Fireflies

Liberty; the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves and behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions. Coercion; the practice of forcing another to behave in an involuntary manner by use of threats, rewards, or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. Like many of you out there I’ve spent most of my life in the military. I’ve been overseas to wars and will for the rest of my life defend every Americans right to their Liberty. Thank you Ranger Dave for your report on not being able to travel up river under the 123 bridge, I fish this area all the time.

Staw Hat is right. The crappie are not on the banks anymore. They have moved back to deeper water. We fished in around 30 ft of water and the crappie were about 15-20 ft deep. They seamed to like minnows "anyway you have them". Seamed to do best on white or yellow gigs with a live minnow hooked on. But by the time we left we were digging stepped on dried minnow pieces out of the boat carpet and hooking whatever we could find on the jig and it was working just fine. It was lots of fun, even better then the “right on the bank” fishing from a few weeks ago. We both limited out for the first time this year and none of the fish had eggs left. All we caught were crappie except 1 hybrid bass. . We fished from 9am to 2pm, water temps were in the upper 50’s. after wasting time looking up river towards the 123 bridge we ended up fishing the bank along the east side of the L6 sign across from the High Point ramp, 30ft of water around submerged stumps.

Thanks for the report Staw Hat. Glade to see some are braving the wind.

Thanks for the report Whistle Pig, but I’m still jealous of all of you true fishermen that got to go this week! Hope I can be one of the lucky next week even if I'm empty handed too.

Hi Fishbaite, I fish from a boat, but there are people bank fishing on the North side of the lake actually in the High Point conservation area. I travel to there from Springfield so I take 123 to HY VV go West past Don’s Bait Shop you turn left (south) onto S 20th Rd, it will turn into Shady Grove Rd and you will go past the Shady Grove Cemetery. The road will dead end into a T and you will see the Conservation sign, you turn Right on E 470 Rd and go a short distance to S19th St, you turn Left, and you will end up at the boat put in. Here’s some links to maps, which will do a better job my directions. Copy and post; http://www.stocktonlake.com/app/webroot/files/stocktonlakemap.pdf Or if you like Google maps do a google search for this; Sunset Rd Fair Play MO google map If you look real close at the google map you can see the dirt road just prior to the parking lot that bank fishermen take on out to the point. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the report Walcrabass. what part of the lake were you fishing on? I haven’t been on the water since last Wed (23rd), but it’s been consistently tuff for me. I fish the High Point area, and I’m heading back on Friday if the weather holds. I will try to post my findings. Better days are coming! But it may be a few weeks.

Thanks for the report Straw Hat, I was starting to think I was wasting my time this early in the season on the Little Sac arm. I travel to Stockton from Springfield so I never fish the Big Sac arm below Mutton Creek. I was getting the feeling from last weeks posters that spawning was happening around the CC area, but it sounds to me like maybe the time isn’t here quite yet. Do you ever fish on the Little Sac? If so, do you think the water temp raises faster on the Big Sac, which would lead to earlier spawning around the CC area over the High Point area? I appreciate all your post.

Fished from 10am to 3pm, water temp was 57 degrees. The wind was horrible today and mostly from the Northwest so we ended up fishing the west bank beside the L6 marker sign. We pounded the bank with minnows and jigs, but had zero strikes. The fish we did catch were holding in 20+ feet of water and biting about 10-15 feet deep. We braved the wind and checked some old haunts up river toward the 123 bridge but really couldn’t find any significant number of fish. We did not check up Turkey Creek because of wind. And the 123 bridge is closing on 18 April. No indication as to when it will re-open.

Big blinking light sign up today saying the 123 bridge will close on 18 April. No indication as to when it will re-open.

Hope this helps. Mesotrophic lakes separate into layers in the summer. The top layer of water becomes warm from the sun and contains algae. Since the by-product of photosynthesis is oxygen, oxygen concentration remains high at the surface of the lake. The bottom layer remains cooler and can become anoxic in mid-summer. This change occurs because as all the algae and other organisms die and are decomposed at the bottom of the lake, oxygen gets used up. Since this bottom layer of water does not mix with the top layer of water in the summer, oxygen cannot be replenished. The implications of anoxia are that no fish or other organisms can live where there is no oxygen; therefore, in late summer, fish move shallower where there is still oxygen available.

Put in at High Point around 9am, attempting to find a spot to crappie fish. Contrary to the weather forecast the wind had already shifted to the North East and felt to be blowing over 20 mph. I was glad I brought my stocking cap. I traveled up Turkey Creek in an effort to get out of the wind, but could not find any significant numbers of fish. The fish I did find were in the main parts of the lake, holding in 30 plus feet of water, but the wind was to strong and my anchor was to small, so I gave up. My Dad always said that your worst day fishing still beats your best day at work. In my opinion the crappie have not moved in to the shallows yet. . The 2 that I did catch before the wind blow me off the lake were in water that was 35 ft deep and they were biting around 20 ft deep. Water temp was 48. If you’re looking for crappie this weekend I think I would stick to the bigger and deeper parts of the lake, but if I go back I’m heading up stream to the steel bridge in search of white bass.

