Catfish are biting riverworms and shrimp

Bluegill good on crickets waxworms and riverworms

Crappie fair to poor on minnows

Bass fair top water early am

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

Here we are in dog days of summer. Dog days are high humidity, no wind, pop up showers, daytime temperatures in the 90’s and the fish slow way down in their feeding patterns. Lake level this week is 652.37, two feet below normal pool. Now that we are in the middle of summer and generation has picked up we can expect the pool to fall a few more feet before the fall rains. The thermocline is steady at 35 feet and the lake clarity is at 14 feet this week. 

White Bass are schooling in the mornings pushing shad to the top and frenzy feeding. The best places to look for them is in the back of the creeks or in the main lake pockets. Pop R’s, Spit’N Image, Rogue Jrs and spoons are your best baits. Catfish anglers have done well overnight with jugs and bottom fishing using chicken liver and nightcrawlers. Main lake cuts and pockets have been yielding the better catfish.

Largemouth bass can still be caught at dawn and early evening on buzzbaits, Zara Spooks or Flukes around secondary points and chunk rock banks in the creek arms. During the day with the lake temperature at 84 degrees the bite is pretty slow. Carolina rigs and spoons will trigger a few in 36 to 45 feet of water if you can stand the heat of the day. 

Smallmouth bass have moved out to the thermocline and repositioned on chunk rock or boulder banks. Top water is spotty in the mornings but you can raise a few on Zara Spooks. Best bite is on tubes, Spider Jigs and Mojo rigs with finesse worms or baby brush hogs. 

Kentucky bass are where they have been for the last six seeks, under the shad. Kentuckys will push shad to the top anytime during the day. Keep a Pop R, Sammy or Chug Bug tied on just in case they come up in front of you. Spooning is also starting to trigger a few Kentuckys in 40 to 45 feet of water. Bink’s spoons and silver flutter spoons are working the best. Check main lake and creek arm pockets and main lake cliff wall ends for groups of shad.

Walleye still are not deep but they are suspended. They are feeding above the thermocline somewhere between 20 and 36 feet although they could be up on the bank or out over 60 feet of water. Bottom bouncers with crawlers or leech harnesses are working somewhat along channel swings and flats. Lead core line anglers are having success on the suspended walleye pulling Reef Runners, Glass Shad and Bill Norman DD14’s. Remember it is dog days and the bite is slow.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite is in 20+ feet of water early in the evening and moves to the bank and brush piles throughout the night for bass. Pig and jigs and 8 to 10" worms are the best baits. Walleye are working the points and you can catch one or two on suspending rogues or X-raps.

LAKE RATING: The bite is a little slow as we are in dog days. This week’s rating is fair.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good this past week. The Berkley Power Egg bite has been good in yellow and pink or Belgium red worms. With generation the Buoyant Spoons, Little Cleo's, and Super Dupers are the bait of choice. The fly fishermen did well on olive and black Woolly Bugger, tungsten bead head midges, soft hackles and scuds. The Brown trout are being caught on Suspending Rogues, Flat Fish 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

Catfish are biting riverworms and shrimp

Bluegill good on crickets waxworms and riverworms

Crappie fair to poor on minnows

Bass fair top water early am

Channel catfish GOOD

Largemouth bass FAIR

Bluegill sunfish GOOD

Redear sunfish FAIR

Crappie SLOW

Cottontail Lake will be closed for physical renovation for the next couple of years. The lake has refilled and the stocking of small fish will occur this summer. After they reach a harvestable size the lake will reopen for fishing.

Honker Pond will be close to fishing the last week of July through the end of August for some renovation work.

Lake Level : 602.5 
Normal Lake Level : 606
Water Condition: Clear
Surface Water Temp: 84 - 87

It's hot and dry, and the lake level continues to drop.

Crappie. This week has seen lots of small crappie being caught, the bigger ones have been more elusive. The better areas continue to be off of points, next to deep water near the river channel with good cover. Bridge piers are holding a lot of crappie. The best bite has been early in the morning, till about 10:00 am, and the last couple hours of daylight. They've been caught anywhere from 12 - 20 feet deep, drop your bait to the bottom and come up. Minnows or jigs, tipped with crappie nibbles.

Bass fishing continues to be good, however they've gone deeper. The best bite has been in the main lake area, about 15 - 20 feet deep, using plastic worms or jigs.

Cat Fishing has been fairly good. Mostly channels on rod and reel, using nightcrawlers or cut shad. Trot line and jug fishermen have been having a tougher way to go during the past week.

Black bass No Report

Walleye No Report

Crappie No Report

Bluegill No Report

Bass fair on plastic baits off points and flats that drop off

White bass fair trolling flats and shallow points

Crappie fair on minnows 15' deep around trees and structures

Catfish fair on shad and worms

Bluegill good on worms 8'-10' deep

Walleye/Muskie slow.

CRAPPIE: Good: The crappie have moved into their summer patterns. Fish the brush piles and tree lines in the deeper water. The fish are in 15' to 20' of water approx. 10' feet deep. This pattern should hold true for the rest of the summer. Minnows or jigs

BASS: The bass fishing is really fluctuating right now. Most of the fish being caught are relating to the grass. They have been pulling water for a couple of weeks so most people are fishing points. Some fish are starting to come from tree lines up in the arms of the lake. Rigs: crankbaits: jigs

CATFISH: GOOD: The catfish are feeding up before they spawn and are biting good. Fish shallow in the coves and just about any bait you like will work. Some nice flatheads are starting to be caught on trotlines.

