David Goddard

I had fished Lake of the Ozarks the 11th and 12th. The 11th I fished from PB2 to the toll bridge with a fairly tough bite. Caught 16 keepers but 6 of them were off PB2 point and there was only one fish that touched 3 lbs. The fish seemed very scattered. The 12th I fished the dam area and it was brutally tough. I was hoping to continue the shallow crankbait bite which I had the past 2ish weeks but it was completely gone. The only way we could get bit was fishing a jig, drop shot, or ned rig off bluff banks and those bites were not very big or very frequent. We fished from dawn to dark and only caught 12 bass 8 of which were keepers but our biggest 5 probably only went 10 lbs at the most. So with the bite being really tough at the lake we decided to go down to Pomme and try our luck on a lake that neither I or my buddy, Jonny, had ever been to. We fished an a-rig off of steep banks all day and caught 17.68 lbs for our biggest 5. Caught 9 keepers total and our biggest 2 were a 4.29 that I caught and a 4.13 that he caught. A couple bites came off a jig but they were not the quality of bites that the a-rig got. We missed a few good bites too, but that's always the story anyways. It was a fun day and while we didn't get a lot of bites the ones we got were good quality; plus, at Pomme you have a chance of catching a muskie which is awesome. Anyways it was a fun day and I'll be back soon, but for now I think its time to chase some wintering brown bass in my favorite creeks and rivers. Thanks for the support for the Mizzou Bass Team everyone. Tight Lines.

The Rapala BX Brat that drives to 6 ft in a shad color.

We relocated them to coffman. My buddy wanted a good pic to show is friends that were ice fishing since hes never open water fished in December before lol

Well since last weekend was so fun I decided that I would brave the cold and try my same shallow bite on main lake points with square bills on Saturday. It was like 15 degrees when a buddy of mine from Minnesota and I showed up at Coffman. He was pretty excited to be fishing open water in December. We put in and fished down towards Shawnee bend and caught good fish. We caught 12 keepers, four of which were largemouth. Caught them on main lake points and secondary points which stuck out far and had a creek channel swing up against it. We would've had like 16 or 17 pounds accept I lost two nice fish at the boat. One that was in the 5-6 pound class and a 3-3.5 pounder. Smaller square bills are still key but probably also the reason why I lost those two good fish. Small treble hooks can be very frustrating. Still a fun day. That biggest spot was 2.86 pounds so at least there's that. Tuesday I am planning on trying to run this pattern around PB#2. Hoping to catch more bigger largemouth. Retreads or otherwise I don't discriminate. Tight lines everyone. This post has been promoted to an article

Our final club tournament for the Mizzou bass team was December 1st so Justin and I headed down to the lake on Thursday Nov 29. we fished almost all day and only had 6 keeper bites but they were good ones. Cranked some shallow banks inside of main lake points with a square bill to catch my good one which was a 4.46 and actually came on a underspin and Justin's came off on an A-Rig in front of a condo dock and was 4.63. It seemed to be kind of one of those typical LOZ days where you catch a good one doing something and then try to run that pattern for the next 2 hours and get 1 or no bites. Thursday was a slower day but we had a good bag that went 14.02 pounds. Saturday was windy but warm. We fished shallow on points almost all day (0-10 foot) with an a-rig and square bill. The points with a littler steeper drop seemed to be better. We caught 20 keepers all together but 17 of them were spots. The things about the spots was that many of them were nicer ones over 15 inches and about 1.75 lbs. The 1.5 square bill seemed to be really key because the fish were feeding on smaller shad. Justin did not get nearly as many bites or better bites when he was throwing a 2.5 or a rock crawler. With about an hour left to fish we decided to try to catch a couple more largemouth because I had caught the only one, a 3.5 pounder off a break wall on an a-rig, so we fished a riprap secondary point and caught a short largemouth and lost a keeper largemouth at the boat. We ran with that idea until the end of the day and caught 2 more keeper largemouth and 2 short largemouth. The wind was pretty bad; especially in the 18.5 ft aluminum jet so it limited where we could fish a little but all in all it was a great day and we had a little over 13 ponds for our best 5. Another guy on the team caught them fairly decent fishing a spinner bait. Also, thanks for the support to the Mizzou Team guys we are looking forward to fishing the tournaments in the spring. It will be here before you know it. Now back to studying for finals...Tight Lines! This post has been promoted to an article

That is awesome! We were gawking at your R2D2 of a trolling motor as you put in lol

