MOPanfisher

Awesome! But I wonder where he leaned to pan the fish back and forth for the camera.. Keep him fishing, my son never cared fornfishing, but 3 yr old grandson is already talking about going fishin with Papa.

I don't know that anyone is "complaining" about the survival. Just like the bass guys on TR we would love to have more and bigger, who doesn't.

The 2016 Annual Report is not up yet, the 2015 is still there, but it should be added in the next couple days. Link below, about half way down the page. http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/Locations/District-Lakes/Pomme-de-Terre-Lake/Fishing/

I am 100% braid. I am still struggling with getting the braid to mono leader right though, sometimes I do it and it will hold forever, other times I lose the whole thing on the first hook set, baking the mono right underneath the knot. Tonight I must have done it right because it slid two walleye up to the bank, a 16 1/2 and a nice female 21 incher on back to back casts. I even have it on my baitcasters. I can see where finesse like dead sticking a Ned it might have issues as it only takes a breath of wind to make it bow, but I am a long time line watcher so I can see the little "tick" when a crappie hits it. Still like the Nanofil for the smoother feel but have Power Pro and some Fireline, and at least one reel with Stren Gorilla braid or something. I like it because I don't like the coils from regular mono, and it seems to last for years, give it a shot of line conditioner every once in a while. It definitely feels different running through the guides though, takes some getting used too.

I don't even know what color my crappie nibbles are. Sometimes the presence of a nibble is important other times if it moves it gets eaten. The annual report for Pomme has some good news for crappie fishing, heck of a year class from 2015 (high water year) and plenty of good sized crappie also.

Finally received some rain in the basin, Pomme is up over 842.0 and rising (842.14 as I type). Outflows will be increased today and should go from 50 CFS to 1500 CFS by this evening. Seems like a long time since we had any sustained outflow but with the rain, and more in the forecast we might be able to have some for a while. Trying to target our springtime elevation of 841.0. Also the 2016 Annual Report from MDC has been released, I will include a link once it is added to our website.

Curiosity question as much as anything. I know right now while fishing at Stockton the green slime is quite healthy and growing very well in the clear water, anything that touches the bottom is instantly slimed. How do you fish the Ned in such conditions? Do you fish it deep enough to avoid the slime?

That big ole crappie looked like a spawn heavy female?

Hang in there Jd.

I like your attitude Norm. I know when I went through mine and wasn't allowed out to do stuff the OA forum kept.me going, part of why I like seeing pictures of fish. You already know what you are facing so follow the Dr. Instructions and whoop it's posterior.

That is my understanding as well, yes they spawn, meaning they lay their eggs but the survival is extremely low, so.low as to be non existent most years. I believe the walleye fry eat zooplankton until they are large enough to eat insects and other fry. Stockton being a clear water lake likely has a lower amount of zooplankton available.

Mzrealfish if only I had a few thin slices to that to put on my burgers! Tonight is back to basics again, 1 pound of burger, add some instant onion soup mix, bacon and worchester sauce. Divided into 4 patties. Put a good sized ice of velveeta in the middle and seal the edges. Stumble outside and pick a little fresh asparagus and supper prep is in the bag. A couple warm days after this rain and maybe I can find some morels too. Still hoping to feel up to a late night walleye trip but the dr. Appt and allergies have knocked me on my butt. Gotta restock the walleye fillets.

I don't know there are a lot of us still in competition for that one.

Hoping I can sneak over for a little fishing Saturday night. Too windy for my bank antics last night and tonight. Will see how today's Dr. Appt goes, sometimes not able to do much for a couple days. Fairly small window for catching a walleye the way I fish, so gotta hit it while it's open.

The marking on the smallie are almost a match to your shorts. Now that is tough to accomplish. Nice smallie

Any day that includes a smallmouth bass is a good day.

Walcrabass I copied/pasted the questions and sent them to the Fisheries Biologist for Pomme de Terre, and asked if he would forward them to the correct individual since I don't have their email. Will see if it gets a response. Maybe one of the biologists from other areas read along and can provide insight as well.

If I ever catch a 30 inch Walleye every one within a half mile will hear me yelling. I would be much more likely to release a truly big fish like that than anything "normal".

I don't believe that the MDC shocking walleye in the rivers has any effect on them or on any other fish. I think you are trying to attribute way too much intelligence into a critter with the brain the size of a small marble. I know of some very small rivers that are sampled by electro shocking every year, but still because they are driven by biology, the fish come back to spawn. Nature tries its best to find a way, but sometimes the conditions just aren't there. Because it interests me I have been trying to find articles about lake spawning walleye, they are few and far between with mostly conjecture and little hard biological data. Some suggest that walleye will seek out the streams where they were hatched (sort of like salmon), others talk about spawning on reefs or gravelly points if the wave action is sufficient to keep the nests clean of silt. One of the more interesting things I found on, I believe a MN DNR site, was about if the water temp warms up too quick the eggs will hatch prematurely, thus greatly reducing the success of the spawn. It is quite believable, to me any way, that the further south you go, the waters tend to warm up more quickly and reduces the success of the hatch on those that do try to spawn. and I agree that it doesn't take a very large creek/river to attract the walleye they do need to have some water movement/current or they don't want to move up the tributary. I wish I was back in college and could figure out a way to do some walleye research for a PhD. MDC will not change the regs unless they have some science/data behind it to back it up. I don't believe that there will ever be enough natural reproduction to make much effect on the population as a whole, it will always be mostly a stocked population in the lakes.

If that thing ever drops off plane up in the shallow country seems like there would be a lot of folks with wet feet when they wade to shore. Wonder how long it takes a boat with 50 people to get onto plane?

Walleye are protected in the rivers during the spawn, however if the reproductive success in the lake is minimal then protecting them during the spawn, would have no effect upon the population. Biologically it just doesn't make a difference. Slot limits are again designed to protect the breeders, if they aren't breeding successfully it won't have an effect. Now upping the length limit to 18" would, it would act more or less like the 4 point rule on deer, would provide them at least and extra year of growth to attain the 18" length.

Not sure about all Walcrabass but not sure against it either. We also used to raise channel cat in ponds but never utilized any wild caught brooders, and never had any shortage of young fry in the cream cans for stocking in the rearing pond. Shocking up brooders fish would be about the only way I can think of to acquire wild fish that hav already spawned. The numbe of fish it would take to make a noticeable difference in a lake the size of Stockton would be pretty high I would think. I have always had the opinion that nature finds a way, walleye normally spawn in more riverine conditions with flowing waters. Those locations and conditions are not in very good supply, the Osage flowing into Truman is probably the most consistent, long enough, gravel enough, water flow enough. Some walleye will spawn in the smaller rivers and even creeks each year, but it is a small percentage of the overall population. I have heard comments about lake spawners and have even read a few articles but haven't seen any hard evidence that they can. I certainly would like to see some lake spawners instead of them just thinking they are going to.

The fried apples are a favorite of my elderly mother. She doesn't eat much but will eat them and keep the leftovers to eat the next day. She also ate her share of the grilled fish. I could pretty much live on grilled and fried fish along with taters.

I am going to have to suffer through some grilled walleye fillets, oven roasted taters, and a skillet of fried apples. Specifics, walleye fresh from the last couple nights seasoned with butter garlic lime, and a variety of pics including season salt and old Bay, little round whole taters, no idea where my wife found them and the fried apples are whatever was on sale liberally coated with sugar and cinnamon some dried apricots and dried cranberries and given a taste of butter in the skillet.