Any Pomme de Terre reports?

[Derek Chance]

What are the bass doing during PreSpawn on Pomme? What are the best ways to catch them this time of year into April?

[loonatic fringe]

Going to be at Pomme de terre in early April, will take all the help we can get

[KC Bass Fanatic]

Mid-MO congrats on a great Pomme fish. That is a trophy bass on this lake. I have a buddy that caught an 8 last weekend on a jerkbait as well.

I'll be down this weekend to fish and will have a report on Monday. If it's the usual prespawn/high water bite then they should be just outside the flooded trees/brush. Last year I caught em pretty good on that pattern w/ a fluke......

Derek and loonatic - Pomme is usually high during the prespawn and spawn times.  This means the water will be up in the trees and brush.  They tend to hold on the outer edges of flooded stuff in pre and post spawn.  During the spawn I like to flip jigs behind the flooded stuff.  You'll have to nose up in the flooded trees and flip to the bank.  I'm sure that's just one pattern but it has worked for me in the past.

[loonatic fringe]

Thanks Fanatic, love flipping brush. Will coming out of Coopers Cove which is best north or south

[KC Bass Fanatic]

Thanks Fanatic, love flipping brush. Will coming out of Coopers Cove which is best north or south

I would go to the dam area personally but there are good fish to be had South of Coopers as well. Lot of guys hitting the dam area right now I'm sure though since it is a known big bass area this time of year. Secondaries in Decker could be good.

[Derek Chance]

gonna be there end of march early april and am torn on what to do. a few weeks ago we went WAY up the Pomme and found a flipping bite on a very tough day. not sure if I should stick with the dam area or go up the river again.

Mid-MO great fish by the way....congrats

[KC Bass Fanatic]

gonna be there end of march early april and am torn on what to do. a few weeks ago we went WAY up the Pomme and found a flipping bite on a very tough day. not sure if I should stick with the dam area or go up the river again.

Mid-MO great fish by the way....congrats

The good thing about this lake is you can usually find a flipping bite on the trees at 1-15' of water.  Where'd you go - down around Twin Coves?

[Mid-MO]

Thanks!  It had been a while since I've caught one in that range.  Was hoping that with a little warmer weather in the past week - that they would be a little more aggressive.

We went back to Pomme on Friday.  It was cloudy all day with a north wind and never got as warm as was predicted.  Water had warmed up to mid to upper 40's everywhere we fished.  Looked like (judging by the water mark on the trees everywhere we went in the afternoon) that the lake had dropped a little during the day - but I'm not sure.  The lake level didn't drop according to the internet report and I'm not sure if they have got the workers out of the spillway yet to let water out. 

Found some pretty clean water and threw a jerkbait most of the day.  Couldn't ever find any groups of fish - caught 5 scattered throughout the day (just one on a jerkbait) and never caught anything bigger than 2 pounds.

With it being so high (unusual for early March I think) I'm just not sure where they are.  Water has raised almost 17 feet in just a few months (5' low most of the winter to 12' high now). 

[Derek Chance]

The good thing about this lake is you can usually find a flipping bite on the trees at 1-15' of water. Where'd you go - down around Twin Coves?

No, WAAAYYY up! like just around the corner from PP bridge....

Over on Ozarkanglers.com forum there is a dam report that they are not releasing any water yet and are on schedule to be able to release water starting April 7th. That is if we don't get too much rain. If they go by forecasted rain, it may be close to the max they want in the lake before being forced to release.

I am fishing the first weekend of April and have NO idea what to do this time of year with the water currently at 14ft above pool.

[KC Bass Fanatic]

The good thing about this lake is you can usually find a flipping bite on the trees at 1-15' of water. Where'd you go - down around Twin Coves?

No, WAAAYYY up! like just around the corner from PP bridge....

Over on Ozarkanglers.com forum there is a dam report that they are not releasing any water yet and are on schedule to be able to release water starting April 7th. That is if we don't get too much rain. If they go by forecasted rain, it may be close to the max they want in the lake before being forced to release.

I am fishing the first weekend of April and have NO idea what to do this time of year with the water currently at 14ft above pool.

Dang WAAAY up the river is right!  I guess with the water this high that is pretty navigable right now though.

I'm telling you guys last year it was this high, this same time of year, and the HOT bite was BIG JIGS flipped into the flooded trees.  I also flipped flukes and swimbaits into the trees but the bite was producing smaller bass.  In a couple weeks when you are there the water should be into the low/mid 50's and you should def give it a try.  I have a tournament there April 10 and that's what I'll be doing until the bass tell me otherwise!

