Lake of the Ozarks Full of Manmade Fish Attractors

[John Neporadny Jr.]

    Even though the trees were cleared  by workers during the construction
of Bagnell Dam in 1931, the  Lake of the Ozarks now  contains plenty
of fish-attracting brush.

    SuLake of the Ozarks Full of Manmade Fish Attractors
nken brush piles abound throughout the lake, thanks to resort and
property owners and other anglers who construct and sink the fish
attractors. The brush piles are mainly put in to attract crappie,
but they also serve as cover for largemouth bass.

    Groups of resort owners on the Niangua arm of the lake have ben sinking brush piles for years
to attract customers to their area. Sinking brush piles is more of an individual effort on other arms
of the lake though. These are more secretive projects done by dock owners
or anglers wanting to establish their own honey holes for crappie
or bass. But since everyone has the right to fish the lake, these
sunken treasures are available to you as well if you can find them.

    One crappie fishing expert who knows how to find sunken brush piles
on Lake of the Ozarks is Guy Winters of Camdenton, Mo.  The most obvious places to find
brush in Lake of the Ozarks are the docks.  There are plenty to choose
from on this lake, but not all docks  have crappie beds. "You can
read the docks to tell whether or not it has a brush pile around it,"
Winters says.   
    The best indicator on the dock is a well-kept fish-cleaning
station.  "That tells you there are fishermen who live there,"
says Winters. Other signs include a live box and minnow buckets on
the dock.

    Once you find a likely looking dock, then you have to determine where
the brush is located along it. "That's where a locator on your trolling
motor is valuable," says Winters. "It only takes a few minutes to
run around that dock with the trolling motor to find where the brush
is."  Remember that the brush will most likely be within casting distance
from the dock.

    If you don't have a depth finder on your boat, there are other ways
to tell where the brush is located along the dock.  Corners of docks
and inside the dock wells are always good spots to look for brush.  
 Rod holders on the docks are usually positioned near the brush pile
and sometimes you'll see a rod that has a line out with a bobber,
which is usually floating over the top of the brush.  Winters notes
that some dock owners also have a light hanging off the end of  their
docks, which is positioned over the top of the brush for night fishing.
Another key to finding the location of brush piles is to look at the
direction chairs on the dock are facing. "If the chairs point towards
the well, that's where the brush is at;  if they point the other way,
then the brush is on the outside of the dock,"  Winters says.   

    A shallow dock will be unproductive most of the time, even if it
has plenty of brush near it. The best year-round docks are either
in or near deep water. Even a deep-water dock with sparse cover will
produce more often than a shallow dock with lots of brush.

    Sunken brush piles lie in other spots on the lake, but these are
the most difficult beds to find. Some type of depth finder is essential
when looking for these sunken trees.  "I wouldn't fish without one,"
says Winters.  "It's one of the most important tools a fisherman can
have. Any cove I'm not familiar with, I  just leave my locator on
and normally try to keep the boat in 12 to 15 feet of water."  

    Winters concentrates his search on the channel side of the cove or
the main lake. The most likely places to hold sunken brush are pea
gravel banks and bluffs.  Any type of rocky or gravel pocket is also
worth investigating.   When the lake level is low, any brush found
14 to 15 feet deep  produces best in the spring, fall  and winter,
the crappie expert says.

    Telltale signs along the bank  also help you find brush piles. Look
for a stump, which usually indicates the rest of the tree is somewhere
below you. Sunken small sycamore trees have a different indicator.  
"There won't be a stump," says Winters.  "There will be a piece of
trunk standing up about 2 1/2 to 3 feet tall  with a bunch of little
limbs growing out of it.  That's one of the signs that a lot of people
overlook."  Also watch for old, black telephone cables running down
the bank which are usually tied to brush piles.   This method of sinking
trees is usually done along bluffs or other areas close to a river
or creek channel.

    While the Lake of the Ozarks appears to be barren of fish-attracting
cover on the surface,  underneath lies thousands of brush-pile condos
 for crappie and bass. For  information on lodging and other facilities
  at the Lake of the Ozarks or to receive a free  vacation
guide, call the Lake of the Ozarks Convention & Visitors Bureau at
1-800-FUN-LAKE  or visit the Lake of the Ozarks Convention and Visitors
Bureau web site at funlake.com.
Copies of John Neporadny's book, "THE Lake of the Ozarks Fishing Guide" are
available by calling 573/365-4296 or visiting the web site www.jnoutdoors.com.

 

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Good info.  Thanks for sharing.