Fishing Report For Week Ending January 17, 2014
Friday, January 17, 2014
This has been the toughest week of bass fishing in a long time on Lake of the Ozarks.
Water temperatures range from 40-41 in the dam area, 38-39.5 mid lake and Glaize and 36-38 in the upper areas of the lake. The water level has been very uncharacterstic for this time of the year. While Ameren started to draw the water down two weeks ago, with the recent precipitation and release of water from Truman, the water levels have remained generally high for this time of the year, in fact the water has risen slightly the past couple of days. The fish just are not active and biting. This has been one of the toughest weeks of fishing for a long time. Fish have been reported to being caught on the A-Rig, slow rolling the A-Rig along the bottom and through brush piles. While there is not a consistent bite on even the A-Rig, moving quite often seems to be the key to finding some active fish. A tournament last weekend was won by anglers with the A-Rig on a single bank. Finding active fish in an area seems to be the key to catching some good bass. The Bassing Bob tournament, that does not allow the A-Rig was won on a jerk bait, undoubtedly over brush piles or some deep structure. Earlier in the week, I had a good bite of shorts on a warm day along channel banks close to the very back end of coves. With the lack of winter draw down and heavy generation, the visible bait fish seem to remain in the back areas of big coves and creeks with steep water near by. Advise from Bassing Bob experts earlier in the week, included, backing off the banks and fishing deeper water 15'-25' of water, fishing brush piles slowly with jig, slow sinking jerk bait over brush piles, Alabama Rig run along the bottom on secondary points and channel banks near the backs of coves where the water starts to deepen and fishing a jig slowly through brush piles. So, it seems that fishing slowing, fishing a bit deeper and watching your graph for brush, channel swings, break lines with fish and bait fish seem to be keys to finding a bite. These fish will turn on any day now and when they do there will be a lot of fisherman that have had a tough week, wanting to yank their lips off :). Good fishing all. If you find anything good that is working, post on Bassing Bob forums or send me an email to bob@bassingbob.com. Watch tomorrow for the results of the Joe Bass Tournament. I am sure thata someone will figure out a good bite and that bit will likely be on the A-Rig.