Fishing Report by:     Wilderness Trail      

This week it seemed almost like summer as we had high humidity with temperatures in the 80’s. Night temperatures were in the low 60’s, holding the lake temperature in the low 70’s. In the back of a few creeks and pockets you can find water temperature as high as 78 degrees, but ten feet down it is 68 degrees so it is a false representation of true lake temperature. Lake level this week is 653.62, ½ foot below normal pool, not bad for this time of year. 

Crappie have started their spawn and are located in shallow water at the back of the coves in the creek arms. The pre-spawn crappie are in 6 to 8 feet of water along the banks and are striking small crappie spinner baits, small crankbaits, crappie minnows and Swimming Minnows. 

Catfish became active this week on jugs fished with 12 to 14 foot drop lines. Best baits were chicken liver and hot dogs. Nightcrawlers and chicken liver are working well off the banks at night fished on the bottom in 15 to 20 feet of water.

Largemouth bass are coming out of their post spawn hum-drums and moving into ambush areas to feed. Good fish are holding around boat docks, blow downs, brush piles and watersheds. A number of techniques can be used to trigger some strikes. Spinner baits, buzz baits, Chug bugs and Zara Spooks are some of the top water baits to use in the morning. Spider Jigs, tubes, Sinko’s, Hula Grubs, and Trick Worms will work around structure throughout the day. 

Smallmouth bass have schooled up during the week and now you have to find a bank or a point that they are feeding on and you will catch numbers. Jerk baits and slow rolling spinner baits work well in the mornings, Mojo Rigs with centipedes or lizards work well during the day. Spider jigs and tubes are the baits to fish when the smallies are up looking for crawdads. Stay with watermelon or light brown colors to match the crawdad colors. 

Kentucky Bass have moved off the banks and are following their forage food source, which is shad. Now there are shad up along some banks but the Kentucky’s are not keying in on those shad, they are pushing schools of shad into the back of coves and pockets. Pop R’s and Chug bugs work great when the top water frenzy feed is on. Tubes, Spider Jigs and Carolina rigged finesse worms or centipedes will trigger some Kentucky’s that are under the shad or roaming the secondary points.

Walleye have been using a conversion layer of water, which has developed between 18 and 22 feet for their comfort zone. It is not a thermo cline but it is a temperature break. Pulling Glass Shad or Shad Raps is working well along with crawler harnesses around points on the main lake and in the creeks. Open water trollers are having good success with Reef Runners and Deep Little Rippers. The night bite is still okay on suspending rogues and X-raps around main lake points. Fish these baits up next to the bank, the night walleye are very shallow.

Lake Rating: Most of the fame fish are now over post spawn and the bite is picking up. This week we will rate as Good Plus.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good this past week. Generation one again has been low so the Berkley Power Egg bite has been good in yellow and pink. With generation the Mepp’s spinners, Thomas Colorado’s, and Blue Fox are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on Olive Woolly Bugger, tungsten bead head midges, San Juan worms and soft hackles. The Brown trout are being caught on Flat Fish, Suspending Rogues and nightcrawlers.

Remember to keep only what you can eat and release the rest for another day. Rick Culver of Wilderness Trail does the research for this report and the writing of this report.

Blue cat fishing on lake of the Ozarks really slow catching small fish on the flats drifting shad sides.

Truman looks like blues are going to the nest

Date: 5/26/05
Lake Level : 606.6
Normal Lake Level : 606
Water Condition: Dingy
Surface Water Temp: 68 - 75

Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and it will be a busy one with lots of pleasure boaters and fishermen out to kick off the summer season. Have a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Crappie fishing is still the same as it has been for the last couple of weeks. Tons of small fish are being caught and not as many big ones. The few opinions of this past Monday being a breakout day for the big ones didn't pan out. A lot of small crappie continue to be caught near the banks. Bigger ones along the banks are less frequent, they are still hanging back over deeper water. If you're not having any luck near the banks, move away from the bank and fish shallow, anywhere from 18 inches to 4 feet. Move on to a different bank or cove if need be. A limit of good size crappie can be had with patience and keeping on the move. Find good rocky banks, log jams and pockets along the banks with cover. Minnows and jigs, along with white or pink crappie nibbles. Expect to go through a lot of minnows.

Bass fishing has been very good. A wide variety of baits have been used to bring in fish, spinner baits, crankbaits and plastics. The more productive areas have been primary and secondary points off of the main lake.

Cat Fishing continues to be very good. Several large flatheads have been caught on trotlines or jugs using perch for bait. Channel cats continue to provide bank fishermen with fun.

The White Bass fishing has been good. They have been found around main lake submerged humps or long shallow points. Silver rattle traps or silver spoons.

CRAPPIE: Good: The crappie are spawning and are near the banks. After our rains last Thur. ( 5+ inches ) the lake has come up almost 2'. The fish that were spawning are still in the same spots, just 2' deeper. The backs of the creeks are muddy now and those fish are going to be difficult to catch. Keep fish in the same places and concentrate on the cleaner parts of the lake.

BASS: The bass fishing is much improved over last year. Our first three tournaments have produce good numbers of fish being caught. Jigs, spinner baits and rogues are still the lures of choice for most fisherman. The fish are shallow especially up the river arms and up the Branch. See Thurs. 2005 or Weekend 2005 tournament results for the weigh-in.

CATFISH: GOOD: The cats are biting and can be found in shallow waters. Fish shallow points and flats where the cats are feeding. Several nice stringers are being caught by fisherman on a variety of baits. Channels and blues are most common.

White Bass: Fair: The whites are starting to show up on the main lake. They are not concentrated in large schools yet but you can fish points and humps and find nice size fish. Use pepper spoons on the deeper fish and rooster tails and roadrunners on the shallower point fish.

