Lake of the Ozarks is Missouri's serpent: 92 river-miles of Osage water with more shoreline than California's coast, a hundred thousand docks, and a bass-and-crappie factory hiding under the party-lake reputation. Night fishing in summer is the local religion.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Missouri's 54,000-acre serpent: 1,150 miles of dock-lined shoreline and a crappie-and-bass factory.
Ozark clear water at its finest: Table Rock’s bluffs and brush grow spotted bass, whites and crappie under Branson’s hills.
Missouri's flooded-timber crappie factory, with hybrids and blue cats to keep it honest.
The walleye surprise of the Ozarks: clear, windy and underrated.
North Missouri's big water: crappie brush, hybrid schools and room to spread out.
Kansas City's northern big water: crappie beds, walleye programs and 7,200 acres of room.
The cold lake that thinks it is a river: Branson's trout factory, running 48-degree water and 20-pound browns past the theaters.
Missouri's trout-park cathedral: 100 million gallons a day, whistle-to-whistle rainbows and a century of opening-day tradition.
Missouri’s muskie lake: Pomme de Terre stocks the fish of ten thousand casts alongside crappie and walleye in Ozark hills.
The Ozarks’ spring-fed jewel: the Current runs cold and clear through the first national scenic riverway.
St. Louis’ home river: the Meramec runs smallmouth, catfish and spring-fed trout an hour from the Arch.
Missouri’s crooked river: the Gasconade winds 280 miles of smallmouth and catfish through the Ozarks.
A wild and scenic Ozark river: the Eleven Point runs spring-fed trout and smallmouth in quiet country.
Bennett Spring’s river: the Niangua runs stocked trout below the spring and smallmouth all the way to Truman.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: March.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake of the Ozarks | Reservoir | Camden | modeled | Mar |
| Table Rock Lake | Reservoir | Stone | USGS | Mar |
| Truman Lake | Reservoir | St. Clair | USGS | Mar |
| Stockton Lake | Reservoir | Polk | USGS | Apr |
| Mark Twain Lake | Reservoir | Monroe | USGS | Mar |
| Smithville Lake | Reservoir | Clay | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Taneycomo | River | Taney | USGS | Apr |
| Bennett Spring | River | Dallas | modeled | Apr |
| Pomme de Terre Lake | Reservoir | Hickory | USGS | Mar |
| Current River | River | Carter | USGS | May |
| Meramec River | River | St. Louis | USGS | May |
| Gasconade River | River | Osage | USGS | May |
| Eleven Point River | River | Oregon | USGS | Apr |
| Niangua River | River | Dallas | USGS | May |
Missouri fishing runs through its White River-system reservoirs (Table Rock's clear-water bass, Bull Shoals' winter jerkbaiting) and the Osage's Lake of the Ozarks with its endless dock game. The state's trout parks (Bennett Spring, Montauk) offer a unique put-and-take culture, while the Current and Eleven Point float streams hide wild rainbows and smallmouth in spring-fed Ozark water. Big-river catfishing on the Missouri and Mississippi rounds out a state that fishes far bigger than its fame.
March: trout park openers and pre-spawn staging. April-May: crappie and bass shallow statewide. Summer: night fishing on the Ozarks, float trips on the spring rivers. Fall: Table Rock's topwater and the year's best crappie. Winter: Bull Shoals and Table Rock jerkbait season, and Lake of the Ozarks' quiet-water dock bite for those who bundle up.
Not if you fish like a local: dawn patrol, weekdays, and summer nights on the main-channel docks when the wake boats sleep and the big bass feed.