The Dream, Part II- Lake of the Ozarks & My Return

[coldfront]

Hope I don't let ya'll down

you haven't.  you won't.  outcomes have no part to play in this.

watching a man step up to the plate, share the journey, experience?  levels of gumption there that are surely just a little inspirational.  or a lot.

Dale:  you make me want to be a better bass angler.

[the_huber_show]

And finally- a conversation I had with a guy late this afternoon, after idling 300 yards before I started fishin' by his dock.

The Guy- "Guess you didn't read the sign."

Me- "Sir?"

The Hole- "The sign on the dock, it says (garbled) one hundred feet."

Me- "You mean, no wake for a hundred feet?"

Buttwipe- "No, I mean you fisherman are all the time snagging my boat cover, so you need to stay one hundred feet away."

Dumbfounded me- "Really."

Loser- Yep (garbled) (garbled)... can't read."

Freaked out me- "Sir, I didn't snag your boat cover, and I can fish wherever I want to, do you know that?"

Shirtless tatoo'd old man who doesn't have a clue- "mumble, something or other, fishermen garbled mumble..."

Finally, me- "Well sir- you must be a democrat (he jerks around and stares down the bank at me) and you're still upset that Hillary lost."

He turned purple and stomped into his house, maybe to call the Water Patrol, may the Democratic Party, I don't know. And me?

I went back and fished his dock again. And there it was "Stay Back 100 Feet". True story.

So, I'll leave ya'll with this little tidbit, and what I'm a-lookin' for-

Um this had me rolling with laughs!   


Dale - You got this buddy.  Sure more time on the water would be nice but like you said even with more days you might still be saying that.  Trust your instincts/gut and do what you know how buddy.  I believe you're going to do great in this tournament!



All things aside....Even if you didn't which I don't believe will happen.  You ain't letting no one down here!!!!!!!


We all are rooting you on and know you will do great!   

[Bud Kennedy]

Dale, I have really enjoyed reading The Dream Part II.  The grit and determination you have represented shows that the dream is alive and well.  As Yogi said  "It ain't over till it is over"  Keep the dream alive and go out there and make some more memories.

[Wizard]

I had a guy come out of his house and fire a shotgun over my head. I fired a ,45 over his head. He went inside and I continued fishing.
A major part of the problem on the water is the lack of enforcement. When you stopped in 2000, there were 15 Water Patrol and 5 Conservation Agents working the lake. Today, 7 WP, 0 Agents during the season. 3 WP, 0 Agents in the off season for a 97 mile long lake. The WP isn't on the water. You have to call them. The number of boats has tripled since 2000.
Our cruiser was "Queen of the Lake" in 1997.  Today, she would be the dingy for some of the cruisers.

Wizard

[Wizard]

Dale knows all the tricks. Hold that 7 inch bass any closer to the camera and you would have a Virgil Ward 9 pounder.

Wizard

[jfly]

Dale knows all the tricks. Hold that 7 inch bass any closer to the camera and you would have a Virgil Ward 9 pounder.

Wizard

LOL!!!

[RDY2GO]

you haven't.  you won't.  outcomes have no part to play in this.

watching a man step up to the plate, share the journey, experience?  levels of gumption there that are surely just a little inspirational.  or a lot.

Dale:  you make me want to be a better bass angler.

^ Truth.

[the_huber_show]

I had a guy come out of his house and fire a shotgun over my head. I fired a ,45 over his head. He went inside and I continued fishing.
A major part of the problem on the water is the lack of enforcement. When you stopped in 2000, there were 15 Water Patrol and 5 Conservation Agents working the lake. Today, 7 WP, 0 Agents during the season. 3 WP, 0 Agents in the off season for a 97 mile long lake. The WP isn't on the water. You have to call them. The number of boats has tripled since 2000.
Our cruiser was "Queen of the Lake" in 1997.  Today, she would be the dingy for some of the cruisers.

Wizard

Very true and unfortunate!

[D.W. Verts]

Guys, this is hard. I'll explain later if anyone wants to listen, but I'm not fishin' this weekend. It's complicated and I don't like complications. We're opening the restaurant for the evening so I have to go to work right now, so here's this-

I KNOW THAT THERE ARE FOLKS THAT WATCH THIS STUFF AND DON'T CONTRIBUTE. SO, IF SOMEONE IS FISHING LOZ THIS WEEKEND AND WANTS SOME FISH, I'LL GIVE MINE TO YOU. TWO PATTERNS. NO LURKERS- MEMBERS OF ULTIMATE BASS ONLY! PM me or call me at 660-368-4785 (Ambush Restaurant).

