With 58 deg. outside this morning it felt almost like a hint of fall in the air, wishful thinking I guess. It looks like the weather person is calling for a bit of a warm up this weekend so we are going back into summer for a few days. With the cooler temps we have had this week it did drop the water temps back in the 70's and that is a good thing. With the holiday weekend next weekend we are looking for lots of people on the lake and with the lake still being down a foot some extra caution is advised. It seems like we have been low all summer so maybe we are starting to get used to it. I know I have had to change a couple of my boating paths with the extra trees sticking out.
We are 23 days away from the opening of archery season so it might be a good time to get tags and start getting some trail cams out. Another thing is to recheck the regulations for the county your in. Seems they change something every year with the CWD thing. All the deer I have been seeing look good and healthy around the lake. I have talked to a few folks that said their acorns were starting to drop already so we might have some fat deer this year. I know we could use some rain to freshen up the woods.
LAKE LEVEL: 705.09
WATER TEMP: 79 deg.
WATER CLARITY: Clear to lightly stained.
CRAPPIE: The crappie fishing has been fairly good this week. The brush piles in 15 to 18' of water seem to be working the best when fished with minnows right on top the piles. Brush piles on the points seem the best. The bluff banks are also producing fish. 20' to 25' of water fished down about 15' to 18' with minnows had been working but you have to sort through lots of small fish. And again the isolated trees on flats are still holding fish. Best trees are in 15' to 20' of water with fish holding about 7'. You might want to stop and check the bridge pillars this time of the year they can do pretty good.
BASS: With the water temp starting to cool a little the top water bite and the crank bait bite have started to improve. The secondary points and the creek channels are holding some fish. Top water early in the am and crank baits later on as the bass are starting to suspend in the tree tops. Creek channel bends in 8' to 12' of water are the best. A jig and frog fished at the base of the trees is another winner this time of the year. On sunny days the bass like to lay in the root wads.
WHITES & HYBRIDS: The whites and hybrids have been slow this week. With the lake being down the COE doesn't run much water and this kind of turns the whites into nomads. They seem to follow the big schools of shad so they are strung out all over. Later in the fall when the water temp cools they will get on the flat wind blown points and pockets feeding up for winter. Even live bait fishing for hybrids was slower this week. You can still catch a few drifting the channels in 30'+ water with live shad or perch at about 15'. They will also be moving to the flats in a month or so.
CATFISH: We are still seeing lots of blues. 15' of water along the edge of a break has been the best. Jugs or rod and reel are both working using cut bait. 8' to 10' seems the best depth to set bait. The channel cats have seemed to moved into 6' to 10' of water on the flats. Here again cut bait is working when set about 5'. I did hear of a couple flat heads caught on rod and reel drift fishing a ditch on a flat in 12' of water. I'm looking forward to flat head fishing this fall.
WALLEYE: Not much to report on walleye this week. I would still troll the humps in 15' of water with Flicker shad. During the day a crawler rig on a bottom bouncer around the humps. With the high sky's and not much wind this week it was slaw.
With the holiday a week away we have just a couple boat stalls left so if you need one give us a call at Osage Bluff Marina 660-438-2939. For the latest happenings on the lake check our face book page at Osage Bluff Marina. Our web site has been redone so you might want to check it out to.
Till next week
Tommy
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