Big Bass And Motor Problems

Glaize/ Wind Blown Bluff End/ Slow

Today I fished with my son, Chris, in his first bass tournament. We left PB2 around 7:15 and a mile from the launch my engine shut down. There were not issues the previous 2 days as we ran several miles. We dropped the trolling motor and fished. The 2 keepers came on a bluff end with the wind gusting fairly strong on the point. The 6 pounder was caught on a Megabass in about 5 feet of water and 15 minutes later the second keeper was caught on the same bluff end. We fished another 30 minutes around this point from different angles and backing off a bit with no more bites.
Along with the engine problems the trolling motor batteries were losing there charge and having a difficult time in the wind. We were able to fish about 5 hours before needing to be towed back to PB2.
The tournament had 8 boats. We managed to receive Big bass and first place awards.

Other reports were fish being caught on bluff ends leading into the coves in the mid lake area worked very slow. Others reported catching several keepers in the Hurricane deck area on jigs. The water temp up the river is a few degrees warmer as well as the middle to upper Niangua.

Report from Mick

I’m reporting back my results from the weekend. In a lot of ways it was like an article of yours I read on the site about the progression of fisherman. I am still clearly in the lucky category. However, I was lucky enough to hook into the attached 4lb 6oz bass on Friday afternoon. Our condo is at the 10mm and when I got on the water Friday most of what I found ranged from 42-43 degrees. So I started with the jerkbait in the South Buck Creek. I landed a couple of really big crappie, but no bass. In the afternoon I found some water just above 45 degrees toward the back of the Alhonna Resort cove. So I started slow rolling a spinnerbait and caught my big bass and a 2 more non-keepers. The big one came on the end of a concrete seawall.

I fished for just a couple hours on Saturday in Lick Branch cove. I found a rocky secondary point with a ton of shad activity on it. The shad were periodically fluttering on the surface. I worked this point thoroughly with just about every possible lure presentation, but didn’t get any strikes.