Pomme De Terre- Fishing Report 6/08/15

Pomme De Terre Fishing recap:

I recently visited Pomme De Terre Lake for the first time and it won’t be the last. This is a wonderful lake, beautiful scenery, and a great fishery.

Lake level was 9 foot over normal pool. Water temperature was between 74-78. When I left Sunday, the water level was just cresting at 848. This meant that a lot of new structure is now under water, brush piles that were in 20 foot of water are now in 28 foot, and floating debris was seen all over the lake. Surprisingly the water in and around the damn was fairly clear. Visibility was still between 5-10 feet.

Pre Fishing- Overall fishing was mixed. Tournament anglers reported catching good numbers on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday prior to the tournament. Most anglers were using green pumpkin shaky heads and fishing between 8-13 feet of water on secondary points. However, as the water level began to rise on Thursday the fishing began to drop off. Pre-fishing on Friday was good for some anglers but difficult for most. Most people said that the bite changed. Earlier in the week most fish were hammering shaky heads with a lot of action but on Friday individuals reported that the bite turned soft and that the fish wanted less action.

Tournament- Saturday and Sunday- with water levels holding steady- most anglers decided to focus on main points or very shallow secondary points -lake areas with flooded brush using any sort of texas rigged plastic in their arsenal- common set up was a 3-4 OT Matzuo worm hook, ¼ Tour Tungsten weight and paired with a Brush Hawg, Speed worm, 7’power worm, Speed craw, or senko’s. If not a texas rig then it was often a Jig – 5/16 Jakked Bait jig in PBJ. This bite was tricky as the fish did not want any type of action to the lure. The best technique was to flip to the outside of the bushes and let the lure soak for a good 15-30 seconds. Little to no movement. The bite was extremely soft as anglers told stories where they did not know a fish was on after engaging the reel and reeling in slack.

Starting in the morning at 6am- I had 3 in the boat by 9am. But as the day progressed and temperatures increased, I did spend time fishing/scanning new areas with my Lowarance Touch 9 units from Russell Marine Products. Lure of choice was Livingston Lures or Yozuri Crankbait to work the damn, drop shoting deep brush piles, a Jakked Baits football jigs or a 10’ power worms near bluff wall ends but these techniques did not produce any results.

Lesson Learned: With the conditions the way they were- I should have remained with my morning pattern and grinded it out for the rest of the day. Trying to cover as much water as possible and continue to flip bushes the rest of the day….

Results: Winning weight for the tournament was about 28 pounds for a two day event. That is about 15 pounds per day and average of 3 lbs per fish…. Big bass for the weekend was 6.02 lbs.

Over the next few days and weeks, the damn will work to generate more current and lower the water to normal pool. I would expected the fish to begin pulling out of bushes and out to their main summer locations. Ledges, Brush piles, and drop off’s. With more current I would expect them to start schooling up in certain areas.

Please visit www.forrestoutdoors.com for more information.

Sponsors: Lake Ozark Mobile Marine, Tour Tungsten, Livingston Lures, Ardent Rods and Reels, YoZuri, Jakked Baits, Browning Eyewear, Matzuo America, Line-X of Mid Missouri, Russel Marine Products, 24/7 outdoors, and Forrest Outdoors.