Missouri Lakes Fishing Report by Steve Wilson

Lake - Lake of The Ozarks 08/09/06:

The dog days of summer of here. And the fishing has declined because of it. The lack of rain and low water sure doesn’t help.

Lake level: 658.24 with minimum generation scheduled for the next few days. This should hold the lake steady at 658.2. Truman lake level: 704.9

Water temps: The main channel is running 85-87 degrees. And the creeks up the rivers 88-90 degrees.

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. It seems early in the mourning is best for the structure bite. The majority of the bass are either deep on structure relating to brush piles or suspended under deeper docks. Look for cover (brush) on points, humps in 15'-25' deep. 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'. They have a good selection of deep cranks at the MAO-Store. We haven’t had a good rain here in a long time. A little rain would bring some color to the back of the Gravois and bring the shad up. The fishing is starting to get good on the shallow docks in this area. Look for shad schools on the flats and fish shallow docks and horizontal wood with spinnerbaits and crankabaits. This patterns better later in the day.

Glaize: Clear with the upper Glaize stained. Fish are still biting in the brush on structure. But their getting harder to come by. It seems early in the mourning you can get a couple of good fish off the best structure/cover spots. Then it is hard work. The best baits are football jigs in PBJelly. And 10" Power Worms fished deep through the cover on structure at 18'-25'. After about 9 in the mourning the boat traffic becomes too much to stay out on the structure even in the week. More action can be found up the Glaize around PB1. The water has a little color but is in bad need of rain. The shad are still feeding on the nutrients available up there though. This is a great area to fish wood along natural banks. The bass set up on the wood to ambush shad. You can catch them on crankbaits and spinnerbaits. And the bigger ones like 10" Power Worms in Blue/Flk. You can get them at Osage Bait & Tackle.

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. When the get fussy a drop shot finesse worm works good. Shad are starting to show up in the rivers. But not like they did last year. I think the water being down has hurt the shad fry. They need the food and cover that is available at 659+ water level. At 658 the shoreline grass doesn’t have any water in it. Just for example last year the water was higher and in areas of high shad populations it looked as if you could walk across the shad schools. And fish were busting them everywhere. This year the same areas hold shad. The water is about 1 ½ foot lower and you can see a few flicker on the surface and an occasional bass feeding on them. Up the Osage seems a little more fertile. But not much. With the water being down and not as much bait fish the fishing hasn’t been good on the shallow flats. The fish are Located in the middle to the mouths of creeks on deeper docks with brush. 12'-15' seems to be the best depth. They are biting plastic worms and jigs.

Osage river: Stained to about 40 mile marker then it starts to color up and dirty past the 60 mile marker. The fishing is different in the river this year. The baitfish aren’t acting like they have been for the past 20 years. The big shad are staying on the bottom and the fry aren’t growing up very fast. The better fish have been deeper than past years. They are on deeper docks from the middle to the mouth of the creeks and main river ledges. Plastic worms and jigs fished through the brushpiles around the docks is producing best. Darker colors in dirtier water. The bite is slow. But these deeper fish are good quality. There are some smaller fish on the horizontal wood on flats and they can be caught on small spinnerbaits and crankbaits. But until those shad get bigger on the flats the better fish won’t waste their time with them.

Thanks and Good Luck!

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