Use Find MO Fish free mobile app to locate fishing hotspots

Kansas City, Mo. – Anglers like to update lure selections in their tackle boxes for better fishing success. Now they can also add something fishy to their mobile digital device. The Missouri Department of Conservation’s (MDC) “Find MO Fish” app is now updated.

Find MO Fish is free and provides current fishing reports as well as maps and information about lakes, rivers and ponds. That includes fishing spots of MDC conservation areas. The app will let you find fishable waters and learn about services such as boat ramps.

Some smaller lakes and ponds can be very productive fishing spots, especially in May and June when fish such as largemouth bass and bluegill are often feeding close to shorelines. For example, Hamilton City Lake in northwest Missouri produces good numbers of big largemouth bass. A bass topping five pounds would not be unusual at the 85-acre lake in Caldwell County, said Matt Engel, MDC fisheries management biologist.

“The lake has very good numbers and sizes of fish,” Engel said. “A lot of bass are above 18 inches.”

MDC manages the fishery at the lake, which supplies the city’s public drinking water system. A boat ramp is available, electric motors only. The fishing dock is accessible for those who use wheelchairs.

Bass grow big in the lake because they have a good forage bass of fish such as bluegill and shad, Engel said. Fish also seem to have good spawning success annually in the lake. MDC will also be stocking hybrid striped bass in the lake in the next few years.

Hamilton City Lake is one of many community lakes that MDC helps manage for good fishing. To use Find MO Fish to find a lake near you, go to mdc.mo.gov/mobile/mobile-apps/find-mo-fish. The app also for some lakes will help anglers pinpoint underwater structure that attracts fish.

Connect with nature on land or water at mdc.mo.gov.