Summer 2019

We're half way though the summer and this one will be remembered with great photos of customers catching nice fish. The flooding up stream and down stream of us has created a great situation for the fish to strive. Bass in particular have been rebounding from the spawn and eating the little baby shad born a month ago. I haven't done as many catfish, gar or other fish this year because I haven't had too. Bass are doing just fine as of now and hopefully the rest of the summer holds the same. We'll see as I have many customers that come just for the big fish that usually show up this time of the year. the lake has been dirtier than normal but it hasn't messed up too many things. Looks like it's starting to come back to normal yesterday.

January 29, 2019
We are about to experience some record low temperatures here with wind chills down around negative 14 degrees! Needless to say I'm not going fishing until it warms up Thursday where the high is 39 degrees again. I have fished several times lately with below freezing temperatures. Ice on the guides, cold runs, and wind chills have made it difficult but luckily the fishing hasn't been bad at all. Yesterday was awesome as the big bass were biting jerkbaits on the north shore area. We had a front coming in which always helps the bite with clouds, wind and the bass in their fairly predictable winter locations, it was fun. Plus the bass are in groups right now so while I'm fishing pretty slowly I'm only doing so in spots where you know there are fish. Crappie are doing well also. Part of that has to do with the new fish finder I just bought from Garmin. It's got this thing called Live Scope and it's a game changer. Basically it is forward looking sonar on steroids. I've never had anything like this before where a piece of technology is making such a big difference so quickly. You see fish in a whole different world. And it's helping me catch fish that I simply would not have without this new tool. It's the hottest new toy in the fishing world. Luckily the warmer days are just around the corner and I'll be back out there honing my skill. Good Luck Everybody!

January, Mid Winter Report

Lake of the Ozarks water temperature 44-41 degree depending on the day and area of the lake. Water clarity is clear up the rivers where there is a decent smallmouth bite. The mid lake has some color to it right now, and the lower end is pretty clear. The jerkbait bite has been the best the last few times out. Berkley Cutter 110 has been good, it's got a great action for this time of the year. A new worm from Berkley called the Max Scent flat worm on a small jig head has been good on the sunny, more calm days. This is working great paired with light line like 6 pound test and it gets a lot of bites. The A rig bite has been hit and miss for me lately. Not to long ago I had one of those afternoons where it was on fire! It was catching good ones, one after another until it was time to go. Since then it's been off, don't know why. I imagine it won't be long until they start smacking it again. The crappie bite has been decent. So far they have been deep around brush and certain docks. Catching good numbers on the right day in the mid lake to Gravois arm. Last year in February we starting seeing a lot of big ones moving shallow on a cork/jig combination. I'll be checking to see if that happens again, cause it was amazing. Dock shooting is our primary pattern for the big blacks but for the occasional fishermen that hasn't been out in a while the spider rigging technique has been productive. It's a forward trolling technique where we are using 9-12 minnows on double rigs on really long 14 foot poles. I've got several days open in January (cause it's 28 degrees outside) but several days in the upper 40's coming up. Wintertime fishing can be challenging but also very rewarding.