Entry 218-4

Catching Big Bass at White Oak Plantation with Chad Brauer

Part 4: Striper Time in Missouri

Question: Chad, in the fall, don’t you guide for stripers on the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri?

Brauer: No, I don’t do much deliberate striper and hybrid guiding. My striper and hybrid fishing is a byproduct of my bass guiding. The bottom line for a guide is to help his clients catch fish. Fishermen like to have bent rods, screaming drags and fish coming to the boat. At certain times of the year, the bass can be finicky and hard to catch. But the good news is at that same time of year, striper and hybrid fishing can be red hot.

If the largemouth aren’t biting, I can take my customers, put them on hybrids, white bass and stripers and keep their rods bent, their drags squalling and fish coming to the boat. On the Lake of the Ozarks, during the fall, the stripers, the hybrids and the white bass will really put on a show. They’ll be up on the surface, chasing shad. The largemouth and the spotted bass aren’t really biting well in the fall at the Lake of the Ozarks, so many days we fish for the linesides.

Question: How are you finding and catching these hybrids, stripers and white bass?

Brauer: Ideally, I like to have them coming up on the surface, chasing baitfish. Then you can catch them easily on top-water lures, like the Strike King Spit-N-King. You also can catch them on little crankbaits. All these lures are easy and fun to fish. But even when these species aren’t up on the surface, if you can find the schools of baitfish, you still can catch white bass, stripers and hybrids. I use either a jigging spoon or a white jig to vertical fish for them. I’ll also work Strike King crankbaits on main river points to catch these fish. When you’re using crankbaits, you have to work a little harder to catch these fish than you do when they’re chasing bait on the surface.

Question: At what time of year do you usually see the most surface activity?

Brauer: In Missouri, where I’m from, the surface bites start in the middle of August and continue through September or early October. At that time of year, you’ll see schools of baitfish on the surface. The stripers, the hybrids and the white bass will start blowing up on those schools, eating shad.

Question: How are you fishing the Strike King Spit-N-King to catch these fish?

Brauer: I’ll cast pass the school of baitfish and work the Spit-N-King right through the school. I’ll be fishing the Spit-N-King on 12- to 14-pound-test line, but I’ll throw the Spit-N-King on 14-pound-test line with a medium to a medium-heavy All Star rod and a baitcasting reel. On windy days, I’ll often tie 12 to 14 inches of leader to the back hooks of the Spit-N-King. On the end of that leader, I’ll tie a little white crappie jig or a small white grub. This way, when the fish come up, chasing bait on the surface, they have two-different-sized baits to go after. Using this tactic, we’ll often catch two fish at a time.

Question: How big will the fish be you’re catching?

Brauer: They’re usually as small as 12 inches or as large as 4- or 5-pounds each. We catch numbers of fish in the 14- to 15-inch range.

Question: How many fish can you usually catch in a day?

Brauer: That usually depends on how long the fish stay up and how good you are at staying close to the school without spooking it. Catching 20 to 40 fish a day isn’t unusual.

Question: When are these fish usually on points?

Brauer: Most of the time these fish are on the points on really-windy days, when a 20-mile-an-hour wind is moving through ahead of a front. I get on the points where the wind is blowing and fish the Strike King Series 1 or the Series 3 crankbait in the shad pattern or in a plain-white pattern. I’ll cast tight to the bank. After I’ve fished a few points, I usually can determine how far out in the water and how deep the fish are holding. Once you make those two determinates, you usually can catch these two types of fish without problems. Most of the time the fish will be tight to the bank chasing the baitfish.

Next: Midwest Bass Fishing Now

Contents:

• Part 1: Every Fisherman’s Dream – Big Bass and Plenty of Them
• Part 2: Fishing the Tube
• Part 3: Why I’d Fish a Trophy Lake like White Oak
• Part 4: Striper Time in Missouri
• Part 5: Midwest Bass Fishing Now