Bassin4fun

Saturday 10/1 - WT 70-74F wind was blowing...probably 5-10mph in morning and probably 10mph by 11am. Bluebird skies and warm. I started off trying to fish docks...same area off main lake that I caught two monsters on late Friday morning. I tried throwing a jig, Texas rigged worm, squarebill, and buzzbait around the docks and banks. No dice...not even a whiff. Needless to say, by the time I decided to move....every dock and bit of bank in the area had been fished multiple times. I ended up moving past the bridge and up into the Osage arm off the main lake. I fished the steeper banks along the river channel...I caught a lot of dinks...mostly spotted bass. I primarily caught them on a squarebill or rock crawler while parallel to bank. I did throw a jig a few times at structure I could see and did catch a small keeper largemouth. I ended up with 2 small keeper bass and a bunch of dinks. I also caught several white bass and a drum. Most of the fish I caught were tight to the bank...very shallow. Although, I did get a few deeper running that rock crawler. I finished the day out with nothing g to write home about. I should have stuck to my original game plan of starting at the point directly across from PB2 cove. On Friday morning, I caught a lot of smaller bass doing that including two smaller keepers. Today (Sun 10/2), I decided to try a river arm. I had noticed that some of the larger bass on the leaderboard were weighed at Ivy Bend...so I launched from Wigwaum School Access. To my pleasant surprise, there were only two other rigs there at 545am this morning. Maybe, I should have taken the hint...lol. I did catch a few smaller bass and a drum. The water temp started out at 69-70F. It was a lot dirtier that far up the Osage arm. The water was very low and you had to stick to the channel. I did venture off into a pocket and nearly got stuck. I ran the same pattern....parallel to bank throwing buzzbait, squarebill, and jig. I only caught fish on the squarebill again today. All were shallow, tight to bank. One off a laydown. I wasted too much time, too far down the river this morning. It was only my 5th time on the lake...gonna take many more trips to get to know it better and find where I prefer to launch and fish. Saturday was nuts....so many boats and anglers. I still maybe would launch from Wigwaum and just run toward main lake a bit further. I stopped not far from mile 60 in Osage arm. I think maybe another mile or two and the water would have been better. I only caught 4 or 5 bass and a drum this morning. Threw in the towel and chalked it up to learning experience this weekend. The pics are of my biggest and smallest catches this morning.

Will do. Yesterday was awful....I deviated from how I fished Friday. I started where I caught those two big bass...mistake. That threw off my whole day. I wasted my early morning window. I caught fiah...but only on a stretch in the Osage arm...mostly spotslted bass...two small keepers was all. Today, hoping to get back on program. Will be tough....weather is supposed to be warmer, little to no wind, not a cloud in the sky.. and after the lake got hammered. Oh well....here goes nothing. 😁

Good day of practice yesterday. Hopefully today and tomorrow, I can catch them as good as yesterday. By noon, I had four keepers in the boat....one was over 5LBS. I stopped after that last big bass. I feel like I have a solid pattern going into the weekend.

Thanks Wrench. I appreciate the feedback!

I did get a dock bite going and there was a shallow bite early AM. But topwater wasn't on either time I was out. Linn Creek and Glaze arm.

I was looking at launching from Linn Creek. I was just there Saturday. I was told of the lake drops another 2ft...that ramp will not be open. Already super shallow over there. I really wanted to stay near a river or creek arm. I am open. Doesn't really matter too much to me. I haven't really caught any big bass in my two outings there...only 2 keepers so far. But, bite should be better this weekend.

Who all is fishing this event? Suggestions on best boat launches and which ones to avoid? I am commuting each day from Springfield.

We hit Pomme at 615am yesterday. There was a light intermittent breeze. Water temp was about 75°F. Fair amount of shad activity in Bolivar Landing area where we launched. We focused on crankbait bite and fished everything. Ended up with 2 keepers and a monster muskie. My brother-in-law caught this beast...he yelled, "Oh, I got a good one!"...I looked back and saw his rod bent double and caught a glimpse of the tail section as he fought it...I hurried and grabbed the net (which really wasnt big enough!). PSA: Never. Ever. Grab one of these by the lip...🤣😂🤣😂 I learned that valuable life lesson and thought I should share it with you all. My thumb got sliced to hell when that bad boy got to thrashing. My boat looked like a crime scene. We managed to get a fish gripper on him and got the hook out. After snapping a quick pic, the fish was released and swam off into the deep. We didn't measure or weigh him. We both are confident it was over 3ft long. Mike is a big guy...6ft3...that was a big fish. It was fun. I stressed to my brother-in-law, that catch was one that guys shoot for their whole lives. It was a fun day out. Caught a lot of dinks, some white bass, and a drum. Boat traffic was almost all fishermen. By 1030-11am, the wind was blowing really well and impacting most of the main lake areas.

