Need help on Lake of the Ozarks Please

[Nebraskabassin]

My family takes a trip to the lake every few weeks to do a little fishing. We are really struggling right now to find the bass. We fish everywhere and cannot seem to find a single brushpile. We have a cheap locator that really doesnt do anything other than read the depth/water temp. How can i find the brush? Weve tried everything with no success. Please help

[KC Bass Fanatic]

My advice is forget locating the brush piles and fish the docks.  Throw jigs, big worms, spinnerbaits, wiggle warts, topwaters around the deeper docks.  That should get you on some fish this time of year.  Good luck.

[tkite16]

Try sitting out 30-40 feet in front of a dock.   Cast a worm or deep diving crankbait past both front corners. Fish are somewhere between the dock and your boat. 

[Nebraskabassin]

When your fishing the docks do you still let the jig drop all the way to the bottom or just swim it around the dock?

Thanks for the help btw. We had pretty good luck this morning fishing main lake points with jigs and 10 in worms.

[KC Bass Fanatic]

When your fishing the docks do you still let the jig drop all the way to the bottom or just swim it around the dock?

Thanks for the help btw. We had pretty good luck this morning fishing main lake points with jigs and 10 in worms.

You should try both - let the fish tell you where they are and what presentation they want that day.  It can change daily...hourly even.

[cart7t]

Honestly, you really don't need a locator to "find" brushpiles at LOZ. Simple observation will suffice.

Look for boat docks that have one or more of the following.

Lights pointed down towards the water at the ends and sides of the dock.

Fishing poles in rod holders or rod holders period.

Fish cleaning stations.

Chairs set up along the sides of the dock. (not always a true indicator.)

Docks that have bass boats on hoists, aluminum fishing boats on hoists or Tracker marine pontoons (for some reason, brushpile kind of people own tracker pontoons.)

You can easily cruise into a cove and eliminate a lot of unproductive docks by simple observation.

Typical brushpile locations are:

In the stalls, off the end of the dock, off the sides sometimes a lob cast away from the side, straight down along the sides, along the back edge between the bank and the dock.

Definitely use your locator to find those brushpiles that may be inbetween docks or way off the ends. While most people just drop some piles right around their dock, it's often the BP's that were dropped way off the sides or ends that many don't ever find and rarely get fished unless you know about them. They can be real honey holes.

1 10" plastic worm (my personal color is Junebug when it's light out and black/neon at night)

3/8 or 1/2 oz slip sinker pegged. Best to peg or you'll get hung up often.

5/0 or 6/0 hook.

Start casting and dragging. You'll find the brush piles. This time of year the deep summer pattern starts setting in down there. Find brushpiles off the ends of the docks where water depth is sitting in 20-28' of water. You'll be sitting a cast away from the outside end of the dock, perhaps in 35+ feet of water. Work the worms s-l-o-w-l-y through the brush.  The fish at LOZ start relating strongly to the thermocline this time of year.  Check with local tackle shops down there to get an idea what depth it's at or at what depth the bulk of the bass are being caught in to give you an idea on which docks with brush you want to key on.  (In other words,  fishing brushpiles off docks in the back end of coves in only 10-15' of water is a waste of time if the thermocline is running at 25')

Another pattern is straight T-rigging or C-rigging the same size worms and working main lake points in the same depths.