Got down to Truman Thursday morning last week at about 7:30 and put in at Shawnee bend. It was a perfect day to fish in my opinion. Nice and cloudy with a little wind. My partner and I ran back all the way in a smaller creek and caught 3 keepers in about 15 minutes. 2 on a buzz bait and 1 flipping a beaver. The fish were way back in the flooded "grass." I call it buck brush but I don't know what it actually is. We ran that pattern all day and caught 9 keepers Thursday. Unfortunately, "all day" meant until about 1:30 since my buddy's motor started acting up. We had 18.14 pounds for our biggest 5. As fishing stories always go, I lost like a 5 pounder on a buzzer that got me all wrapped up in the brush. If I had caught that fish we would've had over 20 for sure. Saturday we took off for the 3rd Mizzou Bass Fishing club tournament of the year at 7:30 from Shawnee Bend. Almost immediately I noticed that the lake had dropped at least 2 feet. Most of the stuff that we wanted to fish was out of the water or in just inches. We ran around and looked for brush closer to the main lake thinking that the fish might've pulled out. We did catch 6 keepers, but the quality was not the same and the bite was not nearly as good. Did scrape together 12 pounds for our biggest 5. The bite was the same though. Buzz bait in the morning or if its cloudy, spinnerbait, and flipping where the brush is really thick. All in all I think Truman is a super fun place to fish in the fall. The stained water seems to keep the fish shallow and they don't get near the pressure that the LOZ fish get. Ill 100% be back. Especially if the water is high again.

Made it down to Table Rock again, finally. Hadn't been since August and was excited to fish deep again. I had heard that guys were catching a few shallow, but I figured that with the thermocline broke up and the fish pretty well scattered everywhere that the deep bite would be the most consistent. We didn't get out on the water until like 3 in the afternoon on Saturday and got off fairly soon after that. Put in at Indian point and I had never seen so many fishing boats on the lake before. Caught one on a drop shot in about 25 ft. Sunday we put in at Mill Creek and my buddy's motor threw a rod after running for about 30 seconds so we fished off the tolling motor all day. Caught 3 keepers early shallower. 2 on and underspin and one on a spinnerbait. Coolest part was that it was a largemouth, smallmouth, and spot. Can't do that just anywhere. Then had a bit of a lull but got onto a good group of fish around noon-one o'clock and caught 5 more keepers 1 largemouth and 4 smallies. Smallies were good ones too. All 17-18 inchers. We were catching them mostly on a shakey head with a 4 inch senka on it in trees that topped out in about 25 foot. I'm fishing Truman tomorrow and Saturday and heading back to Table Rock for a long weekend in mid-Nov. Really hoping that there is a good jerk bait bite. I'll let everyone know how Truman goes this week. I think that lake can be very very good but we'll see. Tight lines.

I'm heading down to fish Saturday and Sunday. What do you think it will be like by then?

Our second club tournament of the semester was out of Drake Harbor this past Saturday. We fun fished from there Thursday and found a good pattern fishing rocky 45 degree banks and docks which ended in about 5-7 foot of water. that nice 4.5 pounder Justin is holding in the picture anchored out 14 lb bag from Thursday. On Thursday they were running current, or at least it looked that way on the water because it was so windy, we never checked the dam report online. With the current, the bite on the broke up chunk rock steep banks was much better with a spook and spinnerbait. On Saturday they didn't run current so we only caught one keeper, which was actually a meanmouth, I think, in the morning fishing the chunk rock banks. We assumed that the dock bite would be better once the sun came out. However, the sun never came out and we started catching them on docks back in the creeks in that 5-7 foot range anyways just running a spinnerbait down the side. then we ran dome broke up bluff wall stuff and caught a few more pots and I caught a 3.80 on an underspin with a keitech. We had 13.6 lbs on Saturday and if we could've culled out the one little spot we had left would've had a pretty nice sack. If y'all do Instagram give us a follow we'd appreciate it. Again thanks for the support that Mizzou Bass Fishing has received from everyone. We really do appreciate it. Tight lines.

Unfortunately I live like 3.5 hours away from Table Rock. Every time I go down I fish the Lower end because its what I know. Next time ill be in the James. That's an awesome brown bass.

