MOsmallies

Great looking paint jobs... Those drum seem to like baits that are colored the same as them. I catch a ton of drum up on the Mississippi throwing a Purple back, Iridescent blue sided, pearl bellied Storm Lightnin' Shad. It looks just like a baby drum. Maybe they are cannibals?!?!?!

Got down to the lake (25mm) on Friday about noon. On the water by 1:30 pm. Water temps 50-51. Tied on an A-Rig, Megabass 110, Wiggle Wart, and Football Jig. Ran some 45 degree banks, steeper bluff type banks and secondary points. Found bass on the bluff type banks and secondary points in about 5-10 feet of water but all were shorts 12-13" Spots and 10-14" Largemouth. Caught most on the Megabass 110 casting parallel to the bank. 1 or 2 fish off each spot and then had to move. Pulled up on a secondary lined with rip rap at about 3:45 pm and quickly caught a 12" spot. Few casts later I nailed my 1st ever LOZ Walleye (17"). Retied, made 3 or 4 more casts across the same point and nailed my 2nd ever LOZ Walleye (20"). Caught one more dink on the Wart and called it a day... I was only able to get out for a couple hours on Saturday and Sunday. Only caught 4 more fish running the same types of areas. 2 on the Megabass 110 and 2 on the A-Rig (outfitted with Danger Close swimbaits again). Only one of those was a keeper though, right at 15" on the Jerkbait. Another beautiful weekend on the lake weather-wise. Bass were a little slow, but the surprise Walleye made up for it. Totals for the weekend... 10 Bass and 2 Walleye in about 7-8 hrs of fishing. Paul MOsmallies

Al... How much you think that Walleye weighed? 5 or 6 lbs?

Nice Al... Great read as always. Beautiful fish, especially that 18" smallie and that pig of a walleye!

I wish I had some info for you, but I've never fished the Elk, despite it being on my Missouri wish list. I just wanted to say nice smallie and welcome to the site! What kind of yak you got there? I like the STS you added. I have a Coosa with a similar product call SeaDek that I did a custom install of.

That make sense... can't wait to see the new ones!

Mitch - I remember you posting some pics of your hair jigs a couple years ago. I can't remember if you hair jigs had the twin wire weed guards or not. If they do, how do you go about wrapping the thread without having to go under the weedguard everytime? Or do you glue your weedguards in at the end? Do you always tie on a football head?

Great report Champ... Can't beat a weekend of Golf and all three species of bass. Thanks for sharing

Surprisingly this past year I noticed Kentuckies spawning just after the Largemouth. I was down for Mother's Day weekend and all I saw and caught were Largemouth. I was down again two weeks later for Memorial Day weekend and all I saw and caught were Kentuckies. I always thought for the most part that the Kentuckies spawned first as well. The past two years, that last week of May and beginning of June has resulted in 90% Kentucky vs. 10% Largemouth at least for me fishing at the 25mm. Then as the summer goes on, it switches back to mostly Largemouth.

Old Plug - I wish I would have thought to throw a white trick worm around the dock corners. That probably would have resulted in quite a few more fish. I'll have to remember that for next time. Hope you recover quickly and are back on the water soon. I'm strictly catch and release on all bass except invasive Kentuckies on our Ozark streams. And I definitely wanted to let the 15"+ Kentuckies go. They're aren't that many in LOZ like there are in Table Rock. Like you said, most Kentuckies in LOZ are in that 10-13" range. Once they start getting into that 14" range and higher they start getting fat like footballs and are a blast to catch. Again, best of luck with a quick recovery. Paul

Thanks guys... Ribs turned out pretty good. Smoked at 215 degrees for 4 hours, finished with a apple juice/honey/brown sugar glaze

