High water lures fish to Truman

[TTTim]

High water lures fish to Truman
Dam offers best opportunities for next few weeks.


By BILL BOOK of the Tribune?s staff
Published Monday, March 29, 2004
Water, water, everywhere - and all of it seems to be playing havoc with spring fishing.

Except at Truman Dam, of course. Most Mid-Missouri anglers know that when the Corps of Engineers releases water through the turbines or spillway gates at Truman Dam, the fishing there gets better in a hurry.

As of yesterday, Truman Lake was nearly 4 feet high, with the Corps releasing 15,000 cubic feet of water every second through the generators at the dam. The water temperature at the lake?s surface stood at 51 degrees, according to the Corps.

While fishing conditions below the dam are not ideal - the water coming through the turbines is muddy and still a bit cool - some people are managing to catch walleye, crappie and white bass. For the next couple of weeks, at least, Truman Dam might offer some of the best fishing opportunities in the central part of the state.

When a strong flow from Truman pours into Lake of the Ozarks, fish of several species feel the urge to swim upstream, traveling until they find their progress blocked by Truman Dam. Crappies, white bass, hybrid stripers, catfish, walleye - all make a seasonal run to the dam when water conditions allow.

And as more and more fish gather in the swirling waters below the dam, more and more anglers gather on the adjacent banks to wet their lines.

On a recent cool, sunny weekday, nothing much happened below the dam for the first few hours after daybreak. The 50 or so people who lined the banks caught only a scattering of walleye and crappie among them.

But by noon, as the water warmed in the flooding sunshine, crappie began feeding among the rocks on the spillway side of the dam.

The biggest crappie fell for a small, chartreuse tube jig fished 2 or 3 feet beneath a Styrofoam float. Pockets of calm water just beyond the edge of the rocks were most productive. Strikes came steadily but were often subtle. Sometimes the float did little more than quiver when it indicated a bite.

Many of the crappie caught measured less than the 9-inch minimum length limit in effect below the dam. Every fourth or fifth crappie measured longer than 10 inches.

It took this writer several hours to catch a limit (15) of respectable fish. Add a single decent white bass and an odd assortment of large buffalo, carp and spoonbill - plus the first sunburn of the year - and it made for a good afternoon on the water.

Which just goes to prove that, even with Truman Dam?s reputation for easy fishing success, persistence and flexibility can spell the difference between a good trip and bad, said Jennifer Porter, owner of The Station Bait & Tackle Shop.

Porter ought to know. Because her shop sits on the access road to the dam, she gets daily fishing reports from her customers and observes firsthand their successes and failures.

"They stick it out," Porter said yesterday, explaining why some people are doing well this year while others are catching little or nothing.

"You have to put in your time. Try different lures and adapt to the conditions. Water conditions are always changing, sometimes several times a day."

That adaptability includes taking several kinds of fishing equipment, from light line and sensitive rods to heavy tackle, she suggested.

"If the bite?s real light, you have to have the appropriate pole, and you have to be able to recognize a light bite," she said. But when big fish are hitting hard in heavy current, you?d better have the tackle on hand to react accordingly.

Adaptability also requires a willingness to cast for more than one type of fish, Porter said.

"If you expect to catch walleye but don?t find them, try fishing for crappie or white bass. If fish aren?t active on one side of the lake, move to the other side. Try something different," she said.

As the weather warms through April, fishing below Truman Dam should continue to improve, Porter said - as long as the Corps releases water.

"The next seven or eight days should see the peak of the walleye spawn," she said. People are now catching "quite a few" walleye, compared with just a few days ago.

The fishing for other species will get better and better over the next several weeks, even though walleye numbers will taper off, Porter said. With water temperatures in the 50s, crappie, white bass and hybrid stripers will follow the current and pile up behind the dam.

"The last couple of days, a few hybrids have turned up, as have a lot more white bass," she said. "Friday, people caught a lot of white bass. It?s started to break open just in the last two or three days."

Unless you are fishing for catfish, brightly colored jigs are the best lures at the moment, Porter said.

"Walleye are hitting any kind of jig. I?ve seen them hit crappie tube jigs as well as 3-inch curly tails," she said.

In general, Porter said, she thinks anglers are doing better on cloudy days by using darker-colored jigs with fluorescent tails. She suggests switching to lighter-colored lures when the sun is shining.

Truman Dam can become a crowded place on an April weekend. To avoid the mob, consider planning a weekday getaway.

The dam lies just outside Warsaw off U.S. 65, a 90-minute drive southwest of Columbia. To check the three-day power generation forecast, visit www.nwk.usace.army.mil/current.html.