Maybe someone can make use of what I found.

Sorry guys, I know some of ya'll was watching this close. No one is as unhappy as I am about this.

Dale

[Stren_g]

Sorry to hear that Dale, we're all looking forward to your tournament return. Priorities, yuck lol on another note hopefully your hard work can pay off for another member. That's a stand up thing to offer!


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[Wizard]

With severe storms and tornadoes predicted for the lake tomorrow morning, I wouldn't be fishing even if it was the Classic. Can't spend winnings if you're dead.

Wizard

[loomisguy]

If it's bad, Mike's not going to send people out in it. Tournament directors are a lot more cautious
since Okeechobee.
There will always be more derby's.

[coldfront]

looking forward to the next challenge.  you're good here Dale.  and I'm sure will be even better prepared for the next one.

older guys are smarter guys.

[D.W. Verts]

It dawned sunny and warm here this morning, and dad gummit boys, I'm downright depressed. Feeling sorry for myself isn't my style, but still. Anyway, I'll tell the rest of the story later if ya'll still want it.

[Stren_g]

It dawned sunny and warm here this morning, and dad gummit boys, I'm downright depressed. Feeling sorry for myself isn't my style, but still. Anyway, I'll tell the rest of the story later if ya'll still want it.

Of course we do Dale. Don't be too hard on yourself, you're doin what ya gotta do before doin what ya wanna do. I'd venture to say there's plenty of folks in this sport that do drop everything for it, leaving a mess behind for others to deal with. That's an admirable thing you did.

[Oldfart9999]

Dale, you'll make it back and we'll all be rooting for you. As for that dock owner, tell him no talking within 100 hundred feet of him. We have our idiots here that think they own the water to deal with, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it aint, just take it as it comes. I've made friends with dock owners and I've made angry dock owners, no accounting for what other people do or how they take something.
Rodney

[D.W. Verts]

Just to bottom line it for ya'll- I thought that I had everything covered to take care of my business, and I thought wrong.

BTW- I would have fished spinnerbaits, maybe a bladed jig, a squarebill, a buzzbait and a 4" Chompers/Hula Grub on the BACK CORNERS (mostly) and behind docks on the types of banks that I'll be describing below. I would have liked to have found a flippin' bite too. That's how I would have proceeded this morning- it'll be interesting to see how it pans out and how close I'll be when it's all over.

This will be a fairly long story, and I thought about starting over. But with the interest that there's been in my misadventures I'll just continue it here.

The first day weigh-in is starting as I type this but I can't bring myself to watch it (it's live on FB). The weather started out tremendous today- cool with some fog, then sunny and low 60's, then the front started moving through and at 3 PM it's cold and drizzling rain. I'll guarantee a few guys crushed them today- tomorrow will be a little different as the high pressure moves in.

So here we go.

THURSDAYS PRACTICE-

I got on the water just before 10 AM (it was COLD). Water temps were 48-52. I made a very short run to a mid-sized creek that has representative features (secondary points, shallow and deep flats, channel swings,etc) so there is a little something of everything to try here, and of course, there was BOAT DOCKS.

I spent almost two hours just idling around and looking at the graph. I'm trying to do two things mainly- find baitfish, and establish a depth for the bass. Sometimes it works, and with my lack of time on the water I figured a little education up front is better than just starting to make a bunch of casts.

The water color was not the crystal clear I expected, and in fact was rather dingy. By the time I started fishin' I'd pretty much figured out what Wizard has noted- the lake, or at least this part of it, has recently turned over. What proved it to me was when I idled all the way back in the holler and there was an almost septic-like smell in the air. This is caused by all of the dead leaves and bottom muck coming to the top.

In my experience, which actually isn't that extensive, when the lake flops like that the best bite is very shallow. Oxygen levels can be very very low when this happens, and I think it takes a week or two for the lake to stabilize.

My graphing showed me very few schools of shad. There were a few small balls from very shallow to ten feet or so, but they were few and far between. I graphed all of the points, both steep and flat out to thirty feet of water or so; I checked the main flats from the backs of the creek also out to thirty feet or so, crisscrossing the lake, and I graphed a main lake point. I checked out the best channel bank in this creek, and used side imaging on a few key stretches of docks.

And truthfully, I found nothing great.

If it wasn't for the late start I probably would have packed up and went to a different area, but since the depthfinder showed my so little I had to assume that the fish were shallower than where I was looking.

