conorsixtakc

Never heard of blue cat cove... sounds promising. My formula for success which I've no reason to change is as follows: 1. Fill cooler with ice and beer 2. Catch bream 3. Hook and cast out bream 4. Drink beer 5. Catch catfish 6. Repeat steps 4-5 7. Avoid operating heavy machinery after step 4

I haven't been down nearly enough so far this Summer, so I'll speak from my experience over Memorial Day weekend. I caught a 25# blue on rod and reel from the dock on a big mid-section of a cut bluegill. I believe it was a female getting ready to spawn. Also lost what felt like an even bigger one that went for a smaller live green sunfish from the same spot where I caught a 22# flat last Summer. Lower quantities of fish, but bigger bites. All on rod and reel, standard carolina rigged on the bottom, just casting out from the dock trying to get into the creek channel drop. Probably 20-25 FOW. Probably also worth mentioning that I'm at 7mm. May or may not change things as they apply to your neck of the woods. Let us know how you do, good luck!

Yeah I'd say it's produced best for me on multiple lakes over the past year or so. I'd have to say that the best pattern I was able to put together this past Spring during the spawn was 1/16oz chart head, blue body, bone tail.

Amen.

ELECTRIC CHICKEN

x3. Summertime tourneys on LOZ are won on big worms, especially at night when it gets hot.

Thanks! I think I've got a few biffle heads, but may try texas rigging if I run out when I'm down next weekend. I'll let you know how I do!

Nice report sixstring! How were you rigging your menace grubs?

This is great! That boy's doing work!

Envious of your gear.

I'm ready for it! I've been out on Stockton a few times on a family 'toon, just never had the chance to get after em on a real fishing boat until this upcoming trip. LOZ this past Memorial Day was as wild as it's ever been. Walls of +42' cruisers and cigarette boats everywhere.

Good in depth stuff rangerman, thanks for sharing! Cool rig Sac Jim, looks like it could help draw them up. I wonder how much the added weight would affect the action of the flicker shad, what size spin rig are you gonna try? I'm assuming you'll be using one of the bigger flicker shads? "...This BOOYAH rig lets you attach a shallow-running crankbait to a weightless, Texas-rigged swimbait behind the spinning blades and fish it at any depth." I wonder if that "to" is supposed to be an "or"?

So I'm not sure if any of you have fished it or not, but here on the other side of state line there's Melvern reservoir. It's a great multispecies fishery, especially for smallmouths. It's got 5-6 lbers in it, with GIN gin clear water. Only downside is you can't fish a shaky head, jig, tube, or anything else on the bottom without retying every other cast (and soft plastics are the ticket once the jerkbait bite dies off). The zebra mussels are rampant. So while I agree they certainly haven't hurt the fishery (they may have even improved it as you suggested, Jerry), it's frustrating deciding if you should retie every 5 minutes or risk a big one breaking you off.

Question for you walleye guys (or anybody else who knows)- At what water temps do the walleyes in Stockton start chasing trolled crankbaits? Sorry for all the questions lately, just an LOZ boy excited for a change of scenery in a few weeks.

toad! i'll be camping down on some family land here in a few weekends down there, looking forward to getting out on the water. such a nice break from the insanity that's loz in the summer.

I can hear the grease poppin' already

Nothing too unusual. Small live green sunfish and large freshly cut bluegill heads are my baits of choice when pursuing cats. Artificials for everything else. Not a big fan of carp or the slimy mess they leave behind.

When I was growing up and the water had that nice stain to it I'd throw crankbaits all day and catch tons of bass, not to mention nice accidental catches of catfish, crappie, & walleye. Fast forward to now and I feel like I've become a finesse fisherman by trade! I don't think it's a bad thing, but the general increase in fishing pressure and water clarity has definitely forced me to adopt finesse techniques I'm sure I would have avoided when I was younger. Live and learn I guess. My LOZ personal best came a few months back on a 4" green pumpkin finesse worm. Talk about power fishing.

Oldplug I took our toon up the Gravois in your direction and there were multiple times when I had to stop in protected coves to let walls of cruisers go flying by. At one point we honestly thought we were about to witness a collision. I've never seen it so bad up the Gravois. He's not kidding. 8-9 ft. of visibility where I'm at. Clearest I've ever seen it, not even the slightest bit of stain in the water even after the rain. Highlight of the weekend was a 26# blue on rod and reel, it wanted cut bream. Missed another big one using a live sunfish, somehow the sunfish made it's way off the hook and up the leader when the big cat took it and ran. I tightened down the drag and began the reel and sweep (circle hook) and pulled the bream right out of it's mouth. Almost made me sick.

Good. Night.

I just heard the same from my buddy who spent last weekend up there @ 88mm. He said the majority of blues were suspending, and that rod & reel was challenging but they cleaned up on jugs. I'm at the opposite end of the lake closer to Bagnell, so I'm still going to give rod & reel a go this weekend.

Seems to me that clear water would be needed to see evidence of it... I don't mind catching them off beds when they're quickly released back to where they were caught. With the water as clear as you said, the only way to eliminate the chance of catching them from their beds this time of year would be to stop fishing for them altogether. I can't resist.

What's the current situation with the bass spawn looking like? I'm sure some fish are still on beds and some fish are moving out, but would you say the majority are still on beds or transitioning out to post spawn?

Usually my favorite time to fish for them! Did very well on blues this time last year, although benchmarking based on what and when last year hasn't exactly panned out this year (as everybody already knows). Has anybody been catching blues or flatheads lately?