Buzzing about

Dock hopping the prevalent pattern for Stren Central anglers

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – If you’ve ever watched honey bees hopping from flower to flower, busily collecting pollen, you’ll have a good idea of the game plan for most competitors fishing day two of the Stren Central Division event on Lake of the Ozarks.

With bright, sunny skies and light breezes building nearly a mirror image of day one, most anglers will devote the majority of their time to docks. Dotting shorelines throughout this sprawling impoundment, docks provide comfortable respite for bass seeking shade.

Of course, this is no secret and anglers will stay on the go in hopes of finding the productive spots before anyone else. That’s not to say that a dock won’t yield keeper fish for multiple boats, but being first to a spot yields the best opportunity for tempting unmolested fish.

Placing 18th on day one with 12 pounds, 1 ounce, Osage Beach pro Mike “Cowboy” Foree will put in his dock time, but not until he fishes shoreline brush piles with a Carolina rig. Slow presentations in 6-18 feet enable him to work fish in less obvious spots before heading to the docks.

“This gives me something to do early and then I’m going to start beating the docks with topwaters and crankbaits as soon as the sun gets up and the fish get on the corners of the docks,” “Foree said. “We’ve been catching up to 20 keepers a day doing that.”

Food factors heavily here and bass currently enjoy a bounty of baitfish chow. Massive shad schools stretch throughout the area and where this forage stacks around docks, there you’ll find a hot bite.

Foree describes the scene: “There are so many shad in these coves right now that these fish are staging right on the fronts of these docks. Basically, all they have to do is open their mouths and swim, there are so many (shad).”

Estimating that he’ll hit 300 docks in a day, Foree said the topwater presentation will be his primary approach, but he’s not afraid to go to the bottom in the right circumstance. “If I’ve caught fish on a brush pile before, I’ll throw a jig or a shaky head just to see if there’s a lively one in there.”

Now, docks aren’t the only game in town. Pro leader Michael Wooley caught 17-pounds, 2-ounces and boated the day one Big Bass (6-11) on a rock pile between adjacent docks. Hailing from Collierville, Tenn., Wooley caught his fish on a white jig.

Bourbon, Mo. pro Doyle Isom Jr. said he missed the dock bite yesterday, but found good fish on logs in the backs of creeks. Although he boated only two keepers, he lost a 5-pounder at the boat and his co-angler caught four good fish.

“The bright skies are great for the dock fishermen, but for the guys who aren’t fishing docks, it’s a little rough on them,” Isom said. “I went to the docks to late yesterday and they had already been picked over. If you’re not on your fish early, you really have to put the trolling motor down and cover a lot of water.”

That said, Isom plans to hit a couple of docks on the way to his backwater areas and commit his day to probing submerged logs with jigs, shaky heads and tubes. Foregoing the dominant pattern in favor of the road less traveled will be his strategy.

“We were on good fish yesterday, I just didn’t capitalize,” he said. “Where I’m fishing, I never saw another boat yesterday.”

Logistics

Anglers will take off from Grand Glaize Recreation Area – Public Beach No. 2 located at 711 Public Beach Road in Osage Beach at 7 each morning. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins also will be held at Grand Glaize Recreation Area – Public Beach No. 2 beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Walmart store located at 4252 Highway 54 in Osage Beach beginning at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

The Lake of the Ozarks Stren Series tournament is hosted by the Tri-County Lodging Association.

The entire field competes for the first three days of Stren Series events. Co-angler winners are determined on day three based on the heaviest accumulated three-day weight. The top 10 professionals continue competition on day four, and the winner is determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four days. Pros are fishing for a top prize of $65,000 and co-anglers are competing for a $35,000 award.

Thursday’s conditions:

Sunrise: 7:14 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 50 degrees

Expected high temperature: 79 degrees

Water temperature: 67-68 degrees

Wind: from the ENE at 2 mph, then ESE at 5 mph

Humidity: 56 percent

Day’s outlook: Sunny