I started fishing on a secondary point (near a deep gut that showed the most shad of anywhere in the creek) with a lot of wind blowing in on it. I started off throwing a crankbait, and saw a fish chase shad by a dock. It happened one more time before I got out of there, but I figured that it was White Bass because that's what I caught.

A tip here that works for me- I generally don't catch quality bass in with the Sandies- backing off, or moving a couple of points away has worked for me.

I next moved to a channel swing, still tossing the crankbaits (a Crawdad Wiggle Wart and a chrome plug that we aren't going to talk about- sorry), a single-spin white spinnerbait, and a smallish jerkbait, changing up every few casts. Nothing happened.

I idled across the creek and did the same thing, on a channel-swing point, and a flatter point. I then went on to a cove, and fished to the back, trying all depths with no results.

I spent a little over two hours in this particular holler, finally ending up on the main lake point with nothing to show but those White Bass.

Are you bored yet?

I then fired up and went barely a mile down to another creek that's just about identical. I did do some graphing again, but also fished. Same deal- from the back of the largest arm progressively working out, fishing shallow and deep, checking points, channel banks, one of the better coves, and of course boat docks, all for squat.

I'm thinkin' a Lipripper Skunk Certificate is in the mail.

A spent another hour or so fishing points and channel swing stuff, still throwing the same three kinds of baits. And nothing is happening. I do change some colors around just to try something different.

The sun started peaking out about 3:30 and I moved out of the wind to soak up some of it (it was about 44 degrees at this point). I picked a slightly off-channel secondary point that was a mix of pea gravel and chunk rock, and started throwing a Hula Grub/Chompers hybrid on a quarter ounce head and eight-pound line. I pitched it up next to a dock just inside the point, and a fish picked it up. I took a couple seconds to decide if I wanted to look at it, and it dropped the bait, so I cranked it back and moved away into the small cove. That bite came from about three feet of water.

A few casts later I tossed the same bait into a fallen tree on the bank in pretty shallow water and got ate up. I stuck the fish for a few seconds until she popped off and stuck me in the brush.

Ten minutes later I was back on the main creek still chunkin' the grub and the rock is now baseball and softball size with some  BIG stuff here and there. I miss a small bite in a foot of water, then throw to some of those large rocks that are barely visible just under the surface. A fish catches me napping, and comes off just as I tighten up on her. And leaves a BIG boil.

So, I turned around and went back seventy yards to where I started and went the OTHER way, out the point to the main creek where the bank is mixed gravel, chunk, and small boulders. I catch one about eight inches long in three feet of water on the grub, then pick up the Wart and go around the point and down the semi-channel bank.

I get four bites in less than ten minutes. Three of them are shorts in 3-4 feet of water- the last one is a 15" keeper that must have had his back out of the water when he bit.

It's late, but I have a start. The next day's fishin' will come later, 'cuz it HURTS to type this much.

[Wizard]

Well, Pardner, working catches up with all of us. This isn't for Dale, but the folks on site that haven't had to fish fall turnover. First clue is it stinks. Hydrogen Sulfide comes to the surface as a gas. It smells like rotten eggs. You also may see decayed leaves or vegetation that rises with the gas. Bass have two choices. They can go really shallow or really deep. Turnover usually happens on deep lakes. Somewhat like the spawn, the upper reaches of the lake turn over first. The turn slowly moves towards mid lake and then progresses faster as it moves towards the lower end of the lake. In Dale's case, I believe he was fishing the mid lake area of LOZ. If it was turn over there, the problems caused by the turn were probably over in the upper reaches. LOZ is a private lake owned by a utility company for power generation. The company justs let's us play on it's lake. The turbines are huge and power central Missouri. The water pulled through the turbines comes from the deepest part of the lake. This creates a churning of the water near the dam and keeps the water oxygenated. It also makes the area highly fishible throughout the year. So, during turnover, the best places to fish are near the dam and in the upper part of the lake. Unfortunately, these are 96 miles apart. Anglers hate turnover because it moves bass away from where they had been. Bass don't move far and they prefer to move vertically rather than horizontal. Dale was looking for forage to cause bass to move into the area or school together. He found what he was looking for and established a pattern. Whether there were enough bass there to win a tournament, we will never know.  I suspect a few anglers got limits from the dam to the 2 mm or ran to the upper part of the lake. I also suspect many competitors zeroed for the day.

Wizard

[D.W. Verts]

Great synopsis Wizard. I actually found the bass that I would have fished for first on the North Shore. More to come, as long as folks want to hear. I'm still a little sick over the whole deal.

