Lake of the Ozarks

[Mid-MO]

Anyone know if any part of the lake is clearing up yet?  I'm going somewhere this weekend - but just looking for some direction.  I've been down around the dam/Gravois area the last two weeks - best clearity I've found is less than 2'.   Looks like they are going to be dropping it quite a bit over the next few weeks - hope that helps.

[cart7t]

From what I've heard, the clearer water is down by the dam.  Upstream it's pretty muddy.  The bite has been sporadic and tough.

[harshman]

I'm heading down there tonight to spend the weekend. I'll give you a folow up on Monday if it will help any.

Harshman

[djmax22]

I was there around March 25. We drove around looking for some clear water. The only clear water we could find was in Mid-Lake. You could acutally see where the water muddy and clearer water merged. Water visibility was around a foot at the time in the clearest water we could find. All of the fishing reports have stated the bite is good around mid-lake on a jig. However, I have still found the bite to be tough.

[Mid-MO]

I had thought about trying the area around Hurricane Deck.  The local guys doing well in the tournaments seem to be fishing in the 30 MM range.  I'm guessing that the area right above where the Niangua dumps in (and the Glaize on down) has to be quite a bit cleaner than the rest of the Osage past those arms.  

What area were you in?

[djmax22]

We boated deep down to the Niangua arm but it was so muddy and full of debris we returned to Mid-Lake. The water was much clearer and we at least caught a couple of fish.

[Mid-MO]

Fished Saturday from the 41 MM to the 35MM at Huricane Deck.  Today I fished out of Shawnee Bend in Davey Hollow and Buck Creek.  Water temps were 51 to 54.  Muddiest the water has been yet for me in the past 4 weekends I've been.  Cleanest water I fished was in Davey Hollow - about 6" of visibility in spots.   Plenty of boats on the water both days.

Yesterday fished from about 10:30-5:00.   Threw crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and jigs.  My wife had a pretty good day.  She caught three keepers and one just short (14 1/2").  The four went about 9 pounds, the biggest was 4-2.  She caught all of them on a wiggle wart.  One came on a creek channel bank in the back of a cove, one on a laydown just off a point, the last two on a point close to the creek channel.  

I only caught one keeper yesterday (lost another) both on a wiggle wart.  Both of mine came on the same point as her biggest fish (caught 5 off the point total).  

Only fished about 3 hours today (at Shawnee Bend).  Caught my only keeper on a wiggle wart behind a dock just off a secondary point.  All of the fish we caught were shallow - less than 4' of water.

Lot of boats throwing a spinnerbait.  I threw one for a while but kept coming back to crankbaits.   It seems that you have to fish all day to find one point with one sweet spot on it where you can catch multiple solid fish.  Three of my four trips this year have been like this.  Other than those few spots, it is tough and make for some long stretches between fish.  

More rain comig this week it sounds like.  I don't know how long it will take the lake to get back to normal - but it looks like it is going to be a while.