Until I made my way to the Ozarks most of my spoon fishing was done on Kentucky Lake. It was the only lake that I would fish in the summer that I would ever consider dropping a spoon down to the fish. Here on Lake of the Ozarks we have had extremely hot temperatures this past month. The high today was 108 degrees. There has been no water generation for a month so the lake has been stagnant. This has led to record high water temperatures and an increase in water clarity. These two factors have made most of the fish seek out deeper cover than they normally would this time of the year. A lot of the fish are suspending too which can complicate matters.
When it comes to bass fishing their are two ways to go about catching them. You can either fish really slow or fish really fast. When you study the top pros in the country they usually like to fish one way or the other. There are hardly any in betweens when it comes to bass fishing. I like to power fish and one thing I've started to notice is that on the Ozarks not a whole lot of anglers like to apply power techniques. Most of the time when I see people fishing they are dragging some sort of plastic bait or a jig across the bottom. Well let me just say you don't have to drag a shakey head or a jig to be successful. There are a couple of power techniques that I have seen catch fish like crazy on the Ozarks.
Spencer Clark is a collegiate angler who fishes for Truman State University. He qualified for the National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship by placing second along with Mike McCarthy Jr. in the College Fishing Central Division Regional Championship. Last year Spencer and Mike McCarthy placed 2nd and 5th at Lake Ouachita and Bull Shoals respectively in College Fishing Qualifiers. Spencer expects the swim jig to be one of the tactics he will use in the National Championship on Kentucky Lake this April. He was willing to share some tips and tricks on how he goes about fishing the swim jig.
Year and year out there are different trends in the fishing industry, specifically bass fishing. There was the tungsten craze, the dropshot frenzy, and the west coast infiltration of swimbaits. Each one of these new techniques generated a boom and anglers everywhere flocked to purchase the right gear and set out to master the hot new technique in hopes of catching a bunch of fish or, even win a tournament. I always have my ears open to new ideas, and when a good one comes along I usually to try learn about it just like everyone else. Sometimes, however, there is just a refinement on an old method that can be just as successful.
Just got back from spending a week in Paris. No, I didn't make a trip to Europe but I was in Paris, Tennessee competing in the Boat. U.S. Collegiate Open presented by Pepsi on Kentucky Lake. The Boat U.S. tournaments are very popular among collegiate anglers and feature some of the stiffest competition you will come across at the collegiate level. The tournament had 65 boats, 36 teams, from all different parts of the country. There were teams from as far away as Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina participating in the tournament. Most of the Boat U.S. college tournaments have been held in the south the past couple of years so when I heard there was one coming to Kentucky Lake I thought this might be my only shot at getting to fish one and see what it was all about.
After graduating from Truman State University with my Bachelor's of Science degree in biology I moved to Lake of the Ozarks last month to pursue a career in professional fishing. Since having made the move to the Lake I have been able to spend way more time on the water fishing and competing against some of the best competition the area has to offer.
We are heading into summer and I am reflecting back over the spring and how I used Ima baits to catch a lot more bass this year. My season kicked off with a lot of fishing on Lake of the Ozarks. Lake of the Ozarks is known as one of the premier late winter/early spring jerkbait lakes in the country. There are a couple of reasons why it is such a great winter time lake. The lake has a million primary and secondary points and the bass stay relatively shallow all winter long. When you combine that will enough water clarity you get a lake that is set up for the best jerkbait fishing in the country. I used the Ima flit 120 to catch a lot of bass from February on into March on this lake. The best color patterns for me were Pro Blue and Ghost Tennessee Shad. I would throw the bait on 8lb fluorocarbon line on chunk rock points and channel swings and work it back to the boat with short twitches of the rod. Usually two quick snaps and a 5 to 6 second pause was all that was needed to get the bass to react. The Ima baits came into play in a couple of my tournaments as well. I took 8th place in an Anglers in Action Team Tournament on Lake of the Ozarks against the best local competition that the Lake has to offer with the help of the flit as well as a 5th place finish in an open tournament that was put on by the Jefferson City Bass Club.
I just got back from competing in the National Guard FLW College Fishing Central Regional Championship on Lake Monroe, Indiana. My partner Mike McCarthy Jr. and I took 2nd place winning 25,000 dollars and a trip to the College Fishing National Championship where we will compete on Kentucky Lake for a chance to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup and win 100,000 dollars.
Just got back from fishing Kentucky Lake for the last couple of days. I went down to Kentucky Lake to compete in the Riverwoods Church Open Bass Tournament that took out of the KY Dam on Saturday. The tournament had no entry fee and guaranteed a 5,000 dollar first place prize as well as paying out the top 10. The tournament had around 200 boats. Entered in the tournament were a couple of local FLW tour pro's as well as local guides on the lake so I knew there was going to be some competition.
This past weekend I fished the National Guard FLW College Fishing tournament at Kentucky Lake. The weekend prior to the tournament Kentucky Lake was closed due to very high water levels. A lot of us were sitting around wondering and hoping that we were going to even have a tournament. A couple of days before our tournament they started dropping the water and the lake was finally opened up and our tournament was a go. Going into the tournament I was a bit unsure of how we were going to catch our fish because there were a lot of different varibles to consider. The water was really muddy for Kentucky Lake and they were pulling a lot of current. Prior to the flooding I wanted to fish the ledges and get out on the main lake but I didn't know how the muddy water would effect that bite. Also I was debating on making a run over into Barkley Lake as I know the layout of the water a little better. After I analysed how the Stren pro's were catching their fish though it seemed like the ledges and structure were producing. The guys that went to Barkley said they wish they hadn't which helped me decided on what lake to fish. I noticed that the guys who were flipping in the stren had an okay first day but their bite died off and their bags were getting smaller during the tournament and this was because the water was being sucked out of the bushes. Whenever the water is falling big fish will pull out off the bank and suspend or out out on the points because mother nature tells them that if they don't they will get stuck. The guys in the stren that were structure fishing were throwing up good weight every day and their bags were getting a little bigger. So with all the current in the lake I decided to focus on ledges and points.
Collegiate Anglers News 
Until I made my way to the Ozarks most of my spoon fishing was done on Kentucky Lake. It was the only lake that I would fish in the summer that I would ever consider dropping a spoon down to the fish. Here on Lake of the Ozarks we have had extremely hot temperatures this past month. The high today was 108 degrees. There has been no water generation for a month so the lake has been stagnant. This has led to record high water temperatures and an increase in water clarity. These two factors have made most of the fish seek out deeper cover than they normally would this time of the year. A lot of the fish are suspending too which can complicate matters.
After graduating from Truman State University with my Bachelor's of Science degree in biology I moved to Lake of the Ozarks last month to pursue a career in professional fishing. Since having made the move to the Lake I have been able to spend way more time on the water fishing and competing against some of the best competition the area has to offer.
Just got back from fishing Kentucky Lake for the last couple of days. I went down to Kentucky Lake to compete in the Riverwoods Church Open Bass Tournament that took out of the KY Dam on Saturday. The tournament had no entry fee and guaranteed a 5,000 dollar first place prize as well as paying out the top 10. The tournament had around 200 boats. Entered in the tournament were a couple of local FLW tour pro's as well as local guides on the lake so I knew there was going to be some competition.