waterpossum

- They are prolific in Grand and its tributaries, especially in the Neosho/Spring river arms during flooding. Seems the biggest are caught during the dead of winter as deep as 60' among the shad in the deep waters of the main lake. Probably the downside is they are ferocious eaters and have directly affected the channel cat population in Grand. They are one of the best eating fish there are in the 2-3 pound range. The conservation dept. is not too fond of the name locals have given them. "Mississippi whites " The meat is every bit as white or whiter than crappie filets. I would be reluctant to promote introducing this fish to Stockton. I may be off track here, but from my experience catching them, there seems to be two strains.

The ends of the long main lake points would be where I try first. The lake has been undergoing a steady drop over the last couple of months. Of course the presence of the huge shad schools nearby should be taken into account. Caught a couple of small ones the last time out (about a week ago) fishing some brush for crappie off of points in 25-30' of water.

I get all my crappie stuff there. Fantastic selection of all crappie baits. If you ask for it he will probably do his best to get whatever you ask for. All my spinning reels are from there.

The lake is down about 864, which is about 3' below normal. If you have a pretty reliable depth finder and a little patience you can motor along in 16-20' of water with 2 or 3 buoy markers handy ) and find isolated brush (sometimes it won't be big) These are usually places that haven't been fished much. I've found over the years chances for better quality fish come from these places. so my suggestion

Get in line with the other 10 boats going down that bank until you get to chicken rock

We had 16 keepers Saturday afternoon and 8 keepers Sunday morning. 16'-20' in brush piles in the Ruark area. We kept 8 each day.

Now that I have built a nice cabin that I frequent for a couple of days each week there is one thing that is most evident, most of the corp piles marked or unmarked are hammered relentlessly. I am talking of what I witness in the Ruark area. I kind of have to side with Walcrabass on the 12" length limit. The lake has probably never had a better forage base than it has at present, but the pressure has increased 10 fold over the last 5-10 years. Massive numbers are being taken out on a daily basis. I just hope it can sustain the onslaught.

Only thing I know is they mentioned 2,800 entries at the awards ceremony. I don't know how many fished one day and how many fished two days. If it averaged out about $150 per person they would have taken in about $420,000. That doesn't include the $10.00 shirts sold. Per the payout schedule participants would have gotten $212,960 in prize money and an additional $6,000 for the 12 $500.00 drawings. There was also $500.00 money for exact weight 3.00 lb. and 4.00 lb. fish. There were a lot of merchandise handouts, but I think those were vendor and sponsor gifts.

To me it's a sport completely out of control. The regatta page for LofO shows 54 bass tournaments for the Lake of the Ozarks in Oct. First of all 99% of the tournaments are a waste of time if your looking to make money. Their are a select group of anglers that might be able to make a few dollars, but most in the long run will go broke trying. I'm all for people enjoying the competition of the sport and the businesses that rely on this economic boost, but there has to be some kind of sensible limits involved.

Mine was caught in a brush pile 12' deep in front of a dock about 2 miles from the Alhonna weigh in site. I would assume there's a good chance the majority of fish caught this late in the year have been weighed in before. Iv'e always wondered how far they migrate from the weigh in site and the period of time involved.

That is so funny. I wish I had taken a picture of my fish I weighed in at Alhonna in the 11-1 time slot on Saturday. It weighed 4.73 and took 27th place. I won less than you, but the striking similarities in fish is astonishing. I am trying to look at this convoluted Big Bass Bash results page that scans back to the top of the page every 15 seconds and it looks like you weighed at Red Oak. The red scarring on the belly is like the one I weighed. I mentioned to my partner the fish if healthy should have weighed over 6.

There's no hard definitive data available, only an educated guess, but most sites guesstimate about 20% depreciation on a new boat when you take it off the lot. In other words that $50,000 bass boat is worth about $40,000 when the salesman waves you goodbye.

My Rock Crawler is still under a rock by point 5. A three cast marvel.

yes

My first fishing experience on Stockton was in 1981 when I joined a bass club out of Joplin. I remember how all the area lakes would get locked up during the winter. I sat some brush North of the north Muttton creek ramp by walking out on the frozen 4" ice. This was not a unique situation. Grand and Table Rock also froze. I saw Grand frozen shoreline to shoreline and literally thousands of dead drum and shad hung in the ice. To the best of my recollection this occurred in the 80s. When to anyone's recollection has Stockton frozen completely. I would assume the year round lake temp has increased over the last three decades. Thoughts?

There's a lot of obvious factors involved in the decline in fisheries, such as fishing pressure, loss of shoreline structure and a general decline in lake fertility. Stockton does not have a lot going for it as far as large feeder arms that supply massive amounts of water. Think Grand i.e. Elk River, Neosho River, Spring River, any of which pour more water into the lake than the two Sac Arms. Table Rock, supplied by the White River run off from Beaver, Kings River, Long Creek, James River are major arteries. Don't get me wrong, I bought and built on Stockton because of it's untamed shoreline and remoteness. I think the lake has gotten better starting about the early 90s. The forage base is more than adequate.

The bass fishing on Stockton in the early to mid 80s on Stockton was horrible. in 1984 I bought a parcel of land (26 acres) just S of Ruark for a great price mainly because Stockton was so terrible. Grand and Table Rock were considered the prime fisheries and Stockton not so much. The shad population, especially this year is phenomenal. I was out last Friday night fishing the Stockton Friday Nighter tournament and have not seen that many shad in a long time. There was around a total of 1, 200 keeper bass weighed in on Friday night this summer. Of that total about 80 were 4 lbs or better. That figures out to nearly 7% I don't know is this considered above or below average as opposed to previous years? No doubt the bass fishing pressure is greater than ever. In June there were 26 bass tournaments. May had 36 Appreciate all the input to this topic. If you check out Missouri State Highway Patrol - Regattas you get an idea of the summer bass fishing pressure from tournaments.

The white bass have been surfacing pretty regularly right before dark just north of the island on the flats.

Any one hear how the guys did Friday night? What is water temp?

Familiar story, only my expierence was in the 60s with a friend that had to pay an outrageous speeding ticket on the spot in a backroom.

Red eared crappie or red eared sunfish take your choice.

At the ramp & no one is here???

where is everyone? They showed up about 5 minutes after this post. 15lbs, 12, lbs and 10 lbs I think were the approximate three top weights. Two fish in the 5.5 range for BB. 14 boats.

Glad to see they saved the dock. When I was there Sunday eve it was half submerged. Looks to be somewhat closer to the boat launch, but the high water may be giving that appearance.

It is usable but the courtesy dock is not accessible and is in bad shape. That would probably be one of the least desirable places to launch from unless as your name implies your seeking catfish.