WALLEYE: Fair: A few fish are showing up on the main lake points. Crappie fisherman are catching a few while casting the shallow points.

The fishing the past few weeks has been tough for the most part. It's been hard to pattern anything because of the weather changes, one front after another. We seem to be about two weeks behind as far as water temperature and spawn. Fish are starting to bed in some areas of the lake now where water temps are ranging from 56 to mid 60's in some areas in the afternoon.

The upper rivers, King's White & James you can catch lots of numbers, mostly small buck bass moving up on 4"worms, French Fry's, 3"-4" grubs on main lake and secondary points, split shot, Mo-Jo rigs or Carolina rigs working best. Fish the smoke or white, or watermelon 3"-5" grubs on 1/8 or 1/4 oz jig heads. Watermelon & green pumpkin worms are working good, also Chompers in the same colors. Fish these worms and grubs in 3'-15', most of the fish have been on bottom or close. On windy days try slow rolling a 3/8 oz. & 1/2 oz. spinner bait from the mouths of the creeks to the very backs, fishing in 2'-10'. Crankbaits in crawdad patterns (browns & greens) Wiggle warts, Bandit 200's, Bombers will also work. I have also started to catch some on Senko's in the creeks as well.

With the water temps rising and the fish moving up to spawn, all sorts of lures will catch fish, you just have to be patient and give your favorite lure time. The Dam area, Kimberling City, Baxter & Campbell Point areas the patterns will also work in these areas, but the mosson bottom can be a problem while split shotting, Carolina rigging, or any bottom baits fished. Most of the moss seems to be from the bank out to about 8', and not all areas have it. Try to position your boat so you can fish the outside edge of the moss. Smallmouths are starting to turn on in the clearer water, they can be caught on grubs and 4" worms split shot or on slider head rigs.

Good Luck!!

Water temp: 54 at HM to 71 at FR

Black Bass: some bass caught on top water, spinners and plastic shad like lures. mostly 18-20' of water.

Walleye: not many reports, really slow this year

Our Leaving in a few minutes for Wyoming! Can you believe we are leaving the great fishing here to drive more than 1100 miles to fish the North Platte?

GENERAL COMMENTS

We are still seeing more off water time than on water time. When they have run, it has generally been 1-2 generators or no generation for the past week. Information I received from one of the hydraulic engineers at SWPA, they are ATTEMPTING to maintaining the water level at the Branson Landing construction site at an elevation of 701 feet or less until the work near the water is completed.

Water Conditions: Water has been off most of the time. If they turn it on, it is only for 2-4 hours and it is generally 1 generator. Yesterday they turned on 2 generators at 4:00 p.m.

FLY FISHING TROPHY AREA (dam to Fall Creek)-SHALLOW WATER-WADING-

Fishing is still "unbelievable". Everyone is catching 30-100 fish an outing, depending on heir ability to get a fly into the water, get a half way decent drift, set the hook and play the fish. This past Saturday and Sunday Stan and I fished for a few hours in the afternoon. Got tired of landing fish on the midges so we worked on our dry fly or soft hackle presentations. Fish were taking everything. If we didn't get a hit after three casts, check our fly as something must be wrong! All I can say is you better get on Taneycomo now. This can't last forever! Gentleman came into the shop yesterday and said he has only been fly fishing for four years and caught 60 fish! He can easily imagine how a person who knew what they were doing could catch 100 or more. 

Well gotta go....the van is waiting. Will let you know how we did on the North Platte. How we catch a few fish or we will really be sorry we left Taneycomo.

STAN'S TIP: New regulations for most of the trout streams went into effect March 1. Read up on these changes. Specifically for Taneycomo, if you keep legal size fish, the limit is now 4. Also, a trout permit is required for anyone fishing above Highway 65 bridge.

The fishing here on Truman is picking up nicely now. The whites and hybrids are really starting to come in and the crappie are on the summer pattern big time. Bass fishing is good and the guys from St. Louis are tearing the catfish up. The weather is great and the COE. is running water so this weekend should remain good.

Bass: The bass fishing on Truman remains good. Last night in the Hawg Fights it took 14.44 lbs. to win. Clint Rayburn and Jack Hocket took the honors. These fish came on lizards off the Osage. 2nd went to Emil Tally and Jim Lehares with 12.82 lbs. and big fish of 5.67. These fish were out of Big Tebo caught on jigs. 3rd went to Doug and Ozzie Wallace with 7.81lbs. caught in Big Tebo on jigs. There are a couple of good patterns going right now. Flat main lake points are working. 2' to 4' of water fished with a top water will work. Bluff points are also working when fished with a jig in 4' to 8' of water. Lizards will also work in these areas. Colors are green pumpkin to black and blue.

CRAPPIE: The crappie are well into the summer pattern. 15' to 17' of water on the outside tree rows closest to the channel is your best bet. Fish minnows down about 8'. The secret is to keep moving. Cedars and hedge trees have been producing the best.

WHITES & HYBRIDS: This week we have seen a lot of big hybrids. Jerry Coose has had several in the 10 to 12lb. range but I heard that Ed Clayton got his dollar so Ed must be on really big fish. There were 2 fish brought in over 14 this week also. Steve Blake has been doing real good on the whites along with Dan Dunek. These fish are working the KK Island area. The hybrids are doing well in the G-4 area. Sassy shad with a 3/4 oz head is the top producing bait. Fish the 15' to 20' range off the ends of the under water points and the humps. Chartreuse is the top color.

CATFISH: Trot lines are the name of the game right now. Floating lines baited with leeches in about 3' of water are working well. Set stages at about a foot. Fish next to ditches or shallow creek channels.