Missouri Lakes Fishing Report by Steve Wilson

Lake - Lake of The Ozarks 06/21/06:

Warming water temps and hot days have moved bass deeper on structure. And has made night fishing a much more comfortable way to fish. But the fishing remains good 24/7 at Lake of the Ozarks!

Lake level: 659.34 with light generation scheduled for today, med Thurs and light Fri. This will put the lake at 659.4, 659.2 and 659.3 if we don’t get any significant rain. Truman lake level: 707.13

Water temps: The weather has been extra hot this week raising water temps a few degrees. 79-81 in the Dam area in the mourning and mid to upper 80's in the shallows of the river in the afternoon. The main lake is averaging 80-84 degrees.

Dam and Gravois areas: Clear with some stained in the back of the Gravois and larger creeks. This area of the lake is in normal summer patterns. Most of the fish have moved a little deeper on structure and some have suspended near deeper docks. The fish on structure are anywhere from 12'-20' They can be caught on the same lures just a little deeper. They can be caught on Zara Spooks good in the mourning and cloudy days.

Fish docks around these structure zones. On sunny calm days fish texas rigged power worms in the 7" and 10" size and jigs through the brush on the structure. A carolina rig can also be used and works better if the position of the brush isn’t exactly located. Deep diving cranks are effective to. Check out the MAO Store and see the Specialty Tackle deep diver. Those along with the Rapala DT 16 and Bill Norman DD 22 in shad have been productive. At night fish the same structure and dock brush just inside the points with Blk 10" Power Worms or large plastic baits and jigs.

Glaize: Clear with the upper Glaize stained. The better fish are down deep on structure here from 12'-20' here also. Fish texas rigged soft plastics and jigs slowly through the brush on structure. Use a large enough weight to get you down deep into the brush. 5/16-1/2 Bullet weights for the big worm and ½ or larger jigs. You can keep the colors pretty simple down that deep. Have a natural color like watermelon and a darker one like Blue/flk. Same with the jig.

Those deep fish aren’t that picky. That don’t have too many lures that are presented to them correctly. So they’re not as conditioned. Deep cranks are also a good option and a great way to locate fish on structure. Once a fish is caught on the crankbait a marker buoy can be thrown out or GPS way point marked and the area can e fish more thoroughly with the jig and big worm.

Nianguas: Clear with some stained in the upper portions of both rivers. Bass can be caught on topwaters such as Zara Spooks, chuggers and buzzbaits in the mournings or cloudy days. During the day fish brush on structure and around docks at 6'-14'. Texas rigged worms and 3/8 Rattleback jigs fished through the brush have produced best. These same locations are excellent night spots. Also the fish seem to be a little shallower in the Niangua at night and they will bite a blk spinnerbait there. There are some shallow fish biting spinnerbaits and shallow cranks but they aren’t the size of the structure fish.

Osage river: Stained to about 40 mile marker then it starts to color up and dirty past the 60 mile marker. The fishing has been more consistent on the structure just inside creeks from Hurricane Deck Bridge to the 50 mile marker. The fish are doing the same things they are doing on the lower lake. The difference is the structure is shallower. There are good main and secondary creek points from the bridge all the way to the 60 mile marker.

Carolina and texas rigs, football jigs and medium running cranks have all been good on structure from 4'-8'. Above the 60 mile marker where the water is much dirtier. The bite gets shallower from 2'-6'. There has also been a lot of current in the upper portions lately. The fish are getting on the docks with brush and being caught on 3/8 Rattleback jigs in Blk/blue and 10" Power worms in Blk/Neon and Blk/Blue. These are better females. The keepers are setting up on horizontal wood and are feeding on spawning shad and bluegill. They will bite a buzzbait good in the mourning and switch to a chart/white spinnerbait or square bill crank as the sun comes out.

When the current from Truman Dam turns on and off it changes the fishing. It can change the bite from the shallows in the creeks to the drops on the main river just like that. So always keep an open mind and never think that just because you aren’t catching them they aren’t biting for some reason. When you stop catching then it is a sign to change.

Thanks and Good Luck!.

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