Well, I think I launched from PB2 about 7am or so. I was boat number 88 and fished solo. This was my first time fishing a best of five fish, weigh-in event. The only other boat fishing tourney I had done was the BassPro Big Bass event at Table Rock. It was also my first time fishing Lake of the Ozarks. I was told by my kayak fishing buddy to focus on docks and work the pockets. Well, I started off doing that but did not get any bites throwing buzzbait, jig, and squarebill. I decided to try some other patterns. I headed to a bluff wall across the lake and paralleled the bank throwing a squarebill. Bingo, I was on fish. I ended up catching 2 small keepers doing this. Unfortunately, that was it. I think I wasted too much of the early morning bite fishing those two pockets and near the docks. I had fun though. I ended up catching 23 or 24 bass, 1 white bass, and a bluegill. All of my bites were cranking and running the banks adjacent to channel and points. Squarebill (1.5 and 2.5) and Rock Crawler are what got me all of my bites. It was windy and the boat traffic picked up about 1030am or so and got busier as the day went on. I didn't think the boat traffic was too bad although, I did get swamped a bit by one boat that ran a bit closer to where I was. I had the bow pointed into the waves and when I crashed down over the crest, the next wave came over the bow a bit. I can imagine summer season would be rough in my little Tracker 175 TXW as some boats produced rollers that were like swells on the ocean. Water Temps started about 78F and were at 81 or so by the time I came off. I had a good time, but need to learn to fish LOZ better before entering another tournament....or get a partner to split the cost. Some pics of the catches.

I am fishing the Anglers in Action event today at LOZ in the Open Division. It is my is my first event of this kind (best 5). I have only entered one other boat event, Big Bass Tour by BassPro (KVD). I am excited, but realistic. Never fished LOZ before. LoL...no way, I am waiting to weigh unless I have 17lbs or more...and only then if it looks like I will cash or I have a fish over 6lbs. I did a kayak event yesterday on Bull Shoals. I caught a limit but only had two keepers out of the five. I did lose two keepers as well though. Two fish I probably wouldn't have lost fishing out of a boat. I had 71.5". 87" won it. Two fish cost me 8-10". Can't remember if that would have cashed or not. I probably caught 10-12 fish yesterday on Bull. Crankbaits and jig. Hopefully, I can get 5 that keep today.

The best are the Tarzan trot lines left in the bush and tree overhangs after the water drops. They are just left dangling there. Up in the James River arm of the lake there are quite a few of those as well as the ones in the water. I haven't ever removed any. It would be nice if they were clearly marked though as some are hard to spot until you are hung up in them.

There is a shallow bite up in the James and Flat Creek area first thing in the morning until about 10am...then they move out into that 10-20 range. Water way up in James arm was only 75°F yesterday...main lake area was 82-84°F.

Yeah, I fished up in Flat Creek and James Rivers arms Fri-Sun this past weekend. Bait was everywhere. Mostly smaller balls...but did see some larger plumes on the graph. The fishing was pretty good in those areas all 3 mornings.

Well, we headed to Campbell's Point early. We arrived at the ramp at 530am...it was pouring and lightning. We decided to wait it out as the weather was supposed to break anytime. There was a break about 6am and we launched. No sooner did we get on the water and out to end of the cove, it started up again...the lightning was pretty wicked. We took shelter at the marina. Once we were sure the storm cell was tracking south and away from us, we started out. There was barely a drizzle going on. We thought for sure there would be a topwater bite...we were wrong. Maybe if we had run across some busting and chasing bait...but we didn't see it on the stretches we hit. From about 630 until about 930 we tried squarebills, choppos, and walking baits shallow. I caught one lil spotted bass on a squarebill all that time. My brother-in-law hung one dragging a worm in about 14ft of water (behind the boat). We had hit flats, runout points, transition banks lines, and bluff walls. I decided we should head to a runout point that is also nest to some standing timber that is also adjacent to some deep water (30-50ft drop zone). We started throwing jigs and finally got bit. We caught several in that area. There was some deep structure along that drop off area that we got hung on occasionally. I have a lure knocker/retriever though and we managed to save all but hang up on this trip. I bet I saved my brother-in-law $40 or more in lures🤣😂. We started fishing main points that were adjacent to the channels where there was deep water nearby. In some instances the channel would drop down to 80-100ft and we would be throwing into the 30-40ft range. I stuck to a black and blue football jig with a black and blue fleck zoom craw trailer. My brother-in-law switched back and forth between a pumpkin green/orange pee wee jig and pumpkin green craw trailer, a 10" junebug worm, and a drop shot with some Megabass minnow/shad bait. I ended up with probably 7 orb8 in the boat. I lost at least 5...two of which I got up to the boat. I was jacking the hook set pretty good but still sometimes barely had them hooked. One of them was wasn't even hooked through...the bait fell out as soon as I flipped him in the boat and there was some slack in the line. My brother-in-law boated 3 and lost probably another 3 or 4. That was all from about 10am until about 130pm. The boat traffic got to be too much. Neither one of us had seats...I never use one and my brother-in-law usually sits to fish so he was having a tough time trying to keep his balance with the wake boats going by. That and the sun was out and it was getting hot. When we switched up, if we caught one, we caught multiple fish in that area. We did see some wolf packs or schools busting chasing bait in a few spots. They kept moving though and neither one of us had topwater or other baits tied on to even try to catch em. They would pop up here and there and be gone in seconds. I don't have livescope so we had to rely on 2d sonar and our baits to get a lay of the areas we fished. Once we did though...that pattern seemed to work well. Water temp started at about 81°F and was above 84°F when we got off. That stretch of lake has a nice green stain to b it. Probably 3-6ft visibility or more. Wind was light early on and picked up to maybe 5-10mph around 9am or so. Can't wait for after Labor Day...wake boat traffic will drop off a lot. I added a few of the fish pics. We didn't measure any. I think we ended up with one or two keepers and several that were close if they weren't keepers. Mostly fat spots. One spit up some baitfish.

