Never Fished Truman

[Bimmer]

Having just recently bought a 16ft Starcraft with a 35HP Force outboard, I'm looking to find some spots around Osceola that would render some nice crappie. I just met one of my neighbors down the street who was just taking a bucket of nice crappies in to be prepared for dinner. I asked him where I he fished and he said Truman. He said he likes it there due to the fact that most times it seems like he's the only one on the lake. Not being from around here, I've never fished for them before. Once in awhile I catch one on a worm and bobber when I was a kid back in Washington state. Could anyone here be kind enough to suggest the proper bait, rig and technique for catching these? Do you use worms and/or crickets? Or do you use artificial gear? Do these guys usually hang a few feet off bottom where a small jig might be best? Sorry for all the questions but I figure people can't help you if they don't know what it is you want to know.

I've fished a little bass here on Fellows locally and Table Rock. Is the area around Osceola noted for bass as well? What about launch ramps? Any suggestions there?

Thanks folks! Much appreciate the information!

Have a safe and happy 4th and thank you to all you vets who served with me!

~Bimmer

[shaker]

OH Boy! There's a whole pile of questions there! I'll start off with a few quick suggestions and hopefully some of the Truman experts will jump with their views. Osceola is a great place to fish for crappie, bass, and catfish. There are several boat ramps in the area the Sac river access is on 82 highway southwest of Osceola, downtown Osceola has a ramp, and on 13 highway just north of the lake on the right has a ramp. Next you need a really good lake map that shows the channel and a depth finder. This is because the lake is full of tree stumps that are broke off at the water line so you need to learn the channel and anytime you pull off the channel into a fishy looking area slow down you can go from 25 feet of water to about a foot or less in one boat length. Don't mean to scare you but you really need to take the time to learn the area that you intend to fish. I like to fish main lake flats now 8 to 25 feet of water the crappie are holding down 8 to 12 ft. deep around trees and brush. Last week I had the best luck around hedge trees, sometimes it's cedars, sometimes it's the big hardwood trees, and any brush plies that you can find. My favorite method is dipping trees with a 10 long jig pole, usually tie on a 1/16 oz to 1/8 oz jig head can be lead colored, hot pink, or flame orange. Some brand of soft tube black and charteuse, blue and chart, pink and chart, orange and chart, red and chart. something with charteuse works most of the time. You will catch more fish with minnows now but for me I seem to catch bigger fish with the tubes and prefer 2" tubes with a crappie nibble.

Hope that gets you started and Good Luck!

Richard

[rangerz21]

bimmer shaker pretty much hit the nail on the head. i prefer either the osage or the grand arms. had a trip on thursday and friday and had alot of fun in the tebo just off the main river channel on the flats where it went from 35fow to 20 fow about 15ft down.i know alot of the other guys fishing in the rivers are catching them as shallow as 2ft deep on jigs in about everything that shaker said. i would recommend extreme caution also first time in 4 yrs the lake has been this low fished this lake since it was flooded and things are changing trees have broke off and now laying across some the channels tree rows etc. if you dip enough yrees you will catch them good luck

[Bimmer]

Thanks Shaker n Rangerz. I do use a Humminbird on my boat so that will definitely help and I usually use my troller as slow as it will go. Looks like I'm going to need to hit up Fin and Feather here in Springfield before I head up that direction and get outfitted with the proper gear. Besides bass gear I've accumulated in the last few months, I only have a big assortment of 1/8 green and yellow jigs with mostly purple grubs that I'd use for Walleye up in North Dakota and sometimes the crappies would hit those it tipped with a minnow. May be use my live-well for the first time too with some minnows when I go up. Will keep you posted as to when the wife and I will head up but they way it's looking it might not be until Saturday. Thanks fellas!

Bimmer

[Bimmer]

Well even though I was up at 6:30 the three of us didn't get on the water until after 9am. We drove up highway 13 only to find the ramp there was closed due to construction. So drove back a little south from there and picked up 82 heading east to take us to Brush Creek Landing. Not knowing where we were, we ended up intersecting with 83. We found a boat launch a little west of Point 12. Our first place to hitch up was due east from that boat launch and a point north of the eastern shoreline of that 83 bridge in a channel that skirted the outermost outcrop of trees. I guess we were in the Fairfield area, Mockingbird Hill shoreline immediately due south of Osage Bluff. Armed with 3/16 jigs and pb/chartreuse tubes tipped with crapied bites, we only managed one small white and equally small Ky bass. Aside from a few pretty good strikes the day was pretty lacking department. What's odd is there were constantly fish in water depth of 30ft and the fish schooling in 18 to 24 foot depth with a temp of about 84 degree water. Even when we moved after a few hours to 40 ft of water there were schools consistently moving in 18-24ft depth and lots of fish in each school. Light wind put some chop on the water and we saw a few VERY impressive fish making spectacles of feeding the topwater. We called it quits about 1pm and headed back to Springfield. There were maybe 30 trailers at the launch and the few people we were able to talk to hadn't fared any better than we did. We had fun being on the lake. Most of the folks were friendly bit guess it's beef for dinner tonight!

[oneshot]

You were probably seeing Shad.From Fairfield Ramp you can go either way.Me I like going West hit the coves and points where Timber is standing.

oneshot

[shaker]

Just a suggesstion the next time turn West on 82 and go to the Sac Access. Here you are dealing with the upper end of Truman lake and the lower end of the Sac river. Sometimes more river than lake depending on how much water is being let loose by Stockton dam, usually on weekends there isn't much current. If you go down, to the right the Osage is about 3 miles, left upstream you can go 8 to 10 miles depending on the water levels safely, past that watchout! You will not see near as much standing timber but look for laydowns into the channel, any brushplies, some stumps that are near deeper water will collect brush can be a real hot spot. This time of the year the crappie seem to be more scattered and you'll just have to find the hotspots, pick up a couple here and there. My favorite tactic is to locate several "spots" and fish them several times a day picking up a few fish everytime. Being new to the area slow trolling with long line jigs would be a good way to locate fish if you like to fish that way.

Good luck, Richard

[oneshot]

Just a suggesstion the next time turn West on 82 and go to the Sac Access. Here you are dealing with the upper end of Truman lake and the lower end of the Sac river. Sometimes more river than lake depending on how much water is being let loose by Stockton dam, usually on weekends there isn't much current. If you go down, to the right the Osage is about 3 miles, left upstream you can go 8 to 10 miles depending on the water levels safely, past that watchout! You will not see near as much standing timber but look for laydowns into the channel, any brushplies, some stumps that are near deeper water will collect brush can be a real hot spot. This time of the year the crappie seem to be more scattered and you'll just have to find the hotspots, pick up a couple here and there. My favorite tactic is to locate several "spots" and fish them several times a day picking up a few fish everytime. Being new to the area slow trolling with long line jigs would be a good way to locate fish if you like to fish that way.

Good luck, Richard

Got to agree with the Sac just said Fairfield because you already knew where you was going.Truman Lake has so much Good Water its just hard to decide where to go.

oneshot

[rangerz21]

right now you can get in the grand anywhere from bucksaw to long shoal fiish ant big hardwood trees in 15' to 25' down 12' to 15' with a minnow with a number 2 splitshot and i will guarntee you will not eat beef.

[Bimmer]

Thanks fellas! All good information and I really appreciate it! Will post up again as soon as we can get back up there.