Bass Report - Nov 8-10

[MOsmallies]

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

[WHARFRAT]

_{love the fish pics, but darn them ribs look good!}

[Quillback]

Great report, looks like a wonderful weekend. I've been thinking of tossing the rig myself, it's getting to be that time of year.

Those ribs look awesome!

[fishinwrench]

Well done. That Kentucky is a hoss !

[MOsmallies]

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

[Old plug]

I agree with Wrench. Its the time of year to have a ball with Kentucky bass. This year they seem even more prevalent to me. I fish them off the front corners a lot in the fall. I am not much of a spinner fan. Until I had to stop I was catching all kinds of them 11 to 13 inches long(and a awful lot smaller as well) on trick worms and flukes. I use a 7 ft very light action spinning outfit and have a ball. Been doing this for along time. It is all about fun to me. I just love to do it. This year on the 8th I was in regional hospital up in Jeff City. Came home the 9th and going to be very limited till the 18th. If things are nice out there still on the 19th I will get a few hours in MAYBE. Fall has always been my favorite. Then on the 20th I go to sports medicine up in Jeff and having had sufficient experience with that guy I know I will not be out there again for a couple of months. Bye the way since those are Kentucky bass are legal at a foot. You should not feel shy about taking a few for fillets. They make very good eating. They have been very prevalent all this year in the gravois. A few less certainly cannot hurt.

[MOsmallies]

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

[Old plug]

I think they are being invasive if you can call it that here. I do not know why exactly so many more numbers and I certainly would not trust any explanation from the MDC. Their biggest concern here is sucking up and running interference for business groups. I do not think there I have ever seen so many around 8-10 inches. I know that have been having some fine spawns as well this past spring I caught 2 or 3 limits of 15 inch Kentucky bass in one area that has always been one of my hot LMB spawning areas. One time the year before. I and a neighbor caught 17 bass from 17 to 19 inches in that area in 3 hrs one evening. I know the Kentucky spawn earlier than LMB but the LMB put on a very poor spawn in that area this past spring. I am just convinced there are toooo many of them. I know several locales who keep small Kentucky.

[MOsmallies]

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.

[fishinwrench]

I think that once my whites vanish I'm gonna target a mess of KY's on the flyrod. I know a brushy channel bank real close that is always loaded with them during the fall/winter.