My old buddies, FLW All American Champion Marcus Sykora and BASS pro Mark Tucker are in first and second, and no one caught 15 pounds.

I will NOT armchair a tournament. I'm just showing what I found, HOW I found it, and what I think it will take to win. Fishin' will be tougher tomorrow, and some real sticks zeroed today.

[D.W. Verts]

I used a tape recorder these two days that I used to keep with me when I wrote articles so ideas wouldn't slip away. But I forgot to turn it on a few times, and realized that I didn't remember a few gaps...

I also, while in the "best" cove in the second creek, identified some fish near brush in 20-25 feet of water. I spent a fair bit of time working this over with a 3/4 oz. football jig with nary a bite. I'm thinking they may have been rough fish- they were pretty big.

That's the biggest edit. Is anyone getting all of this???

[Stren_g]

No sir, enjoying the read. Keep er comin!


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[Ice Cold Peanuts]

No sir, enjoying the read. Keep er comin!


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Agreed. Can't wait to read more. Thank you for sharing.

[Wizard]

Tuck lived not far from me in Kirkwood, Mo. If he was fishing, it was with a jig. That's all he has in his boat. He may be one of the last "one trick pony" anglers. When you see the final standings, look for Nick Hamra and let me know how he did. He's another St. Louis angler that fished BASS.

Wizard

[D.W. Verts]

I remembered something else of importance- that last bank that produced Wednesday? The graph was lit UP with fish and baitfish from top to bottom (10' or so). I couldn't see them, but they were there.

Part 2- Thursday.

A warmer day, thirty-one degrees when I hit the water about 8:30. Sunny with broken clouds, a totally different day.

I made a run to a creek that guess what, yup- I haven't seen in this century. Are ya'll getting the picture? Again, it's a representative creek for the area, and shares several neighbors that have like waters. This is an ideal part of the lake for finding duplicate-able patterns.

Big difference between here and up the lake- the water here is very clear, at least five feet. I saw water temps during the day in the coves and side creeks from 51-55, and on the main creek at near 60. The turnover hasn't happened yet here.

Basically the same plan as yesterday is gonna happen here- hop around and try to establish something, only this time use what little we found the day before to start narrowing it down.

I started towards the back of the creek, on the last channel turn out bank, a key place in mid-to-late fall. The first stretch was a zilch. I was still fishing the same baits as yesterday, mainly a crankbait & stickbait.

When this spot failed to produce, I went down the creek about two hundred yards to the next channel swing. I started about eighty yards short of a cove (another holler actually about a quarter mile long) and commenced to chuckin'. I had went about twenty yards when all of the sudden the graph lit up with baitfish again. For whatever reason I picked up a jig, a shad/black/green thing I make with a Doc Irv chunk on it in a pearl color. The very first cast I landed it right on the bank, started swimming it back, and THUMP, a fish had it. I kept cranking and he turned the bait loose.

A couple of casts later I had another bite, the line went sideways, and I decided to check her. I yanked, and that dad gum fish got away with my trailer. Well, everything is a clue. I'd have said "bream" but it left a swirl like a #3 washtub. Interesting.

Those two bites were the only ones I had going down that stretch, but this is fall- scattered bass are the norm.

When I got to the point I spent some time working it out. Wiggle Wart first, to 6 or 7 feet, then the jerkbait, same way, except I made several casts out off the point. Way off. It's a fall/winter thing. Meanwhile, some seagulls started dive bombing shad out in the middle of the creek, a whole 'nother deal in itself.

I then fished my 4" grub out to about 12', and finally drug a 1/2 oz. football head out to 20'. Nothing. The points aren't looking too good so far. Another piece of the puzzle.

I fished the first two docks going into this side holler, then fired up and idled all the way to the back. This is one of those rare spots that has never really silted in so it has depth all the way back, plus there's a commercial launch ramp here that they've dredged a few times.

The water is still clear, but  I pull out a 1/4 oz. "pre-fishing" spinnerbait, tandem with number 6 Indiana blades. I throw it and the Wiggle Wart with no success. They don't seem to be all the way in the backs, either. No surprise there.

I went to the other side and flipped a jig and frog for about sixty yards as I headed back out. I hit everything I could reach, fronts, backs, walkways, boat slips, and the bank in between the docks where I could get to it. Nothing.

