Bass Boat Forums
Fishing Reports & Tournament Listings by State => Missouri Fishing Reports & Tournament Listings => Topic started by: Wizard on February 23, 2015, 07:11:41 PM
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February and early March are historically when the largest bass in the state are caught. Lake of the
Ozarks has large shad schools form off some of the major points. They formed in December and will stay together until mid March. The schools are huge and the big bass move to them to feed over the winter. The big bass are lazy and underneath the shad, waiting for injured or stunned shad to fall to them. Vertical jigging works best for these bass. I jig large 8-10 inch grubs and 3/4 oz. jigging spoons. The grubs are rigged on 1/2 oz. ball head jigs with a long shank 6 or 7 (0) hook.
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Cool thanks
Have you caught any yet?
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February and early March are historically when the largest bass in the state are caught. Lake of the
Ozarks has large shad schools form off some of the major points. They formed in December and will stay together until mid March. The schools are huge and the big bass move to them to feed over the winter. The big bass are lazy and underneath the shad, waiting for injured or stunned shad to fall to them. Vertical jigging works best for these bass. I jig large 8-10 inch grubs and 3/4 oz. jigging spoons. The grubs are rigged on 1/2 oz. ball head jigs with a long shank 6 or 7 (0) hook.
@Wizard (http://www.bassboatboards.com/index.php?action=profile;u=240) Be sure to show us some pics!!
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Wizard as you know I would love to learn this pattern on LOZ
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Coach, I'll be fishing from the docks pretty soon. You can stop by and I'll fix you up with some large grubs and heads. It will be awhile before I'm on the water. I will backseat at the beginning.
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I thought with the water temps, most the shad would be gone by now?
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If you are talking about winter shad die off, that happens with threadfin shad. LOZ is too far north to support threadfin shad. Only gizzard shad are found in LOZ. Threadfin are in the Ark/Missouri border lakes such as Table Rock and Bull Shoals. Only gizzard shad form the sometimes football field sized schools.
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@Wizard (http://www.bassboatboards.com/index.php?action=profile;u=240).
Have you fished Truman much? Wondering if that pattern holds true.
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Sadly, no. LOZ was clear cut prior to filling and there is no stucture left from the original Osage channel. That is the major reason for the huge mid channel shad schools. Truman is shallower and the structure and cover was left in place. There is no need for the forage schools to form. Truman is harder to fish because the large amount of cover allows the bass to be anywhere.
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Makes sense.
Thank you
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Toledo Bend has been producing some nice fish this month.