mjk86

Richy....try Canton inn sometime you wont be dissapointed, on sunshine not quite to campbell if your headed west. I live in st louis now, but i spent a few years in spfd, its def my fav chinese, I hit that place up anytime im in the area.

The price of that bait makes me sick to my stomach, holy cow, I knew there were some expensive swim baits but geez! To think I grouch about 10$ crank baits. What reason would someone have to justify buying one of these things? For 500$ you would think it has built in sonar, and robotics that allow it to swim up to a fish and hook itself to the fishes face, then swim the fish back to the boat.

Hey all....Im looking to find some good smallmouth waters? Ive always thought they tasted good, especially the ones that are 3+ pounds. Sure do look good in the fryin pan!! Anyhow, i target them in deep river holes in the winter time. ANyone have any good spots they may be stacking up?? Thanks for all the info.

dtrs....and you would trust something from the lebanese science journal?? Whats the impact factor of that journal??? haha just kidding, its a great read. thanks for posting!

Here is my theory (thats all it is) phytoplanktons are photosynthetic. Most of the suns rays that reach earth are in the IR wavelength (about 75%). The rest is mostly visible and uv light. Because of this photosynthesizers utilize mostly IR and red visible light (why chlorophyll is green). Water absorbs IR light incredibly well, so it benefits planktons to be high in the water column when they can as very few IR rays make it to the depths (absorbed by the water). High energy uv light is detrimental to tiny planktons (sunburn/water sterilizers). So when skies are blue and pressure is high, they move deep to avoid uv rays, but when the pressure is dropping and skies are cloudy, less overall light hits the water (uv and IR) so they move up to harvest what light they can without being fried by large amounts of uv light. The food chain then follows. That is just my 2 cents. I bet there are several reasons why its tough fishing high pressure, predators are less efficient under bright light conditions, and cooler water temps, but I think the planktons are the most important. I could be wrong, thats just my theory. Also Bill....I saw 33.10 barometer pressure and thought...."how high is that?" The highest pressure ever recorded on earth! Then I read the thread and it says 31.33 which is incredibly high, not impossible.

Ya I really only fish the schooner creek/kimberling area because its so pretty.....the fishing is quite terrible

Thanks Champ. Thats good to know! Im surprised that nobody has ever said anything to me about it (maybe thats why I caught so many off those docks haha). That said, I last fished those docks in probably 2008, so maybe the regs have changed since then. IDK, either way, thanks again for the info! I wont be tempting fate anymore over there, plenty of other good fishing around there.

Regarding Schooner creek and whats up doc marina.....The marina is in a small cove west of schooner creek, which are understandably off limits. The deep docks in schooner creek itself (east of the marina) are fair game right? They look like private docks and I have never seen no fishing signs (and have fished them heavily but not in recent years). Was I fishing those illegally? Bill mentioned that the schooner creek docks were off limits, but I didnt think that they were part of the whats up doc marina complex. Hopefully I was not doing anything illegal, caught lots of fish off those docks.

1) Always latch your tackle box, and double check that before you pick it up next. 2) Spend all of your money on outrageously expensive fishing gear 3) Lie to your wife about how much it all really costs 4) Doors of any sort are a rod tips worst enemy, be very careful 5) Have fun regardless of how much you catch

Ever catch or target walleye in the winter time?

x2 on the war eagle spoon, great baits. Also, the cabelas real image spoons are even better in my opinion. Always have a few on hand just for that situation!

Nice report! Thanks! Glad you got a few! Any bigguns? In my opinion, its more fun catchin em on cranks, but ive always had much more luck jig fishing. Usually my main choice when bass fishin. Applied for the managed hunt at stockton st park, too bad we didnt get drawn, would love a chance to thin out the herd a bit!

Insert additional extreme right wing comment regarding how obama hates our freedom! I sure hate that guy!

made it out sat about 8hrs and sunday about 4hrs (state park marina). Trolling cranks and jigging crawlers. Also dunked minnows on brush piles with no luck. Ended up with 3 keeper walleye, and a handful of shorts (lost two borderline keepers at the boat). A keeper bass and lots of shorts, a crappie and a white bass, and lots of drum (no catfish...odd). Seemed like the walleye were best in about 15 fow on gravel flats and long shallow points. Most came on 7m flicker shads right off the bottom.

Pretty new to the world of walleye fishing myself. A bit of a learning curve compared to bass...Do a quick google search regarding crawler harnesses, and bottom bouncers. There are tons of articles on how to catch walleye. (although actually catching them is a bit more difficult!). Trolling for Table Rock Walleye | Table Rock Lake White River Walleye on Worm Harness | Ozark Anglers. These are two extremely informative articles. Although they target white river lakes, the information translates well for stockton. Also...looking at past reports on OA regarding walleye (stockton lake, TRL, and bull shoals) can be informative as far as where walleye go at a given time of year. Good luck!!

