LoweSTX175

I agree good read. Several things now make sense.

This is a good question that I was actually wondering about myself. I'm also curious if anyone has tried "slow death rigs" on Stockton Lake for Walleye? I specifically was wondering what time of the year to use them on the lake? From what I've gathered from reading about them it might be a good way to cover flats trolling at anywhere from 1 - 1.5 mph in anywhere from 10-20 FOW.

I agree with you on the Flicker Shad. I prefer the 7 cm but used the 9 cm last week for a little while to go deeper. I caught a 10" crappie with the 9... the bait was almost as big as the fish. I trolled for a little while with the Live Target "Bait Ball". I went for about 20 minutes. The other two in the boat were hitting slabs while I was wasting time. I changed back to Flicker Shad. Flicker Shad are reasonably priced at about $4. A couple of months ago they had a rebate on them that dropped them to $3. A guy can afford to lose one every now and then at that price. Use a counter reel and you are ready to go trolling.

Jim - I saw one partol boat go by at Shaw Bluff Saturday afternoon. First time I've seen a Patrol go by in years on Stockton. It has become a sad day when people like myself carry a pistol on them full time when going fishing on Stockton.

I'm a "troll" but won't come close to anyone while doing it. More times than not there will be people sitting where I want to go. I'll just move where there aren't any other boats. It doesn't bother me... more times than not I'll still end up catching fish in places I least expect to. There is enough water that people shouldn't be crowding each other.

Here's a picture of this afternoon's catch.

Launched at 2:15 PM. Fished a flat 4 miles north of CC Bridge. Caught 5 keeper crappie and 2 keeper walleye. Trolled various crank baits with no real pattern. Crappie were all in 20 foot of water suspended at 10 foot. The two walleye were on the bottom right at the end of the flat at 12 FOW. TOW there climbed to 68. Fish shut down at about 4:45. Nothing could be spotted on the finder. Moved at that point towards old point 10... now B9. Stopped and trolled on the south bank close to Birch Branch. We picked up a 2 more keeper crappie in that area. Those fish were in 38 FOW but were caught about 16 foot down. Ended up moving into the B9 cove. Several boats were along the banks. Ended up trolling in the middle of the cove. Ended up grabbing 5 more crappie and 4 whites in the deep part of the cove. They were also in 35+ FOW sitting in 10-15 FOW. Seemed like the crappie are in deep water. Total keepers...12 slabs, 2 walleye, 4 whites with three guys in the boat. All in all a decent afternoon except for once again dealing with a moron where I launch/load. Just when you think you've seen it all I witness a guy and his wife back up... unhook a trailer against the water.. tie the boat to the trailer with the boat in the water... drop their tailgate and clean fish. They blocked half of the launch area to the subdivision.

Its almost 1 PM. I'm heading to Stockton right now. I'll give a report when I get back this evening. Don't know where I'm going until I get there. I anticipate a large crowd out there today.

We started out with three poles using three different colors to include red, purple, and the "slick mouse". "Uncle Rico" which has a hint of chartreuse and pink was getting hit as well as the "slick chartreuse with pearl" from the flicker shad pro series. All in the 7 cm. Trolled them between 1.96 to 2.1 mph. I became a trolling guy a couple of years back. I'll tie on the quick snaps and change out one just about every time I have to reel in until I find what I think is the hot color. I loaded up on flicker shad over the past couple of years. I bought three or four every time I ran into them until I had two to three of each one.

You are correct Slab on the pre spawn. All of them today I caught were in pre spawn. I did see several on the finder on the bottom at 7 fow... never could get them to strike so I ended up back out on the suspended fish. I would look at moving to the north part of the lake in a few weeks to go after them up around Hawker area. The water will be getting into the 65 degrees up there about that time. Last year I was hitting crappie suspended in pre-spawn all the way up to mid-May around Hawker.

Fished four miles north of CC launch off a flat from 3:30 to 7:30 PM. Two of us caught 12 keeper crappie to include three at 13" and another at 14.5". Also landed two white bass of decent size. All but one crappie were females. All of the fish were in 25 fow suspended at 10-15 foot off the flat. Trolled with flickershad the entire time. Temp was 65.5. Several other dinks to include two 14.5" walleye. Overall a decent afternoon.

Nice slabs. I'm planning on taking next week off from work to get away from KC to fish 4-5 days. It appears the weather isn't going to be too bad next week either. I'll give nightly reports.

Is beer good luck? I always assumed if the fish heard one crack open they'd want to come to the boat to have one with me.

My stomach just rolled thinking about how bad that thing would smell after a couple of days in a jar. WettinLine - I have not directly preserved shad... I have done it with deep diver ducks (mergansers) then thawed them out and used them for bait later. I would think you could use a vacuum sealer.

Its been a long time since I've been out there to fish. Last time I was on Talbot was to duck hunt on Spring River because all the water in the area was frozen solid.

I'm guess you are talking about one of the ponds on Talbot? If so I used to when I was in high school. I put a few trees in the middle of the larger pond/lake. That would have been in the mid-90's. I did catch some decent crappie out of there back in those days. They built a newer one on the east side of the conservation area as well.

I grew up there and still visit 4-5 times a year. I'm due for a week long trip to visit and get a week on the lake.

Jim - This site has been valuable for me living in the KC area. It has allowed me to track what is happening on Stockton to help make my three to four (week long each) trips down there more productive. Growing up in your area I had always fished Ruark Bluff/CC/Turnbacki just because of familiarity. This forum educated me on other parts of the lake to include the north part. It helps me time my trips when fish seem to be more active. Also the forum has changed my tactics over the last year or two. I now pretty much troll the lake with cranks whereas in the past I pretty much used jigs all day long. I'm trying to time a trip down there within the next week or two. When I'm there I always try to post at least where I went, what I used as well as what made it into the livewell.

Catfish bait is correct. Cut that thing up, if nothing else freeze it for later.

I was planning on making a trip from KC to spend all of next week on the lake. I'm thinking I'm going to push that back another week or two and see if the lake level will go up a little more so I can get my boat back up into Turnback.

I used up some Bass Pro rewards to get a couple. In my mind I didn't pay anything for them. I was more or less interested to see if they were any better than a simple $3-$4 crank. I'll try anything once.

Gents - I was a sucker and purchased a couple of the baitball cranks. I haven't used them yet, but I'm going to try and give them a try with trolling this spring. They are proud of those things. I dread hanging one up on a brush pile.

My fishing buddy grew up in that area as well. That's why we have made that trip a few times. We typically go the first or second week in June.

I would agree for going to Grand Lake. The Bassmaster Classic was there in 2013. I also live in KC and did a trip all the way to Lake Texoma to troll for stripers a few years back. It was a long trip to get there.

SmithvilleSteve - take a look at this map http://www.stocktonlake.com/app/webroot/files/stocktonlakemap.pdf . Where you see the town of Greenfield you will see a highway called "CC". There is a two boat launch pretty much where the bridge goes back over the lake. "Chicken Rock" is straight north from the B9 point (where Ruark Bluff is in red). It is on the north shoreline. Cedar Ridge area you will also see on this map. I would ironically be fishing right now around Ruark.... but the wind is insane today at about 30 MPH.