Truman Lake, 7-30

[D.W. Verts]

Fished the mid-Osage this morning for a short trip.

The lake is just barely over pool, maybe 708-9. Water temps 85 and up, water clarity most places less then 18". There was some mixing of color because of a weird generation schedule.

Air temps were 75 when we started, and it was 91 at 11:30 with partly cloudy/hazy skies with a light wind early from the Northwest that mostly died by the time we were done.

There are shad everywhere, even way back in the creeks and on the banks. The smaller bass are tearing them up, with the occasional grown up joining in. The only thing that I could get substantial bites on was a white swim jig. There were a few short bites on a buzzbait, but nothing serious and zero bites on a squarebill. It's not hot enough this year for the suspended bit, at least not yet.

The best bass was about three pounds, and it came off of a tree in about nine feet of water in a drain on a 10" worm in Root Beer with blue flake. This is the thing I'd run the most and forget those shad fish (unless it's under better low light conditions, like rain).

I have NEVER seen mid-summer shad schooled up like this. Late September, maybe. Mid October for sure. But for there to be millions of 1-1/2" to 2" shad like there was here. It was just strange.

Hope this helps someone- contact me if you have questions.

Dale

[Mike Cork]

Our lakes are extremely shallow and it's not uncommon to see shad up shallow at times. Normally they are being pinned up shallow. But this year, there are millions up shallow, almost like they are spawning but it's way to hot for that...

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[Donald Garner]

Dale, congrats on the catching there.  Tks for sharing the Truman Lake trip with us. 

I have some great memories fishing that lake with Marvin Deckard out of Bucksaw.

[coldfront]

think maybe all this smoke/haze in the air is creating a little lower light conditions?
know it's summer and gets hot, but I don't think we've seen 5 days this year over 94°F here.