Upper Glaize

It was great to get back on the lake today after a few days in St. Louis for the Collinsville, IL fishing show and severe winter weather. While I had to break ice on my slip and cut through about 1/2 inch of ice to get to fishable water, the lake is very fishable. I caught two short fish today on the Chompers twin tail grub, kind of experimenting with another creature bait versus a jig. The short fish bites came in about 12′ of water in brush piles. I did fish the COG jig and multiple colors/sizes of jerkbait today also, but no takers. From what I could see on my graph today, the bass and bait fish seem to be deep and close to the bottom, this could be due the the heavy generation from the dam as they begin the winter lake draw down. I did miss a couple of fish in the jig and chompers as the bite is very soft and I am truly an average fisherman, by the time I realized that the weight and bite was not a rock or brush, the fish spit out the bait, I could tell this especially on the Chompers Grub, because the bait was pulled weigh down on my jig head….grrrr!! There is ice in most coves/pockets from anywhere from half way to 3/4 of the way to the top of coves. However, most main lake banks, the first secondary point and some creek channels (depending on sun and wind) are very fishable. Brush piles seem to be holding fish, however these brush piles are anywhere from 12′ – 25′ of water….so your graphs will be very important for the next couple of days. See Bassing Bob News for details regarding this weekends tournament status and what is going on with the lake. As of now, the Tournament is ON….it should be great fun and a beautiful January Saturday….I think these fish are so ready to turn on to be caught on classic Lake of the Ozarks Winter patterns – jerkbait and jig. Tomorrow, I plan to check out more areas of the Glaize for ice and then move from the mouth of the Glaize to the Gravois to see how everything looks for Saturdays tournament.