sandbc

fished the crappie slayers tourney today. first off I would like to say thanks to Brad for putting together a nice low keyed tourney together. If you have never fished this you dont know what you are missing fishing with a bunch of nice people. although there was only ten boats we had a great time. and what do you know, we did not even have any rain this time. anyway I think everyone caught good numbers today even thought there were no monsters caught. All of out fish were caught over brush piles about 5 to 7 foot deep in 15 fow on minnows. jigs were not working for us. out of the 30 fish we cleaned only 1 was a male and all the rest were full of eggs. good luck everyone and thanks again Brad. Stacey

just in case the crappie still are not biting on stockton I thought I would let you guys know that the bite was pretty good on pomme today. I fished a crappie tourney there today and although we did not make the money we did come in with our two limits of crappie. we did not pick up any in the swallow water next to the banks but did have good luck fishing over brush piles. we caught all of ours 5 to 7 foot deep in 15 fow but some of the other guys fished deeper piles and caught theirs 12 to 17 foot deep. all most all fish were caught on minnows with nibblets. we could not hardly buy a bite on a jig until about 1pm ( 1 hour before weigh in ) when the clouds rolled in. no one in the tourney caught any monsters. the big crappie was only 1.15 lb. but everyone had good success with numbers. out of the 30 fish we cleaned there was only 1 male and all the rest were full of eggs. water temp started about 68 and was up to 71 when we quit. I normally fish stockton but I go to pomme and fish the crappie slayers tourney every month with my brother. nice layed back tourney if anyone is interested. good luck everybody. stacey

if you want whites in june then get out your lights and go night fishing. you will start catching the little ones by 9:30 and by midnight you will be having a blast pulling in the bigger ones on every cast with a jig over a brush pile and you will even pick up a few crappie in between. good luck

dont worry. people will start signing up during the final week after they see the weather report and balance thier checkbooks. as for me I would be there but I am committed to a crappie tourney on Pomme the same day, that is if I dont have to work. Its a good thing you are doing and the boats will show up. be ready for a lot of last minute entries the morning of. good luck and best wishes to your friend.

Well for starters.......NO LUCK. Seems like everything was against us. The night before we got there they had a mean cold front go through that was followed by 2 inches of cold rain. A rain the week before and that rain raised the lake level 18 feet. That pretty much tells the story. The three days we fished were beautiful days but had negative features such as bluebird skys, muddy water, and east wind. The first day I caught a nice 14 incher full of eggs followed by a 13 incher then a 11.5 incher and that was it for the day. Day 2...... same conditions with a little more wind and only caught 2 11.5 inchers. Day 3 .....same conditions and more wind yet. caught 1 13 incher. We quit at noon. There were very few boats on the lake any of the days and we only saw one other fish caught. The locals must know that they cant be caught when the lake speads out that much. When we arrived in the area friday afternoon, we drove out to the lake to preview the area and check out the boat ramps. There was not one vehicle at the two ramps we drove by. Bad indication. I am not totally bummed out on the trip. I talked to a few fishermen that has had great success on that lake and feel that there will be a world record crappie come from that lake. I was very impressed with the lake area which is a corp lake. Everything was very neatly kept up with lots of camping and public picnic areas and beaches. The boat ramps were nice but they did not have docks. I assume the reason for that was that the water levels change so dramaticly that they would constantly be sliding them in and out. Its a little hard on the boat bottom. I am going to plan on the same trip next year now that I now know more of what to look for ahead of time. In the mean time I am back ready to hunt some gobblers and get back to stockton and chase some crappies. Good luck all. Stacey

Im leaving this morning for my much anticapated crappie fishing trip to Arkabutla lake in Mississippi. Was going to go two weeks ago but the temps there have been much like here so I postponed the trip in hopes of warmer weather to kick off the spawn. Temps looked great down there first three days this week but now have dropped off as this cold front and rain just went through there this morning but a gradual warm up is forecasted. I will be there for five days so hopefully I can catch some of those three or four pound crappie they brag about. I will try to post while there. Being a flood control lake the water level changes there dramaticly with any rain fall needless to say the lake is way way up after two big rainfalls the last two weeks. Oh well at least we will have fun staying at the casino hotel in Tunica. Get the crappie fired up on Stockton while Im gone so I can come back to some good fishing here next weekend. Good luck this weekend guys. Stacey

sent you a pm

wakenlake..........you might be in luck. I have a regular fishing partner on most saturdays but sometimes he has to bow out for family time. but with my line of work I get rained out from time to time and if it turns out nice I will head to the lake. do you work and are you available on short notice. I always enjoy hunting and fishing with someone and my wife prefers it too. and that sharing the gas is a big plus. I have a nice boat that likes gas. let me know what you think. by the way they are calling for rain tonight so I have the batteries charging now.

