Family Fishing Trip At Lake Of The Ozarks
Sunday May 28, 2017
This morning we headed out for a family fishing trip at Lake of the Ozarks to try our luck below the Truman Dam in Warsaw, Missouri. As we approached the public fishing docks we knew it would be crowded, after all it was Memorial Day Weekend. The weather conditions in Warsaw are pictured below.
After arriving around 11:30 in the morning we quickly found our spot on one of the public fishing docks and set up for the day. It didn't take too long before we were on the fish. We were fishing with two poles each and at times we had fish on both lines at the same time. I even managed to hook into the biggest fish I have ever had the privilege to fight. This time however the fish won as I was unprepared for landing anything of its size.
Around 2:30 I texted my aunt and invited her to join us. She is a true fisherwoman who can teach anyone something about fishing......especially crappie fishing.
Throughout the day there were a few periods of inactivity, but overall the fish were biting steady enough to keep us moving! We caught several different types of fish including crappie, drum, bluegill and even spoonbill. Anyone who doesn't think spoonbill will bite on a minnow is mistaken. They may not bite on minnows everywhere, but below the Truman Dam on Lake of the Ozarks it is not uncommon to hook into one while fishing with minnows. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a photo of any paddlefish.
By the time we ended our day around 10:00 pm we had caught more than 50 fish. Although the legal length limit is 9 inches on crappie here, I decided to keep nothing that was less than 10 inches long (you definitely don't have to worry about getting into any trouble for keeping fish that are too small if you make sure they are at least one inch longer than the minimum length.) Out of all the fish we caught, we ended up taking eight home to fillet, but we would have easily had 20 if we had kept every one that measured between 9 and 10 inches.
Our family fishing trip at Lake of the Ozarks was thoroughly enjoyable, although we all ended up with a sunburn. I guess that's the price you pay to spend the day relaxing in the sun doing something you love to do. The picture below is the fish we took home (sorry for the image quality, my iPhone didn't want to take a decent picture after dark.)
If you have enjoyed reading this post, check out the Fishing With Family article.
- Any day in the outdoors is a good day