Haulin Bass

DILLY DILLY

I know, I know, I know,,,,, I have been told that the Walleye fishing is GREAT in February,,,,, but I never caught any in February! Froze my butt off mostly! But Bull Shoals is an excellent Walleye lake in February,,,, (in the rivers). Bear Creek I think it is the one that produces! And Stockton will get better and better as it starts warming up, but you can get them off the rocky points with stick baits right now. But the best place to catch walleye right now is down by the Powersite Dam with stick baits,,,, and there will be some BIG MOMMAs down there any day now! And when it's on,,,, everyone will eb getting them. It gets pretty bizzy down there.

I caught my limit of Crappie last Saturday,,,, and I did it all in one spot!

like Cerckson,,,, I really wanted to get some new electronics LAST YEAR, but it wasn't in the budget. I looked at everything, and I kept coming back to the Lowrance 7HDI. But it was like $599.99 last year! I have a question, if I want both, front and rear. (*Rear being on my dash board, and front being by my Captain's Chair), what would be a good priced combo??? (Lowrance/Hummingbird) But what 2 work well together? I was thinking the 5xHDI for the front, and the 7HDI for the rear. (* And if I had $750.00 RIGHT NOW to Academy, and jump on that deal C.J. just mentioned!) p.s. I am also still looking at Hummingbird too, so I want to hear from anyone with a good opinion. Does Hummingbird have a good combo deal? (*I've heard a lot of good things about that 598 too.) *(tax returns coming soon, and I'm getting my electronics before my wife spends the rest of it on stupid stuff *like bills,,,,pfffft!)

The first time I went fishing on Stockton, my kid and I almost caught our limit of Crappie in a little cove that we dipped into just trying to avoid that wind. Ham is definitely right about one thing, that wind is a killer on Stockton. But as far as catching fish blind, Stockton produces! Bull Shoals is an excellent Walleye Lake, but a tourist isn't going to catch em on their first go out. (not unless they charter a guide.) If I were to go to Stockton this weekend,,, I would troll crank baits & flicker shads around the points and just cruise the lake until I caught something, then focused on those areas of success. (Or) you can always catch bass on rubber worms in the winter in Stockton's coves,,,, hell,,,, we catch those darn things every where!

We usually start at 25 feet, accept this time of year the fish will generally be closer to shore. We did really well last year at 15 feet deep when the water was HOT, and we used Flicker Shads. (Because they don't go as deep). And they would regularly skip on the bottom. But when we don't catch em on Flicker shad, that's when we go deeper with Big Cranks, and try to get the bait down to 20 feet. And sometimes you can usually catch some right away and set all your poles accordingly. But the last few times we've gone, it took all day to find out where they were biting. You can always find the fish, but very often, you need to find out "WHAT DEPTH ARE THEY BITING AT!" The Crappie are usually the best indicators, if you catch a Crappie on one crank, then you can usually catch more crappie, and all the other fish at about the same depth. Just remember, the more line you let out, the deeper you will go, The fast you go, the deeper you will go, and the lighter the tackle, the deeper you will go! And yes,,, we have gone faster and slower to try to find out what speed they are hitting at. That's why they call it fishing, and not catching! p.s. and if all else fails, you can always drag the bottom bouncers. We catch more Walleye on Cranks than we do on Night Crawlers, but sometimes the Walleye won't hit anything but!

