01/26/2007

Water Temperature North End – 44 to 54
Middle South Main Channel - 40
Water Level = 6 inches over normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Muddy
Last Rain = Snow1/20/07

Winter Continues At LOE.

Water temperatures have leveled out at 42 degrees. The forecast for the next 10 days is for highs to average in the middle 30’s and lows in the lower 20’s. This should drop the water temperatures into the upper 30’s at mid-section and low low 40’ (like 40) at the north end.

The following advice worked very well over the pass week and so I will stick with it, with the only modification being water depth. Lure selection in colder water should be finesse baits and I would concentrate on crank-baits, spinner-baits or jigs that can be worked slowly in 8 to 30 feet of water. Suspending or slashing/jerking baits should out catch fast moving constant speed baits or presentations. Color? Match the shad. Sliver, white, blue, chartreuse, black and any combination of these colors will work.

I received the following report from:

Jthamptoninn said...
I wanted to add some info to your report... I was just there today, Jan 20th, and they have shut down because of the cold front that moved through the past week. In our tournament, there were 32 boats and only 15 weighed in fish.. Succsess came with different techs: jigging at 30 feet deep, slow rolling spinnerbaits and crank baits at 15-20 feet, drop shotting at the deepest point poss, and using suspending jerkbaits at the end of weed beds jerking them off the end and letting it sit for 10-15 secs before working them again. So just remember to slow your baits down, and when you think that you have slowed them down enough, slow them down even more.. these fish are creeping along and are being very picky and are not eating. Hope this helps.

Thanks JT!


Where to fish? The main channel areas of the lake from the end of the ski area all the way to Beaver Bay should be the best. Take water temperature into consideration. Surface temperatures should be colder than deeper water. Concentrate on weed covered points and flats in 8 feet of water early and late. Then as the day goes on, drop deeper into 12 to 30 feet and fish the drop-offs adjacent to the points and flats.

Crappie remain the same and I only have a few fishermen fishing for crappie and reporting the fishing is very slow with a few fish caught jigging the drop-offs at 10 to 15 feet of water.

Oh, in response to last weeks report/article on LOE shad, a good friend of mine Jim reported there is a third species of shad in LOE and that it is called a Silverside Shad or Shiner and closely resembles minnows. It’s about 1 ½ inches long and is silver to silver/chartreuse in color. These are the more acrobatic of the shad family and will jump clear out of the water when chased to the surface by foraging fish. Jim reports when bass are foraging heavily on silversides, bait bigger than 2 inches will not trigger a strike. Keep this in mine when using rubber finesse baits like Flukes. Sometimes smaller is better.

This passed hunting season I tried taping hand warmers to my lower back waist area. I must report that this is a bad idea. It resulted in a first-degree burn and me frantically tearing off my overalls to remove them! Since then I’ve modified the method by wrapping the warmers in a thin cloth and then belting it to my waist. This worked very well and keeps me very warm in the coldest temperatures.

Fish On!

Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors
www.ubetchaoutdoors.com

p.s. - As an addition to my services I ‘m starting to book hunters into some of the best wild pheasant hunting the world has to offer. If you’re interested in having a pheasant hunting experience of a lifetime drop me a line at mikeo@ubetchaoutdoors.com. Don’t wait too long I’m filling up!

01/17/2007

Water Temperature North End – 44 to 54
Middle South Main Channel - 40
Water Level = 8 inches over normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Muddy
Last Rain = Snow1/16/07

Winter has arrived at LOE.

Water temperatures have dropped 4 degrees since last week. This is important because the temperatures have been stable since the middle of December’06 and the bass bite has been good since then. The forecast through the weekend does not call for a significant warm-up. Fishing is going to change but how much?

Well, to answer that question you need to take an historical look at LOE. Over the past years LOE seems to be at it’s best in the dead of winter. With weigh-ins of 20 plus pounds being the norm for the past 3 winters. So what gives?

Hot water has been the answer to this questions for years yet just recently the mid lake main channel areas have been out producing the main points closest to the power plant discharge. So is warmer water the only answer or is there more to the equation?

First of all let’s take into consideration primary food source on LOE, shad. There are 2 types of shad living in the lake, gizzard and threadfin shad. Both species are predominately silver/white in color. On LOE a bluish hue starts about midway up the fish and becomes darker towards its back and tail sections. The same color change area flashes chartreuse when shad make an abrupt turn typically called slashing. Threadfin shad have a yellow hue to the tail. The gizzard shad does not. . Shad live just as well in clear water as they do in muddy water but prefer muddy water. Shad feed primarily on micro-organisms or zoo plankton. Threadfin top out at 3 to 4 inches in length and the gizzard shad can be 14 + inches. I believe there are more threadfin than gizzard shad in LOE.

