Mid-MO

Heading to Nemo in the morning too - though won't be there at first light (planning on leaving then).

I catch more fish on a brush hog/mad paca than anything I throw. I've been getting away from that when pitching to heavy cover. I really like the Lake Fork Craw Tube when pitching to flooded bushes and floating docks. Something compact fits into tight spaces and around overhanging branches and the Craw Tube does this while still having some bulk and a bigger profile. Sweet Beavers are also a good choice and give a different fall than tubes or brush hogs. Just bought some Big Show Craws too that I'm anxious to try.

We got rained out today, so we went to Pomme. We didn't get away very early but were on the water by 10 just as the rain was ending down there. Found water temps in the mid 60's - at least 4' of visibility up around the dam, 2' or so about 1/2 way down both the Lindley and Pomme arms They must have been pounded this morning, water was running everywhere - freshwater was coming in about every cut and cove we went in. Started up the Lindley. Pulled up on a main lake point we'd never fished and caught a 21 1/2" , 5 pounder in the first 5 minutes. Also missed an almost identical bite (soft, never felt it, line just started moving). Caught a 3 pounder pretty quickly after that. We had a decent limit in under an hour. Found fish all over the point, channel bank, and secondary point. For the most part the fish were on the outside of the bushes. We should've stayed here longer. Started moving back towards dam, hitting three different areas (seconary point off a channel bank, secondary point between two coves, main lake point off the channel) and only caught a couple. Figured they were pulling water and thought the main lake points might hold some fish. Went back towards the dam in the Pomme arm and quickly found the water to be cleaner then we wanted. Caught a couple of shorts in the back of a shady wind blown pocket but we were going a long time between bites. Sun was out by this point and not many clouds left. Went on up the Pomme into another cove we hadn't ever fished. Caught two more good keepers in a pocket off a channel bank (good mud line here from the wind). Worked a couple of secondaries with wind and some shad but didn't get may bites. We called it a day at 5. Ended up with over 30 fish and 17 keepers. A few of those keepers were 13" but most were 15"- pound a half to two pound fish. Our best five went 15#'s. We caught most on texas rigs but also caught some on spinnerbaits late in the day, and a few on a jig. Caught three good ones early and two more late, struggled at times in the middle. Fish seemed to come in groups or spurts. Broke a couple off on the hookset and one in a bush that we would've like to have seen too. Wish we would've gotten there a little earlier before it cleared off.

I fish primarily rocky lakes in Southern Missouri (not much grass, some have some standing timber, but most spots I fish have rock bottoms). Water clarity varies but I've spend most of my time in stained to dirty water lately. I haven't fished anything clear enough to see bass on the beds in the past few weeks. It's been hard for me to tell what stage of spawning fish I've been catching. That's led me to some general questions. How long do males spend building the beds? How long do they stay on the beds waiting for the female to show up (or do they leave and come back)? Assume they beat up the tales fanning the beds prior to the female arriving. How long is the female actually on the bed? I know that the fish here spawn over the course of several weeks (and longer). The last couple of trips we've caught all male bass - on Stockton lake (right in front of flooded bushes in the backs of creeks/coves) and on Lake of the Ozarks (right outside of little cuts and pockets) right on the bank. I've fished the upper ends of both lakes and haven't fished anything with more than a foot and a half of visibility. We haven't been able to catch any big females and not sure whether the majority are pre-spawn or post-spawn in these situations. Any clues or things I can look for to help identify what these fish are doing?

Sent you an email.

What ramp are you putting in at? You got any specific arm in mind to fish or just looking for a starting point?

Thanks! It had been a while since I've caught one in that range. Was hoping that with a little warmer weather in the past week - that they would be a little more aggressive. We went back to Pomme on Friday. It was cloudy all day with a north wind and never got as warm as was predicted. Water had warmed up to mid to upper 40's everywhere we fished. Looked like (judging by the water mark on the trees everywhere we went in the afternoon) that the lake had dropped a little during the day - but I'm not sure. The lake level didn't drop according to the internet report and I'm not sure if they have got the workers out of the spillway yet to let water out. Found some pretty clean water and threw a jerkbait most of the day. Couldn't ever find any groups of fish - caught 5 scattered throughout the day (just one on a jerkbait) and never caught anything bigger than 2 pounds. With it being so high (unusual for early March I think) I'm just not sure where they are. Water has raised almost 17 feet in just a few months (5' low most of the winter to 12' high now).

