Basstard

Have had a really busy spring and have not been able to get my boat out much at all since fishing for winter whites on the upper rivers of grand. Trying to get ready for a father-son trip to Canada the first week in June and really need to run my boat now to work out any kinks before dragging it 18 hours North. Can anybody tell me if there is much debris in the water near the Ruark Bluff area as I plan on heading up on Saturday to give the boat a good shake down. Any advice on any black bass patterns that we might want to try in that area of the lake?

Have had a really busy spring and have not been able to get my boat out much at all since fishing for winter whites on the upper rivers of grand. Trying to get ready for a father-son trip to Canada the first week in June and really need to run my boat now to work out any kinks before dragging it 18 hours North. Can anybody tell me if there is much debris in the water near the Ruark Bluff area as I plan on heading up on Saturday to give the boat a good shake down. Any advice on any black bass patterns that we might want to try in that area of the lake?

Have had a really busy spring and have not been able to get my boat out much at all since fishing for winter whites on the upper rivers of grand. Trying to get ready for a father-son trip to Canada the first week in June and really need to run my boat now to work out any kinks before dragging it 18 hours North. Can anybody tell me if there is much debris in the water near the Ruark Bluff area as I plan on heading up on Saturday to give the boat a good shake down. Any advice on any black bass patterns that we might want to try in that area of the lake?

My son and I went bass fishing out of Ruark on Sunday. Got on the water at about 10:30 and immediately started fighting the wind. It seemed like no matter where we went, the wind would eventually find us. Fishing was really slow and we tried a lot of different baits including crank baits (shallow and deep), suspending jerk baits, spinner baits and a couple of different colors of Texas rigged Berkley Chigger Craws (our hot soft plastic from the last couple of years). Other than one short caught on a suspending jerk bait, the ONLY thing they seemed to want to bite on was a green with black fleck skirted hula grub on a stand-up jig head and that bite was very subtle. Most of our dozen or so fish were caught in 6-10 feet of water on windy banks at the mouth of secondary coves. We caught mostly males with a few females in the mix. The biggest fish would have gone 3 lbs or so. Water temps ranged from a low of 57 to a high of 62. We talked to several other fishermen some of whom were fishing for crappie and others for bass who all said it was a pretty slow day. Still great to be on the lake on a sunny Sunday afternoon in May. Good luck!

Greetings fellow anglers! I am headed to Stockton on Saturday morning with 3 other guys for a two day get-away trip - we will be targeting mostly largemouth, buy will also likely go for some whites. We will be putting in at Roark and staying at the little motel just south of there. It has been a while since we have fished Stockton so we could really use some advice on where they are and what they are hitting on. A couple of years ago, we caught a couple of nice 5 pounders throwing jigs to the bank within the first 100 yards of the mouth of a few of the big coves to the east side of the Son's Creek arm - - is this still the place to go?? I will make sure to post our results.

Bob - I am new to the forum, but have been reading your fishing reports for years. I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate them. I haven't come across many guides who are as open and free with information as you are. I need to get a Largemouth trip scheduled with you!

Made my first trip this year to Stockton today in a new boat (to me) and new electronics. Put in at Roark mid-morning and found vehicles all the way up in the overflow lot. Fished several coves up Son's creek, starting at the main points and working all the way to the back. The water temp was 50-52 everywhere we went and the water was pretty murkey. We threw everything but the kitchen sink and would have been skunked if it weren't for the nice White my son caught on a small big lipped Rapala stick bait. He needed a filleting lesson so we brought her home and ate her with some other fish from the freezer. Her belly could not have been more empty! Fishing should get really good later this week if we can just maintain some warm weather. Next Saturday will offer us a great opportunity to escape from the "Prom-a" at our house (for those who don't have teenage daughters at home, that's the drama surrounding the getting ready for Prom Saturday night). We'll definately make it back for the Grand March! Everyone at the ramp talked about similar luck for both Crappie and bass. Absolutely not a wasted day, though, as the weather was beautiful and it got my son and me out on the water!

I own three 18 volt cordless screw guns, all with two batteries each, which I would be happy to bring to the party where we "install" the sheetrock screws into the body of the moron whose pockets they fell out of while he was wading down the ramp. Sorry your trip didn't go well. I plan on heading out of Roark on Saturday to see if I can catch some whites, blacks and walleye. Any suggestions on spots and/or baits??

Hey guys, in case anyone is looking, I have an exceptionally clean 1998 Stratos 285PE dual console bass boat with a 150hp Evinrude FICHT for sale. I live near Joplin. Here is the link to my Craigslist posting: http://joplin.craigslist.org/boa/2278992019.html

I'm thinking about making my first trip to Stockton this year on Saturday. I will likely put in at Roark - anybody have any suggestions for where to go and what to use to catch bass and/or walleye?

Hey Bleeding Shiner, sorry to hear you are getting out of fishing from a boat on a regular basis. I have a bad boat jones so I tend to buy and sell quite a bit. I have had really good luck selling boats on Craigslist. I live in the Joplin area so I aways post them in both Joplin and Springfield. The real keys to Craigslist success are as follows: 1) Be very descriptive about all of the options the boat has. 2) Be brutally honest in your description about ANY flaws that it has - when someone comes to look at it, make sure to show them the flaws. 3)Post lots of photos. Craigslist allows you to post 4, but I always upload as many as 40 more to a public web site like Photobucket.com or Picasaweb.com (both are free). You will need to take digital photos in a fairly low quality setting (i.e. no more than 2 mega pixels) as you will have difficulty uploading them. 4) Either take the time to clean the boat up yourself or pay someone to do it for you. A clean boat always sells better. 5)If there is anything that is not working properly, you'll need to weigh the cost to get it fixed vs. how much less you will have to sell it for. Clearly, you will get the most money for boats that are clean, have newer batteries and tires and on which everything works. One final thought, this is the time of year where you will get the most for your boat so don't be afraid to ask on the high side of what it's worth. I wish you the best of luck!