Missouri Lakes Fishing Report by Steve Wilson

Lake - Lake of The Ozarks 10/18/06:

Water temps are falling and the big fish are starting to turn on at Lake of the Ozarks!

Lake level: 657.22 with minimum generation scheduled for the next few days. This should hold the lake steady at 657.2 Truman lake: 704.30

Water temps range from 55 to 67 degrees.

Dam and Gravois areas: Clear. There is still a good structure bite at 18'-35'. 1/2 and 3/4 Football jigs in PBJ and watermelon. This pattern dominated the FLW last week. Deep cranks are also taking fish at 12'-16'. DD 22's in lavender shad. Crash these baits into brush and stop them to get a reaction strike. Look for brush besides docks near main points. On cloudy days it is hard to beat a topwater fished in the same areas. With the lake 3' low the main lake points have been best for deep and topwater patterns. Up the Gravois there are a few fish starting to follow the baitfish. They can be caught around shallow docks with spinnerbaits, crankbaits and jigs.

Glaize: Clear with some color in the upper reaches. The Glaize is really clear and the deep ledge football jig pattern is working here also. The first couple of miles at the mouth of the Glaize is best. Another pattern working in this area is to fish the backs of the docks in the pockets. Look for shad. The better pockets will have shad flicking around in them. Topwaters have been good on cloudy warm days. Fish them over the main points.

Nianguas: Clear with stained water in the upper reaches. With the drought we been having the Nianguas have been clearer than normal. The water being 3' low doesn’t help any. These rivers are fishing much different than in past. Deeper patterns such as DD22 and football jigs are effective in this part of the lake also. Fish a little shallower 5'-16'. Brush doesn’t seem to be as much a factor as being on the right point is. There are some shallow fish around. But after the beating they been taking are hard to catch. Spinnerbaits and crankbaits have been taking the most fish.

Osage River: Clear around Hwy 5 bridge, stained from 45-60 mile markers and dirty from 65-85 then it clears up again around Truman Dam. The shallow fish got beat up pretty bad here also. They are missing a lot of baits and following lures. This usually is from fishing pressure. Hopefully a week off will get these fish wanting to eat lures again. Even up the river the fish have been relating to main lake points. Deep to medium diving crankbaits followed up by a football jig will pretty much cover the points. On the docks fish spinnerbaits just under the foam and pitch jigs behind the cables on cold front days.

Thanks and Good Luck!

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