On Wednesday I put in at 123 bridge, checked with fish finder around bridge posts and in front of big rocks in the deep pocket on the North side and there were no fish. Water was nasty at best, lots of large logs and limbs in the water. Headed to High Point stopping at some old haunts finding very few fish until I got close to L6 sign. I’m no expert at this but it looks to me like the crappie are schooling up in 30-40 ft deep water, the ones I caught were feeding above that in approx 20 feet of water. But is was S-L-O-W. I was fishing with minnows and jigs, White seamed to be the most popular. Again please be careful of logs and limbs in this area.

Put in at the State Park ramp and headed to the 215 bridge to take Straw Hat’s advice and fish the vertical legs of the bridge for crappie. The water temp was 51, the water was 43 ft deep and the fish we caught were 5 to 15 reel cranks off the bottom (over 30 feet deep). We were fishing with minnows and Jigs, but all fish were caught on minnows. We caught 6 keeper crappie with approx 5 shorts, 2 small white bass, 1 nice large mouth, and 2 walleye, one 20 inches, the second around 12 inches, both right off the bottom on minnows, we were letting out line until it hit bottom and then maybe 3 turns on the reel when the walleye hit. We fished until the wind got out of control around 3pm. Happy Holidays to all who read here, and thanks to all that post here for this past years advice and reports, it has always helped.

Put in at the State Park, and started checking the deeper water up the cove and around the point (B4 sign). Because of the wind we trolled the northeast side of the cove and ended up at the east side of the HY 115 bridge where we did the best around the bridge supports. The water temp was 57 and the fish we were finding were in water that was 40 ft or deep and the crappie we caught were hanging between 30 to 35 ft. We ended up with 5 very fat keeper crappie and 1 blue gill. Probably caught less the 15 fish total for the day, but a great Veterans Day on the lake.

Put in at High Point and headed to last weeks haunts around the L6 area. Water temp was about 61, we were fishing with minnows. Had a hard time finding any significant numbers. We trolled for a few hours and only caught 1 nice crappie, and 1 small bass. We moved over to Turkey Creek arm thinking the water might be a little warmer (it wasn’t). Fished a few more hours there and ended up with 3 keepers. Granted were not great fishermen by any streach, but it was pretty slow, fished from 9am to 3pm and only caught 6 fish total. I’m thinking I will go to State Park area next week and check the deeper waters. Hope the rest of you did better then us, but is was still a nice day on the lake.

Put in at 123 bridge, trolled the deep pocket on North shore by public fishing area (large rocks), the water was around 21 ft deep and there were lots of fish between 12 to 17 ft deep, we were fishing with minnows. The water was very dirty and stained. We fished there from 8-9am and caught 1 nice Crappie, 1 eighteen inch catfish, and 2 good size white bass. After the fog lifted and we warmed up we headed to High Point hoping to find larger groups of Crappie. We ended up fishing south west of the L6 sign. We fished from 9am to 1pm, and did ok adding 3 more keepers and catching around 7 shorts. The wind shifted to coming out of the north/west and they seamed to shut down for us around noon. We decided to call it a day but felt like we ended up with a pretty nice mix mess, if I had it to do again I would stay at the 123 bridge all morning, but still it was a great ½ day on the lake.

Put in at 123 bridge, heading to High Point, stopped to check last weeks haunts which were prior to entering the High Point area and found no significate fish on the scope. Continued on until we were in view of the boat ramp and sign L6 where we stared founding pretty good sized gathering of fish between 14-17 ft, in water 20 ft or deeper. Fished from 8am to noon using minnows. Caught 9 very nice keeper crappie, 1 almost 14 inches, and probably 20 total fish over the morning. Very nice day on the lake.

Put in at 123 bridge, heading to High Point, Fished just prior to entering High Point area along North bank. Fished from 8am until 2 pm. Used minnows and crappie jugs. All fish were caught at approx 7 ft on minnows in water 20 ft deep and over 100 ft from bank (what I would call the old river bottom) around obstructions and tree stumps. The shad were the thickest I have ever seen and seam to go on forever along the bank. Kept 15 very nice crappie, and probably caught 40 plus fish over the day, 1 drum, 1 small bass, the rest where crappie. We fished until we ran out of minnows. Great day on the lake.

Put in at 123 bridges, heading to High Point, stopped short due to wind from northwest. Fished from this point back towards 123 bridges. Fished from 8am until 1pm. Used minnows and crappie jigs. All fish were caught at approx 8 ft on minnows in water 14 to 20 ft deep water, and 100 or more feet from bank, around tree stumps and obstructions. The shad seamed thick and spread out. We ended up catching 8 large drum (hitting hard, lost one pole), 10 crappie (5 keepers), 3 white bass (all keepers), and NO walleye, but again we were fishing for crappie using minnows not worms. Nice to have cool days are back.

Launched boat from west side ramp off HY 215 at the State Park. Fished up the west side of cove around point and down north side ( point B4). We were fishing for crappie using mainly minnows, followed up with white, silver metal flake, yellow, and black metal flake jigs with and with out spoons. Never really came a cross what I would call a school, seamed pretty spread out and moving 15 to 20 ft deep. Caught 3 9-9.5 inch crappie, 2 small mouth both around 14 inch, and several small to med blue gill. Everything we caught was on minnows, nothing was interested in the jigs we tried. Fished from 8am to 12 noon. Great day on the lake.