Fishing Report For Week Ending October 18, 2013

Friday, October 18, 2013

Fall fishing patterns are starting to emerge for bass on Lake of the Ozarks.

As the days continue to get shorter, overnight lows in the high 30's to 40's and the daytime air temperatures beginnning to feel a bit more like fall, the water temperature is on the move lower.   While early in the week, water temperatures were consistently in the mid 70's, the latter part of the week the water temperatures are now about 69-73.   As the water temperatures begin to fall, fisherman are reporting more and more bait fish shallow in coves, high in the water columns in the coves and some fish starting to get on bluffs throughout the lake.  As the bait fish move, so are the bass moving along with them.  While fall is often considered to be one of the toughest seasons to catch bass on Lake of the Ozarks, there are some fall patterns starting to emerge.    I have had reports of a good black buzz bait bite around docks many depths of water and cover shallow, such as lay downs, concrete pillars, etc.   There is also a good jig bite fished around shallow docks in the backs of coves, the best bite and biggest fish seem to be most predictable on sunny days as these big bass seek out the darkest part of the docks, skipping a jig or pegged worm under swim docks, behind docks and between dock floats, the key is to find the darkest part of the lake and get a jig or worm into those areas.   There continue to be reports of a good bite on square bill crankbaits and rattle traps, run along side docks, front of docks and around shallow cover like lay downs and stumps.   There is also a good bite on medium to deep diving crankbaits on windy points and over the tops of medium depth brush piles.   There also reports of bait fish and a good quality bass bite on bluffs by free falling a jig on bluffs with bait fish and bass on your graph.