Fishing Report by:     Wilderness Trail      

This certainly is a weird spring with cold rains and temperatures in the 50’s with lows in the upper 30’s. Lake temperatures have not rebounded from two weeks ago when we had extremely low temperatures. Main lake temperature is 60.6 and the back of the creeks are one 1 degree warmer. Lake level this week is at 654.04, a foot down from last week. The Central Pro-Am Association had their Bull Shoals tournament this past weekend. The anglers found the bass in pre-spawn/spawn/post spawn creating a variety of techniques and challenges. Greg Poindexter of Bolivar, MO won the two day event with 29.63 pounds. Congratulations to Gregg and all of the anglers.

White Bass slowed and their spawn might either be over or maybe they have been stopped with the lake cool down. We will check on them this week and see what’s going on. Crappie are staged for spawning and a few are already on beds. Check the shallows around boulders, scrub brush and blow downs. Best baits are crappie jigs with crappie minnows or crappie tube baits. For the catfish lovers, some catfish are being caught on jugs with chicken livers and nightcrawlers. Best areas are in the creek arms around flats.

Largemouth bass were tired of waiting for the shallows to warm up and have moved back into their spawning areas. Post spawners are also moving back into the shallows holding in the middle of the cuts in deeper water and moving to the banks to feed. Trick worms, jigs, tubes and spinnerbaits are the key lures at this time.

Smallmouth bass went back on their beds over the weekend, which has shut the bite down except for the post spawn smallies, which are suspended off the points and banks. To catch a few use suspending baits such as Sinko’s, flukes or wacky trick worms.

Some Kentuckys are still on beds but most of them are spawned out and pushing the shad for feeding. The Kentuckys that are around the banks can be caught on Mojo rigged Fish Doctors, Centipedes, and finesse worms. Look for banks with slab rock mixed with chunk rock. Keep a top water lure tied on for Kentuckys pushing the shad to the surface.

Walleye are on the points, both on the main lake and in the creek arms. They are feeding in the 24 to 26 foot range and they are on the bottom. It is bottom bouncer time with crawler harnesses or you can fish a split shot rig with a crawler. Some crank baits are working if pulled with your trolling motor instead of your kicker engine. Reef Runners, Rippers, Glass Shad and Shad Raps are the best trolling baits. The PWT Walleye Tour will be held May 11 through 13. The walleye pros and co-anglers should find the walleye bite excellent. Weigh-ins will be held at Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock all three days.

Lake Rating: Crappie are going on beds, White Bass bite has turned off, largemouth/smallmouth/Kentuckys are in spawn phases and walleye are on a good bite. This week the rate is good.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good this past week. Generation has been pretty steady so the Berkley Power Egg bite has not been used much but when able yellow and rainbow have done well. With generation the Buoyant spoons, Thomas Colorado’s, Little Cleo’s, and Super Dupers are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen actually had a chance to get out some this past week and did well on Olive Woolly Bugger, midges and San Juan worms. The Brown trout are being caught on Jointed Countdowns, Suspending Rogues and nightcrawlers.

Remember to keep only what you can eat and release the rest for another day. Rick Culver of Wilderness Trail does the research for this report and the writing of this report.

fishing below Truman dam slow 

Fishing on Truman lake good alot 2-8lb blues being caught drifting flats on cut bait

Date: 5/5/05
Lake Level : 606.13
Normal Lake Level : 606
Water Condition: Dingy

Surface Water Temp: 56 - 62

For all you Mexicans out there, or for those folks that just like a good excuse to drink a margarita, Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Crappie fishing has been very tough for most fishermen, however that should change with this warm weather we're now getting. The water temp should warm up to where it needs to be for the crappie to start "gettin' on the banks". By all accounts the crappie have not started spawning yet, and this should give them a big push in that direction. As of yesterday, we started getting better reports of crappie being caught, mostly small ones, but hopefully that will change very soon. The better reports have them in the vicinity of spawning areas, out in coves still scattered at various depths. With the crappie wanting to spawn, it's probably a good bet to start near the banks. Find the combination of the warmest and clearest water, and work the rocky banks, log jams and pockets along the banks with cover. If no luck near the banks, work your way out, or move on to a different bank or cove. Minnows and white or pink jigs or Road Runner type lures, along with white or pink crappie nibbles.

Bass fishing continues to be good. Still pretty much as last weeks report, rocky wind blown points have produced some good action using white/chartreuse spinnerbaits, or crankbaits.

Cat Fishing has been very good. Mark Twain Lake is once again proving itself to be a very good place to hook into those whiskered fish. Several nice flatheads and blues have been brought in using trotlines or jugs, with perch being the bait of choice. Channel cats are still fun to catch, using nightcrawlers, shad sides or stink bait.

We haven't heard anything about White Bass lately.

As of last Sunday morel mushrooms were still being found.

Happy fishing and good eating, or releasing!!

BASS: The bass fishing is much improved over last year. Our first three tournaments have produce good numbers of fish being caught. Jigs, spinner baits and rogues are still the lures of choice for most fisherman. The fish are shallow especially up the river arms and up the Branch. See Thurs. 2005 or Weekend 2005 tournament results for the weigh-in.

CATFISH: The Catfish in the Little Platte river arm of the lake are biting. Some nice channels and a few blues are being caught on shad sides. A young man brought in a 32 lb 12 oz flathead in on 4-15. Trot line on a goldfish somewhere in the lake.

White Bass: Fair: The whites are on their way back down from the river and should arrive at the main lake in the next couple of weeks.

WALLEYE: Fair: The spawn is for the most part over. The fish will soon be moving to the main lake points to feed up. This is you best chance to catch numbers of fish. I weighed a 10 lb 9.5 oz monster on 4-4.

