Fishing Report For Week Ending January 30, 2015

Friday, January 30, 2015

Good Days and Tough Days

This week has been like Jeckyl and Hyde every other day.  It seems that the overcast days and days with a bit of wind that the fish are biting best.  We have had a mix of sunny days with slick water and overcast days with a bit of wind this week.   The sunny days have been really tough to get a bite.   While you  can find fish on your graph and bait fish, they just do not want to bite on those days.  My best bite on those days has been with the Chompers jig or by weighting my jerk bait a bite heavier and working it rather fast, just a few seconds between small and exagerrated twitches.   On the overcast days with some wind or fishing shade, the bite has been better, working the stick bait a bit slower, falling slower with getting bites with the bait being dead sticked and sinking slowly.   The water temps from the mouth of the Glaize to the dam have ranged from 39-43 degrees with the warmer water being closer to the dam.   The water in the mid lake area to about the 6mm is slighly stained and clear from the 6mm to the dam.   The water level has not fluxuated much this week.   Ameren is reporting a water level of about 658, just two feel under full pool.   The winter draw down is supposed to occur over the next few weeks, with the final water level of 654 by the end of February.  It will be important to watch the generation report from Ameren over the coming weeks as the draw down of water will re-position the fish which are a bit scatterered right now, to deeper banks and ditches along 45 degree banks.   During heavy generation periods, the fish will position themselves out of the current in an eddy, in a slight cut protected from the current or behind rocks.    The bite has been pretty consistent across the lake on the jerk bait, jig and A-Rig.   I had a fisherman report today to have caught 8 keepers today in the Hurricane deck area on creek channel banks with a stick bait.  He reported water temperatures were 40 degrees in that area of the lake.