Fishing Report For Week Ending January 31, 2014

Friday, January 31, 2014

Water temperatures range from 40-42 in the dam area, 37-39 mid lake and Glaize and 36-38 in the upper areas of the lake.   The water level has been around 656 with the plan to drop the level to 654.  Ameren has mentioned there is a possibility of dropping the water level to as low as 651 by spring.

The bass have been difficult to catch.  They are not very active.  The best bite that has been reported has been on Arigs slow rolled along the bottom and over brush piles.   It has been reported by many excellent tournament anglers the bite has been tough.  Many reported fishing several hours without a bite.  Others have reported the same but when they found they caught a bass in an area they would catch several others.

Other baits that have been catching bass are jerkbaits suspended over 8-15 foot brush piles.  Jigs have been catching bass in 10-15 feet of water with brush nearby and bait fish on the graph.  Over the past couple weeks the top weights in several tournaments have been averaging the 15 pound range.  In most of these tournaments the 2nd and 3rd place weights have dropped off quite a bit from first place.    Many have reported catching their limits in the dam area.

There are big bass biting as first place big bass have been 6.48, 5.74, 5.05, 5.16 and 3.01 on tournaments we have reported in January.  Sever have mentioned having hawgs break off as well.

Again this weeks the advice from Bassing Bob experts 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.

Overall the fishing is still difficult.  Stay tuned for reports on the ramps and ice.