Jbrant

Water temps were 45 to 51. Water was consistently colder towards the toll bridge. It was pretty cloudy both days, not much sunshine to warm surface or shallow water as the day went.

Fished Thursday and Friday. Caught 4 keepers on Thursday and 5 on Friday. Focused on rock transitions in the back half of bigger creeks. On Thursday we fished from the mouth of the Glaize to the Nianguas. Caught our first keeper (2-5) on rock on a spinnerbait just off a secondary point. The other 3 keepers ( 2-5, 2-1, and 4-8) all came in a small pocket catching wind that was loaded with shad on the surface. Two came on spinnerbaits and the smaller one on a jig. The biggest one came off a stump and the other two under the shad (which were all around a dock). We fished all day and never saw any other shad on the surface like this pocket. On Friday we fished from the toll bridge to Tan-Tar-A. Had 5 keepers. First came on a wiggle wart just off a secondary point. Bait temporarily hung on a big rock and the 4-9 hit it when it came off. Caught a 3-1 in the back of a creek on a spinnerbait around bigger rock. Last three keepers (all in the 2 1/2 range) came on mixed rock banks - wiggle wart, soft plastic z hog. 5 went around 14.5 pounds. Bite was fairly consistent but we struggled to catch more than one fish in a spot (other than the pocket with shad) both days. We didn't fish much main lake stuff. Fished a few deeper channel banks with jigs in the creeks. Most of our fish came on shallower stuff, cover (stumps, big rocks helped). Friday afternoon we caught more fish on shallower, mixed rock banks. Fished a lot of windblown banks and pockets. Water in the Osage was cleaner and warmer towards the Nianguas (as compared to towards the Toll Bridge). Pressure wasn't bad considering the BFL was Saturday.

Thanks MOPanfisher!

Is there a link online for the lake level forecast?

Fished Saturday morning from 7:30 to 12:30 and again Sunday morning from 7 to 9. It was overcast and cool Saturday morning, sunny and warm Sunday morning. Water was in the low 70's and muddy - though it cleared slightly in the bigger creeks. Caught 6 keepers. 1 on a buzzbait, 4 on a spook, and 1 on a football jig. All shallow or on sea walls (jig fish was in about 5' of water on a secondary point). All of the topwater fish were right on the banks or mostly on shallow seawalls. Biggest was 4+ on a spook right under a dock walkway, on a secondary point, along a seawall. Also lost another fish halfway back to the boat at least that big. Missed several fish on the spook and buzzbait. Really had to be tight to the seawall, never got a bit off of the walls. Deeper water (3'-5') in front of the seawalls helped too.

Water has been really clean down there the last few weeks. We got some rain last week and maybe more on the way this weekend. A little dirty water coming in wouldn't hurt anything. I'm guessing most of the fish will be in post spawn. The whole tackle box should be in play. If the water is up in the bushes (which it isn't quite high enough right now), always fun to flip something into those bushes. Depending on cloud cover (I'd throw a topwater) and wind (windy banks with a spinnerbait is always good on Pomme), I'd be looking for some dirtier water and the ability to fish shallow with buzzbaits, square bills, spinnerbaits, and plastics. May have to get down one of the arms a ways to do that.

I don't know what to look for with spawning carp necessarily - but they are all over the shallows at Pomme. We fished there Friday and the big shad and carp where everywhere we fished. Some carp were cruising, others looked to be laying on the bottom.

