Marion County Lake 12/1/2013

Decided to make it an all-day visit to Marion County Lake on Sunday. Got to the lake around 9:30am and decided to try out some of the docks around the lake since we had heard brush was knocked out of the heated dock. Didn't have much luck on the docks except for some small largemouth bass.

Decided what the hell, let's go try the heated dock. Got there and seen quite a few baskets in the water with fish in them. Got into fish almost immediately using little banana jigs. Caught 15-20 in about 2 hours, which is a win for us! Fishing seemed to slow down by 3pm. Kept most of what we caught since the freezer was empty at home. Think I may have figured out vertical jigging a little more now, hopefully I can apply it at other locations just as well. Thanks for everyone's help and advice!

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Forgot to mention, there were so many shad in the heated dock it was unreal! Probably thousands just hanging out on top of the surface. In fact everybody in the dock would snag them every 3-4 casts they were so thick! 3-4"

Good Job Wiggy!!

Thanks for the report!

For some reason your bluegill on the right doesn't look right.. Something is weird with the head?

And did you try to scoop the shad and drop it down to see if you'd get a bite?

Ya I forgot there were a few gills in there, that one looks like a crappigill for sure!

Didn't even think to try that, had a minnow on one pole down towards the bottom, should've put a shad on and seen what happens. Next time I'll try it!

Okay, glad you see the crappigill also ?!? Looks like a blue gill got his head chopped off and a crappie is under him creating the photo illusion. Sometimes I use the shad and dropped right to the bottom there are white bass. Never hurts to try. Always fun fighting a good sized white bass on 4 pound line and UL poles.

Anywhere to buy minnows near Hillsboro or Marion? Trying to convince the wife into joining me for a trip down there this weekend either Friday or Saturday morning

You can buy minnows at the county lake office, they have silvers and reds

Thanks when i was down there the only guy catching anything was using a banana jig. I just ordered some stuff off amazon today think ill head back down there in a couple of weeks to give it a try

I fished the heated dock 3 times last week, and only caught a few fish. An older lady was fishing, and was catching a crappie about every 15 minutes. She was using a banana jig.....not sure on the depth, but I think about 8 feet. The depth of the water in the dock is about 16 ft, with some brush in the South portion. I now have banana jigs, and I am heading back there tomorrow.

Last week, I used a minnow on one line, and a skirted jig head on the other. Everything I caught was on the jig. I am hoping to do better this week with the new jigs that I picked up. I live in a suburb of Wichita, but own a house in the town of Marion (I keep my boat and other toys at the house in Marion). I have fished the lake quite a bit from my boat, but this last week was the first time I tried the dock.