there is pretty shallow so I have never spent much time back there.

rdwsdw1... do you have much luck on Longview? I agree... the skiers don't seem to give the fisherman much space. Sounds like you might benefit from the early shift that blackdog recommended. What kind of fish were you catching before you were run off the lake?

The fishing reports for both lakes come from the local bait shop or the marina and they are always very generic so I am trying to learn as much as I can about the lakes.

I really would like to give up on the crappie at BS and just concentrate on trying to find those hybrids and save the crappie fishing for Truman where I know there is quality. I have my permits for this year so I don't want to let them go to waste. I won't make the same mistake next year.

Fishing the first row of trees, heading 1/2 way across to the spillway, I caught my biggest crappie ever- 18.25 inch, 3.75#. It is currently hanging on the wall. Most of the crappie I caught there, and there weren't many, came from the coves. I make the trip to Smithville now, the Jackson County lake pass isn't worth the money (to me). Although, when my son gets old enough to fish, I will get a pass again. So I will only have a 10 min. drive to spend 10 min. fishing!

On Longview I fish mostly for crappie and attempt to catch walleye. I have had some luck on minnows and panfish assassins in the mouth of the cove near the dam and also on the point near what the locals call walleye cove (almost straight across from the marina).

My wife, for some strange reason, seems to catch almost nothing but white bass. fishing the same locations, and methods, I am using for crappie. The white bass are a decent size and she catches them in good numbers.

I have caught a few walleye in the grass up past the buoys and off the steep banks near the dam. But considering Im very new to walleye fishing I would just call that dumb luck.

There is a lot of timber past the buoys that should hold fish. I bought a used Nitro last year and having never owned a fiberglass boat Im still a little cautious about being in the stumps. I wouldnt worry much about an aluminum boat but fiberglass is completely new to me and I just dont know how much it would take to punch a hole in it.

I'd buy a kicker motr and start fishing Jacomo. Then you don't have to worry about all the big boats and jet skis.

That Dam pattern really only works around dusk in my experience. All of the Jackson County lakes have good fish, you just have to work out a pattern that will produce them. I have fished all of the JA CO lakes many many times, and it took me a long time to find patterns that produce big fish.

I have several spots on Longview and Blue Springs that are away from ski traffic, and almost always produce good fish. If I hit the first 2 and don't get a good one, I look for new stuff.

The best thing to do is put in the time, and learn the lake. I was testing some changes on the boat last week and the first one of my spots I tried produced this fish, and it was a good one.

http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/q...gviewjune3.jpg

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Originally Posted by rdwsdw1

On Longview I fish mostly for crappie and attempt to catch walleye. I have had some luck on minnows and panfish assassins in the mouth of the cove near the dam and also on the point near what the locals call walleye cove (almost straight across from the marina).

My wife, for some strange reason, seems to catch almost nothing but white bass. fishing the same locations, and methods, I am using for crappie. The white bass are a decent size and she catches them in good numbers.

I have caught a few walleye in the grass up past the buoys and off the steep banks near the dam. But considering Im very new to walleye fishing I would just call that dumb luck.

There is a lot of timber past the buoys that should hold fish. I bought a used Nitro last year and having never owned a fiberglass boat Im still a little cautious about being in the stumps. I wouldnt worry much about an aluminum boat but fiberglass is completely new to me and I just dont know how much it would take to punch a hole in it.

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I wouldn't worry too much about the glass. I've banged into a lot of stumps with mine, got high centered severl times, and no damage. The first scratch hurts a bit, but after that it's easy.

The way I look at it, if you punch a whole in the glass boat, you probably would have destroyed your aluminum boat with the same force needed for the damage.

blackdogs... 3.75 lbs? holy cow. What a pig. It must have been eating all those 5"-6" crappie in the lake. Make sure when your son gets old enough to fish, you cherish that 10 minutes of fishing. It seems just like yesterday, I was helping my daughter catch her first fish and now she will be going to college in the fall. Time slips away so be sure you enjoy every one of those ten minutes cause you don't get them back. (In fact, leave YOUR rods at home. It took me a few trips to figure that one out.)

rdwsdw1... Thanks for the info on Longview. I enjoy white bass fishing when their hitting. They fight much harder than crappie although I don't keep them to eat. (only crappie) Fiberglass is pretty hard stuff. I have an aluminum boat but my fishin buddy has an old 70 something Stram. It isn't the prettiest thing but it is comfortable to fish out of. We've bumped, run over, ran into, scraped about ever limb at Truman and never did any damage other than cosmetic.

