Big Keene

tried some bass fishing this past weekend, fished 36 Saturday morning and 35 Sunday evening. slow both days. got bit a little on a topwater frog on saturday, and caught a nice one(~17") on a jig and pig sunday, on 35 we were only catching anything on wacky worms, except one lone 12" that hit a Zara Spook. nothing big on 35, and the grass and weeds are getting thick. 35 seemed really high and stained Good Luck!

To be honest, i havent used live minnows in 2 yrs, keitechs dont die. i superglue them onto a no collar jig head, and catch a lot of fish on the same bait. i have found that they have the best action at slowest speeds, i think that makes all the difference, especially when the bite is slow. although we have been getting bit moving at pretty good speeds this year. so far we have caught crappie in good numbers out of 6, 34, 35, and 36, all with the same technique.

im blessed for sure! they are great kids, and they like fishin with their dad!...and now they're old enough(10&13) that they dont need as much help, and i can fish!! they have both been using my spinning reels for 5-6 yrs now, and they have it down pretty good.

took the kids crappie fishing at 35 this morning. bluebird skies and still wind. we kept with the troll/drift technique and it worked ok. fished 7-11or so and we caught 30. 11 keepers with one being 11". just a handful of bass. the weeds and grass are really starting to get thick. 2 and 2.5" keitechs were getting bit, color didnt seem to matter much. Good luck!

hmmm...i have some 6" keitechs that just might need to see some water up there. again..congrats, thats an awesome fish!!

what type of bait were you throwing? im taking the kids up on friday to go crappie hunting. i need to try for a muskie one of these times.

awesome fish!

we decided to give lake 6 a go this morning. high skies and a breeze that wouldnt make up its mind. mixed bag of short crappie and blugill with a few LMB as well. GF caught 2 nice bass, and i caught a 13" slab and another 9" keeper. seemed like they were up shallow today. did better casting jigs to the bank and slowly bringing them out. only caught a handful drifting/trolling today. keitech swing impacts/32nd oz jig.

Awesome fish!!!! this time of year, any 2" jig or curly tail grub should work. we've been using Keitech Swing Impacts, but they shouldnt be too picky now. play with colors till you find what they're looking for, also, tipping the jig with a crappie nibble doesnt hurt. just slow troll or wind drift, and hang on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we headed back up to 35 at first light to try for crappie again. wind was light, but out of the NW instead of S like yesterday. we only caught 4 keepers, but we did get a lot of shorts and bass. we totaled 52, but it seemed like we had to cover more area to do it than yesterday. same thing as far as baits and tactics, 1/32oz jigs and light colored 2.5" keitech swing impact tipped with a crappie nibble. kept the motor on 1 or 2 and just trolled from the boats to the dam, down the dam, up the far side and then back.

it rained on us the entire drive back home, but no hail. just rain and lightning.

your hardcore, but not stupid. thats a good way to catch a case of death!

decided to sneak in some crappie fishing between the storms today, and man was that ever the right decision! fished 35 from 12:30 til about 5:15. the GF and i kept count, and im not BS'n, we caught 70. 1 sunfish. 13 LMB. 56 crappie. we brought home 14 that were 9" or bigger, so i have proof of that! GF took me to school with a 13" slab that is big crappie of the year for us....so far? everything came off of 2.5" keitech swing impacts on 1/32oz jigs. any color seeked to work. we ranged from white with silver flake, to green pumpkin with black flake. just had to be moving. anywhere from maybe 10-30 yrds off the bank. drifting with the wind was best, but it didnt matter much. hopefully this cold front doesnt stop em, cause they are ON! get out there, and good luck!!

on sunday, i took the kids up to 35 for a fun morning of fishing. the breeze was blowing a good bit, but that didnt stop us. in about 3-4 hrs time we totaled about 25-30 bass and crappie. mostly small, but had we wanted to keep crappie, we would have had enough 9"+ to justify cleaning. also had a black crappie that went almost 12". everything came off of 2.5" keitech swing impacts in various light colors on 1/32 oz jigs sooo...decided to play hooky with the GF on monday, and ran back up. more wind, more fish. we fished from about 9-1:30 and came home with 16 keepers(9"+ personal limit) crappie with 4 close to or over 11", at least that many shorts that we put back, and more LMB than we cared to count. again on keitechs, drifting with the wind at incredible speeds, going against the wind at 4 or 5 on a 50lb thrust trolling motor. we got bit both ways. just had to be moving.

i was throwing 1/2 and 3/4 oz Nutechs at Table Rock last week. worked good, only lost one! my brother was using them as well, and he did better than i did. i had no issues feeling the bottom with either in all depths, but i was fishing it on a 7' fast/extra fast rod.

# 7 and 9 filcker shad in blue tiger or purple tiger...really any color flicker shad. i have also had pretty good luck trolling and casting rapala tail dancers.

Awesome catch from the little man! love the pull of a smallie, and the taste of a crappie! i thought i was the only one who knew about purple tiger flicker shads on stockton, for me blue tiger seems to be a close second

Man, if that report is accurate, that is just heartbreaking. 4 yrs old....

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.