Gosh, I get so excited when the leaves start to change because I know it's time for the Walleye to "turn on!" Yep, last year we rocked the Walleye, and pulled in a lot of Smallies too!~ (Definitely not normal!) The Crappie though are always abundant, and we seem to catch more Large Mouth by accident than we do anything else. And yes, the occasional catfish will hit a crank when the fishing is good. Whites, although fun to catch, we generally don't keep them to eat. Same goes for Drum, I tried that Drum Cocktail trick, and it tasted like bottom feeder with cocktail sauce. (bawk) (LOL) Last time we went out, we hit a cold front and the fish had lock jaw. But like it happens every time, the sun starts to go down, and the fish start to turn on. Unfortunately, we didn't have anything on the boat yet , so when we did finally get some, it was enough to keep us fishing til dark, but neither one of us had enough to make a descent meal separately. That's when you draw lotts. (* Anyone else know what I'm talking bout?) It's usually the guy who caught the most that day, gets to keep the all the spoils, OR, the guy who's had the longest dry spell will whine and complain until you give in and hand over your fish. Fortunately that doesn't happen all that often, (or not that I would admit to!) But we can always count on a half dozen or so just before sundown, the key is to have a half dozen on board before sundown! But like I said, this time of year (for me) seems to be a time of great fishing, as well as great beauty! And knowing I can always trade my 3 or 4 crappie to my partner now for some dear meat later, it makes the experience far more enjoyable! ~ Lastly,,,, on a beautiful fall day, there isn't anything better then cruzin' the lake, and trollin' those cranks! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,,,,,,,,,! CIAO! (* GOOD LUCK GUYS!) I'll be out for sure!

Hey Clandt. I am originally from Wisconsin too. I lived in Door County and Milwaukee, and still have relatives our in Delefield/Brookfield areas. I live down in Christian County now,,,, but I prefer Stockton over Table Rock anyday!~ You might do just as well jigging standing timber because the Crappie are just too good tasting to pass on! But, if you want to troll, just get some flicker shads. (because they are cheap). Put those on 10lb line, use bright colors on sunny days, and dark colors on cloudy days. And you might want to invest in a lure retriever, can't tell you how many times that thing has paid for itself over and over again!~ Throw your motor in low, and let your line out about 60/70 yrds. Stay in 20-25 foot of water, and just watch your depth. Just remember, it's not where your boat is,,,, it's where your lures are. And I have a small boat, and can still get 4 poles out easily. You'll catch some bass/crappie/walleye, and probably some white bass too! Head out to the marinas (any) and try to stay in the river channels, or just cruise around the points. You don't need to do much else accept "PULL" when your poll bobs. If you are going camping, and you are going to State Park,,,, just troll wherever your boat lets you!~ best against the wind, and good on points with the wind blowing into them,,, but I've caught them in dead flat clam too!~ Stockton is an AWSOME fishing lake,,,, and water should be well warm enough to go swimming still too!~ be more concerned with enjoying that time, rather than catching anything, because it's actually been "slow" all over! But with this nice stable cool weather, I would bet the bite will turn on any day now,,, and it will be GLORIOUS!~ (* hint, Walleye are about to hog-wild any day now) And they are the Prize fish in the lake!~

We were just out trolling Saturday, and there wasn't anything going on until late in the day. We started to catch some NICE crappie off of the Gizzard Shads. But we had NO LUCK all day until 6;00pm or so. Last year this time, we caught Walleye, Crappie, and Small Mouth in the same areas with the Flicker Shads, but we didn't get a nibble on them last Saturday. When we switched to the Sexy Shads/ and the Gizzard Shads,,, then we caught a few 12-13" Crappie. (* We only totaled 6 between the 2 of us) It was a tough day with that cold snap for sure. But I am certain that the Walleye will start hitting from now until the end of October as the thermocline starts to threaten to turn. One thing to note was that I caught like (3) Walleye that were just an inch or 2 bigger than my bait! We were excited to see that the Dept. of Conservation was putting more fingerlings in the lake,,,, I know they put in over a million from 2007-2011. and then they stopped. So to see 3 in one day tells me that they stocked the hell out of the lake recently (* Either that or the Walleye are successfully spawning!) ""FINALLY!"" Lastly, we were about ready to give up and switch to the bottom bouncers, but we saw another local doing that, and he said they weren't catching much on crawler rigs either! (* So that is when we switched from shallow cranks to deep cranks.) I would suggest to you, that you could almost troll any point in and around 20-25 foot, run your cranks about10 to 15 foot, and start out slow,,,, and speed up little by little,,, then change cranks, and start out slow again. We found that the fish will actually hit faster trolling baits in the fall than they do in the spring! (* So we go a little faster, and watch out depth closely.) But we really haven't found any trends to speak of yet! (Keep trying')

