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      

We finally had a little rain over the weekend but it didn’t cool things down much. Daytime temperatures are still running in the upper 90’s with upper 70’s at night. Lake temperature went up this week and is now 89.9 to 90 degrees – that is hot. Lake level is 649.38, which is almost 5 feet below normal pool. With the extreme heat we have had this summer the lake level is really in good shape. The thermocline remains steady at 31 feet throughout the lake. 

White Bass became active this week pushing shad up onto pea rock banks an hour before sundown. It has been a strange summer and what the Whites are doing up in 89 degree water is anyone’s guess. 1 ½" white grubs on a 1/8 oz jig head has been the hot lure and one of the best spots on the lake is Brown’s Beach. 

Catfish are doing well at night on jugs, trot lines and off the banks. Best baits are frozen shad, chicken liver and nightcrawlers. 

Crappie was slow this week and are suspended or sitting on the bottom in the thermocline (30 to 31 feet). Crappie minnows is your best bait, fished on a slip bobber or just a split shot and hook. 

For the sunfish (perch/bluegill/bream) anglers now is a good time to fish docks or pole trees along the bluffs. Sunfish are deeper than the crappie by a few feet and the best baits are crickets, red worms and Berkley Maggots.

Largemouth bass – no change in their pattern. Top water with buzz baits, Zara Spooks or Chug Bugs for the first hour in the morning. Carolina Rigs with Trick Worms, brush hogs or lizards work the best during the heat of the day off points and around deep brush piles. 

Smallmouth bass do not like hot water and they are staying down in the thermocline. Spider Jigs, tubes and Hula Grubs are the key baits for bottom feeders and drop shot rigs with 4" finesse worms or Swimming Minnows is working well on the smallies that are suspended. Live bait anglers are catching a few on shiners and leeches drifting through concentrations of shad. 

Kentucky bass are deep under the shad, suspended in the 40+ foot range. Drop shot and spoons are the best techniques at this time. Look in the deep pockets at the end of the cliff walls and over the drop offs on the main lake flats for schools of shad with Kentuckys under them.

Walleye remain active during the afternoon heat and I can’t tell you why. Bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses and leech harnesses are working great pulled at about 0.6 to 0.8 mph in 30 to 31 feet of water. Long liners are trolling with Reef Runners, Glass Shad and Wally Divers on lead core and that is working great. Trolling speed is around 1.3 to 1.9 mph around points and long pea rock banks. Vertical jigging a spoon is also working well in 30 to 32 feet of water on flats and around points. Best color in spoons has been white or gray with an orange belly.

NIGHT TIME UPDATE: The bite is okay before dark but after dark the bite is very slow until early in the morning (2:30 to 3:00 a.m.). Best baits are Texas rigged worms, Spider Jigs, brush hogs and centipedes.

LAKE RATING: Crappie are slow but okay, bass are so-so, White Bass are goofy, walleye are feeding. This week’s rating is good.

Fishing for trout on the White River has been good on Berkley Power Eggs in yellow, pink and orange, Berkley Nuggets in orange and Belgium red worms. 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, Zebra midges, soft hackles, and olive scuds and sow bugs. The Brown trout are being caught on Countdowns, 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.

Crappie No Report

Bass No Report 

Catfish 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

Channel catfish GOOD

Largemouth bass GOOD

Bluegill sunfish FAIR

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 closed through the end of August for some renovation work.

Jim and Donna Hieronymus continue to do very well on their trotline. Take a look at these fish they have landed in the past few weeks. The large 50# cat Jim is shown holding was actually landed with his fist. Upon realizing he did not have his net in the boat Jim inserted his hand into the large cats mouth, which was promptly grabbed by the cat and Jim hoisted him into the boat. He showed me his hand a week later and it still looked like hamburger. Not my preferred way to land a monster cat but it worked for Jim. Cut shad bellies continue to be their bait of choice.

The 10# and 17# blue cats were caught by the duo Saturday and Sunday respectively and both released unharmed after these photos were taken. Jim said it is as much fun to release them as it is to catch them. Well-done guys!

Received a fishing report on walleye this weekend. According to Al Weston who was loading the boat with his tackle to try his luck on Saturday, the trick to catching them is to fish a foot or so off the bottom with bass plugs on the flats just over the lip of the main channel. Al said a friend of his landed four nice fish this during an outing this past week.

Bass (Largemouth): Poor.

Bill Forestall gave it his best this weekend and got skunked. He is waiting for the first significant cold front to roll across Missouri within the next few weeks before bass fishing picks up.

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

Date: 8/25/05
Lake Level : 601.4
Normal Lake Level : 606
Water Condition: Clear
Surface Water Temp: 83 - 86

Bass fishing has been fair. Plastics off of main lake points, in about 3 - 10 feet of water.

Catfishing has been fair. A lot of channel cats have been caught on rod and reel, using chicken livers.

White Bass fishing has been fair.

Crappie - No Report

Bass - No Report

Black bass fair on green plastic worms 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 12 to15 of water

Walleye/Muskie slow.