Our Grand Opening Celebration was an overwhelming success ! ! Not only did we have perfect weather, the water was off and fishing was great! Lots of people here for the celebration. We had a drawing for door prizes such as fly line, fly boxes, six-pack of leaders, etc. every half hour. The grand prize drawing for an Orvis T3 8'6", 5 weight rod was won by John Montgomery of Branson, MO. The "guess the number of flies in jar" was won by Joan Walker of Grand Junction, CO. She won a Fishpond chest pack. Five fly tiers with very diverse patterns - Mike Clark and the Magic Tool - Mark Gray tying his beautiful Salmon Flies - Tony Spezio and some great extended-bodied Mayflies - Roy Yuetter a master with the soft hackle - Dana Lindsey with an excellent scud. Our wonderful Orvis rep. Dave Hayward, spent over six hours, almost not stop, working with everyone who wanted to improve their cast or learn how.

GENERAL COMMENTS

Since April 29, we have seen more off water time than on water time. When they have run, it has generally been 1-2 generators or no generation for the past week. Information I received from one of the hydraulic engineers at SWPA, they are ATTEMPTING to maintaining the water level at the Branson Landing construction site at an elevation of 701 feet or less until the work near the water is completed.

Water Conditions: Water off Saturday from 10:30 a.m. until 6:00 a.m. Sunday. Ran a low one generator most of sunday. Off today from midnight until 6:00 a.m. On for three hours and back off. It's 5:45 p.m. and the water is still off. It has been off since 10:00 a.m. yesterday and is still off. "Projection" is it will be off today except for a little flush at 6:00 p.m.

FLY FISHING TROPHY AREA (dam to Fall Creek)-SHALLOW WATER-WADING-

Trips out every day except Saturday and we kept all the guides here for the Celebration. However, from all the fly fishers running back and forth between the Celebration and the water, fishing was very good. They were catching fish on the midges, minnow-type streamers, flashy soft hackles, anything flashy. We fished for a little while yesterday afternoon. They had one generator running. The rusty or black zebra midges worked the best for us. Caught a couple of 17 to 17-1/2 inch male Rainbows. Really beautifully colored. Several more in the 13-15 inch range. Wind finally blew us off the water. Stan had a trip out today and he caught close to 60 fish. Red midge in the morning when one generator was running. After the water shut down, they changed to the rusty zebra. On the float down from the Lookout Point, deep side, he fished a bead head marabou fly he recently tied and they finished up the day with a bang.

STAN'S TIP: New regulations for most of the trout streams went into effect March 1. Read up on these changes. Specifically for Taneycomo, if you keep legal size fish, the limit is now 4. Also, a trout permit is required for anyone fishing above Highway 65 bridge.

After two big tournaments out last weekend and a lot of cold weather the lake is starting to get back to normal. The water temp is still running below the normal and has slowed some of the fishing down. The weatherman is calling for temps. in the mid 70's for the rest of the week and the lows in the mid 40's so we should gain back the water temp. that we lost over the last couple of weeks. Maybe the crappie will come back in and finish spawning. Have had a couple of reports that some have started coming up already.

LAKE LEVEL: 706.60
WATER TEMP: 58 deg.
WATER CLARITY: Stained

BASS: Even after two big tournaments out last weekend and all the cold weather the bass fishing remains pretty good. In the Concord Village Lions Club Tourn.. on Saturday the winning stringer was a little over 17lbs. The story I was told was the fish were caught in the Tally Bend area on spinner baits up shallow around lay downs. Last night in the Hawg Fights it took 17lbs to win. Clint Rayburn and Jack Hockett had the winning stringer and had big bass weighing 3.71lbs. Second went to Steve Blake and Billy Fisher with 7.87lbs. The jig bite has slowed a little this week but the lizard bite took over. Watermelon red seems to be the best color with PBJ right behind it. Fish seem to be holding in 2' to 6' of water on the steeper banks. Banks that change from chunk rock to dirt or pea gravel are the best areas right now. Look for lay downs.

CRAPPIE: The crappie fishing should improve this week with the warm up we have coming in. Marty Zych had fish yesterday out of the bare pockets in 2' to 4' of water on jigs. This is a lot better than the 15' to 20' of water they have been holding in after the cold front. In our area we still have a lot of fish that haven't spawned so this should be a good weekend. I will update the report when they hit the banks again.

Sterett Creek Marina Fishing Update 5/5/05
The crappie fishing got better yesterday afternoon. Had several reports of crappie going to the banks on the Osage. Both males and females are being caught. Fish are right on the banks.

WHITES & HYBRIDS: There has been a few whites caught off the humps in the Berry Bend area trolling. Wiggle warts in chrome have been the best baits. I would also check the KK Island area, these fish should start moving to this area real soon.

CATFISH: We saw some nice catfish this week. We weighed a 16lb. and a 12lb. blue yesterday. These came off jugs with leeches set about

Crappie fishing is good again lots of fish coming in being caught on the banks. The water is 58 to 60 degrees in the morning and warming up to 65 to 68 in the afternoon. Lots of fish coming in being caught in 1ft or less. The best way to catch them is fish a 1/16 oz jig under a bobber blue and white in color. Fish all spawning pockets once you catch a fish they will be more around.

Bass are being caught in spawning pockets. Using spinner baits and jigs. Any shallow pocket or bank will have fish on it. Keep your boat moving cover lots of water. Most bass are in 1 to 3 ftaround laydowns.

Catfish are coming in by the numbers using live bait. Lots of flatheads and white cats. Most fish are in 12ft fishing 5ft down.

White bass are on windy points and on humps. Lots being caught. Our guide is catching them by the hundreds. Most of the fish are on the humps using jigging spoons.

Overall fishing is great all species coming in by the numbers 

Come in and see us

Thanks