[Better Luck Next Time]

Some really great information here! Thinkin about comin down the first weekend of April. Only been to pomme a couple of times, both in the early spring, but never with high water levels. Usually fish the ends of bluffs and do ok. Is this still a doable pattern? I am totally cool with flipping trees. How are the willows between Galmey Cove and Wheatland boat launch for flipping? Willie Fin Cove? I have just heard these are good areas for spawning activity but never fished them myself. Any pointers on a few good areas to try flipping? KC ***atic. You really seem to know your stuff. Thank you in advance for what you have posted. Most fisherman keep a lot of that secret.  I love to bass fish, but cant get into it competitively due to time constraints. Just lookin for a few helpful hints on some decent areas to fish. :-?

[KC Bass Fanatic]

I was down last weekend and fished a couple hours on Friday and Saturday morning (before it got nasty). The bite was slow but quality was real good - had a few nice prespawn females in the 4 & 5lb class. My bites were coming on points near known spawning areas (outside edge of flooded trees), which tells me that they are staged up just waiting for warmer weather/longer days to move back. All my fish on slow rolled spinnerbaits and suspending jerkbaits.

@Better Luck - The first week of April is going to be a prespawn pattern still.  That said, the area over by Wheatland access is a def spawning area but I haven't been over there to scout it out this year. You should hit all the points around there to rule it in or out though.

[Derek Chance]

Just fished a tourney this past weekend on Pomme. The high water sure made it tough. There were 2 approaches......go up the rivers and flip jigs or stay close to dam and throw jerkbaits. We went out Friday and stayed by the dam with jerkbaits and did not do well so we decided for the tourney to go way up the the river and got excited by the clear water behind all the dirty water. However it was colder water temp and did not produce. I only caught 2 fish and one was a short. There were a lot of 1 and 2 fish bags weighed in. Not positive but I think only 2 limits were weighed. very tough....the jerkbait bite seemed to be the ticket but only later in the day after it warmed a bunch. Big bass was a 6lber, but that was the only larger size fish caught.

[KC Bass Fanatic]

Spent the weekend at Pomme capping it off with a tournament on Sunday. High water and wind made for a grind on the water but there were fish to be had in a number of ways. These bass are really scattered and the big females suddenly have lock-jaw. Keepers coming with spinnerbaits or jerkbaits in the backs of coves with wind blowing in. Also caught some keepers in the VERY backs of coves (in the flooded forest) in <2' of water flipping jigs and small plastic craws.

Not sure what's going on with the females. 2 weekends ago tournaments were weighing in 6+ lb fish. Sundays tournament had 51 boats and almost every fish weighed was a buck. Big bass was only 3.3lb.

Water is dropping finally. They had dropped it ~4" from Friday to Sunday and I'm hearing reports that they are going to begin the massive 6" per day drop today. This should be wonderful for the spawn. My theory is that the fish will wait for the lake to stabilize before they start venturing shallow to scout beds. Right now the lake wide water temps are only in the mid 50's so they may get the lake stabilized in time to not screw it up too bad.

[Derek Chance]

hope you are right.....the report is that they will open the dam and run 3500 cfs and the lake is scheduled to be at normal pool around or later than the holiday. I think by then the bass will either spawn and possibly leave their nests dry or they may not spawn at all due to the lake not stabilizing. Females can just absorb their eggs if they do not release them. I am afraid the spawn may be hurt this year.

[loonatic fringe]

Made it down to pomme last Fri. Sat. Sun. fished out of Lightfoot park as our resort's ramp and docks were unuse able. Caught fish on tubes jerkbaits jig topwaters and grubs. no real pattern unless you count trees from 16 to 3 feet deep.Biggest 3,20. Had a great time got a great sunburn and met some great people. thanks for all the help in the form.

[KC Bass Fanatic]

Finally got down to Pomme for long enough to offer a serious report. Water is ~8ft high still but dropping. I fished 3 hours on Saturday and 4 hours Sunday. My partner and I caught 12 keepers SAT and 10 on SUN. All were caught flipping plastics into the flooded buck brush. Most were 14-15" but we caught a handful of 2.5 - 3.5lb fish as well. The fish were hit and miss along banks, meaning you might go 50 yards down a bank with nothing and then suddenly get 3-4 keepers in 20 yards. I'm not sure what causes them to 'school up' in certain spots along a given bank but it was a definite pattern we saw all along the Lindley Arm. Moral of that story is don't give up on a bank too quickly. Small plastics were better; think senko, finesse worm, beavers.

[Derek Chance]

Thanks! going down on Sat.....not to fish, but to look at a place close to yours I think

[Jig Man]

Pom is still 5' up but the COE is pulling it .5' daily. The rain they are getting today may bring it back up.

The bass were still in and/or close to the bushes yesterday. My neighbor and I fished in the am and caught 26 bass. probably 12-15 keepers. One strecth had spots and some of them were about 14". We never got anything over 2.5# and they looked like spawned out females but who can tell for sure.

We caught most of the smack dab in the middle of the bushes on plastics. They would not take a jig for me or cranks. About 5 were on spinnerbaits and I saw all of them hit outside the bushes. They attacked from directly under the spinnerbait.