We had the same issue.. switched to jigs and 10" worm fishing on the bottom in 30-40ft of water and caught several. When we found one, we caught multiple fish. Main lake points adjacent to channels are where we focused.

I was on the water at about 630am.It was gorgeous and almost a bit chilly running the lake in shorts that early. The launch at Lead Hill Park required getting wet. Had to back down to where I stepped out into water in order to get my boat off the trailer. I started off hitting the primary points where the channel ran adjacent. I was throwing topwater baits (plopped and walking bait). I also threw a Texas rigged creature bait (Zoom Craw) and a squarebill. Zero bites. I then started trying a deep crank and spoon out deeper where there seemed to be some activity. I never got a bite doing that either. I never was able to find any schools on my graph but my console graph isn't working...need a new transducer. I didn't spend a whole lot of time using my trolling motor to try and find them. I did start throwing a jig around 1030-1100am. Finally I ended up with 2 smallies in the boat. The larger was caught in a pocket along a bluff wall and the other was on a bluff end point that had a cut where there was some shade. I missed a fish or two also. Wasted a lot of time early on...should have been throwing that jig sooner. It was pumpkin green with orange on the skirt and a watermelon red craw trailer.

The jig bite seemed to be what was working on Upper Bull Shoals yesterday out of Lead Hill. Granted, I still only managed 2 fish on the jig. Wasted too much time with topwater early on and crankbaits.

Thank you for the info! Hope you both get well soon. I am itching to get back on TR. It has been a couple of weeks. I have several spoons arriving tomorrow that I will surely be trying out.

That is how I have always cleaned and cooked gills and crappie.

Congrats! That is awesome!!!

This past Saturday we ran across a school in 40ft of water out in front of docks. They were suspended at 20-30ft. We worked spoons through them. I was throwing a flutter spoon and my brother-in-law was throwing a slab spoon. We were both catching them...mine was chrome and his was white. When they stopped biting those, I caught a few more throwing a 6th Sense deep diving crankbait that gets down to 20 plus feet deep. None were keepers...but they were in the 1-2lb range..a few were probably just short of keeper. Almost all were spots...although one or two greenies in the mix too. We caught a dozen before they quit biting. That was from about 10am until about 11am. That hour made the day. Prior to finding that school, we had only caught two bass from 530am until 10am. 😳

I fished Stockton last night (5pm to 9pm). I found fish off a point that had a flat adjacent to deep water. It was also a transition bank...bluff end turning to chunk rock and smaller rock. I found fish schooling and they were suspended 10-15ft down in 18-30ft of water. I caught one on topwater and lost one. I then caught one off a bluff end cranking a Spro Lil John DD90 that was probably 3-4LBS. There was another just as big on surface that began chasing the one I had hooked...I was hoping he may try to steal that bait...lol. My third catch was in more shallow water after it got dark. I caught that one on a jerkbait. I didn't have anything tied on to fish shallow apart from that jerkbait and a jig. I never even threw the jig. Basically trying to scout spots for the upcoming MoYak kayak tournament there on July 16th. The area I fished seems to be a good spot. I will try a few more and probably prefish those areas closer to tournament time...or at least graph them to see if I am still seeing fish in those areas.

I plan on hitting Stockton this weekend. 3 weeks out from MoYak Lake Series event there. I need to get a game plan together. Haven't decided if I will run the yak or my boat yet. I plan to hit deep water along a channel route with focus on points and the channel swings. I need to learn how to fish a drop shot and spoon. May do some deep cranking too...and a big worm. I hear ya about fishing Table Rock due to it being closer...20-30 minutes doesn't sound like much further...but it is. Plus, with gas prices the way they are, that is another $20-30 round-trip....especially pulling a boat. I can be at State Park on Table Rock in at or just under an hour.....Bolivar Landing on Pomme is also about that far from me. Everything else adds 20-45min on my drive one way.