As we can all tell summer has arrived in the Ozarks. The temps are supposed to be a little warm this weekend according to the weatherman. He is not talking about any rain so it looks like fishing early and late and taking a nice nap during the day, sure sounds good anyway. We received about a 1 1/2" of rain the other night which we did need but it didn't affect the lake at all. Water condition's are perfect right now for both fishing and water sports. The COE has been generating power about every afternoon and the fishing has been good so come on down to the lake and enjoy the fun. One thing to keep in mind is with the conditions we have now take plenty of fluids with you its easy to dehydrate even in the water. It doesn't hurt to take extra ice for the live wells to keep fish fresh.
LAKE LEVEL: 706.73
WATER TEMP: 83 deg.
WATER CLARITY: Light stain.
CRAPPIE: All of the summer patterns are working on the crappie now. Tree rows. brush piles and bluff banks are producing fish. The brush piles in 15' to 20' of water seem to be the most consistent. It seems that no matter what pattern you fish right now minnows are working the best and it seems the smaller the minnow the better the bite is. Bluff banks in 20' to 30' of water fished down about 15' are giving up lots of fish but make sure to take lots of bait as you will have to sort through lots of little fish. My favorite is long polling tree rows on the flats in 10' to 17' of water. These fish seem to like about 7' now. I have noticed that on these bright sunny days the cedars have been working the best.
BASS: This is the time of the year that two patterns work for bass. Either point fishing or deeper water structure fishing are where it's at. Either main lake or secondary points are working fishing crank baits in 6' to 12' of water. Texas red is still the best color along with fire tiger. Bomber B 1 and Bomber B 2 are a good choice. There are lots of different types of deep structure be it a underwater road bed, ditch line with brush on it or an underwater hump this time of the year fish just like to hang out there. 12' to 17' are my favorites. Creature baits either Texas or Carolina rigged will work along with a big worm or jig. The top water bite is a early and late thing like always with lunker lures and Pop R's on the secondary points.
WHITES & HYBRIDS: With the generation schedule mostly in the late after noon it seems the best white bass and hybrid action is late in the day. Spoons on the humps has been doing good. Pommie flats and KK Island along with O 3 are hot. Spoons seem to be working the best along with a 4" sassy shad for hybrids. I have been seeing a little top water action during the day on the Pommie arm so you might want to keep a 1/4 oz. Roster Tail ready just in case.
CATFISH: Jugs and rod and reel has been the best this week on the main lake flats in 12' to 18' of water. Cut shad by far out fished the perch this week. Bait set about 8' seemed to work the best. The flats around the islands have had some nice blues on them. I ran lines this week and had lots of channels. One flat head off chunk rock in a main lake pocket 12' deep. With the water temp getting close to 85 deg. lines need to be run about every 6 hours along with stationary jugs. I haven't lost any fish yet and I do think the o2 level is still good at all depths but it is getting close.
WALLEYE: Lots of walleye showing up now. The humps are the hot spots. Bottom bouncers with a crawler has been the best when fished about 12'. Trolling deep running crank baits is also working. The walleye seem to prefer the baits moving a little quicker right now so you might want to turn the trolling speed up a notch.
That's the report for this week. We are about 2 weeks away from the holiday so if you are needing a stall I have a couple left so give us a call at Osage Bluff Marina 660-438-2939 to get one reserved. Fireworks at the dam are on June 30 and ours here at Osage Bluff will be on July 7 so come celebrate with us.
Till next week
Tommy
