Loz Vacation

[Chunk n' Grind]

Coming down to Osage Beach for vacation on June 1st. I stayed at Big Cedar last year and fished TRL for a whole week. The water was real high and murky. Looking forward to some clear water and some good ol' crappie fishing. Hopefully some bass as well.

I' m reading about all the pleasure boaters and speed racers at LOZ. Is it really as bad as ya'll say? I assume that fishing during the week days won't be so bad? We have a cigar boat problem on our lakes here in Colorado. You'd better be sipping coffee back at the launch ramp restaurant by 9:00 in the morning or break out the bailing bucket. I sure hope I can find some quiet water.

[ozark trout fisher]

Coming down to Osage Beach for vacation on June 1st. I stayed at Big Cedar last year and fished TRL for a whole week. The water was real high and murky. Looking forward to some clear water and some good ol' crappie fishing. Hopefully some bass as well.

I' m reading about all the pleasure boaters and speed racers at LOZ. Is it really as bad as ya'll say? I assume that fishing during the week days won't be so bad? We have a cigar boat problem on our lakes here in Colorado. You'd better be sipping coffee back at the launch ramp restaurant by 9:00 in the morning or break out the bailing bucket. I sure hope I can find some quiet water.

I don't know if you've ever been to LOZ before, but I wouldn't expect any kind of solitude. Plenty of pleasure boaters to go around. If you don't won't to be inundated by people, drive right up to Truman, which ends where LOZ begins. You'll find just as many fish, and well less people. With that said, LOZ is a great bass lake, you'll have a lot of fun fishing if you can tune everything out. But there are just too many discourteous boaters for me.

If you fish LOZ, focus on the docks, because that's basically all the cover its got. I've had good luck on various spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and plastic worms. But if you have some yellow spinnerbaits, you'll have no trouble catching fish.

Week days will be a lot better, I wouldn't even try to go out on Lake of the Ozarks on a weekend, except at night. Its borderline dangerous. By the way, one thing you might try is fishing at night, thats when the big bass come out and play.

[Chunk n' Grind]

Thanks Ozark. I grew up fishing the Southern California bass lakes. Overcrowding is typical out there... especially on the weekends. Bass fishing at night wasn't legal out there. That will be a new experience for me. I fish Pueblo, Sterling, Chatfield, Cherry Creek and Blue Mesa reservoirs here in Colorado. The pleasure boater invasion here is just starting up.

Yellow spinner baits... check.... and then some. In fact according to my wife I carry around half a Bass Pro shop with me when I go fishing. I try to explain "why" to her but she just doesn't get it.

Do you guys throw swim baits at all? Just curious. Got into using them at the bigger So Cal bass lakes. Those years are slowly disappearing but it used to be fun to throw a 6" or 8" Castaic trout and get bit.... hard. I throw them here in Colorado for Tiger Muskies too. Loads of fun.

[ozark trout fisher]

Thanks Ozark. I grew up fishing the Southern California bass lakes. Overcrowding is typical out there... especially on the weekends. Bass fishing at night wasn't legal out there. That will be a new experience for me. I fish Pueblo, Sterling, Chatfield, Cherry Creek and Blue Mesa reservoirs here in Colorado. The pleasure boater invasion here is just starting up.

Yellow spinner baits... check.... and then some. In fact according to my wife I carry around half a Bass Pro shop with me when I go fishing. I try to explain "why" to her but she just doesn't get it.

Do you guys throw swim baits at all? Just curious. Got into using them at the bigger So Cal bass lakes. Those years are slowly disappearing but it used to be fun to throw a 6" or 8" Castaic trout and get bit.... hard. I throw them here in Colorado for Tiger Muskies too. Loads of fun.

Some swimbaits are good, but in Lake of the Ozarks you'd better throwing something 3 to 5 inches, and in a shad or sunfish pattern. There just aren't very many bass here in Missouri large enough to take a six inch swimbait, although there are a few.

Bass run quite a bit smaller here in Missouri that in Southern California, so you'll have to scale down you're baits a little. Mostly, you'll find fish between 12 and 20 inches, although you may well catch a few that are significantly bigger. Good luck fishing

I've fished Blue Mesa a few times, when I used to live out in Colorado. Pretty nice lake

[OzarkFishman]

I was at the lake last weekend and had plenty of action around docks. All I threw was a 1/16 jig with a 2 inch Zoom shad. Caught 9 fish in 2 hours ranging from a 6 inch bluegill to a 14 inch bass. If you are only wanting quality, then throw something bigger. If you are having trouble getting a bite, then scale it down.

OzarkFishman

[Chunk n' Grind]

OzarkFishman... Yes sir, I'm very much aware that the bass in Missouri don't get real big. That goes double for Colorado bass. Many of my monster swim baits, along with other baits and lures have gone untouched since I moved away from California. These days it's spinning rods, 4 lb. test and finesse baits. Except for the few times when I got lucky and ran across some Tiger Muskies at Vallecito and DeWeese reservoirs I never use them. There are a few lakes here in Colorado where the bass actively dine on hatchery trout. I have actually caught 10" to 18" bass on 6" trout pattern swimbaits. But that's the exception rather than the rule.

I've been reading in some other posts that the water clarity at LOZ has deteriorated? Same thing happened when I was at TRL last year. Oh well... it'll be good just to get away from the rat race for a week. I read another post by a couple of guys that were doing good with Wiggle Warts off seawall points? Could these be crawdad patterns? I also heard that chartreuse lizards where working off secondary points near creek channels? I guess I'll just play it by ear once I arrive. Then again there's always Truman lake.

Too bad the MO turkey season is over. If the fishing is slow I'd hunt for thunder chickens in a heartbeat. After a very tough season here in CO trying to find just one decent Merriam's gobbler I'm ready to hunt some birds that can be coaxed in with calls and decoys. It was so bad I would have done better hunting for a male Sasquatch this past season. That's how elusive these birds can be out here. I know where there's lots of birds... on private land. Very few land owners give permission to hunt anymore because of bad experiences with other hunters. Public land is about it. After going through lots of red tape I got a Fort Carson hunting pass this year. That place is loaded with birds. But once they've mated the flocks disperse... and Fort Carson is a big place. Unfortunately I didn't get my shotgun registration approval early enough. I did hunt a few times with a bow but no luck. Once I could bring in my shotgun I was only able to hunt the last two weekends of the season. The gobblers had already done their deed and had headed for the higher elevations. Other than jakes that would respond to my calls the mature toms had lock jaw. I saw lots of jakes and hens but no big boys. They are very nomadic. More than I realized. I sure got into the deer though. I know where I want to pull a deer tag from now on.

Getting sidetracked now. Wrong forum for T-hunting. Thanks again for the info OzarkFishman. Good luck to you this season.