Big Keene

Hey guys, i need some help. I had to cut my summer vacation to TLR short by 2 days this year, and that was sad(even though fishing was slow). The good news is that i get 2 days to fish Stockton this fall. My question to the guys who fish this lake year round, is, what one week in the fall would,you consider "can't miss"? Thinkin' walleye and crappie. Thanks in advance!!

Thanks for the heads up on the Thin Fin, ill give those a try. S.R. Jim, i love the #4's, but i i am trying to get the larger body profile in the shallow running bait.

i am in the process of having a machinist friend of mine alter an original Flicker shad by trimming the bill to make a shallow version. i love that bait, but i sure wish that they had a 3-4 ft version of size 6 or 7. also, this new bait looks interesting for sure.

my grandfather bought up everyone he could find the year before he passed, and we have been fishing from that bunch for over 6 years now, starting to run low.

we've been trolling a similar rig for years on The Rock. three way swivel with a bomber on the short line and a nungesser spoon on the long line. its a killer rig, its has caught fish on every lake that i have trolled it on.

I was fishing today on 35 with my kids, and they each caught a what i am assuming is a hybrid white bass. I know some lakes have them in there, just wasn't sure that 35 was one of them. Been fishing that lake regularly for the last few years, and have caught lots of fish from bluegill to crappie to bass and the occasional catfish. We have been catching a bunch of small LM bass this year chasing minnows, and not any hybrids. the 2 today that my kids caught on night crawlers are the first i have ever seen.

I understand the argument that a limit of 15"ers might taste better than a few big pigs, but don't the 5,6,7lbers have to come from somewhere? Seems like a dangerous management practice to take only the young. Eventually the bigguns will die naturally, and all of the younger year class fish will have been harvested. Personally i rarely get to pick and choose, if we go out looking to stock a fish fry, we keep any legal fish we can get in the boat[(except white bass, carp, catfish)i dont care for my fish to taste very much like fish :-)], and we nearly always end up with a mixed bag.

were gonna be down next weekend, how would you approach daytime walleye fishing? i was thinking jerkbaits early and late, and maybe jigs and crawlers a little deeper during the day? any tips greatly appriciated. we will be fishing out of mutton creek in a boat with limited range.

how deep were the crappie at aldrich?

ill be down next weekend, can someone set aside a couple of limits of walleye for me please? and some crappie as well...those sound good.

when do the walleye normally move up shallow? when is the spawn(as far as water temp is concerned)? to you guys that fish this water on a regular basis, if you were fishing walleye out of mutton creek area 2 weeks from now, how would you approach it? when do you fish jerkbaits and shallow stickbaits for Eyes? is mutton to far south for good walleye fishing, so i need to be closer to the dam? sorry for all the questions, thanks for any answers

i am planning on heading down to Stockton the weekend of March 21st. if the weather stays average for the next 2 weeks, what kind of pattern does anyone think the crappie will be on? planning on fishing out of Mutton Creek, does anyone think the walleye will be biting on jerkbaits that time of year? thanks for the advice

what were they biting on?

what are the best spoons to use? and for the most part how long does the bite tend to last? would a late January trip be productive?

nice fish! thanks for the report. we will be down this weekend after walleye 1st, crappie 2nd, and then anything else. Are the walleye out on the points, or back in the coves, or scattered?

Hi all, we will be down this weekend hunting for 'Eyes. Has anyone been having any consistent success catching them during this late summer heat wave? looks like the weather will break a little by then, but do you think that a cold front will have as much of an impact now as it does in the spring? planning on jigs and crawlers, bottom bouncers and trolling cranks in the 10-20 fow zone. we will be fishing out of the state park marina. P.S. where do the crappie go this time of year? thanks all Keene

it seems that this year has been anything but normal, but on a normal year what would the pattern be for walleye in early september? what about crappie? i am going to try to get down for a weekend in the beginning of september, and would like to try to get a mess of 'eyes or crappie for the fryer. thanks in advance for any advice. ps. i am thinking we will be fishing out of the State Park area. thanks all

Thanks for all of the advice. Sorry ill have to plead ignorance on the football topic. Dont dislike, just dont follow either. My plan is a crawdad boil with the big boys, and bait or just throwing back the little ones. On a side note, any one know or care to share where and how to catch a limit of crappie around Kimberling City/ HWY 13 in early July? Its funny, i have been consistently catching bass out of TLR for over 20 years in the summer, but i dont think ive ever caught a crappie out of there. Now my kids want to have a fish fry and (sorry to offend) i just think crappie taste better than bass. Walleye would be good to, but while i have caught a couple keepers over the years, i dont walleye fish enough to know how to properly target them. Been to Stockton for walleye "practice" a few times, but still learning the tricks for 'eyes. Again, thanks to everybody for being on here and being so willing to share, this site and you people are awesome!

Hi all, I plan on taking my younguns down for a couple of days of bass fishing in about a month. i feel confident that we can find some fish, but my son mentioned crawdads, and that reminded me of a guy i met on the dock at kimberling inn years ago checking his crawdad traps. he had some monsters. i would like to run a couple of crawdad traps while we are down there, does anyone have any experience catching these mini-lobsters? what depths do the biguns tend to congregate?

9LB, were you on the flats or points? also, you mentioned Crappie, are they up shallow yet?

Nice job passing it on. we were fishing out of Mutton Creek last weekend, and it was pretty slow. No walleye, 6 total-4 slab12+" crappie, 1 white bass, and about 15 LM, 2 keepers. all crappie were 15', and the bass were scattered. crappie hit jigs and minnows and trolled cranks, bass hit cranks, jigs, jerkbaits and jigs tipped with crawlers.

ill be heading down tomorrow night and will be fishing friday and saturday for walley and crappie out of Mutton Creek. Is any body catching any crappie and walleye out of that area? also, how bad is this cold front going to damage the bite? thanks

Thanks J.M.

I know that the limit for walleye is 15" 4 daily and 8 possesion, but what are they for the crappie? Ill be fishing out of mutton creek next weekend and if the early weather reports hold true, it has potential. Any tips, ideas, or secret honey holes are appriciated.

it looks like we will be down the 13 and 14th of april. do you think that they will still be shallow? Again, i cannot thank you guys enough for your help.