Word Is Out

[Bill Babler]

Report after report is in. Lake O seems to be about as good as it can be for quality crappie fishing. Strap on a chartruse or white jig and setin.

Docks with any structure or not are holding fish in the 1 to 6 ft. range. Main lake structure is the same.

3 Table Rock Lake guides ventured to Lake O yesterday and said it was just "Silly" Bill Beck told me they caught 30 crappie with over 20 keepers off one laydown at the mouth of the glaze, and caught over 300 total crappie yesterday on Slab Slayers.

I was up Bass Fishing last week and my buddy who lives on the lake, he said watch this. He threw a tube down 4 docks and caught crappie under the floats of all 4. They were toads.

Spoke to a couple of guys last week at Greenview, and they said they have never seen the like. It is riduculas. He said he has no brush on his dock at all. He said you could drop a jig down about 6 ft. and just slowing walk around the dock and in the boat stall and it would take about 15 minutes to catch a limit of keepers.

I'll be back.

[Bird Watcher]

I've been hearing the exact same report from Truman. go get em.

[Dutch]

Bill D said it was good but they were running somewhat small.

[Bill Babler]

Dutch, they said they caught lots of small ones, but they cleaned 3 limits between 11 and 13.5 inches. For us down here that is pretty nice size. I know on Truman and Lake O, maybe not, but for us in late November, those are great crappie.

The buddy I fished with last week on Lake O for bass said you could get a solid limit of 12 inch crappie most anyday if you had a little time, just fishing the docks. They seemed to be suspended in the open stalls, if the dock had a roof and under the floats in 1 to 6 ft. of water. Brush, while always good, was not required, just the shade and cover of the docks.

[denjac]

Have some buddies I know doing the same thing on Stockton. Ixnay the docks though, all are on bluff banks 6-8 ft. Ruark, Chicken Rock, Mouth of Birch Branch. They might be on docks there if Stockton had any !

[KSFisherman]

My father and I come down from Ks to fish at LOZ this weekend.

We were after Crappie after hearing the reports. We had a tough time finding fish that want'ed to bit. We caught some here and there. But not good for fishing all day. We fished useing 16oz jigs, and Blackmore road runners. Some of the other guy's that were out there, were having the same luck as us. I hope make it down again and have some good luck this year.

[laker67]

My father and I come down from Ks to fish at LOZ this weekend.

We were after Crappie after hearing the reports. We had a tough time finding fish that want'ed to bit. We caught some here and there. But not good for fishing all day. We fished useing 16oz jigs, and Blackmore road runners. Some of the other guy's that were out there, were having the same luck as us. I hope make it down again and have some good luck this year.

It's been downhill since the weather on thursday. Today was the toughest day by far.

[Bill Babler]

My brother caught them again really good this last weekend up in Rainey Creek. Also spoke to a buddy at the 3 mile mark, that did well.

Here are a couple of tips that I hope will help.

Buddy said since the cold front on Thursday, he really slowed down his presentation. He pitched a small white and charturse tube 6 ft. under a float in and around the docks and just jigged it instead of swimming it and making them chase. He also had permission to walk some docks in the dam area and they just ate this very slow presentation up.

Said on Saturday he had easy 100 fish and cleaned a limit of very nice 11 inch keeps.

Of course my Brother was walking docks of friends in Rainey Creek. He said he caught a very nice limit on just two docks.

6 pound line 1/32 oz chartruse marabou jig. just dropped the jig down 6 to 8 feet and very slowly walked the dock edges. He said they ate it up.

He has fished these docks for years, so this may not count as a tip. They are always on these deeper docks in Rainey Creek, this time of the year.

The jig and float is a great tip. Usually people just use it in the Spring to suspend the jig off the bottom when fishing shallow for bedding fish. It works great this time of the year after a cold spell to slow down your presentation.

If you want to go a step further you can pitch a minnow. "Deadly"

Good Luck

[Seth]

Buddy and I fished the Niangua arm just outside of Camdenton Saturday and caught 15 keepers and had 5 shorts. We had best luck with chart/white slab busters on 1/32oz jigs and hopping them over brush piles on a bluff bank in 30-40' of water. Right before we quit, we started catching them pretty fast right on the bank of the bluff with the brush piles. Caught a few keepers off one dock that sat over 20' of water with brushpiles under it. The rest of the docks were pretty dead that we fished, but there wasn't any brush around them either.

[MOsmallies]

I was down last weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) and managed to catch 14 keeper crappie fishing for a few hours of our dock with minnows. Our house is in the Midlake section and all fish caught were in our sunken brush about 8 feet deep and almost directly under the dock. I couldn't get bit if I fished more than a foot out from the dock. I struggled with size, as all of mine were 9 1/2" - 11". Fortunately I only caught 3 or 4 shorts all weekend.

I actually spent the majority of my time fishing for bass and managed to put 5 in the boat between 14"-17" in about 5 hours of fishing. My 4 keeps would probably have gone 9 to 10 lbs. All bass were caught on chunk rock banks in about 3-5 foot of water on a 3/8 oz. Omega Custom Tackle Pro Mega jig (Chobee) tipped with a 3" Berkley Chigger Craw (Green Pumpkin). Never could get on a buzzbait bite which I was really looking forward to. Had a few bites on a senko and no takers on the crank. I actually caught another 6 12" bass on minnows while fishing for crappie under our dock.

This will probably be my last time down until the Spring. Can't wait for April!!!!