Put in at the dam around 7:30 this morning. Water temp was around 61 and had visibility of around 12'. Lots of green slimy moss on the bottom. Immediately found some beds with fish close. Mostly smaller fish cruising the shallows with some bigger fish mixed in. Very few on the beds and nothing locked on. Big shad and carp also all over the shallow water (all day). Messed around at the dam for about an hour looking for something that might bite (they mostly ignored our lures and weren't real bothered by us being close). Decided to run to dirty water up the Lindley. Made a run down past the swimming beach and still found visibility to be at least 8'. Kept moving down towards the coves in front of the bridge and still found the water at around 8' of visibility. Finally found some dirtier water in the longer coves/creeks around Nemo. Made it down as far as Haverstick (water pushing 67 in the afternoon). Didn't catch anything big (maxed out at 14.5"). Probably caught 12-15 and missed many more bites than that. Broke a couple off, had a few come off, and generally just struggled to get them stuck. Caught and had several bites on the jig which were very soft. A couple of them I didn't know were there other than by my line moving. Had a couple swim with it briefly and then my line would jump (guessing that was them spitting it out). Only agressive bites were on a jerkbait. Had a couple hammer it. Weird bite all day. We caught fish on jigs, jerkbaits, shakey heads, texas rigs, and a swimbait. Caught several in the shade of docks and most in deeper water close to channel banks. Didn't catch anything exceptionally shallow (though we saw fish cruising in the shallows and around beds all day long). Had one fish in the back on Nemo that I messed around with for 7-10 minutes and never left my sight. Swam around the boat, by a dock, back to the shallows and everywhere in between. It was a bigger fish - guessing it's getting close to spawning - but I'm far from an expert on the spawn.

We fished Saturday from 8:30 to 4 out of Masters. Masters had the warmest water at around 61. Headed up the river and found water as cool as 56 in one cove (which seemed weird to us). Water was really clear up past Price Branch. We ended up back in Maze and wished we would've spent more time there. Saw a few beds with fish cruising in the back of one pocket. We caught fish pretty much all day on about everything we threw (jigs, spooks, square bills, buzzbait, popper, jerkbait, soft plastics - only thing we didn't get a bite on was a spinnerbait). But we couldn't catch anything with size. Just two small keepers out of 20+ fish. A few spots, few smallmouth, and the rest were largemouths. Caught them all over the coves - back to front, pockets, channel banks, etc. Most were fairly shallow. We just never put anything together - pretty random. Cloudy all day, rain in the middle, we never found much wind.

Yeah, I didn't think about parking - it would be pretty limited there. They've got a lot of old junk boats covering the place. I've never put in here but Moonies has a ramp - it's on the other side of Coffman Bend - more up around the 56-57MM. No idea what it costs or what parking is like, just see the sign on the way to the cabin.

Coffman Bend Marina is still open and has a ramp you can launch on for $7 I think. Put in there last weekend without any problem.

Fishingwrench - Where were those fish caught - channel banks, behind docks, pockets, etc??? Just curious where the better bites were for you.

Fished Saturday from about 8 to 5 from the 50 MM to the 45 MM. Water was cleaner then we expected and about 57-58 degrees everywhere. Caught my first fish (about 3 pounds) a little after 8 on a buzzbait behind a dock with some trash about 1/2 way back in the cove. Caught my second keeper - a smaller kentucky on a Space Monkey on chunk rock on the point. My brother caught a fat Kentucky around 3 on Wiggle Wart on a main lake point about 9:30. Then we went a while with out a keeper. Caught some 13-14" fish behind docks flipping tubes and beavers. Caught a short on a jerkbait and spinnerbait. Missed three strikes on a buzzbait. We fished all over - outside edges of pockets, inside small pockets, channel banks, mixed rock, chunk rock, main lake points, flipped some docks, flipped and buzzbaited some brush - basically anything where the rock looked good (chunk, mix of softball and pea gravel) or close to a spawning pocket. Might have seen a bed or two but nothing on them. Just about every fish we caught was in 4' of water or less though - just scattered without any pattern we could put together. Finished our day in Cartwright Springs on a couple of channel banks later in the afternoon. We each caught a keeper on the same cast - one on Space Monkey the other on a square bill. Moved to another channel bank and caught two more keepers on a soft plastic. Ended the day with 16 fish, 7 keepers. Best 5 went about 13 (got to get a new scale - good one quit, the other isn't real accurate). It was partly cloudy most of the day and had some wind - but we couldn't tell that either helped or hurt the fishing much.

Probably headed down too. Anyone know what the water color looks like around the 40's and 50's MM of the Osage?

Great Report!!!

You could call them more like small coves off the main lake.

