7/11/22 Sunday’s report from Osage Bluff area

Teresa thought the fresh air would do her good so she went with me. We got up early but it got hot early too.

Well, getting up early doesn’t mean we got out early. We left the house about 11:30 and on the water the heat wasn’t THAT bad.

We cruised out of the marina after buying some minnows. Little minnows, I’ve never seen such little minnows. They were pretty though. Some green, some orange.

We cruised up the Osage and under the mile long bridge. I kept thinking about what I’d read, fish the mud flats 10-20 ft water in the timber. **If you’re not in the channel on Truman Lake, you’re on a mud flat and most likely there’s timber under you or close by.

So I decided heck with it, we’re going back to the places we caught fish last year during the summer.

We turned into a cove down by Osage bluff and across from KK island. I almost turned into a smaller cove but saw another boat with people either fishing or swimming. (Thank you boat). So we went further back.

After positioning ourselves into the wind I started scanning for the stake bed I’d found last year. I’d never caught any BIG fish off it, but there was usually fish.

Someone has been working. Specifically MDC or someone creating a fishing habitat!

There are stake beds (pallets) standing on end everywhere. Freshly (or recently) cut cedars EVERYWHERE. At first I thought a school of shad was dead set on being eaten, but after dropping thru “them” I realized it is needles on the trees I’m seeing (pic). (That LVS34 and 1242xsv plus really picks up the detail)

I started with my trusty red head, yellow body maribou jig. Teresa used a minnow and hook.

She outfished me 4 to 1 (keepers 11” or better) until I switched to a “crappie bomber” (pic). BIG thanks to Aaron Thompson (a member of our group, and recent winner of a fishing rod, I still need to get that to him) for turning me onto the Bomber.

When he first asked if I had any I thought he was joking about dynamite. Ha!

It’s kind of a rainbow reflective weight, the ones I found had a treble hook attached. I switched it out for a flexible gold crappie hook. (Good idea, because they like to get hung up, but with braided line the hook will bend)

Around 2 o’clock I could tell the heat was getting to Teresa so we pulled up stakes and headed back to the marina.

I forgot my fish bucket. Ugh! So I tossed the fish into my minnow bucket with a little bit of water. When we arrived home I threw some ice in the bucket to keep them alive while I soaked up some AC.

After about 20 minutes I went to clean the fish. The fish were dead and close to frozen. Wth!? Anyway, turns out it made them easier to clean. Except the last one that was dang near froze solid. Must’ve been a weird 85 degree lake water, same temp fish and 32 degree ice reaction.

Whew! Long story. I guess I’m just happy to have been successful after such a long drought.

We found fish along a point, backside of a cove, suspended/attached to structure using minnows. The depths are in the pictures.

I hate to say anything positive about Covid, but it gave me time to fish.