Just got back from the lake where I spent the weekend chasing bass while most must have been in the tree stands. We only saw 3 or 4 boats all weekend and at least one was duck hunting. Weather was beautiful with mornings in the 50's and afternoons in the mid 60's. Wind was present all weekend but not overly strong. Water temps ranged from 59-61 all weekend. Our place is at the 25 mile marker so we spent most of our time fishing the 25 and 26 mm. I didn't hammer 'em by any means, but caught enough to keep it interesting. Got down on Friday (11/8) around 3:30 pm and messed around in our cove for the last hour of daylight. First thing I noticed was exceptional water clarity for LOZ... 3-4 foot visibility. Caught 3 shorts on a 3/8 oz Black Revenge Buzzbait all off dock corners in the back of the cove. Water temps were right at 60 degrees. Saturday the same pattern held true except location didn't really seem matter. Caught some on mainlake docks, some on secondary point docks, and some on docks in the backs of coves... but all were caught targeting the dock corners with the 3/8 oz Black Buzzbait or a 3/8 oz White War Eagle Spinnerbait. Water temps ranged from 59-61 degrees. Caught 9 on Saturday with 7 shorts (12"-14.5") and 2 keeper spots (15" and 15.75"). I jumped a 3.5 lb largemouth off at the boat on the Spinnerbait. He slammed it on a secondary point and ran right at me. By the time I caught up, he jumped and spit it. Oh Well... at least I got a look him. Knowing they were focused on shad around docks, I wanted to give some custom hand poured swimbaits that i received from fellow OAF'er, Danger Close, a try on Sunday. We only had a few hours to fish before we had to get on the road, so I tied on a Picasso School-E-Rig Bait Ball Jr. and rigged 5 of them up. Let me start by saying the action and durability of these swimbaits were impressive! Mike does some awesome work and is a great guy on top of it. Within the first 5 minutes, I had my biggest fish for the weekend in the boat... a Spot that smoked the middle Swimbait as I slowed rolled it about 3 feet under the surface in front of a mainlake dock. Water temp was 59 degrees and the dock sat in about 15 foot of water. It was a toad Spot for LOZ from my experience. I had 4 more good hits on the A-rig, but couldn't hook up. I watched several fish swim out and nip at the rig, but they wouldn't commit. In hind sight, I should have probably switched to some smaller "Keitech FAT Swing Impact" type swimbaits that Mike also sent me. They would have better matched the hatch as all the shad i saw were about 2.5" to 3" long. I finished off the morning with one more short on an Omega Jig off some rip rap behind a dock. All in all, It was an awesome weekend with good buddy of mine, cold drinks, beautiful weather, delicious food, and a few fish mixed in. Looking forward to getting after it again on Thanksgiving weekend. As a side note, I tossed a 1/16th oz Chartreuse and White roadrunner around for Crappie for a little bit, but only caught a few small bass. Thanks for reading, Paul MOsmallies

Those look good as well. The 110 Jr. I'm assuming will have the same kind of action as the full size 110 just in a smaller profile. I know the 110 Jr. dives 4-6 ft deep which is the same as the full size 110.

I did pick a couple up of the Megabass Ito Vision 110 Jrs, but have yet to throw them. The size and profile seems ideal for winter river Smallies.... http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Megabass_Ito_Vision_110_Jr_Jerkbait/descpage-MB110JR.html I also picked up one of the Luck E Strike RC STX Jrs, which is a much smaller bait. Now I just need to get out on the river to give them a shot. Lake of the Ozarks was warm enough that they were still hitting buzzbaits and spinnerbaits. Hard to put those down when they're working (keep an eye on the LOZ forum for a full report & pics probably tonight). Paul

Nice mess both of you... Thanks for the pics!

Crazy how different the lake and river temps are this time of year. Lake of the Ozarks this past weekend was 59 in the mornings and 61 in the afternoons. Sounds like a great day Al!

I don't own a boat and probably won't for a while, but if I could pick any brand at this point, I'd be looking at Phoenix or Triton. Good luck with your search.

Nice sized crappie! Thanks for the report

Hahaha... Pretty philosophical

We're not telling him he can't keep a couple legal smallmouth for dinner, we're just asking him to consider releasing all smallmouth.

Sounds like a great trip and one I'd love to do.... I don't wanna harp on you too much either since it is legal to keep legal sized smallmouth, but please please please consider releasing all your smallies. They take a long, long time to get big and the goggle eye taste way better anyway. Regardless, have a great trip and give us a report and some pictures once you return.

Great report as always... I'll be down in a couple weeks mostly chasing bass, but I'll have a few rods rigged up for crappie. Did the depth of the docks matter? And I guess brush didn't matter because they were suspended just under the docks. Very strange sore... Definitely not something I like to see!

I can see your point Mitch, but just like 2012's Fall BBB, the weather this year changed drastically during the tournament and that probably caused the fish to shut down some. There were still a lot of 4-6 lb fish caught. To be honest, I don't think LOZ has that big of a population of 7+ lb bass. Now their population of 3-6 lb fish is pretty darn healthy. The Fall transition is just a tough time to catch an Ozark Giant. If you look at the past results for the Fall and Spring, it's about a lb difference between winning fish. Usually 7.5 lbs in the Spring and 6.5 lbs in the Fall. If they held the tournament a month later in the Fall like the very end of October or November, I bet the chances of a 7+ lber would be much better. The buzzbait bite should be getting good right about now and buzzbaits can produce some giants!

Very impressive walleye for anywhere not just LOZ! Congrats

Awesome looking and a ton more size options than the Biffle Hardheads and Chompers Wobbleheads! Very cool! This garage of yours seems like a fisherman's heaven