redshad

When I lived in Texas the lipless crank baits is about all we threw in the winter. The best months for it was January and February the coldest part of the year.

My stepson and I fished all day Saturday and about 5 hours on Sunday chasing the green fish. Saturday started really good for us. We got out around 8:30 we waited for it warm a bit and started catching them right away on the blades. By noon we had 24 in the boat and had a several nice keepers 16" to 18" range nothing real big. We were running the main lake bluff ends and points to catching them most of the places we tried. Around 1:00 the clouds got thick and the spinner bait stopped pretty much completely. We fished for 3 hours catching on 6 more fish. I caught a couple small ones on a crankbait and the rest came on shaky head. I had one nice one on the shaky head that was around 4lbs. All in all a pretty good day. Sunday we got out at 7:30 and fished till around 1:00. Couldn't get much to hit the blades on Sunday we caught 2 or 3 small one on them is all. Caught a few on shaky heads and couple on a jig. The best bite we had was throwing a super fluke on a scrounger head. I caught around 7-8 hat with the biggest 3.5. I think we caught 14 total on Sunday with only 3 keepers. The bite was much slower for us on Sunday. It was amazing the difference in the bite early Saturday with the sun out and how it slowed as soon as the clouds rolled in. Thanks everyone for the input last week it helped us have a good trip. I think most guys were hunting the lake wasn't very busy, that may have been the best part.

Another good fishing conversation gone awry. Love it!!! Those midget crab wigglers are the worst.

Plug, those are some good memories. Wappapello is my home lake, I grew up in Poplar Bluff. We would duck hunt in the morning and then go fishing those fish down there would be shallow even with ice around the edge of the lake. Of course in that lake they don't have much of a choice about being shallow. We had been hunting then fishing in December and a snow storm came in we were catching the crap out of them and stayed on the water to long. Boat ramp was covered with snow when we came in and had a hell of a time getting home. I still remember pushing cars over the hills so we could get through. Thanks everyone for the info. I all excited about getting out this weekend. Would love for my stepson to catch a big one on a buzzbait. He caught his personal best up there this spring 5.7 off a dock corner with a senko.

I have heard guys say they will hit top water until it snows on this lake. I will give the buzzbait a try.

Thanks again on the update. I was hoping we could catch a few on the blades. Should we head back in the pockets or stay out toward the main lake. Sounds like the water falling has the pockets a little off.

Thanks, Wrench! We are excited about this trip its our first time to be up there by ourselves. No in-laws, no wife and daughter, just the two of us and we can fish all day if we want. I would think by now the big boat have slowed down? We might be able to move around the lake some. We are new to Lake O and would like to try some new places if we can run without fear...

My stepson and I are headed up to my in-laws place for a weekend of bass fishing. Sounds like the bite is a little tough. We are not to familiar with the lake we fished it a couple time this spring and had some good luck. We usually launch at Shawnee Bend and fish around that area. Any advice on how to catch a few would be appreciated. Wrench, we are not bringing any fly rods.

Nick, I have about the same story as you for Saturday morning. We launched at Cedar Ridge around 7 and I headed for the wind blown banks looking for some active fish. We fished several windy banks in different areas, deep channel banks, back in the pockets, first deep bank in the pockets and didn't have much to much to show for it. I couldn't get anything love for the SB, caught a 3 on a square bill one keeper, one dink on a wart and my best luck on a 1/2 oz redeye shad. I caught 5 bass total with one keeper a 17" eye and 14" crappie. No real pattern to the fish just one scattered here and there. About 10:30 the wind was really getting up I headed to a blocked channel bank and we caught a few on a brush hog I think around 9-10 total with 2 more keepers. All the keeper fish were the 15-16 inch range nothing very big. The water temp is still a little to warm to have them on the banks and chasing that will come soon. I have only been able to get bites on plastics lately and they are scattered. When you catch one work the area good there are usually more there. You can fish for a while with out a bite and then catch 5-6 in 10 cast. Its about time for all you guys to go deer hunting and leave the fishing to me...

That #7 is a big blade....

Thanks for the detailed report.

When I was out last Saturday I noticed several spitting up shad. Most of the ones I caught had pretty good bellies on them. They looked much fatter than what I had been catching most of the summer. Shad about the size of a pop-r. I like that. It much easier to match the hatch when the get that size. When they are all a inch long it had to fool the bass and I don't think the small shad attract the larger fish.

Thanks for the reports guys. There seems to be lots of smaller fish in the 6-12 ft range, where are the big ones?

My wife and I ran up for a few hours Saturday morning. We launched at Cedar Ridge around 6:30 and fished until noon. We ended up catching 14 with 4 keepers. The bite was pretty good for the first few hours and slowed down around 9:30 to 10. There was no wind the lake was slick and after 10:00 a boat ride felt pretty good to get a little breeze. I started by throwing a whopper ploper with only had one short I was also throwing a crankbait (RC55)and had couple Stockton specials (13-14 inchers) on the crank. Momma caught a nice keeper on her menace so I pick up the 10" worm and joined her throwing plastics. On my 2nd or 3rd cast I caught a nice 3 pounder we proceeded to catch several more on the plastics mostly shorts with a keeper here and there. I seemed like about 10:00 the bite really slowed we fished a couple spots that usually produce some decent fish but we only managed a few dinks. The lack of wind wasn't helping. Most of our fish came fish channel swing banks plastics in 8-12 ft range. One thing that I did notice that most of the fish we caught were healthy and had some belly to them. The 3 pounder was a nice fat fish and several of the shorts had a nice belly on them. It nice to see some fatter bass most of the ones I have been catching this summer have been long and skinny. Maybe they are starting to put on the fall feed bags. A group of us will be camping at Cedar Ridge at the end of the month hopefully the bite will be on by then.

