Dollar Bill

Great job! Man they are stacked up on the points aren't they? With these warm nights and 75+ days things are gonna change fast. The surface temps have gone up 2 degrees every day! I planned my vacation too late.... This global warming is crazy

I got to fish again today and thought I'd try some place different so I put in at Mutton. Fished Googer, some main lake points, Greaser then chicken rock area. Had maybe 5 blacks total. Went back up towards CC around Springfield cove and fished the same mile of channel bank I hit yesterday with similar results.. . Had four keepers and over 20 shorts. Mostly on the shad wiggle wart but before the wind got up I had several on a Senko. The biggest deal for me was the moss. Hardly any up the river but bad on the lake. The fish wanted the crankbait rattling around on the bottom so that means 5-7 feet. The moss kept me from doing that anywhere but upstream. Temps on both my graphs got up to 56 but averaged around 54 after 12.

Put in at CC around 10am and put out around 6. What a beautiful day! Found water temps from 52 to 55. Stayed around the bridge till noon scouting for whites and crappie or even an eye. Nutin. Might have had a hit. There were several boats and bank fishermen there. I saw one fish caught in 2 hours. Wind was pretty brisk most all day. Moved on downstream a couple of miles to try to whack some blacks. I threw a shad wart and they ate it up. Threw parallel down the bank on steep channel banks with emphisis on every point. Had 20 fish mostly 14.9" ers. I did manage to use my net. The net I knocked that 5 pounder off at the boat with! Anyone with any info on whites (depth, how far upstream, etc) please share! Thanks, Bill

Hey guys, Put in at Mutton this morning about 9:30. Sure was a lot windier than I had hoped for (and forecast!) Had the ole 74lb thrust Minn Kota at 50% just to stay put on some points... Pretty much threw a tennessee shad Wart most of the day. Also gave some time to the jerk bait, swimming grub and crappie jig too. Fished my way from the bridge to about 1/2 way to CC stopping at some known points and bluff ends. Also tried some 45* chunk rock banks. Not a bite! Started driving north and ended up in Greaser. Went about 1/2 way back then 1/2 way back in the big cuts. Found them there. Not fast and furious but had 6 14 somethings in an hour. It may have been the same fish over and over They were pretty shallow, about 5-7 on sloping gravel banks. A lot less moss than some of the main lake banks. Then went across near Mutton and hung a nice 18" LM. All bites were on the shad wart. I threw a crawdad wart quite a bit too but they didn't want it... Didn't see any shad balls but with the wind it's hard to tell. A lot of gulls up the river diving on something... Saw a couple of eagles, some loons and the biggest flock of turkeys I've ever seen, over 50 for sure. Pretty cool. Got off the water around 4. All in all, for January, a really nice day on the water. Bill

Fished a 26 boat, 5 fish benefit tourney Sunday out of State Park. Ran from 7:30 to 3:30. Bright blue bird day with almost no wind at all and it made it pretty tough. Don't have a great idea on what anybody else did but I heard the deep pile bite was not too good. Which is the only reason we had a shot! Started out pretty rough with us losing a 5 and a 2 jumping off at the boat in the first 10 minutes! Couldn't get a topwater bite early so we went with a shad wart and a white spinner bait. Pretty much threw them all day with the wart producing most of the 20 fish we caught. Ended up with 5 keepers weighing 11-8 with a 4-14 kicker. Good enough for 2nd. All the fish came in the Lindley arm on channel swings and the points on them. Tried shallow flats, deep piles, jigs in 20', etc but the 4-8' wart bite ruled the day. Tons of 5 inch shad seemed to be hanging near the channels and fishing near the shad seemed key... There was a muskie tourney too and it was funny my buddies fishing caught 2 40" muskie on docks after talking to some muskie guys who couldn't keep the 2 and 3 pound bass off their lines! Weird. All in all a great day and several boats donated their winnings to the cause of a young girl who lost her mother in a terrible lighting accident raising over $1200 to the cause. Thanks to all who participated. Good fishing!

