Lake of the Ozarks-2015 October Fall Pattern

This weekend was very tough fishing at Lake of the Ozarks. The Annual Big Bass Festival was held at the Lake of the Ozarks the previous weekend where more than 2,000 boats were on the lake hoping to win the $75,000 check for biggest bass. The week after these types of tournaments Bass are worked over pretty hard and are pretty beat up. On top of that, A cold front moved in Thursday night changing fishing in a negatively way.

Prefishing/ Lake Conditions

The bite Friday was fairly decent. Weather was in the mid 60’s most of the day with 5 mph winds and overcast skies. Most of our fish were caught on a Matzuo America Hayate Crank Shad- Firetiger Color and a few good fish coming off a Peanut and Butter - Jelly Jakked Baits jig. These fish were caught about 4-8 feet of water on secondary points all the way to far backs of coves. The key to Friday was 1 of 2 things. 1. If you were throwing a jig- you need to dead stick it after the initial cast. What I mean by this is that once your lure hits the water, you could not move it for a good 10 seconds- this pattern played into our Saturday and Sunday fish. Friday fish were located on the back corners of docks with a jig 2. While working docks it was important to throw a crankbait and be sure to crank the front corners of docks. This was key in picking up a few extra fish. However figuring out what we did, we knew that Saturday and Sunday’s conditions would be slightly different and that means the pattern should change.

We explored several areas of the lake including- the Damn - 2 mile marker - down to Shawnee Bend -11 mile marker. Hitting banks on the north, south, east, and west banks- This includes shallow cuts off the main channel as well as deep coves.

Shad- It is important to note that when we explored many areas of the lake. In fact, we went through nearly ¾ a tank of gas exploring the lake on Friday. That said- we found areas with Lots of Shad, Areas with some shad, and other areas with none. What we found out during this weekend was that if you located a cove full of shad to leave immediately. We fished areas where shad covered most of the cove but we could not get a bite. Our guess was that 1, we did not throw the correct lure to get them to bite and we were throwing everything. or 2. We could not compete against those fish filling their bellies on shad. Please note- for an area that were full of shad, we did not get a fish or a bite. Now- if a cove had some or little shad placed all over a cove then we knew we were in business and that is when we caught good sized fish that were relating to certain areas of docks. More information will be explained in Day 1 and 2 days.

Water temperatures were from the mid 70’s (72 degrees) with water colors from Clear to stained in most parts of the lake.

Tournament Day

Day 1: Saturday morning our first spot was the back of a cove in a medium sized creek. There we caught 2 right out the gate (3.5lb and a 2lb) The first fish came off a Matzuo Crankbait on the corner of a dock and the large 3.5 lber came off the walkway of a dock on a ½ Jakked Baits Jig Prototype Bait. After catching the 3.5lber we focused or pattern on one type of structure of the lake. About an hour later we caught our 3rd and 4thrd fish (2.5 lbs) which came off a Jakked Baits Jig about in the back of a cove on a the walkway of a dock. My partner and I began running the previous day’s pattern going into secondary points and hitting the back of coves cranking corners of docks and throwing the Jakked Baits prototype jig on dock corners. We did catch a few fish but no more keepers for the rest of the day. We made a long run to the damn to explore some new water but that area did not produce. We finished the day at 2pm with only having 4 fish for a total of 10 pounds.

Day 2: Sunday was a similar but different story. We continued with the previous day’s pattern and focused on walkways the entire day. We hit our primary spot first thing in the morning that worked the day before. However, this time we decided to completely focus on a jig bite as it was clear bluebird skies.

Important- we started on a secondary point and worked to the back of the cove. There were 3-4 fishermen already in the cove fishing docks. However, I watched them as they fished and noticed where they were not making casts, or not fishing. All boats were concentrating on the fronts and sides of docks, a few of them would even fish the back corners. This really hit home with me because I knew then that we were fishing areas that no one else was touching.

As soon as we got towards the back of the cove we began locating the types of docks that were key. In order to get a bite, we were fishing walkways of docks and not just any walkways. These walkways had to be supported with concrete or metal supports that entered into the water. Fish would be locked into these areas holding tight to cover. The challenge with this pattern is that you had to skip, flip and throw into some rather difficult areas.

Over the course of the day, we caught 2 fish each hour exploring this pattern in and catching decent fish each time, never any shorts or dinks. Each fish caught was a keeper.

Lures: Primary bait that was key was the 1/2oz Jakked Bait Jig-Prototype trailed with 1 of 2 plastics. Big Bite Baits Tube Craw or Missle D-bomb. Colors Vampire Red, Okeechobee, Watermelon Red Flake.

A follow up bait that was used as we moved between the docks was the Matzuo America medium crankbait in Fire tiger. Using this lure to crank the corners of docks as you proceeded to the next walkway.

Pattern: We were fishing secondary points into the backs of coves to the last dock. As noted before a detail within the pattern was finding those dock walkways with concrete supports or metal supports going into the lake floor. We were not able to catch any fish if we hit corners of docks or even floating dock supports. All fish were caught when we skipped a jig into those critical areas, let the jig sit for 5-10 seconds. Watch you line as most of the time fish would immediately run with the lure. If no bite was detected give the lure a few more shakes, work the lure back and recast. Lastly, I highly recommend you check you line on this pattern and retie often. I caught several fish where I had to cast over walkways, under cables, and was constantly working my lure in challenging areas. I did not break off or lose one fish this weekend. The BPS-XPS fluorocarbon line is outstanding and held up well all day. However, after each fish catch I made sure that I cut a good 3-4 feet of line off my rod as those cables and walkways cause quite a bit of damage to your line.

Set up: For this particular pattern I was using an Ardent Elite- 7.1.1 gear ratio on a 7’6 Medium Heavy Action Johnny Morris Rod , and XPS Fluorocarbon Line in 17 pound test.

Forrest Outdoors Sponsors: Line-X Mid Missouri, Ardent Reels, Yo-Zuri Line, Russell Marine Products, Jakked Baits, Tour Tungsten, Lake Ozarks Mobile Marine, Luma LED’s, and Matzuo America.

A Special thank you to Lake Ozarks Mobile Marine, Matzuo America, and Jakked Baits Jigs for working with me that last few weeks to help me prepare for this tournament, and get me what I needed for a successful weekend on the water.

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