Rob P

Thanks for the report! 48-51 degrees and water has dropped back to about 659. I'm heading back in 2 weeks then every other weekend in April. What do you guys think about the A-Rig with smaller baits in shallow water? That should start a bite. I would think the eyes should be biting in those temps.

Didn't get out this weekend, Sunday-Monday was 20-25mph winds. Sadface, but always next time..

We will probably splash the boat this weekend? Hows fishing been?

This past Saturday was the day to fish for us and it poured.. We never got out this past weekend. Hows fishing recently guys??

awesome to see this being done. now I need to find a good map and then remember these spots.

I'll try your tip this weekend. Friday looks cold but Saturday its supposed to be in the 60s! I know a few back coves with brush in 7-12 fow.

Had a good weekend fishing, water was from 77-80 degrees. Bass were deep off chunk rock, 10' deep to 20, away from shore on jigs. Near sunset we caught a few each night in the shallows on flat billed cranks. Zip trolling, only had one on and we lost her. Still marking fish 20-35' suspended anywhere from 40-90fow.

Hows fishing? I'm heading down next weekend. Has water temp dipped below 80?

Absolutely make sure your lures run true before using leadcore. We've had mega foulups when a lure slowly crossed over another line. That stuff is expensive and an absolute pain to untangle.. Only downside is the weight of rod/reel and lots of leadcore reeling in a fish or resetting. It gets tiring on the hands. I now use line counter reels, thin 6/30 powerpro, (clip weights if needed) and depth charts for each bait. * We also estimate line from reel-first guide as 2 ft, then pull out 25 lengths. That's also a good method for the non counter reels.

I'm gonna try trolling the lipless cranks this weekend. "haven't seen another boat around, and this is the 8th time there. " That's why I love this lake!

Pontiac area was pretty clear, most debris moved to shore or it sank. .Yep, shallow cranks at sunset did pretty good. Lots of flooded timber so prime looking spots were targeted more than outlying brush. I troll for the walleye so make sure you can pinpoint your baits at the right depth.

Hot days and slow fishing. Lake dropping slowly, clarity was pretty good. Down pours early in the week probably raised the lake up. Caught fish on jigs deep and smaller fat cranks, nothing on topwater. Trolling was sporadic, marked them @ 15 to <20fow which was not typical for summer. We had to pull up the baits to not drag them under the fish.

I was using something similar to their Bare Naked Chartreuse/Blue or Blue Moon. more blue less green...

Only fished a few hours this past weekend. Caught a few walleye trolling deep, fish were at 20-30ft suspended in 70-90fow. Fat wobbly cranks worked the best, probably the action in the wobble. Water was 82-84 degrees and pretty clear of debris.

I saw Oakland Marina floating away from shore. Do you know are they disconnected from power? We also trolled the old shore line, marked a ton at 20-30fow, out to 60ft. Got a few marks to come up but no takers trolling cranks.

It was definitely a jig bite last weekend. Nothing on cranks or topwater, very surprised.. Caught a ton of the drop, then on the bottom near old shoreline. Water was pretty clear, at times you could easily see 5-6ft. Unlike summer when its 10ft+. But with all the rain and high water it was better than expected.

Oakland area, ramp near closed Ozark isle is available.

Started slow but we finally figured it out.. Smallies and spots, gills but few largies. We had 2 very nice smallies close to 18" and one really fat spot, all released. Jigs on the drop or twin tail off the bottom caught all our fish. Nothing on cranks or topwater and we really tried. At times it was charteuse, other times they wanted lime or white. It was fun argruing between the three of us in my boat. My buddies in boat 2 same results, different colors worked for them but basically jigs produced the fish. We had beautiful sun and terrible down pours. Lunchtime each day we blasted clays for a few hours. Very fun weekend until that lightening storm Friday night knocked out my water pump. All fixed and ready to go back in a few weeks.

this weekend.

Pontiac Marina

I saw the Ozark Times pics of the Theodosia area. Was it only a few years ago we could access the 160 bridge from the water and jump off. That's a lot of water, and it all needs to go south to Lakeview. I hope the fish take pity on us next weekend..

wow ok thanks.

how about now? whats the water look like up near Theodosia? I plan to fish near Pt 9, Oakland/Pontiac and west arm.

Very informative, thank you. I was just starting to redo my battle plan for fishing in 2 weeks. Chocolate water needs a new strategy.

OK so the lake is way up. Whats the current temp? 80 degree air temps will bring up that surface temp. Then towards end of next week its back to the 60's as the high. I'm trying to think back a few years.. We did catch fish trolling but at the old location, just deeper. ..topwater and jigs inside the brush holes ..As water stabilized fishing parallel to submerged brush produced fish. I'm heading down in a few weeks.and trying to keep a positive fishing attitude.. I remember the big one where the lake hit 695. We might see that in a few weeks. Even a few years ago it was within 5ft of that mark. Back in the 70's we had a similar height.. After some clean up locally, help out neighbors, the fish will be waiting and hungry.