I put in at Mutton Wednesday about 9am and fished till almost dark. Ran up the big Sac toward CC fishing for whatever bit. Found lots of shad and small bass were bustin em up pretty good. No whites though. Caught a couple of small eyes, bunches of smaller bass, did have a nice keeper on a crawdad wart. Anyway I tried what has worked this time of year for me, to target the very backs of windblown coves, especially the ones that can have a small tributary, and even though they weren't bustin shad the whites are there... Usually have to wade through a bunch of small ones but last night I sacked up 10 nice ones in just over an hour. This was less than a mile from Mutton. Also do well over by Masters and Adams with the same shallow water pattern(2 to 6 ft). As usual, find the shad and the whites aren't far behind.

Put in at Cedar Ridge this morning about 6:30 and ran to the High Point area chasing cats. Did better than I expected! The water had good color and started at 71.8 and by the time we quit about 2 it was 75. Fished big rock banks with a minnow about 5' deep and although it was surely not fast and furious we managed 6 channels ranging from 3 to 7 lbs and a half dozen crappie, only 2 of which kept. All fish cleaned had eggs. We also caught drum, walleye (all short) perch and bass. Tried a night crawler for a while but no good... The cats seemed to be hanging around the bushes in the water. Don't remember catching any on "bare banks". Also tried the riprap with no luck. The moon phase fishing app on my phone said the bite would peak early afternoon and we did get 4 out 6 cats between 12 and 2... Man was it hot though! Anyway, eating catfish tonight! ps talked to an old boy who said he was from Willard and he wore a straw hat so I asked him if he was the guy I wrote to on the web and he said "no sir, I aint even got a web!"

Hey guys, I get to fish Stockton this Wednesday & Thursday and am in the mood to try catching (I mean eating) some spawning channel cats off the rocks... I was wondering if anyone has had any luck lately. I saw a couple of weeks ago it was pretty slow and some folks have caught a random cat while crappie fishing but I could sure use a little help if you would share some "generic" info... In the past I have had luck around High Point fishing minnows under a bobber in about 5 - 10 feet off the rocky banks. Just wondering if a similar pattern is still possible or what else to try... I'm thinking it's a little late but with the cold and high water I wonder if they are running late. C'mon catmen, help a brother out! Thanks, Bill

Thanks Clete! I ended up going to Shell Knob instead... What a beautiful day! Only caught a few but that was my fault. The old men next to me were tearing it up on the whites. I would rather fish at CC cause it's only 30 miles instead of and hour and a half away but you got to do what you got to do... Bill

I get to go fishing tomorrow, Friday, and really want to go back to the CC area but am concerned about the water clarity. Anyone been in the past few days? I went by myself on Tuesday, 11/23 and had a ball catching about 25 crappie including 15 keepers and a bonus walleye. Well I didn't actually catch the eye as it was the biggest I had ever hooked pushing 10 lbs and I left my net at home and with 4 lb test you can imagine how that went though I did touch it! Anyway I took my buddy up the following Saturday and we had one bite all day, a nice 5 lb eye. It had rained 5 inches or so and the water was chocolate and had dropped 5 degrees. Duh... Cold, muddy post front conditions are never too good. So, has it cleared up and are the crappie still there? I saw 3 different boats catching them 2 at a time and after about 3 hours of trial and error I did too. Finally downsized to the smallest crappie tube I had and fished the transition from the flats to the channel. You could see them hangin on the bottom. Big fun! Any report would be helpful... Thanks, Bill

Been fishing 3 times in the last week out of Cedar Ridge. I pretty much keep an open mind on what to target day by day depending on what the lake gives me. Wind speed and direction, air and water temperature, number of other boaters and where the bait fish are guide me towards a pattern that will give me my best shot of both enjoying my time on the water and catching fish... Lately it's been giving me a white bass pattern. As I look aroung I've been seeing quite a bit of small shad activity in the backs of long coves or small creek arms. A rooster tail in white or green has allowed me 50 to 100 whites per trip! Many are too small to clean but with patience I have been able to eke out a limit of em. Man they pull hard! I'm sure there are other species of fish around too, I've caught several short bass and some eyes, but the whites are the most consistant for me. I'm talkin 18 fish in 20 casts! It's more fun when you downsize your gear to 4 or 6 lb test with a little spinning rod. The occassional 2 pounder will give you all the fight you want! Have fun and be safe!

