Catfish are biting river worms and shrimp

Bluegill good on crickets waxworks and river worms

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

This has been an incredibly tough week as the temperatures soared into the century mark raising the lake temperature to 88 degrees. Lake level is at 651.45 this week, which is three feet below normal pool, water clarity is around 16 feet and the thermocline is steady at 36 feet. The daytime bite has really slowed down, not to mention how tough it is to stand out in 100 degree weather trying to find them. White Bass were pushing shad to the top in the mornings, but now the shad have gone down in the mid-20 foot range, which makes it spoon time for the Whites. Do a little graphing halfway back into the creek arms and find some schools of shad and there should be Whites with them. Silver or white spoons are the best at this time.

Crappie remain scattered from the points to the deep 28 foot brush piles. Crappie minnows on colored jig heads are working the best early in the mornings and under floating lights at night. Catfish are also slow but a few are being caught on jugs with a 12 foot drop line throughout the night. Chicken liver, bream and nightcrawlers are the best baits.

Largemouth bass can be caught from dawn until around 7:30 a.m. on top water baits (Pop R’s, Spit’N Image or Zara Spooks) halfway back in the creeks or creek arm pockets. The best bait is a buzz bait in either white or chartreuse and white colors. Once the sun is up the bite falls way off and your best bet is to throw a Carolina rigged lizard or brush hog in 30+ feet of water off points.

Smallmouth bass are suspending most of the day time hours out over deep water. Early in the morning and throughout the night they move up to feed on crawdads. Spider jigs and tubes are your best baits during their feeding period. Transition banks and chunk rock points are good places to look for smallies that are feeding.

Kentucky bass are now in 35 to 40 feet of water and schooled out around main lake points and in the middle of main lake cuts. There are two techniques to use this time of year; drop shot and spoons. Mark the Kentuckys and drop a spoon down through them or lower a drop shot rig with a finesse 4" worm or 3" grub.

Walleye are still above 35 feet of water for some reason. Long liners are catching a few on Reef Runners, Glass Shad and Wally Divers trolling along channel swings. Leeches and nightcrawlers on a harness rig are also triggering some walleye along transition banks in 28 to 32 feet of water. A few walleye are still being taken at night around points on X-Raps and Suspending Rogues, the best bite is around midnight.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: Channel swings and points with big rock have been producing some nice smallmouth and largemouth bass. The best baits are Gene Larew 8" cherry seed or strawberry/gold worms, black and blue or brown Spider Jigs and salt craws.

LAKE RATING: It is hot, the lake water is hot and the bite is cold. This week’s rate 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 orange and 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, poppers 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 river worms and shrimp

Bluegill good on crickets waxworks and river worms

Crappie fair to poor on minnows

Bass fair top water early am

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 of the Ozark water elevation is 658.25’. Truman Lake water elevation is 706.62’. Water temperature is 87 degrees Fahrenheit. Water discharge from Truman Dam is 500 CFS through the gates. There was a large release from Truman both Friday and Saturday evenings which created a substantial current and stirred things up.

Catfish: Good.

Jim and Donna Herronymous plucked some nice catfish off of their trotline Sunday morning. Donna said shad work well for the two of them. Their good friend Bob Fuller told me he uses hot dogs rolled in garlic powder and stored overnight in a Folger’s Coffee can do the trick for him. He landed several over 10#s this past week. He said one of the guys from last years U. S. Catfish Anglers Tournaments Series (CATS) shared the secret with him during our annual U.S. CATS spring tournament. Remember as water temperatures rise the oxygen in the water drops. As a result you will want to check your trotlines at least twice a day or the fish will die before you get to it.

Crappie: Fair.

Bob Fuller told me Friday night that Jim Knutter limited out on 12" – 13" Crappie last weekend somewhere down near Cole Camp Creek. Jim was fishing off of one of the docks down that way and apparently found a nice school of Crappie. He was able to cull his stringer and threw back 25 – 30 fish before he called it quits. Not sure what he used for bait.

Remember a bad day fishing is better than a great day at work.