DADAKOTA... I used to have a smaller boat with a 25hsp that I did take to Jacomo. (about 10 years ago) I used to catch many crappie but the quality was never very good. You just get spoiled fishing Truman I guess. Maybe Jacomo crappie fishing is better than it used to be. ?? I know the bass population is has been pretty good for a while now. I didn't like taking that small of a boat to Truman so I upgraded and bought a little bigger boat. (Not huge.. 16' 50 hsp) It's better for Truman but now I'm stuck with the jet skier lakes here locally. I don't think it would be worth the trouble to mess with a kicker motor (for me anyway) but thanks for the suggestion.

mduncan62... That does look like decent size crappie. I know BS and LV must have some nice crappie but I don't think I am a good enough fisherman to find those handful of spots that produce especially since I don't seem to go near as often as I'd like. I did notice that both the cove directly across from the marina and the one just to the east of the dam (BS) have some really significant depth changes thought the coves. If I keep fishing there, my plan was to focus on those sharp drop offs.

Hey guys hows it going been fishing Blue Springs for a few years now and I do my best after dark set up the crappie lights over brush piles or in the trees in one of coves on the main lake always seem to bring a few home with me. Best of all NO SKIERS OR TUBERS just a few boats hanging around not the hoards of rec. boaters burning their gas and swamping you I only have a 15' trihull so during the day can only happen when I'm on vacation during the work week when everybody else is at work its not to bad the best time is at night though been known to have the whole lake to my self at times take care guys and good fishing.

Seasprite... I've thought about trying the crappie lights before but never have. Do you leave your anchor light on? I think the rules are that you have to have them on all the time at night. (I think it used to be that you only have to have them on if were farther than 50-100 yards from shore or something like that.) I think somewhere along the line, they changed that rule. Anyway, I figured if the anchor light was on, those mosquitos might just become a real pain. I might give it a try anyway. Anything beats that mess I was in last weekend.

I used to night fish a lot in the cove straight across the lake from the marina. I always had good luck in the first set of trees from the main lake. Either middle of cove or left of the channel.

you can pull some slabs out under the light. The bugs are just part of it, wear bug spray.

mduncan62... I might give that a try. By the way, when you night fished, did you keep your anchor light while you were tied up ? I wonder if they monitor that very close.

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Originally Posted by gnrboyd

Seasprite... I've thought about trying the crappie lights before but never have. Do you leave your anchor light on? I think the rules are that you have to have them on all the time at night. (I think it used to be that you only have to have them on if were farther than 50-100 yards from shore or something like that.) I think somewhere along the line, they changed that rule. Anyway, I figured if the anchor light was on, those mosquitos might just become a real pain. I might give it a try anyway. Anything beats that mess I was in last weekend.

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Yes your suppose to have your anchor light on if your tied up to a tree or anchored off on some brush piles. Normally I get around this by bringing my Coleman lantern & tieing it off on the boat :)I figure the more light the better I run one floating crappie light & a submersible type plus the lantern and I seem to do pretty good at night unless the wind is blowing then I never seem to do as well. Yes the bugs can get pretty thick at times but as mduncan62 said its just part of it when the bugs are there I seem to catch fish when there gone not as much. If you go good luck after today I'll be on vacation for two weeks after I get some hunydoes done I'll be out their.

All of the JA CO lakes have been hit or miss for me these last 5 years. It seems to me that the lakes here dont really fish to the "standard" . But like they said it really is about putting in your time. I havent fished them as much since I got my bigger boat, I have been heading to Smithville and Truman more. I tend to fish for crappie when its cold and bass when it warm. So its always new for me.lol I am retired and am willing to go most anytime. I have tons of gear and a nice boat. If anyone wants to go???