Navarro Mills Lake - all mine

Fished on Lake Navarro Mills Tuesday morning. Mine was the only boat on the lake and the water was flat as glass. Was hoping for crappie and fishing with minnows, but wound up with a mixed catch - bass, crappie, and a bunch of white bass. Plenty of fish, even if it wasn’t all crappie.

Livescope was showing fish around the trees and stumps where I was trying for crappie, but no luck there. Most everything I caught was at the dam in 20’.

Sounds like you had a great day!

Glad you had a good day.

Howdy, Red. It was fun. Too bad the wife had decided to quit fishing. I found a big school of fish down by the dam, caught one and found out what they were and for half an hour or more I caught a white bass every time I dropped a minnow near the bottom. Thank goodness for Spot-Lok.

Down by that concrete structure we fished unsuccessfully, I reeled in a few big crappie and a bass of about 3 pounds. He gave my crappie pole and the 6 pound test a real workout. Around the stumps we fished I caught nothing. Not even a bite. But I lost my pink jig head. Replaced it with a chartreuse one, went to the Dam and tore up the white bass. I’m still wondering if the Jig head color change mattered.

A good day for a mediocre fisherman...

i'm planning my next trip to Navarro Mills. I may PM you for some hints since i know you have had some luck out there! i've got side imaging and livescope so hope i could piece together a successful trip without wasting too much time.

More than happy to share the info I have. Just say when you want the download.

I should mention that we’ve had best luck with minnows, and I say that because the Marina is being sold, so they don’t have any minnows right now. The General Store on hwy 667 has them though.

Went last weekend and didn't get a bite in my normal spots, first toss at one of the cormorant trees with a pink head crappie jig and white grub got me a 4lb cat on my ultralight, that was a great little battle. I drifted the dam and found a ton of fish, couldn't get anything to bite on shad though. One day I'm going to break down and buy minnows.

Is Peggy`s still open?The make a GOOD bacon cheese burger!

Peggy’s is still there, but new ownership. Some folks now call it the General Store. The locals call it Peggy’s. I never tried their burger. There in Dawson is the Country Kitchen, and they have a great burger and really good onion rings. And a breakfast menu that rivals Waffle House.

The wife and I camp at Liberty Hill COE Park a lot, mostly because it’s close enough to home to drag the trailer over, set it up, and then go get the boat.

Is Liberty Hill open for camping? I used to love camping there.

Yep! Busy on the weekends, I think, but almost empty during the week.

Cool. Thank you

Seems they are out of the creeks so I would appreciate if you shared the info you have on finding those elusive crappie.

Plus #1.

theres a guy who put out thousands of crappie condos on that lake, groups of 6. look for the bucket on the bottom, and fish the buckets.

If you launch at Oak Park they have a map with coordinates for a lot of structure. I’ve checked quite a few of them and most are very close to the spot. There are hundreds of stake beds. They are very easy to find with side imaging. There are also a lot of submerged trees out from the marina. Usually a few fish hanging out there. I’ve only fished NM for about a year and never with the water level at almost 6’ high. Let us know how you do.

Hey LP that guy would be Mr. Keith Spear! He lives nearby in Malone & knows NM like the back of his hand & he`s one heck of a Crappie Fisherman but he hasn`t been on the forum in a while. I`ve tried calling but haven`t been able to contact him. He has put me on some spots on NM that I never knew were there & also gave me some aerial geographic photos of areas ie. "THE SHOE","THE BRIDGE". a certain spot up in "ASH" & other locations when the lake was low so I would be able to target them when the lake returned to normal pool .I`ve been hoping someone would chime in that know`s what became of him. WHERE R U KEITH???

Thanks as always Rod for your info!

its a very small lake, so getting it figured out shouldnt br too hard. I plan to make a trip soon as well,. love learning new lakes.

if all else fails the marina is usually good for a fe ive read... they used to pull 2lb plus crappie out of there often.

FISHBONZ u are over your pm limit

He is alive and well. Don't know how much fishing he does anymore....but he commented to me on Facebook just the other day!

OKay i`ll fix it LP

That bridge is cool. I found it, but didn't have time to fish it. I've only been a few times and have a lot of learning to do. Got times the lake was up and I was hesitant to head too far back in the timber.

Here I am on NM Lake today. Water level is really high. The wife and I went out this morning and caught just a few crappie and some white bass. Plenty of fish on the Livescope, but when I dropped a minnow on their heads, they mostly observed it. Maybe this afternoon I’ll do better.

At the Marina at Liberty Hill COE Park, when I got minnows yesterday, they had maps with where the structures were and they even had the GPS coordinates of each.

Hope you get them this afternoon Kirk!

We did Ok. Per the Livescope, there were tons of fish, but most were mostly interested in examining the minnow rather than eating it.

Didn’t get to fish as much as I had hoped. I was pushing the boat off the bank and about to climb in when I slipped in the mud. Hit the water/mud like a ton of bricks, and managed to damage my already hurting left shoulder and drown my iPhone. New phone was $500. Repaired shoulder….well, we’ll see. But, luckily, my wife has decided I can still drive the tractor and shred pasture, so I guess that’s what I’ll be doing the next few days. Might have cracked a rib too. Death by fishing…who knew?