Thread: 10/27 Truman

Launched for my first Truman trip at the state park and headed for the weir but had to fight with the outboard for a while. It has been a long dry spell as far as fishing goes, and despite a tuneup, the motor was acting up. I'm assuming it was crud buildup in the carbs as I started the motor more yesterday than I have in the past five years. However, whatever was causing problems burned, and the motor did run OK.

The weir area was crowded by my standards--probably 15 boats or so, but the graph showed a lot of fish in the area. However, not much was happening. I fished as instructed by Jeff and didn't touch a fish but then again, I only saw one fish caught. I tried jigs but only had 1/16-ounce heads with me, and that wasn't enough to get down the way I was forced to fish (outboard issues). Left the weir about 1:30 and headed back to the launch. Tried trolling and in one bay hooked and lost a decent channel cat and landed another. Caught one 13-inch crappie--both on crank baits.

Fun day, with the exception of the outboard issues. Love the lake and looking forward to more fishing.

Heavier jigs certainly would have fished better. Maybe next time I won't forget the box they were in! I did try a spoon deep but didn't get bit. I'm also curious about using a blade bait in the deeper water. However, from what I've heard about white bass (a relatively new fish for me), often enough they won't bite until it's time. Dunno, y'know.

One thing I've been considering is using a three-way rig with a small crankbait or minnow bait. Al Lindner just posted a piece on the Angling Edge showing how they catch crappies slow trolling a small Rapala minnow off a three-way in deep water. I'm wondering if that might work in Truman. I've fished that style in the Great Lakes and had pretty good luck on lake trout and walleyes. Seems like it's worth a try.