redshad

Some of the guys I have talked to say that a defined thermocline has never developed this year on Stockton due to the high waters earlier this year. That is keeping the fish more scatter out and not setting up in large schools in normal summertime places. I still wonder why the bass on Stockton are so skinny.

I guy feels a little inferior when he has only one 250 on the back of his boat...

Can't wait for late fall and winter when those monstrosities are in dry dock.

Glad to know that a guy can catch few good ones off the docks still. Thanks for the report.

Lews has some decent spinning reels in the $40-$80 range. I have a Stradic and it is very nice but won't spend the money on one again. top_dallar said you usually are not doing much with a spinning reel. As long as it has a good drag it work good. I bought a couple of Lews spinning reels that seem to work well and they were a lot less money. Lews Mach II Speed Spin $79.99 and a Lews Laser G $39.99. I have been happy with both. I will say that I prefer to have a big stick in my hand and not a spinning rod, but sometimes you got to do what it takes to catch them.

I live in Willard and fish Stockton for bass on a regular basis. My experience over the past few years ditto's what the report states. I have caught numbers of in the 13-14 inch range. that has been going on for the last 3 or 4 years. I like them keep thinking that next year I will catch more 15-16 inchers. That has not been the case. Each year there seem to be an abundance of just under the 15 inch mark with few over the 15 inch mark. Logic would tell us that as that yearly class matures there should be close to the same numbers getting a little larger each year. That does not seem to be the case for me. I don't know that if around the 15 inch mark the fish start relating to the deeper water more and are more difficult for me to catch or if they don't seem to be getting any larger than the 13-14 inch range. Last fall early winter when the spinner bait bite was going well I would catch 35 to 40 in a day and about half would be keepers. A lot of 15-17 inchers. I guess the fish are there just a little more difficult to catch than the shorts. One thing I have noticed at Stockton is that most of the bass are long and skinny. A 15" inch bass will not weight a pound and a half. The are 1 lbs 5 ounces to 1 lbs 6 ounces. On Table Rock the same fish will weigh 1lbs 9 ounces to 1 lbs 12 ounces, on Lake of the Ozarks that same 15 inch fish will be pushing 2 pounds. Stockton has a abundant shad population and tons of crawfish so I don't understand why the bass are so much skinnier there. The white bass seem to be nice and fat. Any other thought?????

Got ya Wrench. I am a little slow sometimes. Ditto, on bending the hooks more open. Helps with hook-up percentage.

Hey, Wrench. are you turning the body 180 degrees on the hook so the eyes are down?

Thanks for the report Dutch. Glad you caught a few.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family Hammer. I understand some of what you are going trough. My farther is dying from cancer and I have been help taking care of him lately. Its sad watching someone you love wither away like that. I think of all the good times that we had together and all the hours we spent in the boat together. On a brighter note I did get out on the water for a few hours Sunday afternoon. My first time out since mid April. I usually fish almost every weekend but I have other priorities right now. I caught several bass mostly shorts with only 2 keepers. I caught most of them on a 7" power worm. I had bites from right on the bank 2ft out to 15ft. Both of my keepers came right off the bank in 2-3ft of water. I really didn't get much of a pattern going. It was great to get out. Prayers Hammer!

We have clearance, Clarence. Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?

I picked a bad week to stop doing amphetamines...

Nice one Warrior! Look at her tail... Hmmmmm

Amen!! I am all for it, Ed, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Thanks for the report Skeeter. That second fish looks like a smallie but its mouth is big. Might be a meanmouth. Not a big fan of the north wind myself.

Thanks for the report.

With a total length tourney and the anglers honor. I am sure we would all be surprised to see how long the Lake O bass get to be. I love the thought of recording the fish and releasing it back where it was caught. Hopefully with MLF and BASS being the trend setters it will eventually funnel down to manageable system for the amateur tournament directors to use. It is a much better way to treat our fish than dragging them around in a box of water all day.

Truman is over 20 feet high. They should be releasing water for a few weeks how is that going to effect the bite? Will the bass adjust to the muddier water? Will they go more shallow? Any thoughts?

Thank you wrench for the advice. My son and I went out Saturday morning about 6:30. We launched at Shawnee Bend and fished the pockets near there. We had a great day my son caught his first fish over 5. A 5.79 on a texas ridded senko. I had one that weighed 6.47 and another 5.13 on a jig. Broke off another big one on a dock cable. We had 18 keepers a lot in the 2-3 pound range. We even caught some on topwater in the afternoon no bigs maybe 3 pounds was the largest we caught on topwater. Most of our fish came on a texas rigged senko or a jig. Great day on Lake O. What great fishery, I wish I got a chance to fish it more often.

I am heading down with the family this weekend and was hoping to get out with my son for a little bass fishing. We haven't fish Lake O this year and was wanting some hints on where we could find a few bass. We usually launch at the Shawnee Bend Access. Any help would be appreciated.

That pic was from last year. As you can tell the water was up close to normal pool. We were using the same bait on Sunday.

Here is the bait we were using. It will catch anything.

Bill, what everyone is referring to when they say CC is the Greenfield access. It is on HWY CC where it crosses the southern end of the big sac arm.

I took the wife and her dad out Sunday morning for a little crappie fishing. It was the first time crappie fishing this year. We fish up around the High Point area from 6:30am to 10:30am and ended up with 24 keeper crappie, only had 3 shorts all day. We were using swimming minnows casting to the bank a slow retrieve back. Most of the ones we caught were right off the bank in 2-4 feet of water. The wind was getting bad by 10:30 so we decided to head home. When we cleaned them there were 22 males and only 2 females. Water temp was running 58 to 59.

LOL, Ketchup. I agree the Yamahas are very little trouble. That's why I have ran one for over 20 years. I live in the Dallas area for 15 years some great fishing down there. I had to make some adjustments fishing these deep clear lakes. I miss the days of having 50 lb braid and just go out flipping. if you caught 3 six pounders it was just an average day.