MarkKay

I was crappie fishing on the 10th and found the fish to be scattered and the bites very light. With the wind making it difficult to detect the bites. A few people appeared to be doing very well but you needed to find the right spot and time to catch a limit. The size was good with half the fish I caught running 10-12 inches. The fish are prespawn and this is spring weather, unless you are there every day and learn the patterns the fishing will be tough with some people hitting the jackpot at the right the time and location.

I was at Cedar Ridge April 10-12 and did not have to go more than a couple miles from there to find fish. This is only the second time I have fished Stockton but each time I have really liked the lake. Thanks to all the members leaving fishing tips, they really helped me with what to try. I wanted to try for some walleye, since I have not caught any south of Wisconsin, and I was somewhat successful with two keepers making a really good dinner. They fell to swimming a white curly tail jig with a night crawler on gravel secondary points, about 10 feet when they hit. Drifting jigs with crawlers, cranks, and jig with minnows were not successful. This must be a good Walleye lake if even I could stumble into them. The other areas I caught small walleye was back in the creek arms, again on the jig and crawler. I did drop in the underwater camera to see if I found the right spots and saw plenty of walleye down there. I also wanted some crappie meals but was not overly successful there. The winds were generally high, gusty, and out of the East or North East, water temps between 60 and 64. Tying to trees yielded a few fish but I never caught more then one on a tree. I tried moving around flipping jigs to every tree I passed and picked up a few more, but again no more than one on a tree. Possibly caused by the boat blowing into the tree while I was trying to land the first fish. I tried fishing shallow shore lines with a jig under a bobber but caught no crappie that way but this was good for bass. I did pick up a couple throwing large cranks intended for Bass. Between the pattern and the condition of the eggs in the fish I cleaned I think the crappie in this part of the lake have a few more weeks to go before spawning. The really good news was the bass fishing. Which may be why I did not spend enough time on the walleye and crappie to learn a good pattern. The bass were generally in shallow water which I like cause there is an obvious target to throw at rather then trying to find targets on the sonar and throwing that direction. The bass were hitting dark colored unweighted plastics, jig/crawlers, and curly tail jigs the best. I caught a few on crawdad pattern cranks. I caught nothing on jerk baits or top water. I never got around to throwing a spinner bait. I tried an Alabama rig with no success. The most fun was getting back in the dirtier creek arms and tossing a jig suspended 18" under a bobber, I was trying to crappie fish. The males were in there near shore starting nests. The hits were very light, sometimes the bobber would dip a little under the surface or just stop moving with the wind. Then it was time to take up the slack and apply just enough pressure to set the hook. Playing a nice bass on a long crappie rod is a lot of fun. The first few times I thought they were crappie and set the hook to hard, the bass got mad and broke off. When you are catching the males in shallow, turn around and throw a swimming jig out the other side of the boat for the bigger females that are waiting in deeper water for the males to finish the nests. Another spot I liked was a fallen tree in 20 feet of water just off the main lake, it was in the middle of the day with lots of sun shining so I could make out the bottom. I saw bass and carp swimming about at mid depth. It was fun to toss in a jig/crawler and watch it sink slowly to the bottom with a bass following it down. They would pick it up with out me feeling it or seeing the line move. If they liked it they would hang on to it and start to swim off, that is when I could see the line move and set the hook. Some would follow it down but not pick it up, some would pick it up and drop it with out me feeling it, and some would just ignore it as it fell past. Makes me wonder how many fish inspect my lure and pass it up for some little detail at times when I can't see what they are doing. This also gave me a chance to test the sent spray and the bass did hang on to the jig after I sprayed it. The bass were hitting the best for the hour before sunset but I caught them all through the day in bright sunlight or total over cast. Most were in the 12 to 15 inch range with about 10 over and one that was close to 5 pounds. And thanks to the catch and release folks, many of these fish had more than one hole in there mouth so many people can enjoy catching them. I liked this section of the lake since it had a wide range of conditions from 2 feet visibility in some creek arms to 20 foot visibility in the main lake. There are bluffs, shallow flats, timber, lots of points, and deep water. You could enjoy a lot of time exploring, or possibly feel lost with all the choices. Kind of long but I was there 3 days and had a lot of fun.