Bass slow using spinners near the brush piles

Crappie (good) try above the thermocline from 4-12' down. try minnows or tube jigs under a bobber around timber

CRAPPIE: Fair: The larger crappie that we have been catching seem to have gone into hiding. Still plenty of smaller fish, just fewer of the big ones. They are still in their summer patterns. Fish the brush piles and tree lines in the deeper water. The fish are in 18' to 24' of water approx. 10'- 15' feet deep. This pattern should hold true for the rest of the summer. Minnows or jigs

BASS: Poor: The bass are playing hide and seek with the fisherman and most of the time don't get found. Some nice fish are being caught occasionally but not consistently. Worms, jigs, brush hogs seem to catch the majority of the fish. 8' or less of water seems to be the areas to concentrate on.

CATFISH: FAIR: The crappie fishermen are catching some nice ones in the deeper water on minnows so try the 20' of water areas with your favorite bait. Also other fishermen are reporting fish in shallow water back in the coves. Dip baits are working very well in the lake and in the rivers.

White Bass: Good: The rest of the summer should continue to produce nice stringers of whites. Fish main lake points early and late by throwing small crankbaits in the 2' to 8' water depths. If the fish don't show up on the points just back out to 15' of water and try pepper spoons on the bottom. Watch for surfacing schools. During the day troll to find the schools which are roaming following the shad. The size of most of the fish is excellent.

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 11:00 a.m. earliest, 1:00-2:00 p.m. latest.

Water Conditions: Pattern has been pretty consistent. Water off until 11:00 a.m. or noon then one generator on for a short period then ramped up to four until 8:00 p.m. earliest or 10:00 p.m. latest. Today, of course, was an exception. Turned on one generator at 6:00 this morning, then all four around noon.

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

Guides on the water almost every day. Had a two day break Tuesday and Wednesday. Sunday morning was a bit slow. The black zebra was probably the most consistent fly. Caught a nice 17-1/2 inch Rainbow on this Sunday. Our most productive fly was an olive size 8 woolly bugger using an intermediate sink-tip line. Monday morning fished good. One boat with two for 1/2 day and they boated at least 40 fish. Lost a 22-23 inch Rainbow. The other boat out didn't get in quite a 1/2 day as he was learning how to cast. Boated 15 fish and several of them were 15-1/2 inches and better. Every color zebra midge was working Monday...just had to find the right spot on the river. On the water rise, we all fished the gray size 12 flashback scud. Caught several fish on the rise. Shannon and Mac went out Tuesday night and fished white woolly buggers up by and across from outlet 1. Nothing big and no Browns, but they caught lots of fish. Today we have two boats on the water. Around 10:30 a.m. checked in with them and one of the boats was catching fish on a size 18 black soft hackle.

STAN'S TIP: Everyone has had it happen. You put your rod pieces together and can't get them apart. If this happens, and you have tried all the other techniques to get them apart, try putting ice around the joint. Let it cool down for a bit then try to get them apart. This usually works after everything else has failed.

The weather has turned almost to fall. Cool in the mornings and evenings and warm during the day. We have had good rain this week but the lake has stayed in great shape. The cooler weather seems to have got the fish going a little better, we are seeing a lot of nice white bass coming in now. Talked to several people that saw hybrids surfacing, they didn't stay up long but they are starting again. The water temp is holding steady and the color is good so lets hope we have some good fall fishing in front of us.

BASS: The bass bite remains good on Truman. We are starting to see some of the bigger fish come in again. Last night in the hawg fights Jerry Cross weight and Doug Scheling weighed in 13.09lbs. with big bass weighing 5.24lbs. for first place. 2nd. went to Doug and Ozzie Wallace with 9.08lbs. 3rd went to Crist Fanning and Terry Close with 5.95lbs. Not bad for 3 hours of fishing. The best bite seems to be on a jig fishing suspended fish in 10' to 25' of water. These fish are suspended about 4' down. There is also a good bite on the wind blown chunk rock banks with big worms in 3' to 5' of water. Red shad seems to be the best color.

CRAPPIE: The crappie fishing changes day to day. There are still fish in the 10' to 15' tree rows suspended about 8'. There are some fish starting to show up on the brush piles in 20' and also on the bluff banks in 30'. the only thing consistent is that they are all eating minnows. Cedar trees seem to be the best of the best right now. I did hear of a small jig bite in Clear Creek which netted pretty good fish but it was a slow bite.

WHITES & HYBRIDS: The white bass have started to come in a lot better now. We are seeing limits brought in about everyday. They are back on the humps in about 16' of water and are hitting jigging spoons. KK Island and the airport seem to be the better areas right now. There has also been some hybrids surfacing in the same area. Jerry Coose had a couple of fish in the 9lb. range this week. The COE hasn't been running much water this week so this hasn't really helped but the shad are getting more active so I think this bite will get better with the cooler temps.

CATFISH: The only good catfish report I have had this week is the white bass fishermen are catching a lot of catfish on spoons while fishing for whites.

That's it for this week from Sterett Creek Marina

Lots of smaller fish being caught on flats 5-15 ft of water cut shad working best

Crappie are biting good lots of fish coming in. All fish are being caught on minnows. Fish in water 10 ft deep or more fishing 8 to 9 ft deep. Lots of big fish being caught. Several limits being caught. The best bite is between here and the damn.

Bass are being caught on big worms in tree tops. Look for fence rows or flats and flip all the trees you can. Red shad is the color of choice. The bite is fair.

Catfish are being caught on flats using cut bait. Most fish are being caught on jugs in 10 ft of water fishing 4 ft deep. Lots of white cats coming in.

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