White Bass: Fair: With the Corps pulling water the whites are relating to the points and can be caught under the bridges or by trolling small rattle traps around main lake points. You can see them busting shad in the mornings and evenings on main lake points.

WALLEYE: Good: The wallies are still biting and relating to the main lake points much like the white bass. Use crankbaits or a jig and leech or crawler. Fish 2' to 10' of water . The fish will either be behind or in front of the grass.

No Report

GENERAL COMMENTS

Water Conditions: Have been running 4 generators until about 8:00 p.m.

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

Had trips out every day over the weekend and to date. Everyone catching fish, even those new, never fly fished before folks. Stan and I had a father and two sons out Saturday for half day and they boated over a dozen fish each and missed at least that many hits. Hot flies were the olive zebra in the a.m. and the rusty in the late a.m. Water came on at 1:00 p.m. so they fished the rising water with the San Juan red worm and finished out the half day with a few more fish. Hot fly today was the size 18 "ugly's zebra midge". This is a slight variation of our normal zebras. It is a size 18 TMC 2457 hook with a black tungsten bead head with olive Uni-thread body, rusty/brown thorax and green small wire ribbing. When it's hot is hot...but it is not as consistently good as the rusty or olive midges. Had fog on the water every day but today. Some today for a short period of time. When the fog is on the water, fishing can be difficult. Look for openings in the fog and fish those areas. Fishing will be good until the fog takes over. Did real this past weekend on size 18 olive soft hackles. Some of our other folks were on the water today and picked up some fish on the rabbit zonker sculpin, woolly buggers and, of course, midges! Hits, other than today, have been very light so we recommend using the smallest indicator you can to drift your fly. Otherwise, you are probably missing hits.

STAN'S TIP: Hard to believe while you are standing in 40 degree plus water that you can get hot and dehydrated! Drink lots of water while you are out fishing in this weather. Wear a good hat to protect your face, ears, and neck. Lots of sun lotion. and don't forget to protect you eyes with sunglasses. Both from the UV rays as well as flying hooks. But most of all....LOTS OF WATER ! !

Even with the hot weather the fishing is holding its own on Truman. We have seen some nice crappie come in this week and also some nice hybrids. The lake is at about normal pool and the water clarity is good. The COE has been running water every afternoon which really helps the fishing and with the hot weather I would think that they will keep running.

LAKE LEVEL: 706.20
WATER TEMP: 83 deg.
WATER CLARITY: Everything is clear to lightly stained with the exception of the upper Grand and the upper Osage.

BASS: The bass fishing on Truman remains fairly good. The worm bite is on and there is a top water bite early and late. The fish seem to be holding of the points in 10' to 12' of water. The 7 1/2" and the 9" worm is working better in these areas. There is also a suspended bite in the tree rows on the 10 1/2" worms. 

Best colors are blue fleck and plum. Pop R's and buzz baits are working on the flats next to deep water in the low light hours. Last nights hawg fights were won by Gary Stringhouer with 8.23 lbs.

Fish were caught on jig and frog and buzz baits. 2nd. went to Ernie Cox and Russell Beck with 7.81lbs. They also had big bass weighing 3.47lbs. 3rd was Emil Tally and Jim Lehares with 5.08lbs.

CRAPPIE: The crappie have done a little switch on us. The best bite is on the bluff banks out of 30' of water fishing 15' to 20' deep. Minnows and jigs both are working on these fish. The outside tree rows are still producing fish but the fish are really spread out.15' to 20' deep tree rows are doing the best fishing minnows about 10' to 12' down. At this point big Tebo has been producing the best numbers. The smaller fish have started biting so take plenty of bait.

WHITES & HYBRIDS: Jerry Coose is showing us again that the hybrid bite is alive and well. The 4" and 5" sassy shad is the top producer. The humps next to deep water are the best. With the Coe running water in the afternoons the evening bite is the best. Graf the fish and use the count down method to catch fish. We have been seeing some surface activity but the fish aren't staying up for any period of time. Trolling has been catching some nice sized whites in the O 3 and KK Island area.

CATFISH: We are seeing a few cats come in off trot lines. Lines set in 12' to 20' of water are working the best. Leeches are the best bait with night crawlers coming in a close second. Creek channels seem to be the best areas.

That's it for this week from Sterett Creek Marina

Fishing below Truman dam slow running water at peak time of day 2-7 or so catching a lot of small fish on the lake drifting cut bait in 15-30 ft of water

Crappie are being caught on flats and bluffs fishing in the tree tops.Most crappie are in 12 ft of water or more fishing down 11ft .The best approach is to find a flat to fish and idle in to 12 ft of water and fish out.Lots of crappie are being caught mostly on minnows.Make sure you take plenty the little crappie are going like mad.

Bass fishing is tough early in the morning fish a buzzbait on shallow points covering lots of water.As the sun comes up carolina rig humps and main lake points using lizzards.The bass bite is tough so have lots of patients.

Catfish are being caught on cut bait.Most are being caught on jugs fishing in 12 ft of water on the flats.Lots coming in.

White bass no report.

 Water is in good shape.

Come and see us.

Thanks