Lake of the Ozarks Midday Update – Day 3
It looks like it’s anyone’s game
The weather for day three of the Costa FLW Series presented by Evinrude on Lake of the Ozarks has been gorgeous. It’s also been a big problem. The day dawned pleasantly warm and calm, and though the wind has kicked up a bit, it’s mostly been sunny and warming all day. With that great weather has come a pile of pleasure boaters and big wakes.
Due to some unusual logistics, we haven’t gotten very complete coverage of the field on the final day. Leader Roger Fitzpatrick had a very slow morning and only had one smaller keeper by about 9:30 a.m. James Dill, in second by an ounce, scraped together four keepers (nothing big) by about 10:00 a.m., but his kicker topwater bite appears to have fizzled entirely.
In third, James Watson has one small keeper and just two bites. Fifth-place angler Casey Scanlon has three keepers, one of them being a “good one.”
The weather has been great, but it sure seems like the boat traffic and perhaps the warmth has gotten to the topwater bite. It can happen all day, but with all three leaders struggling to put it together before noon, it seems like that bite might be over. Dill was getting a lot of bites off docks when he did fish them, and Andre Dickneite has caught most of his weight off docks prior to today. There’s plenty of time left to fish, but at least for now, it looks like the final weigh-in is going to be pretty interesting.
Tournament details
Format: All boaters and co-anglers will compete for two days. The top 10 boaters and co-anglers based on cumulative weight after two days of competition will advance to the third and final round, with the winner in each category determined by the heaviest cumulative three-day weight.
Takeoff Time: 7:00 a.m. CT
Takeoff Location: Public Beach #2, 711 Public Beach Road, Osage Beach, Mo.
Weigh-In Time: Days 1 and 2 at 3 p.m. CT; Day 3 at 4 p.m. CT
Weigh-In Location: Days 1 and 2 at Public Beach #2; Day 3 at Walmart 4252, Highway 54, Osage Beach, Mo.