Fishing Report by:     Wilderness Trail      

TUESDAY NIGHT OPEN TOURNAMENTS

SPONSORED BY R & H MARINE

$25.00 PER TEAM WITH $5.00 GOING TO BIG BASS POT

Rules and information available at R & H Marine and Wilderness Trail

Hot – that is all there is to say about last week’s weather – daytime temperatures in the 90’s with lots of humidity. The warm weather pushed the lake temperature up to 81.3 degrees, that is bath water temperature. There was a little rain that came in over the weekend, which we really needed. Lake level is at 652.94, 1 ½ feet below normal pool. Lake clarity slipped a little this week and is at 14 feet throughout most of the lake. There are two thermoclines that have developed with the hot weather. One is at 22 to 23 feet and the other is at 37 feet. Most of the game fish are in the first thermocline holding around the 25 foot area and moving to the points and banks to feed. 

Crappie are back on the crappie cribs and around the points out in front of the cuts in the creeks. Best bait has been crappie minnows or small shiners and Swimming Minnows in Blue Thunder or smoke colors. Catfish must like the heat because they are really feeding well at night. Best locations have been halfway back in the creeks and main lake coves. Magic Bait, hog dogs and chicken livers are your best baits.

Largemouth bass are feeding early in the morning and throughout the night, the daytime bite is very spotty. Top water with Zara Spook Jrs, buzz baits and Lucky Craft Sammy’s will create some nice action in the mornings. During the day fish Carolina rigs with trick worms or brush hogs around secondary points. Also work the shade around docks with tubes and jigs. 

Smallmouth bass have switched off the shad and are feeding primarily on crawdads. Transition banks and chunk rock points are where most of the smallies are foraging for food. Spider Jigs, tubes and a Mojo rig with finesse baits are your best bet. Try some Pop R’s or Chug Bugs early in the morning for smallies that are roaming the shallows. 

Kentucky Bass are with the shad just like they have been for the last few weeks. Cliff walls, channel swing ends and cuts that have some brush in them are the best areas to look for schools of Kentuckys. Drop shot rigs have picked up this week using Swimming Minnows, tiny brush hogs and drop shot worms fished under the balls of shad. Other baits that worked this week were tubes, Spider Jigs and centipedes.

Walleye remain shallow for this time of year. We are finding them from the bank out to 25 feet of water around points and along banks that have ledges. A number of techniques are catching walleye at this time – here are a few. Jig and worm or leech, split shot with worm or leech, worm or leech harnesses with bottom bouncers, Glass Shad and trolling Reef Runners. As long as we have a thermocline in the 20+ foot range and the shad stay in that zone, I believe the walleye will stay shallow.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite picks up around sundown on chunk rock banks, then later the brush piles turn on. Pig and jigs and Texas rigged worms are working the best.

LAKE RATING: Bass, crappie, catfish and walleye are somewhat active. This week’s rating is GOOD.

Fishing for trout on the White River has picked up this past week. The Berkley Power Egg bite has been good in yellow, white and orange, or Berkley Nuggets in Orange. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Super Dupers, and Little Cleo’s are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on Olive Woolly Bugger, tungsten bead head midges, sow bugs and San Juan worms. The Brown trout are being caught on Suspending Rogues, Countdowns 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.

No Report

Date: 6/16/05
Lake Level : 608.3
Normal Lake Level : 606
Water Condition: Clear in the lower lake, muddier in the upper lake.
Surface Water Temp: 76 - 79

Most of the Crappie being caught are small. Crappie fishing through the weekend was good, although most have been on the small side. They have been slower this week. The better catches have come off of a summer pattern. Tight lining minnows or jigs near bridge piers, and bluffs, with good standing timber. Some people know where honey holes are that on the surface wouldn't seem to have anything to offer. Holes like this come from spending many hours on the water. If using jigs, use the larger umbrella jig tipped with a minnow or crappie nibble.

Bass fishing continues to be very good. Numerous catches of keeper size bass have been reported. Plastic worms, jigs and crank baits have been the lures of choice lately. Primary main lake points and secondary points, working laydowns and timber.

Catfishing continues to be very good. Several flatheads, blues and channels have been caught this past week. The bigger flatheads and blues have been brought in on trot lines baited with perch. Bank fishermen have done best using nightcrawlers and cut shad.

The White Bass fishing has been good. We haven't had reports of fishermen finding the schools of whites, as have been getting over the past few weeks. However we are still hearing of several white bass being caught, some are incidental catches being caught by bass and crappie fishermen.

Black bass fair on buzz baits early and plastic baits later in the day

White bass fair early and late on flats using top water lures and small crankbaits

Walleye good on jigs, minnows and trolling crankbaits

Crappie fair on minnows and jigs 10' to 15' of water over brush piles and good at night on minnows

Catfish good on trotlines using bluegill and shiners and drifting with nightcrawlers and shiners

Bluegill good on worms

Black bass fair on crayfish or shad colored crankbaits and brown and orange, chartreuse or white spinners, black or brown plastic baits in 8 to 10 feet of water around structure, in coves and off points moving into deeper water

Bluegill excellent using jigs, minnows and worms around structure and docks in 3 to 8 feet of water

Catfish good on bank lines, trotlines and limb lines using worms, cut shad and sunfish off channels and points

Crappie good on chartreuse, white or yellow jigs, green Twister Tails, white grubs with a spinner 10 -16 feet deep in the stumps and fish attractors

Muskie hitting shad colored lures trolling along flats and structure

Walleye fair drifting jigs or worms in 10 -15 feet of water along channels and rock bluffs

White Bass fair on the flats trolling Rooster Tails, crankbaits, spinners or spoons. 

