Lake of the Ozarks Fishing Report: Slow Starts, Short Bites, and Wintertime Patterns

This is Artificial Lure with your Lake of the Ozarks fishing report.

We don’t worry about tides here on the Lake, but water level and weather matter. The lake’s near normal pool and clear to stained, with the upper Osage, Niangua and river arms holding more color. Morning air is cold, afternoons easing up with light north to northwest breeze, classic mid‑winter Ozarks conditions. Skies are mostly clear, so expect a slow start that improves as the sun gets on the water. Sunrise is right around 7:30 and sunset near 5:10, giving you a tight mid‑day feeding window.

FishingReminder’s Lake Ozark tables are calling a solid major bite in the early morning and again around supper time, with a minor window early afternoon. That lines up with what locals are seeing: short flurries, long lulls. According to recent January videos from Dave Holbrook and The Weekend Angler on YouTube, bites have been tough but steady if you grind slow in 10–25 feet.

Bass first. The Alabama rig and jerkbait are still king on the lower lake and mid‑lake, just like Major League Fishing’s Toyota Series stop here late last fall, where an A‑rig with 3.3–3.8 inch swimbaits and a Megabass‑style jerkbait did most of the damage. Work secondary points, channel swings, and brush in 8–25 feet. Let that rig tick the tops of brush; count it down and reel just fast enough to keep the blades thumping. On bright, calm stretches, a suspending jerkbait in natural shad, long pauses, is putting fish in the boat. If the afternoon warms, a craw‑colored flat‑side crankbait or small spinnerbait on rock transitions in the Niangua and Glaize arms can surprise you shallow in 3–8 feet.

Crappie are classic winter pattern: tight to brush on main‑lake docks and creek channel bends. Electronics are your friend. Small tube jigs or 2‑inch plastics on 1/16‑ounce heads, in monkey milk, blue‑ice, or plain white, tipped with a crappie nibble, are doing most of the work. Hover that bait just above the tops of the piles and don’t overwork it—barely shake it and let the cold fish decide. Once you find a pile with active marks, you can still put together 15–25 keepers if you’re patient.

Catfish are slower but not dead. A few blues are coming from deeper holes on the main Osage and near the dam on cut shad and skipjack, 30–50 feet. Set up just off the channel edge and give each spot a good soak.

Best lures and baits right now:
– Alabama rig with small shad‑pattern swimbaits
– Suspending jerkbaits in pro blue, sexy shad, or clear ayu
– Flat‑side and squarebill crankbaits in red and Ozark craw hues
– Small crappie jigs, tubes and marabou in natural shad or pearl
– Cut shad for catfish

A couple of hot spots to circle on your map:
– Shawnee Bend to the toll bridge: classic winter bass water with brush, points and channel swings tailor‑made for the A‑rig and jerkbait game.
– Gravois and Little Niangua arms: slightly warmer, more stained water, great for a shallow crankbait or spinnerbait bite on rock and wood, plus solid crappie on dock brush.

Fish slow, trust your electronics, and plan your day around those short feeding windows.

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI