OSAGE BEACH, Mo. – If you’re new to Lake of the Ozarks, then the best baits might be a surprise to you. But if you’re an old hand, then what follows will not be.
As is usual for the fall Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Plains Division event on Lake of the Ozarks, jigs and worms in and around docks and brush did a lot of the heavy lifting.
Here’s what the top pros relied on in the event.
1. Swim jig does the heavy lifting for Fox
Fishing docks and brush, Travis Fox got the win by nearly 2 pounds, and his weights didn’t really fall off throughout the event. For some of his bigger bites, a swim jig on the backs of docks was key.
His swim jig of choice was a 1/2-ounce VMC HD swim jig in a shad pattern. He also utilized a worm on a 5/16-ounce VMC Rugby jig and a green pumpkin Zoom Brush Hog with a 1/2-ounce VMC Tungsten worm weight. Across the board, he used 13 Fishing rods and reels and Suffix line.
2. Personal touch key for Harlin
Fishing a jig he helped design, Michael Harlin finished up second on his home lake.
“I felt good about it going into it,” he said. “I’d been spending a lot of time out there. I think that’s the biggest key. I knew where they were biting, and when one thing fizzled, I went to the next thing.”
Fishing 7/16- and 9/16-ounce Crock-O-Gator skipping jigs with a Strike King Rage Bug carried him through the week. Harlin himself helped design the jig with a nice hook and eyes to help imitate bluegill underneath docks.
3. Fitzpatrick locks down AOY
Always a force at Lake of the Ozarks, Roger Fitzpatrick wrapped up a third-place finish to earn the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year title.
Fishing both deep and on docks, Fitzpatrick used a 7/8-ounce Omega Pro mega structure jig for a reaction bite around docks, a 1/2-ounce Omega football jig deep and a Bojangle Baits Smoke Pole on a 3/8-ounce shaky head for shallower docks. He trailered both his jigs with a Bojangle Baits Nos Craw and used St. Croix rods and Daiwa reels with P-Line fluoro.
On Day 2, after missing a fish on a jig, Fitzpatrick added the worm into the lineup, and it played strong the rest of the event for him. Entering the the final day, he thought he might have a shot at taking home his first Toyota Series trophy, but his starting school on the lower end never fired.
“The second morning, when I got there, it took about 15 minutes and I had 14 1/2 pounds,” he said. “It was hard to leave, because it was every cast. The third day, it was miserable. They were all suspended, blowing shad. I stayed there an hour and a half and didn’t get a bite. I tried a minnow, everything. I could see them, big ones, and I couldn’t catch them. I couldn’t believe it; I could see them out there and they would not push to the bottom.”
Despite missing the win, he locked down the AOY title against some very stiff competition.
“It feels great,” he said. “It was in the back of my mind going into this tournament. I told [my son] Chase that, almost every tournament, I have a feeling I might have a chance to win. For this one, I just didn’t have that feeling. Catching a limit wasn’t a problem, but the quality was not there. After the second day, when I left that spot with 14 1/2 pounds, I thought it might happen. So, I was a little let down after it was all over but extremely happy to win Angler of the Year.”
4. One pocket goes the distance for Long
Rallying up the leaderboard with 18 pounds on Day 2, Shane Long put together a characteristically good event on Lake of the Ozarks. Shockingly, he did it with a jig on docks.
“I found two little areas that had a lot of shad in it, bigger shad in it,” he said. “I had it pretty much to myself, and I weighed nine fish out of one pocket in three days. The last day, I pulled in there, I caught a 5 off a dock float, and fished through and caught a 4 in there. Around noon, I fished through it again, and the exact same float I caught the 5 off, I broke one off bigger than it – I never turned it.”
Fishing fairly far up the lake, Long used 1/2- and 3/8-ounce Apex Tackle ANARKIE Dock Jigs in green pumpkin and black and blue with matching Strike King Rage Craws as a trailer. He also weighed one flipping a Texas rig. He used 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluoro for both setups.
5. One jig produces for Weberg
Leading after Day 1, Tyler Weberg faded on the second day but still made the cut and was able to rally back into the Top 10 on the final day.
He did virtually all his damage with a 3/4-ounce Greenfish Tackle Little Rubber Jig paired with a Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog. His rod of choice was a Dobyns Xtasy 765.
“I fished about everything, but all my quality bites were on main lake docks on flat banks,” he said. “On Day 3, I had one rod on the deck all day.”
6. Newcomb picks ‘em apart with a worm
A past Angler of the Year in the Plains Division, Andy Newcomb is always in the mix on Lake of the Ozarks.
In this event, Newcomb relied on a Bait Cave Customs Thick Stick on a 3/8-ounce Apex Tackle Bain’s Pro Series Structure Shakey Head. He paired it with a 7-3, medium-heavy Daiwa Kage stick, an 8.1:1 Daiwa Tatula Elite reel and 20-pound Seaguar AbrazX.
“Day 1, my plan was to start at a spot on my way up the river, and then probably run quite a ways up,” he said. “I ended up getting into them, so I never went up – that day, my best fish, I actually caught deep. Day 2, I did the same thing, but I left there with nothing and made the run and then fished my way back. Day 3, I told myself I was going to stay in what I thought was the best area. I made a stop on the way and had 12 pounds, and then ran up to that area and caught the fire out of them but never caught any big ones.”
7. Jig and glide combo works for McFarland
Coming on strong as the event progressed, Cole McFarland fished a jig for the most part and caught a key fish on a glide bait as well.
“I caught all of my fish flipping shallow, and then once I had a good weight, I would step out with the glide on the main lake – just looking for a big one,” he said. “I caught one key fish on Day 2 on the glide, but the rest of the week, it was all flipping up shallow.”
His jig was an E-Factor pitchin’ jig in 1/2- or 3/4-ounce, and he trailered it with a McCarty Baits Raptor. His glide of choice was a Swimbait Garage Hyper Shad.
8. O’Barr in the Top 10 again
Continuing his impressive season, Hayden O’Barr knocked out another Top 10. This time, it was Lake of the Ozarks – a far cry from Seminole, the Tennessee River or the St. Lawrence, but apparently right in stride for O’Barr.
In time-honored Lake of the Ozarks fashion, O’Barr leaned hard on a big worm – in this case, a Zoom Magnum Trick Worm on a 3/8- or 1/4-ounce Texas rig – as well as a 3/8-ounce jig. He used TigeRodz with Eternity blanks and mostly relied on a 7-7, heavy model with 20-pound Sunline Sniper.
“I was fishing brushpiles on the edge of docks for my main deal,” O’Barr shared. “And I caught a few good ones on docks with a jig.”
9. Cook shines again on Lake of the Ozarks
Always strong at Lake of the Ozarks, Corey Cook relied on history for a solid finish.
“I was running spots,” he said. “I live here; I fish here all the time. I caught fish shallow, I caught fish deep. I kind of fished history and fished as many good spots as I could. I didn’t dial in a pattern; I just made the opportunities I got count.”
A jig on brush and docks did most of his damage, and he went with a 3/4-ounce Jewel Football Jig with a Zoom Super Speed Craw for a trailer. He used a St. Croix Avid Series rod, a Shimano Metanium reel and 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluoro.
10. Steckler mixes in a topwater
Earning his ninth Top 10 on Lake of the Ozarks, Cory Steckler relied on a jig and extensive local history.
“I was just skipping docks real shallow,” he said. “My better fish all came shallow – all the good ones were in the dirt, skipping back in the holes in the docks and behind the docks. In between the docks I was flipping, I threw the Plopper – the big one on Day 1 came on it in the first 20 minutes.”
A 1/2-ounce homemade jig got it done on the docks, which Steckler matched with a Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog. His topwater of choice was a River2Sea Whopper Plopper 130.