I just got back from competing in the Ozark Division BFL at Truman Lake. When I got down to the lake it was great to see the muddy water. I knew that I would probably be able to power fish and with the lake being up the fish were going to be in the bushes. I had spooled 15lb line on my reels before coming down only to find out that the water was so muddy that I made the change to 25lb test mono the night before. I wasn't going to break any fish off. 

I drew out Dewayne Fitzpatrick as my boater and we made a run to a couple of creeks that had a lot of nice bushes and also a lot of fry. I hooked up with a nice 3lber early in the day but the fish was way back in the shallows on a Pig Sticker double willow leaf spinnerbait. I jumped him over two lay downs until he got me wrapped around a huge deadfall. Just looking at that nice 3lb fish just hanging there in the breeze just made me sick to my stomach. The fish finally pulled off before we could get to it. I was mad but put the lost fish behind me. We came around to a nice little pocket and I made a couple of cast with the spinnerbait but noticed a nice pod of fry so I picked up the buzzbait and made a cast to have a nice 3lb fish smash it for keeper number one. I had talked to my friend Josh Bracamontes before the tournament about his BFL experience down at Shelbyville and the conversation had sparked the idea to pick up the buzzbait in this situation.  I'd also worked on my spinners and buzzbaits the night before with the Naked Bait Company Skirt expander. I'd talked to Terry Corrum who frequents Truman and he said that you want to make sure to add some red to whatever you’re throwing down there. So after a little tweaking my spinnerbait and buzzbait was sporting a nice red tail.  We fished on down the creek and there was a nice lay down that was getting some wind on it. I had started flipping with a 10inch worm but had gone to a sweet beaver at this point in black and blue. I made a pitch into the wood and sacked keeper number two. I caught keeper number three and four flipping the bushes as the fish had transitioned from chasing baits in the morning to locking down later in the day. The fish were in shallow bushes and were relating around points and with the water coming down I wasn't at all surprised. I had thrown a frog and a crankbait a bit throughout the day as well to no avail. 
The four bass that I weighed in were a little over 9lbs and good enough for 12th place on the co-angler side and the finish bumped me up into the top 40 for points on the year. Looking at the weights I could have gotten 3rd or 4th if I had been able to get that fish in the boat that pulled off. When I was waiting in the check line a lot of the guys were talking about lost fish and stuff and breaking them off. Whenever you've got muddy water like we had down at Truman you can throw some pretty heavy line. It was fishing at lot like the muddy IL lakes I grew up fishing and experience of fishing that kind of water really helped me out a lot I think. It was my first time ever fishing Truman Lake and I like the way the lake fishes a lot. I felt pretty comfortable out there.  Until next time keep it reel.
Tackle:
AiRRUS 7 foot Medium Heavy Casting Rod, 25 pound mono, Black and Blue Sweet Beaver,5/0 hook, 7.1 Reel
AiRRUS6 foot 9 Medium Heavy Ultra XL Rod, 25 pound mono, frog, spinnerbait, 7.1 Reel
AiRRUS Copperhead Cranking Stick, 15lb test, a variety of balsa square bills, Buzzbait 6.31 reel

Collegiate Angler Spencer Clark is a full time student at Truman State University.