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LaPlata City Lake LaPlata, Missouri Article: Rats In The Pads |
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LaPlata City Lake LaPlata, Missouri Article: Rats In The Pads |
| La Plata Services:
La Plata Short Stop Old Hwy. 63 North 660-332-7744 License, bait, beer, gas.
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Laplata City Lake almost sunset from the parking lot toward the dam. The water intakes offer a little bit of structure that does attract fish. They are within casting distance of the dam. Please pick up your trash if you fish off the dam there seems to be quite a few that didn't. This lake also offers waterfowl hunting and field hunting on the surrounding land. There is quite a bit of good bank to fish off and a good concrete ramp and privies if nature calls. |
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LaPlata City lake map
This is the name sake. The rail road track runs right next to this old lake. The rail road used these lakes along the tracks to water the steam engines. This is an old lake. |
Pavilion, playground, barbque pits, and swimming area round out some of the available goodies for a great day of family fun and of course fishing. |
from the dam facing west |
On the far side of the lake there is good tree cover, You can hike back there but you might have a hard time fishing if the summer weed cover is on. |
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John McGee fishing a bass out of the lilly pads after it
got wrapped up a little. Unfortunately after digging through the
wad of pad stems John came up empty handed on this one...well not completely
empty handed he did get his puff bait back.
Puff baits have been around a long time, at least a
decade or so. There are many different ones on the market.
John is a veteran fisherman, taxidermist and these baits are some of his
favorites. I spent a morning on Santa fee lake with John and got
a few lessons on using these puffy plastic baits.
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Both the Laplata lakes are great spots for using these baits, lots of lilly pads. Puff baits are designed for fishing over floating vegetation. They go by many names, ScumFrog, Tender Toad, Phat Rat, Moss Master. Essentially they are pretty much the same, a soft plastic / vinyl hollow body with a double hook that rides pointing up imbedded in the bait with its points facing up. The plastic holds it's shape well enough to keep the hook points pretty weed less. Some of these baits are a little better than others at keeping water out of the hollow body. Some have a little bit of lead in them to help them cast better this is a nice feature compared to some of the originals that were mighty hard to cast very far. |
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John does a lot of fishing these lilly pads with puff
baits. They are just up the road from his home and taxidermy studio
Creek Nation Taxidermy. John specializes in fish taxidermy and does
beautiful work if you ever want a fish mounted. He told me his big
secret to successful puff bait fishing. Strong braided line.
John knows you need tough line to drag a big fish out of these thick lilly
pads but the benefits of braided line go beyond that for puff bait fishing.
He mainly fishes with a spinning rig and he is able to cast these soft
body baits a country mile with this rod / line combination. The lack
of stretch of the line also allows him to get the good instant hook sets
he wants when Mr. Bigmouth boils from below.
I have missed a lot of fish on top water baits and
I thought I had the system figured out. When the fish boils your
bait WAIT. John says not so with the puff bait. When the fish
boils your bait set the hook! He proved his theory over and over
again the day I fished with him hooking a higher percentage than I did
with my 20 lb. mono and wait till you feel him hook setting style.
He made a believer out of me.
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| If you want a good fish mount call John, If you want
to catch more bass on puff baits use braid and set the hook.
John McGee
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