In case anyone is interested there is a crappie tourney on pomme out of pittsburg state park this saturday at 7am. Crappie slayers tournament series has one a month starting this weekend. 40 dollars per boat plus 10 for big fish..

troutnut........we have not had nearly the rain or snow down this way that you have had in kc. I havent been out to the waters for 10 days but to my knowledge the waters are very fishable just a little early yet for the fish to be catchable. the lakes are coming up. stockton was about 7 feet low and has come up about 5. pomme is about 5 feet high. i will be fishing there sat. in a crappie tourney. tablerock is still low but coming up and they have been catching some nice bass mostly on the a rig there. weather is looking better everyday with some rain chances off and on but temps are to keep climbing. hope that helps. good luck

Nice. sounds like i wasnt holding my mouth just right or something. we also ran up the lake to 76 bridge saw nothing happening there so came back to beaver just about the time the wind picked up but stayed in the mouth area before giving it up. glad to here you did good.

buddy and I went to beaver creek saturday for the first time looking for the whites that was suppose to be running. chose to go here instead of our usual stockton trip mainly because of the weather forcast was to be warmer south and less wind which that part did not disapoint us. was a beautiful day and a nice area i might add. just lacking the fish. I caught two whites mid morning and that was it for me for the day. went out to the main channel and fished the bluffs in the afternoon and my buddy caught one keeper LM that he put back. lots of boats up the creek but no one was catching much like us. did see one boat catch several whites. just not tearing them up. I know they were using minnows just dont know if they were tipping jigs with them or just minnows by their selves. looks like i will be rained out of work most of this week so may try to go back if anyone is interested in sharing the gas from springfield... good luck guys. thanks for the reports lilly

look a the bright side. it can only get better. good luck

hey Jeff. been a long time. I got a brother in law in Peculiar. ever come to stockton? funny you found me on here. kinda like facebook I guess being I dont do facebook. stay in touch.

No the skelly was on the NW corner where a C-store is now. Wow. Al Dunning. Havent thought about that old bass fisherman in years. He was pretty hard core on fishing and low keyed on teaching. Assume he has probably passed by now. Maybe we can get together and fish sometime. I have got desent boat.

hey ranger.........yep i am a little older. i graduated there in 1974. do you remember the old skelly gas station at the junction in clinton? that was mine for 2 years until property was sold to kreislers. then i worked at clearfield/shreiber cheese for 9 years before moving to springfield in 88. i fish stockton most of the time now but my brother has a weekend place on pomme so go there too and fish with him. my boss lives in the country at strafford. Gillespie excavating.. maybe i will run into you sometime. stay in touch.

I too like ranger dave, grew up in Clinton and was still there when the lake filled. At that time it was the best crappie fishing in the world. as the lake grew the fish did too. I worked nights and crappie fished every day and then the limit was 30 with no length limits but that wasnt a problem cause you caught so many slabs. still a great crappie lake but nothing like it was in the late 70s and early 80s. the water around the clinton area gets muddy with a sprinkle of rain and most generally stays stained at best all the time. Still good fishing there though. I would suggest for your size of boat to head east of Clinton to the Leesville landing on the Tebo arm. You will find camping, boat ramps and smaller water area still with plenty of structure and clearer water. Best crappie trip of my life was from that area on a Memorial weekend all in a 100 yard area not far from the ramp. Good luck and be safe. Ranger Dave if you are reading this shoot me a line. sounds like we were in clinton about the same time. my name is Stacey Carter. In springfield now.

with the low water levels right now i would not recomend trying to go up the river unless you have a very swallow running jon boat. dutch is right. its very hard to stay in the channel if you dont know it and last time i was up there the water was close to pool level and i still ran in the mud at times. stay lakeside of the bridge. I dont think they have started the move yet with the very cold water temps this winter but if we can get a string of warm days instead of the ups and downs they will turn on quick. good luck and report in.

great. thanks guys. didnt know they sold them at the campgrounds..

is there any other way to buy a yearly pass besides going to the office at stockton?

i cant justify the price.

ducky.........you took the words right out of my wifes mouth. she tells me that all the time.

i most definitly like a fishing partner. someone to share the gas expense. but i sure wish that 9 year old grandson would get a job.

thanks trophy. thats what i wanted to hear. ive done a lot of online research on the lake and have found the same info on the muddy water and large crappie. I am from Clinton Mo. originally and was there when truman lake went in so fishing the upper grand river arm of the lake most of the time i am used to the muddy water conditions. the thing that bothers me most about arkabutla is the constantly changing water levels. I know it is a flood control lake and they have to play the weather forecast game but when you plan a trip on specific dates it gets a little scarey when you dont know the area. I plan on fishing 4 days the first weekend in april. just hope the weather cooperates and the wind doesnt blow me off the lake. My wife is going but we will stay at a tunica casino. if i catch fish the first day then she we join me on the lake but if not i am afraid she will just help the local economy if you know what i mean. if i dont have luck there then i thought about going to sardis lake as i have read about the success there too. thanks again for the info and if anyone else knows more please leave a reply. stacey

planning an early april crappie fishing trip to lake arkabutla in mississippi and was wondering if anyone had ever been there. i hear they have some very nice crappie there. let me know.