Fishing Report For Week Ending March 20, 2015

Friday, March 20, 2015

Fish Your Strength!!

The bass fishing on Lake of the Ozarks is starting to turn on lake wide.   There is a wide variance of water temperature, a wide variance of water color and wide variance of baits that are catching numbers and quality fish.   It is difficult to characterize the water temperatures and coloration on any part of the lake as it vary's from slightly stained to stained in the backs of creeks to clear to slightly stained toward the main channel around most of the major branches of the lake, the Glaize, Gravois, Linn Creek, etc.   The same holds true for many of the major big coves, stained water toward the backs of the coves and bit clearer closer to the main channel.   The water temperature variance is also somewhat wide, with the lower end around the dam to mid lake being 42-45 degrees with a bit warmer temps in the backs of the coves, maybe 1-3 degrees difference depending on sunny days versus cloudy days.   The upper Niagua has 53-57 degree water around the 54 bridge with 45-48 near the Hwy 5 bridge.   The upper Glaize has been 45-50 degrees depending on sun with the lower Glaize being cooler at 42-45.   The river area from Hurricane Deck bridge is 47 to 55, the water gets warmer and more stained the higher up the river you run.

There have been reports of good bites on many different baits.   For me, my best bite has come on small finesse jigs, like Crock-o-Gator Bitsy Bug or 1/2 oz Zapper Jig in Ozark Craw and Texas Craw colors, Chompers 1/2 oz Jig in Davenport Special Color or the Dirks Jig with brown or green pumpkin.   Always trail these smaller jigs on Lake of the Ozarks with a Crock-o-Gator Ring Craw Trailer.  I generally bite of the top of the Ring Craw down to about the 3rd or 4th ring, it is important this time of the year that your trailer match the size of the jig, right now a small jig should have a smaller trailer the is only slightly longer than the skirt of the Jig.

The backs of creeks and coves with a lot of bait fish have produced quality fish on the jig, creature baits like the Crock-o-Gator Swamp Bug on a COG Shaky Head or COG Stand-up Head or try a Beaver, Tube or Missile Bait rigged on a Crock-o-Gator Keeper Head (formerly Wayne's Creature Keeper).   There are also reports of quality fish being caught on the wiggle wart on slightly steeping banks and secondary points where you can run the wiggle wart digging into the rocks and a big 1/2 oz – 3/4 oz spinner bait slow rolled on the bottom over rocks on creek channel banks, in the backs of coves or over big shallow rocks on seconday/main lake points.

The jerk bait and Alabama Rig have also been catching quality bass on secondary points, main lake points and creek channel banks mid way to the backs of coves, slight to moderate wind hitting directly on these types of banks/points will produce the best bite.   Megabass Pro Blue ll, Megabass Wakin Reaction and Megabass Wakasaki have produced well on sunny days in clearer water, French Pearl (white) works best in dirty water and Megabass Natural works best on cloudy days.

The earlier part of this week we had clouds rain and cold air temps, but that is in the past, we are now seeing a warming trend these past couple of days and should continue into the weekend, this is getting the fish noticeably more active.  There are many patterns and baits that can work well right now, so this a a great opportunity to fish your stregth in terms of type of structure/cover/depth, type of water clarity clear-stained and type of bait, bottom baits, crank baits, spinner baits and stick baits.

Good Fishing All,

Bob