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I joined the Branson Bass Club, in the early ‘80’s fished on Truman in a big tournament and won heavy boat both days, and that really gave me a boost. Later Bob Welch and I fished a tournament on Stockton and got second place. We’ve been pretty consistent since then, you know. We’ve won a lot of tournaments. In 1991 I started fishing Central Pro- Am. I’d rather fish the Pro-Am type format as any other because I like to make the decisions where to fish.

H: In the last 30 years, you have witnessed lots of changes in bass fishing, both good and bad. Tell us about them.

Biggest change is the number of fisherman you’ll see on a lake. Used to be if you went during the week you would only see two or three boats. Now you see people all week long all over the lake. The amount and sophistication of equipment is really something. I used to think that 20 feet deep was the limits of how deep anything could live on Table Rock. Of course now we fish down to 60 feet deep or more with the new LCR’s and depth finders.

Finesse baits have really improved. When plastic worms came out about 50 years ago, they were just like a piece of red or black inner tube. Now, there are hundreds of types of plastic baits that are so soft. Straight tail, curly tail or a ribbon tail makes a big difference in a given situation with worms. In the last 5 or 10 years, there’s been a great number of new crank baits. Used to be that we had two types, a Wiggle Wart for deep water and a Balsa B for shallow stuff.

H: Will one type of crank bait out perform another?

Definitely. Some of the new baits like the short bill Bandit will catch bass when nothing will. I’ve caught lots of fish on it in the last six years. I like the chartreuse and blue back.
I test my crank baits in practice. If I catch a couple of fish on one, I take and put it in a special place and mark it. I can take two identical baits and often one will catch fish, put the second one on of the exact same type, and it will not produce. Then I’ll go back to the first bait and catch some more with it. There’s really not two baits exactly alike in my opinion. It must be the vibration. Right away with a Wiggle Wart, I can tell if it’s a good feel or not a good feel. Sometimes though, it’s the “not a good feel” bait that catches fish!

H: Tell us about different conditions for cranks such as clear vs. dirty water cranking.

In Table Rock I don’t differentiate a Wiggle Wart too much in colors. If I’m fishing near the dam in the clear water at Table Rock, I will use more of a shad color, but at Truman I’ll use more of a fire/tiger color, or citrus shad. In a DD22 I’ll use a chartreuse/blue back in Table Rock and I’ll use the same colors at Grand for cranking ledges even though the water is often dirtier. There’s times that I’ve caught real good bass at Bull Shoals and Table Rock using fire tiger Wiggle Wart in very clear water when you could see bottom in 12 feet of water. Sometimes we don’t have confidence in a really bright bait, but we should let the fish show us if they are interested in a real loud color in clear water. My favorite color Wart in dirty water is brown. At Smithville we used to paint our Balsa B’s black, and they would really catch fish. Dirty water usually means a darker color is better.

H: What time of the year is your favorite?

The pre spawn is because that’s the time of the year to catch your biggest fish. The next best time is late post spawn because the bigger fish gang up and you might catch 15 lbs. out of one dock. About two weeks after the spawn, fish on Lake of the Ozarks tend to pull toward one boat dock in an area. If you can find that one dock, look out.

H: If it’s cloudy and rainy, will the guys who fish the lower lake keep up with the guys who will make a long run up the Osage River?

Well, I’m going to stay on the lower lake because it’s supposed to be pretty nasty tomorrow. I believe the fish in the lower lake will move up and become more accessible while the fish in the river are already shallow and spawning so they won’t really move. At this time of the year, I think bass are moving more than any other time of the year. These are roaming looking for a good place to lay eggs. Sometimes when spawning takes over, they just don’t feed that regularly. Some days they really eat hard, and other days they won’t feed at all. During the spawn, I have a real hard time getting a consistent bite.
I study bass at my boat dock on Table Rock. One day they will attack a bait near their bed, and other days they will swim away from a lure. The conditions will seem about the same. Sometimes when fishermen can’t get a bite, we say the fish have moved, but really we don’t know that they left the area. It’s just that if we can’t catch them, we say they moved. Sometimes though, they just don’t bite. Unfortunately, the results are the same.

H: Why don’t fish use the brush in Lake of the Ozarks this year just prior to the spawn?