CRAPPIE: Good: The crappie spawn is over but lots of nice fish are still being caught. Small males are still near the banks with an occasional female. Just back off the banks some and fish a little deeper along the flats and drop-offs in the mouths of the coves. The fish have been huge and this has probably been the best spring crappie fishing we have ever had.

BASS: The bass are spawning now especially around the main lake. This is going to make catching fish a little more of a challenge. Jigs, spinner baits and crankbaits 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: GOOD: The cats are biting and can be found in shallow waters. Fish shallow points and flats where the cats are feeding. Several nice stringers are being caught by fisherman on a variety of baits. Channels and blues are most common. A 36 lb. flat head did come into the store over the holiday.

White Bass: Fair: The whites are starting to show up on the main lake. They are not concentrated in large schools yet but you can fish points and humps and find nice size fish. Use pepper spoons on the deeper fish and rooster tails and roadrunners on the shallower point fish. You can also catch some large fish by trolling a shad rap around main lake points.

WALLEYE: Good: Some very impressive fish are being brought into the store. I weighed an 8 lb 2.5 oz a 6 lb 2 oz and saw several others 4 lbs and larger. Most of the fish are coming from the main lake. Some are being caught on crankbaits and others on a jig and leech or crawler. Fish 2' to 10' of water . The fish will either be behind or in front of the grass.

Black Bass fair on plastic baits off points

White Bass fair early and late on flats

Crappie good at night under lights using minnows and jigs

Walleye good drifting jigs and nightcrawlers on flats

Catfish good on trotlines with bluegill and shad

Perch No Report

No Report

GENERAL COMMENTS

Water still off most of the day. However, the past two days, they have turned the water on in the morning for a few hours. This morning, they still have one generator on as I write (12:25 p.m.). Appears they ran one generator all night. Yesterday they turned on one generator around 8:00 a.m. then dropped it town for about two hours, they turned it back on for the rest of the day. 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: One generator has been running since about 8:00 p.m. yesterday. Earlier in the week they have had the water off in the a.m. and turned it on around 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Usually 2-3 generators.

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

Fishing is still good. This week we have not seen the lull in the mornings from 8:00 to about 10:30 a.m. Getting on the water about 8:30 a.m. and have fish on with the second or third cast. Have had boats or walk wade trips on the water all week. Everyone catching 20-30 fish in 1/2 day trips. Nicer fish this week, running 13-16 inches and very fat. With normal water, rusty midge has been the ticket. In the late morning or early afternoons, with the sun out, the tan flashback scud did very well. Yesterday, the dark olive size 18 soft hackle was working well. Went the water came on this week, the boats have switched to the red tunghead midge and caught several nice fish. Tuesday, after the heavy rain and storms we had Monday night, the water was very dingy in the Special Management Area. Set the rusty midge a little deeper than normal, and the fish were finding it!

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.

Fishing Report from Sterett Creek Marina 6/15/05

The fishing here on Truman has gotten a little tougher this week. Well maybe it isn't a little tougher there is just a lot less water to fish.

The lake has come up a couple of feet from last week and the Osage has gotten real dirty. We had over 3" of rain over the last few days plus what is coming in from the Osage and the Grand River water shed we are starting to see a lot of colored water.

BASS: The bass are somewhere between the original bank line and the flooded grass. There are a few fish that have pulled up in the grass. Small spinner baits and buzz baits are taking these fish. Also big worms in the willows are catching fish. Points are producing some fish on big worms. Last nights hawg fights were won by Fred Bareks with 6.21lbs. Big bass and second went to Ken Mason and Randy James. 3rd was a tie between Gary Jones, Jim Hamilton and Brian Vanderzil and Tom Novinska.

CRAPPIE: The crappie here on Truman must not like the rising water because they slowed down this week. The big thing is that the Osage got muddy and we lost all that water to fish. I did have a good report in the Finny Creek area in the Grand. They are on the summer pattern 20' of water 10' down on minnows. Also had a report that Little Tebo has some fish on the flats on the south side of the bridge.

WHITES & HYBRIDS: Here again the dirty water in the Osage has slowed the hybrid fishing. KK Island has dirtied up. There are some real nice whites coming in from the dam area. Sassy shad are working the best. They have been surfacing in the evenings. G 4 has a few good whites on it also.

CATFISH: The catfishing is good on Truman now. Shallow set trot lines baited with leeches are doing good. Jugs on the flats baited with cut shad are doing well also. The rod and reel fishing with night crawlers is picking up. Fishing along the flooded grass has been producing some nice cats.

Bass No Report