waterpossum

I guess I should go to Kenworth and buy a 4' heater hose.

Thanks for the info. I'm heading Tuesday to Grand to pre fish the Nichols Marine two man buddie tournament March 2. I haven't offically entered yet. After reading some of the posts I may be seeing a chiropractor or massage therapist if I fling it too much.

I posted on here last saturday that a person that day could have launched at Hawker,(I drove all the way out to that ramp that day because when I went across the 215 bridge it looked open) but cautioned that it might freeze up. My bet is that the ice at that ramp is not nearly as thick or with the right winds might be the first to break up.

there is a smaller version of the A RIG that you could incorporate into your crappie, walleye and WHITE BASS fishing

would you recommend a wire hook? seems like it would be easier to straighten if you using 50 lb braid

I must be going through an old age crisis, but I would like to get back into bass fishing after kind of abandoning it the last 10 years. At one time years ago I was consumed into bass fishing and like a lot of people still have a garage full of bass tackle. Recently I have been exploring the possibility of fishing bass tournaments and have been told by several of the regular tournament fisherman that I better be throwing or at least have the A Rig as part of the arsenal. . I have become well aware of the bait over the last couple of years, but have yet to throw it. Crappie and walleye have been my passion instead. I have been gathering what I think I need to throw the A RIG, but could use some input regarding the rod and line I should use and any other helpful hints.

The Canada geese are the big problem in nearly every community. Many have become resident birds that are problems year round. The snows and blues are most generally despised by farmers, esp in the winter wheat fields where they tromp and noodle in the ground. At least they migrate back north and aren't a year round problem like the Canadas

As I reported Saturday, at that time a person could have launched at Hawker. I couldn't say for certain now about that launch. I would be surprised even with the warm weather in the forecast from what I saw on the Big Sac arm that a person could launch at CC, Ruark, Mutton, Old State Park, or Orleans Trail and find open water to fish for a week. Hope I'm wrong and it breaks up sooner.

When I was up at Hawker Saturday afternoon I made a loop through the park there. There was a small patch of open water a few hundred yards inside the mouth of Hawker the water was filled with snows and blues and a bunch were just standing on the ice. Best guess would be about 500 and I have no idea why that were'nt in the open water just a feww hundred yards away. Saw a few in a field on 39 highway north of Arcola.

My boats too lite. Go by and get Dalton and set him on the front deck. In winter he goes by the name" Ice Breaker"

If any of you decide to give it a try, I would take a snow shovel, salt or cat liter and clear the ramp. I believe if we could get any sun or no additonal snow the ramp would clear off. I don't think the ice in the cove just west of the ramp will break off and obstruct the launch but even if it did you wouldn't have to break ice very far to open water.

I took a tour of the west arm of Stockton (Big Sac) today with a friend. The lake is locked tight from CC to Hawker Point. That ramp HAWKER was open and there is open water to the 215 bridge (mile bridge)The open water was strictly on the main lake as of 4:30 this afternoon. Strangely there was alot of frozen water North of 215 to the dam. There was a south wind and some more water may open up in that area. The road into Hawker was cleared of snow by the county road district right up to the Hawker park entrance, but was snow packed to the ramp. There were tire tracks at the ramp all the way to the water and I guess someone was either testing the ramp with their truck or had put in earlier today. Take in mind the Hawker cove and looking across at Old State Park cove were locked tight. I did drive over to Stockton State Park cove and the cove was iced, but there was a pool of water open between the breaker wall and the sailboat docking area on the N side of the cove. I would like to have walked on the dock to just wet a line, but it is restricted.

To continue with the Grand Lake trip today. We were fishing docks located at the mouth of Horse Creek. I realize for most it's hard to justify spending $15 on a one day permit to fish. Living here in Joplin I spend half the time on Stockton and half on Grand so I buy a one year NR permit for Grand. Grand has exploded with bait fish the last couple of years, however unlike Stockton it has threadfin shad. I saw a lot of those fluttering in the wells we fished and under the thin ice on the outer deep end of the dock. I mention this because this is the time of year, weather permitting the Blue Cats (known down here as Mississippi Whites)really like to gang up in deep water generally 65' deep and gourge on these shad. The dock owner had a 44 lber (released) about a month ago. Most of these locals release most all fish over 8 lbs. The 2-4 lb fish are just perfect. The meat is real white and very good eating.