Now let’s get back to water temperature. Threadfin shad are very temperature sensitive. Quickly changing temperature will cause shad to die. Because of this shad won’t stray too far from stable water temperatures and that usually means deeper water. Shad in water temperatures below 45 degrees will begin to die. The shad in LOE will move away from water in the 40’s to warmer water. But the shad don’t have to swim all the way to the warm water discharge in the north end of LOE to survive. They only need water warmer than 45 degrees and will seek the warmer water. Temperature will cause them to migrate. The migration has shad moving out of back bays towards the deeper sections of the lake.

The extreme north end of the lake is typically the warmest water on LOE. During the winter it can be 12 degrees warmer in spots. The north end is where the primary marina is located so on cold winter days… Because of this the north end has received the most pressure for a long time.

So here’s the equation for catching fish on LOE this winter!
Find shad in areas experiencing the least amount of fishing pressure over the recent years and you’ll find a winning limit of bass.

Lure selection in colder water should be finesse baits and I would concentrate on crank-baits or spinner-baits that can be worked slowly in 5 to 10 feet of water. Suspending or slashing/jerking baits should out catch fast moving constant speed baits or presentations. Color? Match the shad. Sliver, white, blue, chartreuse and any combination of these colors will work. Where to fish? The main channel areas of the lake from the end of the ski area all the way to Beaver Bay should be the best. Take water temperature into consideration. Surface temperatures should be colder than deeper water. Concentrate on weed covered points and flats in 5 feet of water early and late. Then as the day goes on, drop a little deeper and fish the drop-offs adjacent to the points and flats.

Currently I only have a few fishermen fishing for crappie and reporting the fishing is very slow with a few fish caught jigging the drop-offs at 10 to 15 feet of water.

By the way all the local stores have a sale on hand warmers so buy a case and…

Fish On!
Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors

p.s. - As an addition to my services I ‘m starting to book hunters into some of the best wild pheasant hunting the world has to offer. If you’re interested in having a pheasant hunting experience of a lifetime drop me a line at mikeo@ubetchaoutdoors.com. Don’t wait too long I’m filling up!

01/12/2007

Water Temperature North End - 47
Middle South Main Channel - 44
Water Level = 6 inches over normal pool and flowing
Water Clarity = Stained
Last Rain = 1/12/07

Howdy and Happy New Year!

I had a very good hunting season. My camp got its fair share of deer and pheasants. Hunted with my friends and I have many wonderful memories. Now that I think of it, it was a great season! This weekend is the bonus deer season and I still have a couple of days of bow hunting left. So much hunting and not enough time to get it all done.

Regardless, January is the kick-off for the fishing season reports. Also it is a great time to introduce changes to the UBetcha Outdoors website and fishing report. First of all I am proud to announce we found a way to publish the reports quicker. In the past I would write the report and my son would publish it. The 2-step process got the reports published aound 7 days on the average. I will now blog the report. This is my son’s idea and what it means is I write and release it and you get it the same day. He’s pretty smart. Takes after my side even if he does looks like my father-in-law. The reports will feature as many pictures as it makes sense plus on occasions, video clips!

As an addition to my services I ‘m starting to book hunters into some of the best wild pheasant hunting the world has to offer. If you’re interested in having a pheasant hunting experience of a lifetime drop me a line at mikeo@ubetchaoutdoors.com. Don’t wait too long I’m filling up!

Now to be quite honest with you I haven’t wet a line since October and I’m getting ready too. But I have readers who have been fishing and reporting the bassing continues to be hot on LOE!

On 1/6/07 Austin reported the following:
Caught about a 19 inch 4 1/2 to 5 lb bass on Egypt yesterday, also caught about 8 other good size keepers, 16-18 inch, fishing main lake points with rip rap and vegetation in about 54 degree water with a chartreuse spinner bait with dual Colorado brass blades. All fish were released. Attached is a picture of the big one and another nice keeper.

Well there you go! And thank you Austin for your report and continued support. I’ll be back on the lake over the next week and reporting what I hear, see and catch. In the mean time…
Fish On!

Mike O.
UBetcha Outdoors
www.ubetchaoutdoors.com

First fish report of the new year coming soon!