Troy Eakins of Nixa, Missouri, is a wizard with a jig.  Knowledgeable observers across the Ozark region feel his mastery parallels the virtuosity of other Missourians—Denny Brauer, Dion Hibdon, and Guido Hibdon, and that’s fine company indeed.

On October 6, 2008, I spent the day with him as he practicing for the Stren Series Central Division tournament at Lake of the Ozarks. This was the last tournament of the year, and he was leading the angler-of-the-year race. During that day, he demonstrated how to catch fall bass.

We spent the day on a 13-mile stretch from 20 to 33 miles above Bagnell Dam. This was his third day of practice; he’d previously fished from 39 to 60 miles above the dam.

Lake of the Ozarks is Eakins’ favorite waterway, and he notes that this 78-year-old reservoir is now brimming with bass and he’s caught countless fish to 11 pounds there. Since he was 16 years old, he’s fished tournaments on its waters as well.

Over the years, he’s topped the leaderboard on many occasions. Moreover, he’s visited most of its 54,000 surface acres of water and 1,150 miles of shoreline from Bagnell Dam to the tailrace below Truman Dam, including major tributaries like the Niangua, Grand Glaize, Gravois, and Little Niangua.

He considers it the consummate bass reservoir, with diverse limnology and characteristics of a flatland, hill-land, and highland impoundment. This makes it an ideal site to learn how to catch bass in fall, typically a trying time in this region.

Slow fishing may stem from unpredictable weather patterns, but Eakins enjoys the challenge of conquering October’s adversities, noting that he often learns more about his quarry during difficult times than when fishing is easy.

During the fall transition, summertime concentrations of bass disperse. Some become semi-pelagic, following gizzard shad that migrate to the backs of hollows and creeks. Other fish feed on flat, main-lake and secondary points buffeted by wind and waves, particularly those near current that’s generated at Bagnell and Truman dams. Another segment of the bass population inhabits deep-water confines along rock slides at steep bluffs, bluff ledges, and points at the end of bluffs, some of which are enhanced by brushpiles. With bass so scattered, anglers must probe dozens of spots.

The shoreline of Lake of the Ozark has become so cluttered with docks that some folks derisively call it the Lake of the Docks. Scenic or not, bass adhere to them. To fish docks, Eakins religiously uses the jig created by his father, Jim, for Jewel Bait Company in the 1990s, occasionally trying a spinnerbait or crankbait.

Rigging Up

This flat-eye jig comes in 5/16-, 7/16- and 3/8-ounce sizes. Troy Eakins’ favorite is the 5/16-ounce, dressed with a brown living-rubber skirt and a green-pumpkin Eakins Craw. The sparse skirt, with but 35 strands of rubber, is affixed to the jig’s collar with a small piece of copper wire.

The skirt’s forward section is trimmed short to form a collar, which he feels gives it a parachuting action on the fall. He further trims jig skirts so they don’t extend past the bend of the hook. He also shortens the craw to 2½ inches and rigs it so the hook protrudes between the eyes

The skirt on his 3/8-ounce jig is sparser still, and a 3-inch green-pumpkin NetBait Paca Chunk adorns it. According to Eakins, the action of the Paca Chunk makes this combo exceedingly effective when bass prefer a swimming jig. Moreover, at wind-blown docks, this heavier combo is easier to manipulate.

As we fished, Eakins noted that a white jig and chunk is traditionally a good combo to swim around docks in October, but it hadn’t been working during his earlier practice. He’d reverted to his favorite brown and green-pumpkin model.

He used a 6-foot 10-inch, heavy-action Falcon casting rod  (LFC-6-1610) and Shimano Chronarch CH100B reel spooled with 10-pound-test Seaguar Invisx fluorocarbon. His knot was one his father created, called a hangman’s noose.

As Eakins prepared to make his first cast, he expounded on the virtues of 10-pound-test fluorocarbon and a relatively small jig, saying they make his presentation more bewitching and help catch bass other anglers fail to tempt with heavier line and bigger jigs.

He admitted, however, that light line increases the challenge of battling a feisty bass around the obstacles that clutter docks. Though fish occasionally break free, he fares well by being nimble and not using a forceful hand. He also uses a net with an 8-foot telescopic handle, allowing him to reach bass that would be impossible to boat when his line lies over a cable or metal bar of a boat-lift, and he can’t get close enough to lip the fish. Once Eakins gets a bass into the net, he free-spools the reel and draws the net and bass to the boat as line flows from the reel.