Went to Pomme on Sunday. Got on the water about 9. We had decided to stay in the dam area and start off on some spots that we caught fish on late last fall. The water temp was 43 when we put in, found it as high as 47 within about 4 miles of the dam. Most of the day was in the 44-45 degree range. Right at the dam had 2-3 of visibility (little dirtier at the 4MM). It stayed cloudy all day; the wind blew out of the north all day long too. We fished all morning and into the afternoon without a bite. We tried jigs (finesse and football), jerkbaits (Megabass & Lucky Craft), and a few casts with a wiggle wart, spinnerbait, and grub. We had hoped to find them on the original shoreline in about 7-9 of water right in front of the bushes. When that didn't work, we tried up in the bushes and out deeper in front of the bushes as well. We fished 4 or 5 main lake points, about 8 or 9 secondary points, and a few creek channel banks. We went to the last area we had on our list and found a boat on a secondary point we had wanted to fish. The north wind was blowing pretty good here, so we turned around and started back out on another secondary that was catching the wind. Caught our first keeper on a jerkbait in front of the bushes. It went 16" and about 2 1/2 pounds. Fished the rest of that point and on around into a pocket without another bite. Skipped to another point and got my second bite - right in front of the bushes. I knew it was a good fish when I got my first look at it, but it was bigger than I thought and ended up being a 22 1/2" - 7 pound 8 ounce female full of eggs. We stayed on that point and we caught one more 14 1/2" keeper - right out of a flooded bush. Hit a couple of other spots and it started to rain so we called it a day. We ended up with three keepers that were right around 12 pounds.

I'm anxious to get back down there. Looks like it is filling back up in a hurry (almost 842 this morning). I think they are going to let it rise quite a bit this spring until they finish the work below the dam. Anybody know the details on that for sure?

Rogers is definately worth the trip. You can find some stuff there that Bass Pro doesn't carry and almost all of their lures are cheaper there. They are also very good to work with (will even ship you stuff in an emergency during a tournament if needed). There just aren't many local tackle shops - good one in Columbia (Tombstone), decent one in Clinton (Everharts), a few around LOZ.

Fished yesterday from about 8 to 4:30. I think we only saw 5 other boats all day long. Caught 21 keepers. Most of them were in the 14" range. Didn't catch quite as many 15"+ as the last few trips but caught the biggest fish of the fall so far for us. Five best went just over 13#'s. Caught a 5.2 on a jig and a 3# on a spinnerbait. Fished mainly three areas before bouncing around a bit at the end. Caught them on the main lake all the way to the back of the coves. A few really shallow, most anywhere from 4'-8'. They seem to still be scattered - some on points, some on creek channel swings and channel banks. Caught a lot of them on wood. Did catch a few on wind blown spots as well - those were mostly spinnerbait fish and they were really scattered. Water temp was 52.5 to almost 55 depending on location. Water clarity varied a bit as well 1' to 3'. May be my last trip of the year - hit a stump idling out of Galmey Cove and bent my prop shaft. Actually hit several idling in and out of there - seems to be submerged trees everywhere in there.

Thanks for the help! Got rained out Thursday and went back down to Pomme. Started pretty slow as we tried a few new places down the Lindley arm. Wasted most of the morning bouncing around a few channel swings, a couple of coves, and a couple of main lake flats. Wasn't much wind in the Lindley arm where we were at. Ended up with three keepers for the morning. Headed back to the Pomme side after lunch and one of the spots we had caught some good fish on last Saturday. Immediately caught a 3 and 1/2 and another 15" keeper. Worked on in and caught several more keepers. Started looking for a similar spot on the map and headed down past Lightfoot. That was another mistake - spent about an hour down there and decided to head back to a spot we had passed. Found a bunch of fish stacked up there. Ended up with 12 keepers - 5 of which were over 15". Best 5 went around 11. Wish we would've gone to the Pomme side immediately. Thought it was a good time to look for some other fish but wish we'd have had the time to fish a few spots more thoroughly. It's definately hot right now.

I'm curious as to how you guys are approaching the bluff banks. How far down the bluffs are you going or are you just concentrating on the bluff ends and/or cuts/pockets along the bluff, etc?? Are you fishing big chunks of broken rock or more vertical bluff walls? I'm going to assume that there is pole timber on a lot of the bluffs - are the fish relating to that or more to rock? I didn't fish anything parallel on my last trip - made 45 and 90 degree flips to the bank with a jig. We struggled to get bites on the spinnerbait - guess we should've paralleled some of those banks too. Anything else I should be thinking about?