Black bass No Report

Walleye No Report

Crappie No Report

Bluegill No Report

Black bass fair on plastic baits early in the morning

White bass fair trolling on the flats using rooster tails

Crappie fair on minnows around trees and structures

Catfish fair on shad and worms

Bluegill fair 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. There have been some very large stringers in the last two weeks with nice 7 + lb. fish caught. Some of the fish being caught are relating to the grass and others are coming off of the wood. Some fish are starting to come from tree lines up in the arms of the lake. Rigs: crankbaits: jigs, worms and buzz baits

CATFISH: GOOD: The catfish are feeding up. Fish shallow in the coves and just about any bait you like will work. Some nice flatheads are starting to be caught on trotlines. A variety of baits is working.

White Bass: Good: The size on the main lake whites has been excellent the past week. 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 or in pockets with lots of shad. The Trimble dam is also holding lots of fish.

WALLEYE: Poor: The wallies have sort of vanished for the time being. They are either buried in the grass of laying in deep water either making them difficult to get to. Use crankbaits or a jig and leech or crawler.

No Report

GENERAL COMMENTS

Water still off until noon earliest, 1:00-2:00 p.m. latest.

Water Conditions: Water still off until noon or so. Yesterday they turned on one generator at 11:30 a.m. then the remaining three at Noon. The day before, all four at Noon. Have been running 4 generators until 9:00 or 10:00 p.m.

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

Trips out every day, although we have not been taking any bookings for all day due to the extreme heat. New fly fisher I had out last Friday got her casting well enough to started out with a size 18, real thin bodied olive soft hackle. She landed several fish with that but missed more than she landed...probably 25 or more hits. When the fishing slowed down on the soft hackle, we went to a rusty zebra, size 18. She caught several on that, but thinks she likes soft hackle fishing better. Good day Saturday with the Ugly zebra, size 18 with a red, size 20 bloodworm dropped about 16-18 off it. Two more new folks out Sunday and they caught lots of fish on the tan scud, including a nice 17" Rainbow. Three boats out Monday. Jim's new guy caught two 18" Rainbows right off the bat. Fishing was steady all morning. Nice healthy fish. Still fishing the red bloodworm or midge under either the Ugly zebra or the rusty. Did very well all morning. The other fly that was working well under the zebra was a size 20 tan foam post midge emerge. I had a good caster in the boat that day and he picked up several nice fish along the banks with a cream bodied crackle back. Yesterday I went out and fished with one of our customers who was having a bit of trouble catching fish. On my first cast I picked up a fish on a size 16 tan scud. Set her up with the same and she started getting hits. Before the morning was over, she landed at least 6 of the many hits she had. Hits was light and fast and she was having trouble catching up with them. We also fished the red bloodworm dropped under a midge and caught fish.

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 ! !

Fishing Report from Sterett Creek Marina 

The weather has finally broke for us. We had about a 1/2" of rain last night and it cooled the temperature down about 20 deg. That sure beats the 100+ we had last week. We fished during the rain last night and it sure turned the fish on, lets hope they keep going all week.

BASS: The bass fishing really picked up yesterday. Last night in the hawg fights it took 11.85 lbs. to win and big fish was 5.36 lbs. The winning string was brought in by Randy Lutjan and Todd Blake. 2 nd. went to George Thorton and Shane Tumlinson with 9.56 lbs. 3rd. went to Ernie Cox and Russell Beck with 9.11 lbs. The best bite is coming on worms off the points in 6' to 12' of water. Plum and blue fleck are two of the better colors. There is also a good suspended bite going. Outside tree rows in 15' to 20' of water using big worms down 6' to 10' has been working.

CRAPPIE: The crappie fishing has been a little slow this week mostly due to the heat. The fish have been biting but it was to hot to sit out there. The people who did well said the best bite was from 10am to 2pm. Fish have been holding in the cedars off the bluff banks in 20' to 30' of water. Minnows fished 10' to 15' down is the best bait.

WHITES & HYBRIDS: The whites and hybrids are still doing good. Jerry Coose has brought in several limits of hybrids in the last week. The sassy shad on a 1/2 to 3/4oz head is the best bait going. The Pommie arm has been producing some good fish. The fish are off the flats in 20' of water. There has been a little surface activity going on in the evening hours. Here again the sassy shad has been the best bait.

CATFISH: The catfish have dropped a little deeper this week. Trot lines set in the channels in 20' of water seem to be working the best. Cut shad has been the bait of choice.

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 buzz bait 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