BK86bass

Heading to Truman lake and Lake of the Ozarks next Wednesday through Sunday. Putting in at Bledsoe Ferry ( Ozarks) & Osage Bluff marina. Anybody fished these sections of the lakes?? I noticed from looking at water levels Ozarks is 2' low and Truman is 4' high. I'm assuming with the water in the low 60s the fish will be spawning. Probably start in the backs and work out.... what you guys think?

Melvern 4-23-16 Fished from about 830- 4 then went back out around 6 and fished til dark. caught 72 fish on the day. Majority were Smallies with 8 keepers being caught and two biggest were in the 17" range. weights were 2.65 , 2.71. Still haven't caught that 4+ I've been hoping for all spring. Camped over night and woke up to 3-4' rollers and 20-30 mph winds. needless to say we loaded up and came home sunday morning. Eureka lake 4-25-16 Water temps ranged 63-68 . Fish were being very picky but managed to boat 35+ fish. Biggest largie was 4.14 . Caught a PB Walleye that came as a complete shock as I set the hook the rod loaded up and fought like no walleye ever has before. 5.77 hog. Seemed like all the fish were on beds but every fish I caught was still holding eggs. red on the tails and belly so they were on the verge. Would of weighed just over 15# on the day. Still had fun although there are a lot bigger fish in that lake.

We fished in the wind to get away from the crowds most of the time. Most people don't want to go brave the 2- 3' rollers. made it tough to feel the fish at times but we got after them. Caught a 2.46# white bass along with 11 of his buddies and a 15" crappie that a friend took home to clean. YES we found the males and surprisingly a lot of the 14" fish were females. Looked like they had a pop can for a gut full of eggs. I only caught one fish all weekend that looked to of been spawning and she was caught down lake where the temps were right at 60. Possibly going out Monday depending on the rain and if I get the itch to go smoke another gobbler with the bow. Good luck to y'all this weekend.

yeah I'm not familiar enough with the lake to know where the big girls like to spend their time early spring. we were fishing points and secondary points or any irregularity they we could see or find off shore. rock piles, boulders, shelf rock etc. Lost a couple smallies that would of kept but they were being real acrobatic and threw the hook. O well still a fun couple days on the lake minus the wind.

Melvern lake : Sat / Sun combined for a total of around 100 fish. Wind was definitely a burden throughout the weekend. Unfortunately there were only 6 keepers in 2 days of fishing. Only one being over 18" and it was a largemouth. I'd have to say there is a healthy population of 14.5 - 14.75" type of fish because we caught a bunch of those. water temps ranged from 53-66 depending where you were on the lake west to east south to north. Hoping for a better outcome in a few weeks.

Kingman SFL : Got to the lake around 5 and fished til 830ish. Pretty windy out which kept me out of the area I prefer to fish. Ended up catching 16 total fish. The fish are very healthy and look like footballs. Water temps ranged from 60-64. Fish were definitely pulled up shallow and caught majority of my fish in 1-2'. Caught two that had already spawned out. Caught 5 keepers which like I assumed would be in that 2# range. Biggest of the evening was 2-4 . Stuck a pig in a brush pile and got her up once and she dove straight back down and wrapped me up and ended up pulling off. My best guess was lower 6 type fish. All in all a successful Thursday afternoon outing. One guy fishing off a rock Jedi was using cut perch and I watched him catch a 30" Northern Pike. Unfortunately it went into the Basket. Another gentleman was fishing near the south ramp and caught a few channels. nothing big. 2# fish. I'd say two years time and this lake will be back to the way it was in 2011 with a great population of 4-6# fish

My biggest female from MSFL

thanks guys, going to give em hell for two days so hopefully we do alright. Hard to beat some smallie fishing that's for sure. Appreciate all the input.

Which baits do you suggest for targeting the smallies this weekend? any areas you would suggest checking out?

Have the Smallies started to spawn yet?

yessir, i'll post an update on Friday morning

Fished Maxwell refuge on Sunday and WOW what a Zoo that was. Fished out of a buddies small aluminum john boat and fished behind multiple boats for the 4 hours we fished. At one time I counted over 70 people fishing from the bank. Never saw another boat land a fish. I caught 4 fish all being over 15". total weight was just over 13.5# Had a 5.5, 4, 2.25,2. Cant seem to load pictures because size of pictures are too big. Don't know water temps either (buddies boat has no units) Hitting up Kingman state fishing lake tomorrow. Before they dredged that lake I had 25-27# stringer days on my 5 best fish. With the restocking I'm guessing a lot of 2.5# type of fish. First time back to the lake in 2 years.

New to the Forum: Heading to Melvern in a couple weekends to tackle some of the smallies in the lake. What is the water temperatures looking like from the Dam down to mid lake? Seem to catch a lot of fish there but nothing really big. Any help would be appreciated. Going April 16th & 17th.