Missouri Lakes Fishing Report by Steve Wilson

Lake - Lake of The Ozarks 07/19/06:

The dog days of August are here a couple weeks early this year. 100 degree air temps have put the fish in a late summer mood. And the bite has declined because of it.

Lake level: The lake has dropped 3/4 a foot. 659.17 with medium generation scheduled for the next few days. Predicted lake levels of 659.1, 659.0 and 658.8 for the next few days. Truman lake level: 705.94

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. Patterns have remained the same. Just the bites are harder to come by. 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 dropping lake and current provided by the generation has made the structure fish your best bet. 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 good on the deep brush around the points. The current from the generation has put the fish tight to structure. 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. At the mouth of the Nianguas near the Hwy 5 Bridge the few points near the channel with brush are holding structure fish. Football jigs, Texas rigged worms and DD 22's have been taking the better structure fish. 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 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. 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. This pattern has been stronger since they started dropping the lake. 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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