[KC Bass Fanatic]

Honestly I wish they'd leave it 4-5' high. I love it when they get in the buck brush.

[Mid-MO]

We got rained out today, so we went to Pomme. We didn't get away very early but were on the water by 10 just as the rain was ending down there. Found water temps in the mid 60's - at least 4' of visibility up around the dam, 2' or so about 1/2 way down both the Lindley and Pomme arms They must have been pounded this morning, water was running everywhere - freshwater was coming in about every cut and cove we went in.

Started up the Lindley. Pulled up on a main lake point we'd never fished and caught a 21 1/2" , 5 pounder in the first 5 minutes. Also missed an almost identical bite (soft, never felt it, line just started moving). Caught a 3 pounder pretty quickly after that. We had a decent limit in under an hour. Found fish all over the point, channel bank, and secondary point. For the most part the fish were on the outside of the bushes. We should've stayed here longer.

Started moving back towards dam, hitting three different areas (seconary point off a channel bank, secondary point between two coves, main lake point off the channel) and only caught a couple.

Figured they were pulling water and thought the main lake points might hold some fish. Went back towards the dam in the Pomme arm and quickly found the water to be cleaner then we wanted. Caught a couple of shorts in the back of a shady wind blown pocket but we were going a long time between bites. Sun was out by this point and not many clouds left.

Went on up the Pomme into another cove we hadn't ever fished. Caught two more good keepers in a pocket off a channel bank (good mud line here from the wind). Worked a couple of secondaries with wind and some shad but didn't get may bites. We called it a day at 5.

Ended up with over 30 fish and 17 keepers. A few of those keepers were 13" but most were 15"- pound a half to two pound fish. Our best five went 15#'s. We caught most on texas rigs but also caught some on spinnerbaits late in the day, and a few on a jig. Caught three good ones early and two more late, struggled at times in the middle. Fish seemed to come in groups or spurts. Broke a couple off on the hookset and one in a bush that we would've like to have seen too. Wish we would've gotten there a little earlier before it cleared off.

[Derek Chance]

good report...thanks

[KC Bass Fanatic]

From last weekend (Memorial Day weekend)

Pomme was on fire last weekend! Even with heavy (for Pomme anyway) boat traffic the bite was good all weekend, best in the mornings before the boats got out and slower in the evening but still OK. In total I caught 20+ keepers that included one 5lb class fish and a handful of 3lb class fish. The rest were 14-15" with very few 13-14" keepers. Every single fish I caught was shallow and on banks near deep water. I flipped beaver style baits for the majority of my keepers but caught several on a fluke once the sun came up.

The river arms are stained brown with less than 1' of visibility below Nemo bridge on the Lindley and below Coopers cove area on the Pomme. The main lake/dam area is very clear with 3-5' of visibility. I fished 90% in the stained water but when I did fish the clear water I was still getting bit - just had to downsize my baits.

The lake was ~7' high over the weekend but I see they have it down to 5' high now. Past experience has shown when they pull it below the brush the bite will slow way down as the bass scatter to find new cover.

I haven't caught any fish that showed signs they were or had spawned. The females I caught looked normal (not full of eggs, not slack bellied like they had recently dropped eggs). Some guys I know down there keep bass and clean them (against my will!!) and they report that the females eggs were milky like they were absorbing them. This confirms what we feared that the up/down water levels doomed the spawn.

I'm going back this weekend to stay on the fish before they drop the lake below the 'sweet zone'

[Derek Chance]

Sounds like fun......we actually just negotiated a place down there in the Fugate mobile home park with a dock. can't wait. hopefully I can get down there fishing soon. been fishing on LOZ for the time being. Hope I can make it to Pomme before the water gets to normal pool.

[KC Bass Fanatic]

Sorry boys - it's been a while since I posted. I've been down nearly every weekend for the past 2 months. Lake level is at normal and has been for a few weeks. Once the level dropped below the brush line the fish pulled back to traditional summer Pomme patterns; points, ledges, bluffs, brush piles, etc. There was a decent crankbait bite a couple weeks ago but that has dropped off for me. Could be that I need to crank new locations but I'm on fish and they don't want a crankbait. For numbers, I'm catching most of my fish on a shakey head w/ a plastic creature bait in 8-15' of water on the main lake ledges. Some secondary points are producing in 3-5' of water but only in low light. For quality I'm getting 3-4lb class fish early and late on bluffs right on the bank with jigs or creatures. One of my go-to summer patterns of flipping stumps in 3-10' of water is not producing yet. If you're in a tourny or just looking to fill the livewell your best bet is find a main lake ledge w/ a brush pile or some chunk rock and toss a small plastic creature bait or trick worm parallel along the ledge. I've put 10+ keepers in the boat every time out for the past 3 weeks doing this.