WHARFRAT

It's crazy high right now. The say, 665.8 and I'll have water in my door. That dock in the pic crashed into the end of our dock. My boat is fine right now. I'm about in the middle of a 34 slip dock. But on the other side of my dock there are 2 smaller docks with pretty big boats on them, against the up current side of of our dock. Some of the residents say they talked to "some official" (whatever that means) that says they expect it to go up close to another foot before residing.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Merry Christmas to all and your families!

We have otter problems around our docks, and I would think they'd tear up one of those wooden boxes.

I like that and probably a winter project for me this year.

Mainly used to fish the Alton Pool area (Dresser Island) and up toward Grafton (Piasa creek), and not too far up the Illinois River, near Stump Lake. Mainly bass and crappie. Never had a stellar day, but always able to catch a few fish. Crappie in the 7-9" range and lucky to catch a bass over 12". Chain of Rocks could also be decent at times, but that was mainly fishing from the bank.. Haven't fished Simpson Lake in 3/4 years, but you could always count on catching a few. Any bass I ever caught there was fairly large and pretty healthy. Crappie were spotty at best, but you could get into a bunch now and then. Caught some rough fish, Sauger, cats. It definitely isn't the cleanest lake around.

That's the way it's been most of the year for me. Go up, shoot up under, catch a nice one..... then nothing else. Like Wrench says, Ya know he ain't alone. The ones I've been catching have been in the darkest spot on the dock, mainly under the swim docks. And you're right on as far as docks close to a main channel swing. Most of mine were caught closer to the last half of the depth I was in. But I did catch some fairly shallow, soon after I shot. Did you use 16oz? I tried lighter, but they didn't seem to have any use for a slower dropping bait. Heavier and it dropped too fast for them. Color for me has been something dark and chartreuse. Probably going to start getting tougher, but who knows, with daytime temps suppose to stay in the 50's to 60's for the next 10 days, might be a good Christmas and New Years bite!

This year on my end was really tough on fish over 13". I'd catch maybe one or two on occasion. Normally for me, the best time for crappie over 13" is Feb/early March! 2014 was a phenomenal year for 13-15 7/8" crappie. (in my 58 yrs, I don't recall ever catching one over 16"). For me It will be hard to duplicate a pre-spawn like that year. But it really fizzled out this year. If I'm not mistaken, Ameren didn't really mess with the lake level too much in 2013. I know 2012 was the year it was so hot and dry. I don't know if that had anything to do with it or not, or then again, my memory isn't the best as far as lake levels go from year to year. Except this year, It was on the move, up or down, on a weekly basis. But Laker is right. I've talked to people that say they are catching 18" crappie, and the ones I see aren't even close. So, not sure what they are using to measure.

Bet it's chocolate

Big niangua, between bridal cave and larry gale. Here are the few that we'll eat.

As far as quality and quantity, today has been about as good as I've done in a long time this year. Probably had a couple of days in March that were like today. Weather was nice, and calm for the morning. Water temp was 49-50. Started out away from docks on some sunken brush. Nothing! Did that for about 15 minutes, went to the closest dock and shot a 16oz Baby shad and pulled out a nice 11 inch fish. Never looked back after that. Fish were pretty aggressive, lots of 10" fish, but more 11 inchers. Most were white crappie, only a handful of black crappie. They were hitting about 8-9' deep. Wound up with 5 or 6 over 12". And 3 over 13". Thank god for November and December to salvage what I thought was a spotty crappie season.

At least you found your silver lining! Relax and enjoy the Christmas season. It won't be too long before the pre-spawn, and you want to be in good shape. Prayers coming your way!

Expectations vs reality. I was really expecting a pretty good weekend and what I got was just so-so. Went out early Saturday morning. Started shooting some of my favorite cold weather docks. I was catching a few fish, but they were kind of on the small size. Water on my end was a bit dingy and temp was around 47 degrees. Got tired of catching small ones, and hunted for some of my deep brush.... Not much happening. Stayed out until about 10:30/11. I may have caught 2 fish out of about 30 just over 10". Most were 8" or less. Thought I'd try again later in the afternoon when it warmed up. Got out about 3:00, tried much of the same, water really didn't warm up. Fished some docks in 10-15 fow. Started out ok, but still not quality fish for this time of the year. About 4:15, I stopped by a spot in about 18' with some brush, and found some pretty decent fish. All were solid 11-12" white crappie. Just a couple feet off the bottom. I probably caught about a 10-12 and quit just as it was getting dark. 16oz jig with Bobby Garland baby shad. Something dark with Chartruese. I tried a 1/8oz jig head, but they didn't seem to look at that. Fished that for about 10 min. and went back to the 16th oz and started catching again. Sunday, just got up late, fished the docks for about 1/2 hr caught 4 quality fish, again, just a couple feet off the bottom. Also caught a small walleye, actually looked like a small sauger. Didn't have my phone on me, so I didn't get a pic. But definitely had the markings of one. If it was, it was the first one I ever caught at LOZ. After church, went back out. Deep brush wasn't producing. Went back to shooting, again, mostly small ones, but I did luck out on a nice white crappie just under 14". Size-wise, that was the best of the weekend. My expectations are again high for the coming weekend. Hope it's better!

