Missouri Lakes Fishing Report by Steve Wilson

Lake - Lake of The Ozarks 11/29/06:

The fishing has been really tough during the warming trend. 70 degree days might be nice for us but it makes the fish move all over the place. A winter storm warning has been issued for the Ozarks! The fishing will get really good after that.

Lake level: 656.93 with minimum generation scheduled for the next few days. This should hold the lake at 656.9 the next few days. Truman lake: 704.31

Water temps are around 54-57 degrees all through the lake. The warming trend boosted the temps in the shallows.

Dam and Gravois areas: Clear with a little color in the water up the Gravois. The dominate pattern right now is football jigs fished against the bluff banks down to 35' deep. This is still working and will hold out through the winter. If you have looked at my past years reports during the winter you will read about bluff ends, jerkbaits and jigs and glass minnows. The jerkbait works the best when the glass minnows are suspended 8'-12' deep. The jigs the best when the fish are on the bottom. I always used a 1/4 to 5/16 jig on light 10-12# Seaguar. Which kept me in the 2'-12' zone. But the Hibdons showed us all it can be done with heavier jigs. The line can be beefed up and the jigs can be fished deeper where there is less fishing pressure. Neat pattern. During the warming trend another good pattern was to fish brush piles near deeper docks. This last week the better fish I caught were on docks with a jig. They were positioned on the fronts, sides and backs of docks. The key was the wood.

Glaize: Clear with some color in the upper reaches. The jig is the way to go in this area also. Fish are biting the football jig down deep against the bluffs and they are biting smaller jigs such as Eakins and chompers around the docks. The deeper docks with brush has been the key. On cloudy days topwaters, crankbaits and spinnerbaits have been catching quality fish. The fish have been roaming around a lot. So until the weather decides to be winter these fish are not in any urgency to feed. Stop in at Osage Beach Bait & Tackle. They have a ton of these football jigs and a good selection of spinnerbaits.

Nianguas: Clear with stained water in the upper reaches. With temps in the mid 50's fish are doing a lot of different things in this part of the lake. There are some in the shallows biting spinnerbaits and crankbaits on the horizontal wood on flats near deep water. White spinnerbaits and shad colored crankbaits are working best. And then there are other fish relating to points with brush. DD 22's in shad colors are working best. The area from the split of the Osage and Niangua to the mouth of the Little Niangua works best for this pattern. Like the other sections of the lake there are fish relating to bluffs that can be caught on football jig.

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. During the warming trend this has been the best place to be. Fish have been roaming around in the backs of creeks and pockets. Covering water with a spinnerbait or a crankbait has been working good with the water temps up over 50 degrees. After the cold gets here Thursday that will all end. Then it will be back to the jig on the creek channel banks. Fish any available cover on the channel banks (docks, rocks and wood) I like to stick with my Rattleback jig in 3/8 size and heavy mono till the water temps get to the mid 40's. Then I downsize and look for clear water.

Thanks and Good Luck!

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