We will be pulling with braid line, never used the leadcore line before. With enough line out I think I can still get those cranks deep enough. Still itching to drag those walleye runners! I imagine we can still find some deep fish mid september. Also....35-40 fish even with all the shorts seems like a fun day on the water! Nice work!

How deep would you say your cranks are running when you troll? Do you try to keep them off the bottom? or do you want them to tick the gravel? Just curious...headed down in a few weeks with my bro.

Show off! Ive got that many big bucks too....but me being the ethical hunter I am choose to practice catch and release.

Looks like a fancy flicker shad, prolly a better crank...but i doubt it would out fish one 6 to 1 to justify the cost difference. Dont throw too many cranks unless im trollin with em, but those flicker shads are monsters!

Yeesh!! 26$ for a crankbait?? Ive never fished megabass baits (not a poor mans bait)...but are they really that much better than an X-rap for 1/4 the price? Im sure it works great...it sure looks awesome...but I would be so afraid to lose it that it would just look pretty in my tackle box! That being said....eventually ill buy one...dig it deep into a stump and jump in after it. ha!

If you have electronics, check out the mdc brush piles (many are marked on shore with a little green sign). Should be able to find some crappie there, and probably bass too. IDK how high the lake is now, but if its up pretty good, they may be deeper than you would expect. (id guess start at 15-20ft and work deeper). Check the previous post from Stockton guide service, mentions walleye/crappie/catfish probably pretty reliable. Walleye=jigs w/crawlers or spoons on flats and points experiment with depth. (if you catch one stay at that depth!) Also trollin deep cranks on flats/humps and drop offs. Bass I would guess would be pretty scattered, probably can catch a few in backs of creeks if there is lots of water, a few off the brush piles, and in the flooded bush. I would also guess you could catch a few deep bass with DS or split shot rigs around the thermocline depth, either off the bottom or suspended in trees an stuff. Good luck!!

Man those cabelas spoons look killer!! Guess Ill have to pick some up....just one more bait to buy...Ill be down there this weekend til monday lookin for walleye in the kimberling area. Any bait shops down there carry those spoons? All I have are nungessers which are too light, and a few C.C. spoons, which would probably do the trick, but I really like the looks of those cabelas spoons. Im bout an hour or more from the cablelas here in st. louis.

Coming from just south of St. Louis pulling the boat and back is about 150$ on the high end, plus fillin up the boat (10gal tank, 40hp mariner) is about 40$, even with trolling as much as I do, a full tank will last at least 3 days. Touching on the ethanol blends....yes ethanol will have a significant percentage of dissolved water...however, that concentration will not change much over time in a sealed gas tank due to the very high vapor pressure of octanes/other hydrocarbons. The atmosphere inside of the tank itself will have very little water vapor...as there is no room for it. Ive run ethanol blends in my motor as long as ive had it (2006) and no problems here. Separation could certainly happen, however its a pretty slow process...in other words RUN YOUR OUTBOARDS!! Have to agree with "fishinwrench" here, straight hydrocarbons (octane, heptane, xylene) are much harder on rubber than ethanol. Ethanol is a pretty poor solvent for rubber and plasics..similar to water, so an ethanol blend would be no worse (prbably better) than the high octane stuff. Engine additives such as Sea Foam, are mostly blends of ethers/ketones/and esters which are poweful solvents which will ABSOLUTELY destroy any rubber, plastic, or paint....that said, the concentration of these additives in your fuel are very low and would most likely have no effect for quite some time.

Thanks for all of your great info and help guys!! This forum truly is wonderful, and to all the people willing to share your hard earned knowledge...thanks!!! It seems like people prefer the humminbird to the lowrance, also I have seen several complaints regarding lowrance customer service. Hopefully I wont need to use customer service, but I havent seen any of those complaints with the humminbird products. I like the 597ci HD DI...seems like it has all 3 options, and the price is right! Like Champ said, ill most likely just play with the downscan until I understand what Im doing with it, ive only seen demo shots with it. Thanks for all of your help guys!

So my 1998 humminbird crapped out finally....gotta get a new finder...bummer Dont have much money to spend, prolly max out around 6-700$. Looks like my options are gps/2d sonar, or DI/2d Sonar. Im on TR and Stockton 90% of the time. I troll alot so the gps would be nice for speed I suppose. The question I have is...does the down imaging help much more than the reg 2d? What advantage does it have, if any? The side imaging models that I have seen are a bit pricey for me, even though they seem super cool. I have been looking at the Lowrance Elite 7x and the Humminbird 597 models. Just not sure if the down imaging is really worth it. Any advice or info from you pros would be great! Thanks!