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Lake of the Ozarks, MO
Lake of the Ozarks Invitational Summary
2000 BassMasters Missouri Invitational - Nov.9-11, 2000
11/24/2000 - The BassMaster Central Invitational held recently at Lake of the Ozarks was a great example of the fall transitions bass go through. Conditions were changing rapidly, and the lake was in a major transitions from early fall to late fall patterns.
In the two weeks leading up to the event, temperature were seasonably mild. On the first day of practice water temperatures ranged from 65 on the lower main lake to 55 in the back of creeks up river. There was a big Central Pro-Am tournament that ended the day before our tourney began. The winner had 10 for 31, and cranked his fish upriver. The river was "on" and the lower lake was still too warm for it to be right.
Cold weather hit on the second day of practice, and the air temp never got above 40 the rest of the week. A massive cooldown of the lake had begun , and I hoped to take advantage of it. Going into the tournament, I wanted to fish the lower lake because I knew the river was on and I wanted to stay away from the crowds. I was hoping the cold would turn on the lower lake.
By the end of the week, the water temperature on the lower lake was down to 59 and it was in the upper 40's in the creeks upriver.
I was suprised that the tournament was still won cranking upriver, despite the rapidly falling temperatures. The winner did use the cold to his advantage by targeting steep channel swing type banks. The bass were moving to these type banks with the cooling water.
I stayed on the lower lake and pitched jigs on brushy docks. I did well the first two days of the tournament, and was in 6th place after day two. I ran out of fish the last day and dropped to 16th for the event. I have never been able to catch more than one keeper off a dock in a tournament at Lake of the Ozarks. I just have to keep moving each day, fishing new water. Sometimes it works out when you fish new water the last day of a tournament, sometimes it doesn't.
Lake of the Ozarks is one of the premier pattern fishing lakes in the country. There are literally tens of thousands of docks there, and it is a huge lake with fish everywhere. It is an easy lake to change water on because it fishes so big.
The third place finisher was also supposedly pitching docks on the lower lake, so I was certainly on a viable pattern. I just wish I had known where a few more good brushy docks were.
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