just fyi. "I" am a Walleye addict! And I am "SOLD" on Flicker shads. The absolute BEST crank bait in the store! But as they get more and more popular, I have noticed that the FS Crank is getting more and more defective. I spent almost a half hour trying to get a new Fick to track right,,,, and that was right out of the box. You have to test them BEFORE you troll or you will have a tangled mess in a very short time. I use the #7, and the Black and White (looks a lot like that shad wrap) is a real good flicker shad. And I LOVE the price,,,, $4.99 each at Bass Pro last I bout some on Father's day! But you will catch Crappie, Bass, Walleye, Whites, (AND SMALL MOUTH!) We caught the hell out of the smallies last fall trolling for Walleye. Never caught so many smallies in Stockton prior to that! I just LOVE those Flicker Shad,,,,, and when you are trolling,,,, and then you get hung up,,,, bring your un hung Flicker shads in as fast as you can,,,, and you'll catch almost as many fish wheeling in your lures off of a snagged line, as you would just trolling. Something about these baits, that they attract better the faster you go! When I watched the video at Bass Pro,,,, they showed the Flicker Shad would look like a strobe light,,, literally "flicker" in the light! TOTALLY AWSOME!~

I like to think I am a Walleye fisherman too, but I would NEVER rip the mouth of any fish (even a Drum) and throw it back. Heck, I think if a fish gets it's gills hooked, that they fish should be kept and NOT thrown back in! (because it would most certainly die.) But The Dept of Con. says it is to back into the eco system. (?) OKAY As for the bass, could it be A-Rigs? you know, someone might catch a bass on an A_Rig, and get hung up on stump. And yank the crap out of the lure (with 65LB braided) and rip the mouth of the bass getting the A-Rig off of a stump? dunno,,,, but please don't blame Walleye fisherman,,,, this is cruel and inhuman treatment of animals. No matter who is doing it~! Hopefully, it is an isolated incident.

Crazy, but we found more Crappie "deeper" rather than shallower. Last weekend the females we caught had about 30 to 40 percent of their eggs left! This will be the last weekend that the crappie will be in any kind of spawning mode. After that, it will be back to their summer patterns.

We did okay. Left Greenfield Access at CC about 1;30pm Saturday. Went to our favorite spot, 12-18 foot point near a timber filled cove. caught a bunch of shorts right off the bat! (* Been a tad miffed at the bait guy, the minnows were "TINY!".) I liked it when you got some bigger minnows with some Gold ones mixed in. The Gold ones worked GREAT! *Catfish liked em too! But we stuck with it, and pulled in about a half dozen big females midway into the trip, and about 20/30 shorts. So we went into a couple of coves, and the water was REALLY LOW to get any off the banks, but we managed to catch another 5 or 6 big females off of the standing timber in about 8 foot of water! Then we went back to our deeper point, and the bite was on much better as evening hit! Finished up with about 20 nice keepers, and about 50 shorts. (* I DID THROW THE PINK LEMON-AID FLICKER SHAD, but I must have given up on it too early. Didn't get anything on it!) And we caught several small bass, a couple small walleye, and a SOW white bass that we couldn't give away! (that white bass would have just stunk up the fridge.) But, we went through 6 dozen live minnows, and I only used (1) Jig ALLL Day. I was tipping my jig, and that seemed to get the bigger females to bite. But mostly used just a single minnow on a gold Abberdine with a Bite Indicator! JK

Some call that a hillbilly measuring device,,,, I CALL IT ONE PHAT CRAPPIE!

I thought I did pretty well on Saturday. Could have walked across the lake on paddlefish snaggers though. But I was fishing off of point 15 too. And I didn't get out until 10;00 am. and had (7) HUGE CRAPPIE on my boat within 2/3 hours. Finished with 15 fish total. I caught (1) 14", (1) 13-1/2", and (3) 13" the rest were 12/11/ and (1) 10". But they were relatively close to the shore too.