I did talk to one of the agents up here at one of the duck parks and asked him what you do about pursuing cripples and they go up around someones dock or property, and he didn't really have an answer.

Opening weekend I was in a small cove next to a dock and about 12 Mallards came flying in within range and landed about 70 yds from me, and within a few minutes, they all swam up next to my boat. So I take it, they were probably local ducks that hang out there all the time. I do see duckhunters coming in from their spots in the afternoon. And I've heard shots down around HaHa Tonka, so I do know there is some action. I also hear that the hunters complain about residents harassing them while they are set up, or disrupting their hunt when birds are working. So, to me, It sounds like a hassle to hunt.

Looks like it's going to be a pretty good weekend, weather-wise. Hope you all get out there, probably won't have too many more like this for a while. I know, pertaining to crappie, it's been pretty good. I haven't been down since the 2nd weekend of November, but that weekend and the prior weekend was really good. Decent sized fish were starting to stack under the docks. I've heard from others saying that they having great success dock shooting, with some pretty big fish being caught. I'm sure the water is still in the 50's, as a couple weeks ago, I was finding temps 57-59 degrees. So as of right now, the weatherman is saying light winds with temps in the upper 50's. But this is Missouri, and we know that can change before I hit the submit button at the bottom of this page. Hope to see some of you out this weekend!

nice!

Costa w/580p lens. Probably in the $200 range, but a very good for on the water.

I think it's an old wives tale. The one thing that I don't understand is, with advanced technology, especially with batteries. Why can't they make a car/boat battery about the size of you cell phone?

Had some friends down this weekend (non-fishermen), so I was only able to get out for a few hours each morning. On the BN the crappie seem to be getting back to their dock pattern. Caught a fair number shooting as far back into the wells that I could. Size was ok, numbers were good. Tried vertical jigging some of my brush piles, but no luck whatsoever. Didn't really see anything hanging around them with the down imaging. Pulled cranks for just a little bit around some proven areas with no luck. Only docks this weekend, mixed white and black crappie. More overs than unders by 3:1 margin. Took everyone out on the tritoon for a little boat ride. Saw boats congregated in a couple of spots catching whites and some very nice hybrids. Looked like the boats fishing live shad were catching the most. Absolutely beautiful weekend, the evenings were gorgeous. AND, not very much traffic on the lake!!!

Reminds me of going down to Weldon Springs on opening weekend. Reminds you of opening day at a trout park, except here, everyone is casting #7.5 steel shot. Shoulder to Shoulder and <100 yrds across from you. Fighting over who shot the one bird that flew down the line. Everyone should put that on their Bucket List! Don't forget to wear goggles!

While we are asking, anyplace around Lake of the Ozarks? Wouldn't mind getting out and missing a few doves, just don't know where.

Not really targeting walleye right now, but caught 3 almost identical 16-17" fish pulling flickershad at about 2.5mph in 8-9' of water. Just on the ledge off the channel. All three came right in a row while we were out trolling for white bass. Don't know about anyone else, but catching the whites starting about an hour before dark and it basically quits right at dark. I've been trolling with my big motor, a friend of mine been using his kicker with the same results. He's been going about 1.5 mph or less. He is using roostertails and shad raps. He said he had also caught a few walleye on the shad raps, but I don't know where, and I didn't see them.

Caught quite a few whites tonight. Pulling flicker shad. Shad color. Follow the shad balls.

I'm 58 years old and have caught thousands of crappie, but I don't ever remember busting the 16" mark. My wife has caught 3 over 16" including a 19 incher, my son-in-law caught one over 16" about his 2nd or 3rd time out. And I've been in the boat with a few others that have caught 16's and 17's. Saturday morning, after a night of a few too many IPA's, woke up late and didn't get the boat out, but decided to just mess around on our docks. Not much luck, but I did have one over 12" and another in the 11' range. Then I hooked what I thought was a bass, and when I finally saw it, it looked like a giant speckled platter. Easily over 16, might have been somewhere in the 17" range. Either way it was going to be a PR for me. But,,, it's a long way from the top of the dock to reach down and pick it up, and of course I didn't have a net with me. So, as I layed down and held the rod up as high as I could, as to not give her any slack, I pulled that jig right out of her mouth. AHHH! I think I've come to the conclusion, it's just not meant to be! And I would have probably let her go anyway.