Got on the water about 8:30 this morning and fished till just after 3. Caught a 5 1/2 pounder on the 5th cast of the morning on a Megabass. She was in the back of a pocket, off the bank a bit, on a nice mix of rock and was probably the softest bite of the day. My brother caught two more in the 3 - 31/2 pound range in the next 30 minutes. Both on RC Stx's - the first came towards the mouth of the same pocket, the other around the point and towards the back of the next cove - on a big chunk rock. Slowed down a bit from there. We picked up a couple 2+ pound keepers on spinnerbaits on the main lake in the wind and both lost a good fish on jerkbaits. All of these fish came around the dam. Morning started off partly cloudy with a light breeze. As the day went on the wind picked up, the clouds rolled in and by 1:00 it was raining pretty hard. Stayed rainy and gloomy the rest of the afternoon until we left. We decided to head up the Pomme and fished a couple of coves without much luck. We did find dingy water up to 55 degrees 6-7 miles up the Pomme arm. Didn't like the water color and went back towards Willow Winds. Caught another 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 pounder on a spinnerbait in the wind before the wind and lighting pushed us back towards the dam. When we got back to the dam, the wind had almost laid. Bite got a lot tougher as we worked some of the same areas as where we had started. Caught a couple more on a wiggle wart and jerkbait and called it a day. Caught over 20 total with 13 keepers. Also caught a big walleye on the jerkbait and had a HUGE muskie hit a spinnerbait right at the boat. Pretty good day to be on the water.

Great Report!

Fished about 6 hours on Monday from MM11 to the mouth of the Glaize. Water was 43 - 50 (one pocket in back of a creek with sun and breeze all day on it). Water was stained. Threw a jerkbait mainly - jig a little, wiggle wart a little. Caught 3 - no keepers. Mainly fished channel banks deep in the creeks and a few pockets. Fished this morning for about 3 hours from MM11 to Buck Creek. Caught two - including the first keeper that went 4 pounds. She came on a secondary point with a nice rock transition. Out a little deeper. Water didn't warm up much this morning - saw some low 40's to about 45. I thought the water was a little cleaner here. Did fish a little deeper today - stayed out of the channel banks in the backs of creeks.

I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to water temps but think they were mainly 57 to 60.

Put in at the dam about 8:30 this morning and fished till about 4. Fished primarily main lake points and bluff ends with wind. Caught 14 keepers and about 30 overall. A few smallmouth but mostly largemouth. Caught them on jigs, wobble heads, and spinnerbaits. Most were pretty tight to the bank. Nothing bigger than about 16 1/4" inches. Wind died down as the day went on. Hardly any boats on the water.

Just curious what stage you guys think the majority of these fish are in - pre-spawn, spawn, or post spawn? We saw some beds in the shallow pockets but only a couple had bass on them. Saw a few areas that looked like they might have some fry. We didn't catch anything that was beat up - skinny in a lot of cases, but not beat up. Didn't see any bluegil shallow. I'm sure some have spawned - just didn't know what the majority had done to this point.

1. Netbait Mad Paca - Green Pumpkin Candy 2. Netbait Mad Paca - Watermelon 3. Lake Fork Craw Tube - Green Pumpkin 4. Berkley Havoc - Green Pumpkin Purple Fleck 5. Strike King Coffee Tube - Green Pumpkin

Fished today out of Masters too. We caught around 50 with about13-14 keepers. Biggest we're 18" (battery was dead on my scale) but nothing bigger than 3 pounds. Found a little stained/cloudy water early and caught a bunch on jigs really shallow in the backs of creeks. Later in the day caught a few good ones on spinnerbaits. Guessing best 5 went 13-14 pounds. Water was really clear in spots. Did see a lot of empty beds - hardly any fish on them. Caught fish in the backs of coves, in pockets, on secondary points, in clean water, in stained water, on jigs, spooks, senkos, tubes, and spinnerbaits. Lot of fun- one big fish would've made it a really good trip.

What part of the lake are you on? Headed down tomorrow afternoon.