Day one of the Costa FLW Series event on Lake of the Ozarks was definitely a stark contrast to the warm, summerlike conditions anglers faced earlier in the week. Today, a northwest breeze and cool weather made it feel more like fall for the final event of the Central Division season, which is presented by Evinrude and because of it the fish were chewing.

As expected, docks were a main target for much of the field so far. A jig or Texas rig skipped around docks was the unanimous choice to get bit. In fact, from several reports the dock bite was actually pretty solid in the morning before slowing down a few hours into the day.

While you’d think a topwater would be a big player, with water temperatures in the low 70s its still a bit early for the River2Sea Whopper Plopper bite to be great. Not that some fish won’t be caught on it, but it won’t be as big of a factor as it will be in a few weeks.

Overall, getting bites wasn’t an issue on Lake of the Ozarks, but finding quality – or even keeper size – was. Andy Morgan has just three keepers in the box when we found him, while Ramie Colson Jr. who was just a few creeks up had a limit for around 12 pounds and was culling. The key now seems to be cover as much water as possible, hitting as many docks as you can to sort through numbers of smaller fish.

Down the lake a bit, Chad Morgenthaler was sitting on a limit for around 11 pounds doing much of the same as Morgan and Colson.

Dock talk at registration hinted at a decent offshore bite, though after watching several competitors soaking on points and humps for extended periods of time no fish were seen caught.

The sun is shining and that should only help the bite. Tune in at 3 p.m. CT to see who sets the tempo for the rest of the week to not only make the top 10, but also try and qualify for the Costa FLW Series Championship in just a few weeks.