We would like to thank everyone who showed up for the holiday last weekend. The weather ended up being perfect, the water temp was warm enough for water sports and the fish bit even with all the boat traffic. I guess you could say it was one of those perfect holiday weekends. So again a big thank you and we are looking foreword to the July 4th. celebration. With the holiday in the middle of the week we will be doing our fireworks on Sat. July 7th.
The lake is on a slow fall now with the COE running between 16000 and 24000 cfs. every day. The trash has fairly well cleaned itself out and the water clarity has really cleaned up. With the conditions we are having now the fish are hitting as would be expected with a heavy current flow. Lots of good sized fish showing up at the dock. We are still about 3 1/2' high so we can look for this bite to continue on for a while.
LAKE LEVEL: 709.8
WATER TEMP: 85 deg.
WATER CLARITY: Clear to stained.
CRAPPIE: The crappie have moved to their summer pattern and are starting to feed back up after the spawn. I have seen lots of fry on the lake so would assume that we had a very good spawn. The brush piles in 20' of water have been one of the hot spots this week. Minnows fished down about 12' in the piles has been producing lots of limits. The bluff banks in 20' to 25' of water is another good spot. Here again minnows are working the best and it seems the hard woods are working better than the cedars right now. Long poling the tree rows on the end of the flats in 17' to 20' of water has taken some big crappie with minnows. 7' seems to be the magic number here. The big thing here is you have to keep moving tree to tree.
BASS: The bass are coming off the nests and the bite has gotten a little tougher now. Top water action early and late is starting to pick up. Pop R's and Lunker Lures have been working. Flat secondary points are best when fishing 4' to 8' of water. Locating fry around the hardwoods is another way to catch fish right now. There will be a male under the fry and will defiantly grab a creature bait. The steeper secondary points fished with crank baits in 8' to 12' of water is another good bite. Texas shad has been a good color choice.
WHITES & HYBRIDS: This is the time of the year for these fish and the conditions are perfect. With the current flow we have almost all the humps are holding whites. Spoons are working the best. The humps with 10' of water over them are the best. Trolling deep running crank baits is also working on the humps. With the water temp in the mid 80's the shad are working the top bringing the hybrids up for some fantastic action. Rooster tails and Rat l traps are the best here. There has been some good top water action around KK Island in the evenings.
CATFISH: The cat fishing is the same this week as it was the last. Fast and furious. Rod and reel, jugs and trot lines are all taking fish. The wind blown flats in 8' to 12' of water are producing lots of good blues. Jugs and rod and reel are the best with baits set about 5'. Shad seems to be the best bait. Trot lines set in the creeks paralleling creek channels in 15' of water with shad set 5' to 10' is another good bite.
WALLEYE: We saw several walleye come in last weekend off the humps. Crawler rigs were working the best in 10' to 12' of water in the early morning. The fish move off the humps to the saddles when the sun gets higher in the sky and trolling deep running crank baits takes over. I'm looking for this bite to continue for a good while.
That's it for this week. We are starting to get ready the 4th. of July so if you need a boat stall reservation you can reach us at Osage Bluff Marina 660-438-2939 and for motel reservations you can call Osage Bluff Motel at 660-438-2891.
Till next week
Tommy