That is some great data, Straw Hat. I have fished Stockton pretty regular for bass over that last 15 years and I have to agree with the number of 4lbs plus fish being down for me over the last 5 years. My overall fish numbers have not declined much during that time. My keepers seem to be more in the 15 to 18 inch range and not many fish in the 20 plus range. What I have noticed is the average weight of a 15 inch fish has dropped by around 4 ounces the last 5 years. There are still numbers of keeper size fish in Stockton and the tourney guys still catch some big fish bit for me my big fish ratio has dropped. Maybe it's time to learn some new tricks. Old plug there are still lots of big bass in Lake O. Look at the tourney results. The weekend before the big bass bash this spring my buddy and I caught 4 bass over 6 lbs with the largest being 7.28. The next weekend at big bass bash weekend we didn't catch one over 3.4. That was my first big bass bash what a zoo.

I am excited for some fall trips to Lake O. Made it up with the family a couple times this spring and had some great fishing. This was my first year to fish on Lake O. We live in Willard and usually fish Stockton or TR but my stepson is fishing on the Willard HS Team and they fish Lake O so we had a couple practice trips up there and were amazed at all the nice size bass. I plan on taking him back up there for some practice this fall. It is a great lake for him to hone his skills because he can get some quality bites and get that experience of catching some sizeable bass. I have a couple questions on the fall fishing. How much does the big boat traffic slow after labor day? Does it slow down enough to fish on the weekends during September or does that not happen until late October when it really cools off. Can we still catch them flipping jigs around the docks in the fall? If so main lake or back in the pockets? Not looking for any secrets just some general info on what that fish typically do as the water cools. We haven't been up since early May but are looking forward to heading up for a day when the it get a little less crazy on the water. Thanks in advance for any help.

I am anxious to see what happens to the quality of Ranger boats. That's a lot of money to pay for a Nitro.

I here you Dutch! When I lived in Dallas it took us about 2 hours to get to the good lakes. I remember meeting my buddies at 2:30am in the summer to get out there by daylight. I was younger then and it didn't bother me much. The bars in Dallas closed around 2:00 am and it was always an interesting drive to get out of the city. Thank God we were never hit by one of the impaired drivers.

Always a good feeling to have the boat back. Good Luck!

It doesn't have to be exactly on the full moon. Usually fishing picks up for about a week on both sides (before and after) of the full moon. I am a big believer on the moons effect on fish activity. It happens every 2 weeks with full and new moons. When I lived in Texas you could really tell during the spawn. Every 2 week there would be a new wave of spawners go to the beds. I have kept fishing logs since the early 90's and most of my better days have been around a full or new moon. I am a believer! On a side note: GO CARDS!!!!

Thanks for the report, Jim.

Shoreline is Stockton. I recognize the location. I call BS on the trout being caught there.

Went Saturday morning with the wife and boy up to CC. We launched about 6:15 and headed down lake. I tried to get them to hit a moving bait early. I threw a spinner bait, chatter bait and squarebill and rattle trap with no response. I did catch 3 on a wopper plopper with one keeper. My wife was catching some on her menance so we slowed down with 7" power worm and the menance. We ended up catching 17 with 6 keepers. My stepson caught a nice 3.6 on the power worm. It was a typical Stockton bass had 4-5 pound head on it and a skinny little body. That fish should have been over 4 pounds easy but was really skinny. (See pic) We found most of our fish on the flatter banks. Sitting in 10ft of water and throwing to the bank. most of them were in 2 to 5 foot of water. We thought momma had her a big one but it turned out to be a 4.5 drum. It put up a good fight and made her squeal on a couple of good runs. Stepson woke up Sunday (10:00 am early riser) wanting to go back to the lake so he and I went up that afternoon. We launched at Aldridge at 12:30 we went and tied a couple shallow flats were there was some shad activity. We caught 7 or 8 on the flats in the shallow muddy water with 2 keepers. Those fish were shallow less than 3 ft a lot of times the trolling motor was kicking up mud. We move down the lake and started flipping wood in some deeper banks. He was throwing a 10" worm and I was flipping a jig. We were the deeper banks but targeting wood in 3 to 6 foot of water. We caught 16 flipping with 5 keepers. Nothing big all the keepers were 15 to 17 inchers. We were off the water a little before 7. I think we would have had better luck on the flats if there would have been a little sun. My experience is that it takes some sun to make the shad more visible and get the bass to really chase them. The water temps up the river was running around 78. It was a pretty good weekend on Stockton. We had a better keeper to short ratio than we have been having the past few trips. Looking forward to the fall.

You may be right, Dutch. Also the gizzard shad can take the colder water better and you don't have the huge shad die offs. The bass will feast on the dying shad and stay fat all winter. On the other hand there are thousands of 1 1/2 inch gizzard shad swing around right now as there is every late summer/ fall. Those are not to big for the smaller bass to eat. They are chasing and eating them you can see them blowing up on top. Some are whites but a lot of them are blacks. About a week ago I had a group of 3-4 pound blacks come up right beside my boat as I was dragging the big worm around a point. I was able to drop the worm and grab my spook fast enough to catch one before they went down. It would have went 3.2 to 3.3 and was a chunky healthy fish. I fish that point for about an hour never caught a keeper on the big worm and the nice school fish never came back up. I was guess I was lucky to catch that one.