It was probably forty yards to the next secondary point, and it's one of those slightly "off channel" points like yesterday, so I fished my way to it. As I got close I picked up the spinnerbait and threw it up behind a walkway, and it got thumped pretty good. I didn't see the fish, but with this spinnerbait they really have to munch it down to get hooked. I stored the info and went on down to the next point.

This one had the grub written all over it. A couple of casts in I pitched it to the back corner of a dock in about 7' of water, and when I picked it up it was in a brush pile. A couple little hops later and it got heavy. Well, you have to look at one once in a while so I set the hook, and the result is the SEVEN-INCH bass (thanks Wizard) that looked surprisingly like a healthy four-pounder to me.

I went around to the other side of the dock, and the grub got bit again. The fish held it for a couple of seconds and then EXPELLED it hard enough that it felt like a strike (the kind of "strike" so many of us swing on!).

Cool, so I skipped to the other side of the next dock, and ANOTHER bass takes the grub in maybe five feet of water. This one is a problem- she LIKES my little Chompers/Hula Grub, and she doesn't want to let go. It's a mess for about thirty seconds as she swims about ten feet one way, then five feet back. Finally, she SHAKES her head (ya'll know what it means when you can feel them do that). I think the needle sharp hook had her pegged up some. She finally gets rid of it, and I'm DONE on this spot.

Oh yeah- the depthfinder is LOADED with baitfish.

I threw a jerkbait some down the middle of this cove, just checking. I headed out the opposite bank throwing it randomly, thinking about how far I want to go on this stretch to establish just how far out the BASS go. Then a MAYBE fifteen incher that was pure CHUNK came out and slapped at the jerkbait as I was cranking it down to the back corner of a dock. Interesting.

So I pick up the spinnerbait again, and I tell myself that I'm not putting it down until another bass eats it just like the fish just did to my jerkbait.

It takes three docks. A very nice six pounder comes out and POUNDS the bait. I'm done. All of this has happened in 100 yards, and it's two distinctly different patterns.

Now I told a mild fib the other when I said I couldn't duplicate this. I didn't try very hard. What I DID do was spend about two hours looking at stuff like it, and then I fished some stuff that was CLOSE to the same. I did catch some bass on a buzzbait, and that gave me confidence to chunk one early on in the derby. Bass this time of year don't mess around with a topwater- they eat it for real.

After over six hours in this one creek I ran across and down the lake a spell, and dang if I didn't run into more turn-over water. And lots of bass fishermen. I spent maybe an hour-and-a-half piddling around and doing some graphing (and getting into it with dock owners) but it never worked.

About 3:30 I started back the ten miles to the ramp. I made a quick turn into a spot that I have HISTORY with (the first time I did this), and made maybe twenty casts, but the baitfish weren't there.

Back by the ramp the water was also a weird color, but this is the back of a MAJOR tributary and is mostly less than 15' deep. The water was a cold 46-48 degrees. I made a few casts, said "hi" to a guy crappie fishin' on his dock as I skipped by him (he was friendly), and started down a channel bank with the Wart. Suddenly the guy ties up with a bass, and finally lands a four pound fish. Interesting.

The opposite bank across the creek is another "semi-channel" bank and there's seagulls all over it, so I idle over, and in the next ten minutes I catch more bass than I have all day, all on the Wiggle Wart. No keepers, but very fat and healthy bass. Hmmm.

Anyway, there you have it. The pattern as far as location goes was channel banks that aren't directly ON the channel, so not "bluffs". Not quite 45 degree stuff either and in fact could be rather flat. The trick is that the channel was right "over there", but never quite comes into the back. The only way a secondary point worked was if it fit the "channel is right over there". Actually, the best stuff was straight banks with big rock mixed in, and just "off" the channel. It's a classic transitional deal that can be hard to recognize. AND THE BAITFISH HAD TO BE PRESENT.

The baits and depths made for two uniquely different ways to approach the fish- the shallower bite would have been cool to run today, and I mean run LOTS of it. The more precise Hula Grub bite would have made a tremendous plan for when after this front goes through- those fish in 5-7' of water have room to back up some, and will probably be joined by the shallower fish as the high pressure sets in. Make sense?

Anyway, I talk a good game. It didn't take the weight today that I thought it would. I was hoping for 16#      a day. And now I'll never know. It's a shame. March 2-3 is Table Rock. We'll see.

Hope this helps someone, if even a little. Fire away with any questions. My hands are hurtin', so I'm out of here.

Dale

[jfly]

Sorry it didn't work out the way you had planned buddy.  But at least you got to go out and find some fish.  I wish there was more I could have done that would have allowed you to be able to fish for the win.