blacknoseddace

There are lots of carp suspended there too. Carp love that area, but not to worry, lots of desirable type fish too. Just saying, over the years I have found out a lot of them are of the bugle mouth variety. I have an underwater camera.

Yep, I saw the boats moving quite a bit too. Spring is almost here. Another month of warm spells, wind, and cold fronts, then instant heat, and darn good fishing in between. Ha ha! Can't wait. Organized my tackle today.

No, sure didn't. Are you referring to 215 bridge?

Fished the dam for walleyes today until an hour after dark, thought I may have had one bump. Didn't catch any. Didn't see any landed, nor did I hear any splashes from nearby boats after dark. Talked to a couple guys at the ramp and they didn't do any good either. Water at the dam 45 degrees, the warmest I saw today was 48 degrees in a cove. I fished jerkbaits, crankbait, flicker shad, football jigs (for bass). Caught one bass on KVD jerkbait, a 16" Kentucky. Beautiful sunset. The lake was busy with boats. I'm sure somebody caught a walleye, just wasn't me. Embarrassed to say I fished 6 hours for 1 bass. Lol!

On a positive note...I drive the 100 mile trip To Truman Dam a few times every Spring for the great Walleye and Hybrid fishing and it is worth it. I use artificials though because that's how I like to fish. Too lazy for the whole live bait thing...lol! I have seen the guys with live shad clean up on Hybrids, but I've done alright with home made buck tail jigs too. Lots of people there but most of them are rigged for Crappie it seems, but they do catch Walleyes and Hybrids as well. Truman Dam is wall to wall fish...what an amazing place! It helps if you know how to fish a jig in the tricky currents without getting hung up every cast. Also, if you don't lose jigs, you probably aren't catching fish either. I've met some nice people there who have given me tips on some of Truman Dam's fishing secrets. Lots of people there, patience and cooperation is a requirement. My biggest gripe is people leaving their trash there. Hard to understand that. Get up there and try it this Spring if you have' before, you may be rewarded. Be careful walking on the riprap, you could get hurt if you're getting on in the years like me. Good luck!

Thanks for the report.

Oh forgot...north bank water temp 43 degrees, south 46. Water off color a bit for dam area of the lake.

hit Crabtree with my wife today and the weather was magnificent! Mainly wanted to try out our new Elite 4 Chirp. Really enjoyed our new toy. Fished some windy banks with jerkbaits without success, but missed one good hit. Only fished a couple hours before heading home. Saw a lot of boats putting in when we left for the evening walleye bite at the dam. Had a creel census guy ask me some questions about my day and I told him we killed 'em. Lol! He said you'd be the first today. Of course I was kidding. He did ask how I felt about the Spotted bass and would it be a good idea to lower the legal size limit to 12". I replied ok by me. Then he asked 1 to 10 how would I rate my experience on the lake today. No brainier, 10! One observation though, when you put in please don't load your tackle and gear from your vehicle to your boat on the ramp! Jeez! This guy looked like he should have known better.

hit Crabtree with my wife today and the weather was magnificent! Mainly wanted to try out our new Elite 4 Chirp. Really enjoyed our new toy. Fished some windy banks with jerkbaits without success, but missed one good hit. Only fished a couple hours before heading home. Saw a lot of boats putting in when we left for the evening walleye bite at the dam. Had a creel census guy ask me some questions about my day and I told him we killed 'em. Lol! He said you'd be the first today. Of course I was kidding. He did ask how I felt about the Spotted bass and would it be a good idea to lower the legal size limit to 12". I replied ok by me. Then he asked 1 to 10 how would I rate my experience on the lake today. No brainier, 10! One observation though, when you put in please don't load your tackle and gear from your vehicle to your boat on the ramp! Jeez! This guy looked like he should have known better.

Here are a couple more variations of the foam frog. Just got back from South Florida and they cast much easier than deer hair, and look great in the water. The black one actually dives when you pull it. My favorite though, is a frog tied similar to the Smuecker frog described in an earlier post. However, I tie mine with Congo Hair from The flytier's dungeon. Instead of lead eyes, I use the plastic eyes used in deer hair bugs. I fish this fly just under the surface creating a wake. This technique works great in Florida's shallow, weedy water. Nice frog ChiaPet.

Feb 21st

Bass pro has flicker shad on sale for $2.97 each with mail in rebate. FYI.

What a monster! Never knows what's going to end up on the end of your line! That's what keeps it interesting. Thanks for sharing that photo. Good looking fly too.

Hi Mic, I think that would work great around lots of rocks with smallmouth on Stockton. The areas I would target would be right up against steep banks.

Instead of fighting the wind I let it work for me by drifting with it and not fishing it so it blows the line toward me while casting. Granted, you can't always do that but many times you can. And if it's too windy throw the spinnerbait. The large flies I throw cut through the wind pretty good because of the materials used to tie them. I'll fly fish 10 to 15 mph wind, nothing more. I have fly fished the Florida flats for tarpon and the days without wind are few.

For large bass flies, especially in wind, I use an 8 weight with a weight forward floating line. The larger flies are on a 1/0 to 3/0 saltwater or stinger hook. I do scale it down to a 6 weight for smaller flies as well. I like to strip the flies back briskly on the same shallow points and flats that I would fish a spinnerbait. The size average of the bass is the same as I catch on spinnerbaits, Quality fish. I use on average a 9 foot flourocarbon leader with a 10-15 lb Tippett. The flies sink fast enough where I can fish them a little deeper, depending on speed of retrieve. It helps if you can comfortably cast 40 to 60 feet. Practice on the front lawn helps.

Actually, the streamers catch a lot of decent fish in Stockton's clear water.

nice flies Fishwrench! I'll bet they draw som explosive strikes.

For those of you that may be interested... here are a few flies that have worked in the past for Stockton Bass, especially in the Spring and Fall when they are near shallow water. Bass in Stockton can be caught on a wide range of flies and the ones that seem to work best imitate shad.

good question uncle fish. I twitch the fly with rod tip and hand through likely crappie holding areas such as brush or shallow water during the spawn. Pre-spawn fish in cooler water will be sluggish, so slow it down. The advantage of the float is that you can let the fly hang right in front of the fish without having to move it off them quickly like you would have to with a jig and no float. The take can be so subtle that you barely see the float move...this is where the sixth sense comes in. Once you catch a few this way you key in on how the float reacts when the crappie inhales the fly. When the water warms up and the fish get active they will pull the float under more often than not. Also, I regulate the depth by adjusting the float up or down the leader when needed. This has been my experience, for what it's worth.

The clouser Deep Minnow is a #1 producer for Crappie and White Bass on Stockton Lake. Chartreuse over white or gray over white are my personal favorite colors. When the water is cold early Spring use a foam float on your leader to hold the fly stationary over inactive fish. When the spawn is on these flies really shine. Also, mini-jigs in 1/80th or 1/64th are great. Wild turkey gray marabou with a little flash is really good on both White Bass and Crappie. Walleye will hit these flies too, as well as everything else at the right time and place. good luck!

didn't take the boat...just needed to get up there and have a look see. Glad I did. Saw 3 trailers at Masters parking lot and 1 at Crabtree.

First of the new year and all this talk has got me pumped! Yep, 60 horse 4 stroke is hard to beat for trolling.

That's a nice mess of fish anytime.

Awesome deer!