Missouri Lakes Fishing Report by Steve Wilson

Lake - Lake of The Ozarks 02/06/06:

OK It’s really Cold now! Winter has decided to show up at Lake of the Ozarks! Water temps have dropped and fish have moved to more vertical structure.

Lake Levels: 657.17 They will be dropping the lake slightly the next few days. Predicted lake levels the next few days are 657.1, 657.0 and 656.9 Truman lake level: 705.95

Garmin Water Temps: Dam 42-43 on sunny northwestern banks. Gravois 38 in the upper and 41-42 in the middle Gravois. Glaize 38 upper and 41-42 around the Glaize bridge. Main Osage from Tool Bridge to Hurricane Deck Bridge 42-40 Nianguas 39-45

I am breaking down the lake into 4 "fishable" sections. The lake will be fishing even smaller now that it has turned colder. Most of the lake will be below 40 degrees. Which is bad! Look for warmer water.

Dam and Gravois: Clear. Fish have been moving to more vertical structure near the mouths of pockets in the main lake and main Gravois. Bluff end points have been the best place to intercept them. They like to use places like this during colder weather. They can move up on the rock real easy or back off and suspend when they are in a neutral mood.

The bluff ends where the channel touches them are best. To catch the neutral suspended fish. Cast jerkbaits Rogues, Lucky Craft Pointers in 78 and 100, Specialty Tackle Z-Waves and Megabass. And fish them slow with minute pauses between jerks. The ones that have been working best in this clear water have been the Specialty Tackle Z-Wave-M and Megabass 110. Shad colors.

I bet the Z Wave-D might work really good in this situation. It dives a little deeper. This would be a good bait to experiment on these bluff end fish will it’s still cold. You can get them at Mao E-Store. The more active fish, which seem to be mostly spots, can be caught by pitching a small 5/16 jig against the rocks on the face of the bluff.

Fish jig down from 2'-10'. The best fish will be near the point or just inside it. There is also a good jig bite in the middle Gravois around deeper boat docks. Fish 5/16 and 7/16 finesse jigs around brush at 12'-14' in front of the docks in creeks.

Glaize: Clear. The best bite has been from the mouth to the Fort Leonard Wood Rec area. It is too cold above there. The same patterns have been working in the Dam area are working here. With the exception of the wigglewart. For some reason they are still hitting the wart fished on the secondaries. It is really too cold for this.

They shouldn’t be on horizontal banks or bite a fast moving bait when it’s this cold. But bass don’t read books and do strange things from time to time. That’s why it is good to use prior experience as a starting point and let the fish tell you what they want to do on a given day. I have seen them bite on several different colors of warts but crawdad colors with a little chart in it has been best. For the jerkbait and jig the main Glaize bluff ends have been best.

Toll Bridge to Hurricane Deck bridge area. The cold front has hurt this section of the lake. The water has a little stain to it as you head toward the Hurricane Deck bridge. The water temp goes up and it gets clearer as you go toward the Toll bridge. The fishing is better going towards this direction.

Fish the small pockets just off the main Osage. It’s best if the pocket is just inside main channel bluffs. Fish the steep banks in the pockets. These banks will have 45 degree to vertical chunk rock. This is where the old creek channel went up against the bank.

Fish can move up and down vertically from a neutral to feeding mode on these banks. Fish 5/16 jigs, wigglewarts and jerkbaits on these banks. The jig and wigglewart are more effective in these places.

During cold front conditions like we have now you can’t beat the 5/16 jig. Pick natural crawdad colors and blk/blue and fish these jigs from 4' out to 10-12'. Key on the rocks. If there is any brush there great. But it is not important. The fish are moving up and down on the rock.

Nianguas: Clear. The wart and the jig rule in this area of the lake. With the jerkbait and spinnerbait also an option. The warmer water allows you to fish faster and cover more water with the wigglewart. I use the wigglewart to quickly identify creek channel banks that are holding fish.

Then I fish the ones that I caught fish off of slowly with the 5/16 jig. During cold front conditions these two baits will give you excellent coverage. The aggressive fish will hit that crankbait. But there are usually a few non aggressive ones that will bite the jig within a few feet of where the crankbait fish was caught.

During better weather conditions you can do the same thing with a white spinnerbait with nickel blades slow rolled across the rocks. I really like the short creeks in the middle of the Big Niangua from Bridal Cave to Hwy 5 Bridge. They offer short creek channel banks and it doesn’t take long to fish them. You can run a lot of them during the course of a day and find the ones that hold fish.

Thanks and Good Luck!

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