Missouri Lakes Fishing Report by Steve Wilson

Lake - Lake of The Ozarks 07/12/06:

Night Fishing has been really good this summer. But the fishing during the day out on structure is hard to beat.

Lake level: 659.73 with minimum generation scheduled for today and light for Thurs and Fri. This should hold the lake steady at 659.7. Truman lake level: 706.17

Water temps: The main channel is running 82-85 degrees and the creeks up the rivers or mid 80 to 87 degrees. The warm temps coming this weekend will really warm things up in the shallows.

Dam and Gravois areas: Clear with some stained in the back of the Gravois. The majority of the bass are either deep on structure relating to brush piles or suspended under deeper docks. The big fish (the ones on the deep structure) are biting both day and better at night on the same locations. Look for cover (brush) on points, humps in 12'-25' deep.

The shallower brush usually works better at night or early in the mourning. The deeper stuff works better in the sunny slick conditions. During the day ½ -3/4 football jigs in PBJ and Watermelon and 10" Power worms in Watermelon and Blue/Flk. Texas or carolina rigged depending on how vertical you are fishing. There is also some fish being caught on the DD 22 above brush in 12'-16'.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with these structure fish. They are willing to bite and they like new things like drop shots and deep spinnerbaits. This is a great lake to practice new techniques because of the large bass population. At night a 10" Blk/Neon Power Worm Texas rigged with a 5/16 weight is hard to beat.

Glaize: Clear with the upper Glaize stained. The bite is really good on the deep brush around the points. But the boat traffic is just awesome even during the week. The traffic dies off a little at night. But that’s when you need to be very careful.

Early in the mourning before the big boats get out fish the football jig and Texas/Carolina rigged Power worms. And at night tuck inside the points and fish deep brush around docks. Blk/Neon 10" Power Worms Texas rigged and ½ RattleBack Jigs in Black with a Black Zoom Super Chunk or Ultravibe Chunk fished slowly through the brush are taking the bigger fish. Blk single spin spinnerbaits work good on cloudy nights when the fish are roaming shallower.

Nianguas: Clear with some stained in the upper portions of both rivers. The lake has much less traffic here. The night fishing is also very productive and much safer. Remember the Lake of the Ozarks is almost 100 miles long and 30 miles of it is dominated by big boats. But the other 60 miles which is bigger than most lakes and has very little boat traffic. A fisherman can catch a ton of fish on this lake without ever having to fight those big boats.

The brush around boat docks dominates the night bite. Blk 10" Power Worms and ½ RattleBack Jigs. During the day bass can be caught many different ways. Topwaters work good in the mournings and cloudy day. There is plenty of brush on the points also at 12'-15'. The patterns that work on the lower end work here also. There is also spotted bass and some largemouth feeding on the shad fry. They can be caught on small crankbaits and spinnerbaits.

Osage river: Stained to about 40 mile marker then it starts to color up and dirty past the 60 mile marker. This is the calm side of the lake. You can fish all day up in the river during the week and maybe come across a few bass boats. And very rarely see a big boat. Miles of water full of bass. Some of the structure patterns hold true in the 30-60 mile range of the Osage. The fish get shallower on the points as you go up lake. Right now there seems to be fish doing a couple of different things in the river.

They are relating to brush around the deeper docks in creeks. Where they can be caught pitching 10" Power Worms, 3/8 Rattleback Jigs and creature baits. Blk/Blue and Blk/Neon are good colors up the river. The other group of fish are relating to the schools of shad fry. They will set up on any available cover to ambush these fry. Which are a inch to a inch and a half long. Small reaction baits are what is needed to catch them. Those fish are running a lot smaller than the dock brush fish.

Thanks and Good Luck!

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