We practice fished on Thursday and Friday and the college tournament Saturday. All 3 days we fished about half of the day from Coffman and Half of the Day from PB1. Day 1, on Thursday we caught good fish off of main lake docks and docks off secondary points in the Lower end area on jigs and wacky rigged senkas. We put in at PB1 at about 3 in the afternoon and made it al the way to the Swinging Bridges in a 20 ft fiberglass bass boat. Didn't catch many fish up there accept off one specific bank we caught 5 fish in about 3 minutes, one of them being a 5+. We left the rest of that bank saving it for tourney day. Shad were everywhere. I have never seen so many shad in my life that were up the creek. Day 2 we started at PB1 and fished a ton of the bank that was similar to the places where we were catching fish on Thursday but caught only a few shorts and one that was 3.25. Could not figure out why the fish were only in that one stretch yesterday but we presumed that they would still be there on tournament day. When we fished Coffman we fished some shallow docks with a fair amount of success catching a couple nice Kentucky's and one decent 3 pound largemouth. Fished some brush that was in 10-20 feet and the deeper the brush was the better it seemed but didn't catch many keepers out of there and if they were keepers they were only 15-16 inchers. Day 3 we ran from PB2 to the dam area to where we had been catching a ton of keepers for the last month and couldn't catch a fish over 13 inches. Ran to a spot around Alhonna and caught 2 keepers. The sun came out and we ran back to our good docks at the dam area and that's when I caught the 5.5 pounder on a neko rig. Then we ran all the way from within sight of the dam all the way up the Glaize past PB1 where we caught them on Thursday and we only caught 2 shorts. Got beat to death in the boat traffic, it was absolutely terrible. I guess everyone with a big cruiser thought it was their last day to get some decent weather because they were everywhere. Very frustrating day of driving. My partner and I should have just stayed in the lower end and tried to catch 2 more keepers instead of running up the river, but hindsight is always 20-20. None of the 9 teams from Mizzou qualified for nationals. One team missed by half a pound. My partner and I had 9-8 for 3 fish. It took 14-00 to qualify, so if we could've caught 2 more keepers that were 2.25 or a little bigger we would have made it. Get 'em next time I guess. Thanks for reading guys. Tight Lines.

I think it's a mean mouth. Or just a really brown spot. Not 100% sure. He definitely looks a little funky though.

Fished the Mizzou Bass Team's 1st club tournament of the year on this last Sunday. Practicing for the FLW National Qualifier this Saturday. My partner and I didn't really do that hot but we did catch 6 keepers a piece. His were nicer than mine. Had one spot that was 3 pounds so it was a nice fish. Saw schoolers in the morning and then the afternoon when we got a bit of cloud cover. Caught a lot of short schoolers. But caught keepers in anywhere from 2-40 feet. Squarebill and spinnerbait/chatterbait down the faces and sides of docks and breakwalls was really our best bite. Reading other reports makes me wish we had fished some mid-depth docks that are about 20 at the front at 8 at the back. Gotta thank everyone for the support. Hoping to qualify a few teams for nationals this weekend. MIZ-ZOU

I have heard about this. I think its an awesome idea. I absolutely love it. I just wonder how much guys tactics will change since its no longer a format where you can just chase 5 biggins

However, two access that I have had a fair amount of success at have been Pines Bluff and the access at Bagnell Dam just below it. Both have treated me to very good quality fish.

I will definitely take you up on that. Is this forum a good place to contact you from?

Well I was actually showed a few stretches of the river by a friend of mine so I can't really tell you that accesses. Wouldn't want to publish buddy spots if you know what I mean.

Well if you ever want to get out the jet is ready to roll

This isn't really only smallmouth fishing but I couldn't find a topic page for the Osage River so here it is. I went out on the Osage yesterday with my girlfriend and our kitten. I had been out on the river a handful of times this summer and had some successful trips but never one like I had yesterday. Earlier this summer I caught my PB Ozark smallmouth at 4.17 from the Osage, my PB spot at 3.63, and my PB meanmouth at 3.05. I never thought it would turn out another PB, but I was throwin' the ol' buzzer around yesterday evening and thought I had snagged a carp when I got bit. Turns out it was a 7.76 Largemouth which broke my old PB that was from a private pond by half a pound. I've included some pics of all of these fish and some other nice fish catches as well. I am very excited to see how this amazing place fishes in the winter. Lastly, I'm the president of the Mizzou Bass Fishing team so I appreciate all of the local support. Thanks guys, Tight Lines.

We would love to have Tackle HD on board with us! A ton of guys on the team use Tackle HD products. If you need anything you can call or text me at any time at (573)629-8252 or email at dgoddard21@outlook.com. Thank you

The HD craw is simply an incredible bait. I have colored some up with sharpies to match the hatch on table rock. I love them in rivers and creeks. Haven't tried them much on lakes, however. Next time maybe I'll try a top bottom rig with an HD craw and a drop shot...I like the sound of that already.