Lake Wappapello, Missouri – Stop #5 of the 2023 MoYak Fishing Series Kayak Bass Trail sponsored by Old Town Kayaks saw just 43 anglers on a steamy Saturday in August. Heat indices over 120 degrees tested even the toughest of our club during the week leading up to the event and they didn’t get much relief on game day.  If the heat didn’t get you the bugs did as the local Dollar General reported record sales of mosquito repellant and sunscreen.

The fish-per-angler ratio of 3.70 was the lowest we’ve seen in any trail series tournament to date.  To make matters worse, less than half the field caught a limit and we only saw one bass over 19.25″.

Robert Swearngin came away with the victory by catching 88.5″, beating out Josh Keatts by 3.75″.  The ROY year race got even tighter as rookie sensation Zachary Woolverton’s 11th place finish helped close the gap on Chad Davison who managed Big Bass honors again by catching a 21.5″ Wappapello unicorn.  On the team side, Slap that bass, consisting of Robert Swearngin and Perry Burton came away as victors.

Here are your top ten for the 2023 MoYak Stop #5 Wappapello presented by Everhart’s Outdoors.

Robert Swearngin – 88.5″
Josh Keatts – 84.75″
Lance Burris – 80″
Micah Funderburgh – 76.5″
Joe Hayes – 74″
Anthony Brown – 73.5″
Eric Easter – 72.25″
Troy Enke – 70″
Jacob Johnson – 68.25″
Mike Dent – 67.75″

Let’s take a closer look at the top five finishers and hear how they solved the puzzle on Wappapello in their own words:

What was your strategy going into the day?

• Robert – I wanted to focus on staying with my game plan.  I knew I could catch numbers of fish flipping bushes; however, the quality wasn’t there.  I knew if I stuck to my game plan, I could put together a solid bag. I also knew it would be a mental game with the intense heat.
• Josh – Normally I cover lots of water when I fish, this trip was different. I had found a small run of fish and I knew I’d have to go through them a few times to pick up a limit.
• Lance – Just go fish and get a limit.
• Micah – In practice, they were chewing a black and blue chatterbait shallow near channel swing banks. But that was not the case in the tournament so I ended up go with the wacky rig.
• Joe – Literally get 5 bites and don’t miss… That was it

Were you able to prefish and did you find anything that helped you on game day?

• Robert – Yes.  I had been keeping an eye on the lake levels for about 10 days prior to the tournament and had noticed that they had been falling 6-8 inches per day.  I was able to fish a little bit Thursday evening.  When I saw the water temperature and the reality of how quickly the lake was falling, I knew I would have to find something offshore in order to find quality fish.  I found a ledge where my graph absolutely lit up with fish and the thermocline broke down a bit allowing them to go a bit deeper. I also found a giant rock pile well over a half mile offshore that was lit up as well.  Fortunately, I didn’t need to hit it on tournament day.
• Josh – I pre-fished for a total of 4 hours. In the last hour of that time I found the pattern I used all tournament day.
• Lance – I did get to practice and all I got out of it was two places to not fish and there might be a topwater bite.
• Micah – I was able to prefish and the only thing that helped me on tournament day was finding a good area. The bait/pattern that was money in prefishing fell flat on tournament day.
• Joe – Being the closest lake we fish to me (just over 2 hours) I was able to come down a couple of weeks before the event and fish a section of the river that looked nice for a few hours. Didn’t blow them away but caught enough to think I might go there on tournament day. And we came down Thursday night before the tourney so I also fished Friday morning with zero success at a different spot. Ended up going back to the river

Had you ever fished Wappapello before this tournament, if so, how’d you do?

• Robert – Never been there.
• Josh – No never been there
• Lance – Never seen the lake before.
• Micah – Nope
• Joe – Other than the one prefish a couple of weeks prior to the tournament, I had fished it once before and caught nothing.

What was the general tackle you used on game day?

• Robert – Big ugly crankbait and a big ugly jig.
• Josh – Everything was caught on a white spinner bait with silver and gold blades and a white chatter bait with gold blade
• Lance – 7’ Kistler Helium medium heavy casting rod with 8:1 Kistler Chromium reel with 40# braid. Crockogator1/2 oz head knocker buzzbait all day
• Micah – Spinning tackle Buzzbait and wacky rig fished like a fluke ended up being what they wanted.
• Joe – Square bills, Texas rigged lizard, Senko, and Crock o Gator buzzbait

How far did you have to travel to find your fish?

• Robert – I stayed within ½ mile of where I launched.
• Josh –200yrds from the ramp and they were all in a 400-yard stretch
• Lance – Covered about 7 miles of banks.
• Micah – In practice, I put in about 14 miles in the yak to find about a mile stretch that I liked for the tournament.
• Joe – Not terribly far. But I never really sat in one spot long so I imagine I put a few miles in.