Went to Pomme today. Day got off to a good start as we decided to put the trolling motor down and start fishing at the ramp. There were baitfish all over the cove and we thought we might as well start there. Caught our biggest fish of the day in about 15 minutes - an 18" - 3.25 LM on a gravel bank in about 4' of water. Skipped around the Lindley a little bit on bluff ends and pockets till about lunch. Then headed into the Pomme arm. Fished a cove full of baitfish without much to show for it. Headed into Decker and caught a few more before finishing on some main lake channel swings. Went a long stretch in the middle without many bites. Didn't catch a bunch of fish - ended up with 15 - but 10 of those were keepers. Best 5 were right at 12 pounds. Four of the keepers were over 15" and a couple more just under 15". Caught one on a spinnerbait, one on a beaver, the rest on jigs. Caught a couple in about 8' the rest in less than 4'. I missed about 10 bites on the jig - they weren't taking it all that well. I had at least 4 fish pull one of the pinchers off the trailer on the hookset (must have been about all they had a hold of). Water temp was 60 most of the day, sunny all day, a little breeze. Definately worth getting down there with the water so low - saw lots of things and transitions I hadn't seen before. Thanks for all the reports/info - it narrowed our approach down today a bunch.

I've been fishing Truman Lake the past couple of weeks here in Missouri. The shad are moving back in the creeks and some big schools are still on the main lake. I've got some questions and would be interested in people's experience/knowledge on shad movements in the fall. 1. With the cooler nights - do the shad drop back into deeper water in the creek or do they move back towards the main lake (and then slowly migrate towards the back as it warms the following day)? I've been down to Truman several times in the past week in the afternoon and the shad were everywhere. I fished a tournament Saturday and I didn't find hardly any in the shallows until later in the afternoon (Though my partner wanted to fish an area about 35 miles from where I had been prefishing - so it's hard to compare). 2. Does dropping water affect the shad a great deal. Truman dropped about 1/2 a foot overnight before the tournament? 3. Truman has a lot of coves (especially in the Grand Arm) that has a steeper channel bank on one side and a lot of flatter, grassy secondary points on the other side. Would you start on the deeper side early in the morning (assuming there aren't any baitfish on the shallow flats)? 4. What about size of the shad? The shad I've been seeing are pretty small - 1 1/2" or less. Are you looking for bigger shad? 5. How would you fish this creek starting early in the morning? It's a creek on the Grand Arm between Bucksaw and Long Shoal Marinas. It's about a mile long. One side is pretty steep and rocky with scattered pole timber. About 15 feet from the bank you are setting in 15 feet of water. Pretty straight except for one bend. The other side is much flatter, has a lot of rounded secondary points and pole timber. There are a lot of bushes just barely in the water and very few visible laydowns. Water temp is in the mid to upper 70's. Lake is 3' high, water has about 2' of visibility. There have been lots of shad on the flats in the afternoons and some keeper fish scattered around it - but nothing very big. A slight wind has been blowing onto the flat in prefishing but hasn't started yet. Any other thoughts/things I should be thinking about or considering? Thanks

I'm in the same situation now as some of you were. Trying to decide between an HDS7 (basemap) without structure scan (for the time being) for $905 or the 898 Humminbird (which I haven't completely priced yet). Have similar concerns - customer service, lawsuits. Anybody know anything new on the lawsuit?? Anything new to add in general? Thanks!

Fishing out of there Saturday too - the American Water Tournament. I think St. Mary's Alumni Alumni is fishing out of there as well. Which one are you guys fishing??

I was down there last Saturday and Sunday. Saturday found 43-44 in the midlake. Early Sunday 44-45 around the dam.

Structure Graphics makes the best map I've found for LOZ. A lot of the local tackle shops will carry them or you can buy over the phone and have it mailed to you. The maps are broken into sections so make sure you get the right one for the area you are going to fish. The phone number is (636) 225-3453. They are based in Valley Park, MO.

PM Sent

Do the Falcon Originals have the blank exposed in the reel seat?

Thanks!

I've been looking at buying a bigger boat. I've spent a lot of time looking at Triton TR-186's. I'd like a dual console with a 150 HP in the 2002-2005 range. If anybody knows of one for sale - let me know. Thanks

What type of knot are you all tying with P-line CX Premium??

I've been using flurocarbon on almost all of my reels for the past 3 years. I've decided to try something different on at least one reel. Looking for something that is 1) abrasion resistant 2) sensitive 3) has low memory 4) has good knot strength. I've got some P-Line CX Premium and some Evolution. Heard some good things about the Viscious copolymer. Anyone got any suggestions?