I think it’s the coating of algae that bothers bass. There’s more algae than I’ve ever seen in this lake, and I can’t catch bass out of it. But if I find a shallow single log with no algae on it, I can catch a bass nearly every time.

H: Tell us about your pre fishing strategies.

First, I want to know what the fish are doing and especially what depth they are holding. This helps me select baits. I want to know the best bait so I can eliminate my tackle down to one or two rods ideally. Catch a few fish during the practice to get your feel “toned up” really good. I don’t fish my key places in pre fishing. I’ll fish other similar banks, and if I get bit on those, I know my best bank should be even better. And I don’t bend my hooks over because I like to catch fish too well
If you pre fish on your best bank and don’t catch fish, you might fish it just half-heartedly during the tournament and not do a very good job, because you would have lost confidence in that bank even though fish might be there. When you find yourself not catching bass a person can become a little tentative and lose confidence, so it’s time to change banks or pick up a different lure. That will help pick up your confidence.

H: Dave, you’re known to be a great worm fisherman.

It’s always been my go to bait. I think that on Truman there’s just not as many fish as there used to be, so it’s tougher to catch fish on worms when the water is low. More and more I’m fishing a jig. I seem to be more consistent with it even in warmer water. Research shows that bass can’t remember a jig or a worm as long and they can be caught on them the next day. They remember a crank bait or a spinner bait more.
Fish go through cycles of a few years where they bite a worm better. On Table Rock I fish an 8 inch Plum, Luck “E” Strike worm with glitter on a 3/0 Mustad hook with 15lb line with a 5/16 oz. weight. .

I know every cedar tree between the dam and the Arkansas Line in Long Creek, so three times last year I fished every one I knew from 10 –30 feet deep where I used to catch 25 bass, and I did not catch one single largemouth. There’s very few largemouth left in the lower lake, or if they are still there, they won’t bite a worm.

On Truman I have found that a fish will bite a worm better when it falls faster through the limbs. I’ll usually cast from 25–30 feet from the trunk of the tree and peel off line so the worm falls straight down near the trunk. In Truman or Lake of the Ozarks I prefer the ribbon tail worm in 10 inches in Tequila Sunrise on 20 lb. test.

How fast or slow of a worm fisherman are you?

Lot of people wants me to slow the boat down. I’d rather fish a worm by letting it go to the bottom and hop it two or three times, pick it up and cast it again. I don’t drag it around. I can make three casts to one if I work it near my target, then get it back to the boat for another cast. People are always telling me to slow down.

H: Tell us more about fishing clear water.

Since I fish Table Rock so much it doesn’t intimidate me as much as it does some people. We used to take a spinner bait and have two or three big fish explode on it when we downsized the blades in the fall. You might be able to see bottom in 15 feet of water, but that is a great clear water technique. We’d get a high-speed reel and burn that spinner bait as fast as we could. In clear water you’ve got to fish farther away from the boat. That’s’ how guys who are successful fish stick baits in clear water. They fish it 75 feet or even more away from the boat.

H: Does the stick bait bite die when the water hits 50?

I don’t think so. There’s just lots more ways to catch bass when the water warms up. Lot’s of guys go to soft plastics that they can throw around cover and catch fish easier during the pre spawn and spawning times, but I know guys who use stick baits up into June on Table Rock. They twitch them faster, without pauses. Table Rock is so clear but overall, I’d say the best water color most of the time is when I can see my bait down to about 2 feet deep.

H: Observant anglers learn something each time they fish. Tell us one great thing that you have learned this year.

Twice this year I have had fish turn off as bad as they have ever turned off on me. I had a great crank bait bite going on Table Rock in March, and I thought that if I was stubborn about it, I could catch them during the tournament, but I could not. Then at Lake of the Ozarks, last week I had a great jig bite and was catching 18-25 pounds a day for three days in a row. I caught several four, five, and even one seven-pound fish. But on the tournament day, Saturday, I didn’t get a jig bite.

So no matter how good the bite is, get a back up pattern if possible. I knew that going in, but I had so much confidence in the jig that I refused to give up on it. I needed that back up pattern, but it’s really hard to change up during the day, if you haven’t practiced it in pre fishing. If you’re catching fish pretty good on a jig, lay it down and try something else to see if you can establish a different pattern. Also, if you are catching fish from one area of a big lake like Lake of the Ozarks, try fishing it several miles away. You may need to have more than one good area if conditions change.

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