What depth range were you looking for (what was your water temp/clarity)?

• Robert – Most of my fish came 8′-12′ deep.  Water temp was 88 in the morning and 93 by the afternoon with about a foot of visibility.
• Josh – I was fishing the flooded bushes, clarity was pretty minimal and water temps started at 86 and jumped to 93 by the end of the day
• Lance – Focused on 2-6′ of water on channel swings with clay mud banks clarity was probably 1-2′ and 85-90 degrees.
• Micah – Less than 6 feet, water temp was stupid hot and varied in clarity.
• Joe – I’m a shallow water guy so I didn’t stray far from my strengths. Clarity….. We’re talking clarity? Lol that place is a mud hole maybe 6 inches at best most of the time. Temps started around 86 and made it to the low 90s later.

What did you do to keep yourself hydrated?

• Robert – I went through 6 big bottles of water and limited myself to only 2 Monster energy drinks that day.  A little ice from the cooler put in my hat felt good too
• Josh – Water and Gatorade packets, I also like to keep frozen bottles so I can put them in between my life jacket and chest when I get real hot
• Lance – I drank 15 oz of Monster coffee, 16 oz of chocolate milk (with my donuts), and 3- 28 oz bottles of Gatorade.
• Micah – Drank a bunch of Gatorade.
• Joe – This is always a problem for me. I rarely ever stop to eat or drink on tournament days. I remembered that I packed a water and a dew around noon. Drank them both and got back to it.

Anything else special about the day?

• Robert – Boat traffic; most people curse it, however on a bite like that, the fish always seemed to fire up after a big boat went by.
• Josh – My daughter’s name is Asher, so I knew I had to check it out during prefish. It led to some good fishing, I guess I owe my wife a thank you for picking her name.
• Lance – I woke up an hour late putting me at the ramp right when everyone else was took off.
• Micah – The mosquitoes were terrible for everyone.
• Joe – Not getting any diseases after going through that mosquito nonsense feels pretty special.

Big Bass Story?

• Robert – My biggest bass was a 19″er That was about the sickest thing I’ve seen in a while.  Poor thing probably didn’t weigh 2 pounds.
• Josh – No big bass to speak of, haven’t been able to find one all year.
• Lance –  Chad barely beat my 19.25″ out for big bass so I had second big bass.
• Micah – My biggest was 19″ and it hit a buzzbait about 5in from the kayak so, that was a rush for sure!
• Joe – My two biggest fish came early and not terribly far from each other. It was an area that looked and set up perfect but I didn’t get a bite there in my trip before so I almost skipped it. Glad I didn’t.

See any wildlife worth mentioning?

• Robert – Some people say it was a beaver, but I swear it was a gator….
• Josh – 5 ft nope rope that was as big around as a baseball bat
• Lance – Three danger noodles were out and about.
• Micah – Lots of mosquitoes.
• Joe – Not really.

Lose any fish that would have made a difference?

• Robert – I fished fairly clean.  I only missed 1 or 2 bites.
• Josh – Not really
• Lance – I lost two bass in the 16-17″ range that would have given me a decent shot at 2nd
• Micah – I lost 2 fish in the last 10 min that would have made 3rd place a tight race. I had a trailer hook on the spinnerbait I was throwing and it seemed to be messing up the hookset rather than helping.
• Joe – Just a gar that might’ve been a decent trash fish. The bastard stole one of my favorite balsa square bills though so I wasn’t too thrilled about it.

If you had a choice to fish Wappapello or Mark Twain which would you choose and why?

• Robert – Mark Twain – In my opinion, it fishes a lot like Truman (Which I like) and not as swampy.
• Josh – Mark Twain, bc I’ve never been there either
• Lance – Mark Twain because I haven’t tried it yet and I seem to get lucky on sucky lakes like Table Rock.
• Micah – Both are 4 hours+ from my house and not terribly great lakes so I don’t feel like there is a good answer. From what I have heard I’d probably go Wappapello but in the spring or fall, all the locals were saying it wasn’t a very good hot water lake and I agree.
• Joe – Never been to Twain, and certainly don’t love the wap but if it’s on the schedule I’m game to give anything a go.

Derby Stats
Anglers 43
Fish caught – 159
Total limits – 21 (49%)
Margin of victory – 3.75″
Trash Pot – Robert Swearngin (18.5″ Drum)
Smallest Bass Award – Johnathan Dominguez 7.75″
Air temp at launch – 80
Air temp at takeout – 95
Water temps reported – Mid to High 90’s