Weekend Series
Lake of the Ozarks
March 13-15, 2008
Pre-Fishing Day 1
On day one of practice I launched from PB2 in the Grand Glaize Arm of the lake. I spend the day in the Glaize as it is one of my favorite areas to fish. The water temperature ranged from around 42-44 degrees and had less than 6” of visibility at best. We tried everything from jerkbaits to jigs and deep crankbaits with no success at all. It’s time to go back and come up with a new game plan.
Pre-fishing Day 2
On day two of practice I launched from PB2 and ventured towards the dam. The water temp was around 40 degrees, but the water had a good 5’ of visibility. I started out with an Aurora Black Lucky Craft Slender Pointer. After a while and no bites I switched to a Venom Hot Rod on a Chompers standup jig head. I may have had a bite, but still no fish. I checked out several of the coves near the dam with no success. Next I ran up the Gravois Arm to check things out. I found some decent clear water with temps around 45 degrees. I threw the tackle box at them still with no bites. My next stop was near mile marker 9. Hit a few secondary points with everything I had rigged up, but still didn’t produce a fish.
Tournament Day
I met my co-angler at the ramp and we launched the boat and waited for the take off to begin at PB2. Out of 85 boats we were boat 78 so we were in for a little wait. Once we took off I headed near the dam. I had a cove that looked really good and even though we didn’t boat a fish during practice I knew it held fish. The night before the tournament I thought about the weather and rethought some of my color selections. I tied on a Mat Pumpkin Lucky Craft Slender Pointer. We started at the point and worked our way to the back of the cove. About half way down the bank I caught a small bass. We worked up around the next secondary point and back round to the back of the cove where I stuck a 15.5” largemouth. We continued on and worked around the next point and in the back of the cove I stuck another largemouth about 16.5” long. Now it is about 10am and we moved to another cove close by. We didn’t work down the bank 50 yards and my co-angler hooked into a 16” largemouth. We worked our way to the back of the cove with only a couple small fish. My co-angler asked if we could hit a spot he had luck on. It was less than ½ mile a way. So we gave it a shot. It was an area in the back of a cove covered with pea gravel. My first cast produced a 14” bass. We worked around the area. We both caught a number of short bass. By the time we left my co-angler added 2 keepers to his livewell. Around 2 pm we left the dam area and our last stop of the day was a small cove at the end of a bluff wall. Near mile marker 9. I caught a couple short fish before my co-angler hooked up with a decent 16.5” bass and was able to cull a 15” bass. I wasn’t able to catch any more keepers. We headed back to the weigh-in. I finish the day in 23rd place with 2 bass weighing 4.38 lbs. My co-angler finished 7th with a little over 7 lbs. All of my fish were caught on the Lucky Craft Pointer mentioned about. All of my partners fish were also on a jerkbait.