Plan A sending the Boyfriend on to the ice fell through.(somehow that doesn't sound right) Instead I went to Grand to fish off some docks (outside no heat) My fishing buddy fell and busted his butt walking down the ramp but was ok to continue. We finally got on the dock with a sledge hammer and shovel to break ice. In the process of jabbing through 2" ice he lost the grip on the shovel and it's now 35' deep. That left me to pound with the sledge hammer. After about an hour we had enough water in two wells to fish. We caught 8 fish two of which were keepers all about 30' deep on Bobby Garland double rainbow rubber jigs. We put our two keepers in a 5 gallon bucket. From time to time we went to the truck and warmed up. On our last trip back down the walk we noticed a Blue Herron with his head in the bucket. Before we could get on the dock, he flew off with one of our crappie in his beak. This herron is a resident of that dock. The locals call him George. We decided at that point to leave and let our one crappie swim.

On Feb 3rd Hooked on crappie reported 3" ice at Ruark. Any best guess estimates on the current thickness? I feel a moral obligation to ask before I send my daughters NEW Boyfriend out there to test it for us.

You would have to go to Oklahoma. Grand Lake-the heated docks are on the Elk River arm North of Grove. Blue Bluff, Ice Box, or Ponderosa. They are public docks.

A few years ago when I was into the bass tournament fishing scene I went to Kentucky Lake and some of the local guides and professional anglers were using a method called "ripping a jig" They would fish a lot like you are describing, but after letting the jig fall mainly in 15-20' of water would rip the jig kind of like spoon fishing maybe 8-10 off the bottom and let it free fall. Of course the only hint of a bite was if the line just went slack on the fall. Have you tried this?

Any random thoughts or observations about this years spawn. I have not been to Stockton recently, opting for Grand and Truman where I am seeing massive schools of shad. MDC usually has a report closer to years end. I remember reading one of the Stockton guides reports that was not too optimistic. My last time to Stockton was in May and I was not seeing the usual amount of fry working the banks. Maybe some of you frequenting Stockton recently can shed your thoughts.

The first thing I check when going fishing under the lights is wind direction. You can save yourself a lot of heartache by positioning the boat on the backside of a cove or bay protected from a head on wind. Ideally I prefer 35'-45' of water close to the channel. Its hard not to graph bait fish in the channel, especially this time of year. Always use two heavy anchors. I don't drop the lights off the side of the boat. Instead I use about a 9' pole that I can tie the light to and extend it away from the boat. If you use live bait it is much easier to see the tip of your pole and eliminates lights inside the boat that only serve as bug attractors. I never go looking for brush, this is strictly open water fishing with the goal to attract bait fish.

Try Brad McCaslin. He lives just west of Briarbrook in Carl Junction. His phone 649-7900

Heard on 6 pm news a fisherman was missing at Greenfield launch.

Got on water about 9 a.m targeting crappie. Caught 1 nice keeper in 4' of water at first stop in Goocher and that was the last shallow fish I caught. Caught about a dozen short crappie, all at 25'. 2 keeper walleye,1 channel cat, 6 white bass and numerous black bass, all on blue and white slab slayer jigs. Nowhere did I graph fish of any numbers in less than 15'. They have pulled the lake a couple of feet this week. I did find a favorite spawning bank that had crappie nests, but unfortunately they were empty and just had a foot of water left on them. Seems that just when I think it's ready they get pulled back to the points and drop offs because of the water release. The biologist mentioned in an earlier article that one of the factors leading to a successful spawn was stable water levels. If that's the case the spawn may be shot. In past years by this time I'm fishing for post spawn crappie under the lights. Noticed one fisherman on here catching 6 slabs trolling crank baits in 20' which is usually a post spawn method. Talked to several people today and the best I heard was a boat that had 6 keeper crappie.

In the upper left corner of this page is Ozark angler.com. It will lead you to some recent articles about Table Rock. Usually Babler has some kind of report. If you go back to some of his articles in the late fall- early winter he discusses catching walleye on TR with some of his clients. That might help.

Carolina rig just a note to let you know Mark E. who works at Leggett and I are committed to fish in this tournament. Understand it's out of Mutton Creek.

Glad you had a good visit to Stockton Lake. It truly is a jewel of a lake. From most of the posts I've read here over the years, there is a vast majority of people that like the lake for it's great fishing AND the beauty and unclutered landscape. Commercial development lakeside is nearly non existent. I see your from MT Home. My 90 year old mother lives in Harrison and my first trip to a lake was Norfork back in the 50's. I travel to Harrison about once a month from here in Joplin and it takes only about 2 hours 30 minutes so you should be able to make it to Stockton in 3:30. The crappie fishing in the river arms earlier was phenomenal the main lake should come on great in the next two weeks(a little later than usual) Fishing under lights in mid to late may can be a blast. My last trip a week ago to the main lake wasn't that great, but the trip is what you make of it and motoring back in one of the feeder creeks I saw an Eagle feeding it's two young on the edge of it's nest. As far as finding brush for crappie there are signs on the bank(green) denoting brushpiles usually 15-25' deep.