Got off work early today so I put in at High Point about noon... Still trying to find the cats. The overcast skies and light wind were just what I needed. Basically I hit some of the same old banks I always hit with not much to show for my effort. Finally hit a couple of points and lucked upon 3 cats, 4 walleyes, a couple of nice crappie and many short bass and drum. They seemed to be keying in on the 12 foot depth. Very light bite. Hard to tell the difference between the minnow flippin on the hook and the fish taking it... Went thru 3 dozen shiners and 2 dozen worms. Later the sun came out, the wind picked up and the bite got REAL slow. No limits or anything but a couple of nice meals and a whole lot of fun... No eggs in the cats again so I have to believe they are done spawning? Time to move to the flats? I dunno, I'll just keep flailing around and eke out some supper now and then. Good fishin and be safe! Bill

I'm really suprised to hear you say that's the first limit you've heard of this year... You get out a lot and I know there are a lot better fishermen on lake than me! I'm thinking it may have been a combination of fishing at night and the construction crews lights on the rip rap. It was really bright and they were attracting a lot of surfacing action from who knows what... I agree that cats in that size range sure are the best eating. In fact, and I know a lot of you will find out I really am crazy, I prefer a fresh caught fried cat to any fish in the water! Anyway, so are the cats really just now getting on the banks or what? And what a great bunch of cat wisdom you shared in your post! Thanks a lot... I am going to put more effort in nightime summer flat fishing this year. Bill

Man it's hot out! So I got up this morning at midnight and put in at High Point about 1:00. Had the lake to myself! Have really been trying to find the cats for a couple of weeks now as time permits. I only get to go once or maybe twice a week due to work, life, etc. This morning I ran up to the bridge under repair (245?) and anchored just outside of the "No Boats" bouys there. Worms under a bobber in 3-6 feet seemed to be what they wanted. It wasn't fast and furious and due to the limited rip rap available it took me almost till dawn to limit out with 2 to 5 pounders. I was hoping for more and bigger but I always am... At dawn I started point hopping and caught a ton of short bass and short walleye on a grub, a fluke and a red worm. Also hit a couple of cat banks that I killed them on last year and caught 2 more allowing me to cull a couple of 2 pounders. Only 1 of the 6 had eggs! Too early or too late? Wind blew up pretty bad about 10 and I was done. If you haven't been to High Point lately they recently put in a new courtesy dock and new restrooms. Stay safe and good fishing! Bill

Put in at Aldrich around 6:45 this morning and before I headed up river chasin whites I hit a some buckbrush for an hour and a half. Caught 10 or so but they were all little buck bass. 64 degrees near the ramp but it got to 69.7 in some sun warmed back waters. Did a lot of trolling with rooster tails starting before the first bridge and going past the second. Caught 15 or so but only kept 4 as most were really small males. Saw tons of bigger fish on the graph in the bottom half of the water column and tried to jig some up but to no avail... Should have had some minnows, who knows. I did catch several crappie also but they were running small too. Just 3 measured. Really nice day though and can't wait to try it again! Bill

I'm fixin to head there this morning.. I did pretty well last Friday, a few smaller whites up the river but flipped over 20 bass out of shoreline buckbrush in 61 degree water... I'll let you know tonight how it went. Bill

Great day! Thanks for the info... Headed up early Friday just lookin to stretch a line. Will try your pattern. Bill