LoweSTX175

You'll notice that most on here are fans of Berkley's FlickerShad. They come in 5, 7 & 9 cm sizes. Several of the guys on the forum troll the 7s. I do as well but will go up to th 9s from time to time. At 150-165 foot of line out the 7s will go about 12 foot deep. The 9s will run about 14-15 while trolling at 2+ mph. You just have to pay attention to the lake contour to make sure you don't accidently find yourself in 4 fow. This summer I had my nephew (6 years old) on the boat with me trolling... he landed a couple keeper walleye and several crappie. I mounted rod holders specifically for trolling. The nephew struggled with the feel initially but got the hang of it.

To be honest you can troll at 2.5-3 MPH if needed. I was alway leary of using my outboard motor... but thats the only way I will troll now. Best of luck out there. I think you'll like Stockton Lake. Believe it or not I was about your son's age fishing Stockton for the first time at about the same age over 30 years ago.

I'm like several of the guys above. I grew up on Stockton and have lost a prop or two in the past trying to get into certain areas. I'd try to stay between Hawker Point and Birch Branch. Those areas are typically areas without stumps or big rocks on the lake. There are plenty of brush piles and points to fish. As far as right now? I'd rely on the other guys for what's biting and how they are biting. I'm planning on making a week long trip here before September ends. Unless something changes I'll be trolling cranks, bottom bouncers or drifting some of the flats. Best of luck and welcome to the area. I grew up down there but now I live 3 hours away.

Steve - Cabela's at the Legends is where I got my 2 OZ bouncers. They had pretty decent selection of bouncers and you can get them in groups of 10 I believe.

I have never used spoons. How are you guys using them? I assume you a drifting or setting up over brush and simply jigging them....

Thanks for the report. Good to see the crappie picking back up.

That's a good looking limit. What were you using? Were they on brush or were they suspended?

I've also heard of people using buckets as well. I've got a drift sock and will probably get another one. My motor goes at 2 MPH but it is right at that point where it will kick out of gear and grind to get the perfect speed. I had the boat dropped off with Bill Cooper so I should be ready to start the fall troll here in a couple of weeks.

I'd say there is one way to tie a death rig wrong... and that's without a swivel. I tried to run a naked death rig (no beads or spinner) straight onto the end of the line straight to a BB. It made a wound up mess. I do like to tie my own harnesses. It sometimes occupies some dead time during the day. I'm going to try to pick up the pace with my crank troll. I've been giving my outboard motor a workout trying to go 2 MPH. 3 MPH would be easier for me.

I always troll cranks at 2 MPH. I've never really considered going all the way up to 3 MPH. This is interesting but I guess makes sense. How did that impact the depth of the crank? Or did it? I'm going to give that a try next time when the fish are ignoring me.

My father went out on Tuesday and said the same thing. They didn't hit any walleye. Had one cat and a drummer boy when they started to drift shrimp. I'm hoping the walleye pick up here in a couple of weeks. I'm going to give them a chase for a week in early September.

. Here are a few harnesses I put together today. I have my own kit with hooks and various beads and spinners. I also rig up some lindy floaters with the death hooks on some of the rigs. I'll put these on the bottom bouncers when drifting or trolling. I used plastics mostly but live works as well. The one thing I have learned to use is the clevis that allows you to change out the blades.

My primary finder is a Lowrance Elite 7 HDI. I'd consider myself a younger fella and it took me several trips to learn how to use it. The feature on it I really use the most is the chart of the lake. Like zarra I'd recommend that CHIRP 5 at $500. It appears to have all the features of the 7. The only thing I would prefer to have is a touch screen at this point. I'm still clumsy when I try to quickly put a marking on my map when I see something I want to go back through.

I've started to tie my own death rigs and have placed Lindy floaters on them to make sure the rig stays up off the bottom. I troll with my big motor versus the trolling motor. Just my own preference. I also think 2 mph is a little too fast. My little experience says that causes the bouncer to come off the bottom and be suspended. As far as getting hung up? That in my opinion also is dictated by where you are on the lake. I try to avoid timber and brush piles. I've also learned to not just give up on an area if I don't see them on my graph or catch anything the first pass through. I'll move out/in 5 foot based on my chart and work an area thoroughly. That 5 foot difference or change in direction might just make the difference.

I personally have yet to hire a guide. I agree that this forum is filled with great information and exchanges knowledge of what is currenlty happening on the lake. I rely on the reports to plan out my fishing trip before I head south to the lake. My father and his buddies are taking my boat out today to chase some kitty cats. They are taking advantage of me not being in the boat to force them after the walleye to change things up. It sucks being in the office knowing those guys are out on the water having fun right now. I'll find out how they did, what they used, where they went and post in the morning for everyone.

If I were to camp I'd also try to go to Hawker and get a site close to the water. What makes Hawker attractive is you can night fish all around that area and not have to travel far at night. The bridge is close and the cove right there has always produced fish during the summer.

I remember a July 3rd in 2000 where a buddy and I each caught a limit of Whites and Crappie in about 40 minutes with a couple of walleye and LM bass to go with it. We were right between Birch Branch and the old Point 9. It took longer to clean them than to catch. Nobody but those who saw all the fish believe me. It doesn't surprise me when I hear stories about it turning on real quick on the lake. Having a day like that makes the days of not catching anything worth the time on the lake.

Wilson - two things that have worked for me are larger crankbaits that I can get down to about 15 + FOW while trolling at about 2 MPH in about 20 FOW. The other is using a bottom bouncer with a death rig that has both the beads as well as a spinner on it. Also consider taking a bouncer and the put a floating jig head on about a 2-3 foot leader with a grub. The floating head will keep the grub off the bottom enough for the fish to see it. Depending on the depth you want to run? I have jumped up to a 2 OZ bouncer which should be fine for 20 FOW. As far as death rigs, I just started using them this year. Not only did I pick up walleye, but I also had the small mouth hitting them. The key in my opinion with them is to troll slow at about 1 MPH. Also consider putting a lindy floater on them to keep them off the bottom as well. Hope this helps.

I normally launch at Mutton and either head north to Hawker and work back, or I'll run up birch branch or go even further to south to almost CC then work all the way back to the launch. Depending on what the word on the board is, I'll probably drift the flats in September.

I'll get with you before I finalize when I'm going to be down there. Might be an opportunity to divide and conquer the lake. I will typically get three or four walleye to keep each trip (4 days on the lake). This year it seemed like they had some size to them for me. Lots of 20+ inchers found the deep fry this year.

In September are they on brush still? I'd actually prefer to chase slabs. I might also just be too stubborn to get away from my trolling ways.

My next trip to Stockton won't be until mid-September. I was wondering if there was really a pattern for fishing Stockton in the fall. The last two years I've gone down in the fall and didn't have much luck (each time for 5 days). We even tried drifting for cats on the flats and didn't have much luck. Is it just me or is it really that slow on Stockton during the fall?

If you guys have a drum tournament you might have some serious competition for this kind of $$.

Only issue with the 9s is they are limited on the color at Bass Pro and Cabelas in my case in KC. Chartreuse Pearl and Pearl White are easy to find and seem to work very well. I'm probably going to order some directly from Berkley to get "Uncle Rico" or a few with some heavier blue to them. I had a walleye runner that was blue that the walleye seemed to like earlier this month. The thing about the 9s I liked this spring was the bigger crappie were hitting them. My fishing buddies were using 7s and getting the smaller slabs. The 9s seemed to be liked by the 13-14" slabs.

I troll with the 7s and jump to 9s. The eyes this year had a flavor for the 9s. I don't have a favorite color, I'll change them out frequently to find out what color is most popular that day.