slab slinger

It's great to see kids fishing. Good job dad.

Wiggle Warts for bass and #7 Flicker Shad for everything else.

Nice slab...And a smaller to boot. Good job paw paw. Great to see kids having fun. The old purple tiger flick is hard to beat on Stockton Crappie.

Thanks Yaknar... Any specific size in each. Thanks for sharing means alot. I have fished the ned alot on the river and works great most times just looking for a crankbait to fish as another presentation. Thanks guys. I spend most of my time on OAF on the Stockton page. Thats my home water but love the James and Finley rivers as well.

Nice fish. I 2 float/fish the James quite often. It's 2 close not to and offers some great fishing (at times). I floated Shelvin to Hooten Saturday and the fishing was tough for me. River was fast but fishable water clarity was ok. Caught some nice small bass on my hand tied hair jigs but not a dang goggle eye one. I was wanting a few gog's for supper but came up empty. I do keep a few goggle eyes from time to time but release all Smallies. They are the kings of the river IMO and take so long to grow to any size it's not worth killing them to me. I enjoy everyone's posts/pics on the page and keep them comming. Beautiful fish. Nice job. What cranks are y'all using if don't mind sharing. I can't get fish to hit them for me. Maybe all me. I'm mainly a bottom dragger jigs, craws, and creature baits.

I usually have good luck fishing the MDC marked piles (if you don't have any of your own) with big worm and football jigs. If no luck in the piles I work the pole timber in creeks and stump fields with worm, jig, and single spins. That usually works for me but some one may have a better bite for you.

I second Aggressor and Ketchup. Roark CG east and west both have electricity and boat ramps. Good location on lake also.Deeper brush piles are holding good numbers or crappie and bass right now and the occasional bonus walleye. Jigs or minnows for crappie and big worms or heavy Football jig for the LM. Good luck and have fun.

Went to look at Shelvin Rock Acess today and from the looks of the water debris line it almost made to Shelvin road (Blacktop) the entire 1st and 2nd parking lots and entire gravel access road was under water yesterday. Went to Deleware Town Access yesterday and the 2 gravel parking lots were under water. Springfield lake and below the dam was mind blowing with the amount of water. Never seen anything like it. Should make for some top notch fishing when it returns to normal. High water makes new holes and fills in some good ones. The river is ever changing thats what keeps me on it.

Awful sad news. SRJ will be truly missed. Never got the pleasure to meet Jim but always wanted to. Just PM him the other day can't hardly beleave his passed on. Had plans taking him crappie fishing next spring in trade for some bass advice. I'm still shocked by the news and my go out to family and friends. I will miss his posts and level headed aproach on the site. Wish I could have met him.

It may take a day or two to see what I mean from all the water unless you motor up that far in a boat.

Up in the creek where it gets narrow. Or as close as you can get. Its like how hunting. Its a pinch point. High percentage area. Where the creeks narrow cats will stack up waiting on food washed outta creek into the lake. In the very back of creek arm where it turns into the creek itself is where I mean.

All you cat men need to get ready for the feeding frenzy from high water. If the rain stops Saturday you need to be fishing If you can. I have mentioned this several times on the catfishing threads, well it's time to fish the creeks coming into the lake. All the water rushing into the lake will have them on a feeding frenzy for a few days and it'll be a hot bite. Fish any creek coming into the lake right at the mouth of accessible. I like Maze, Turkey, Turnback, and Sons. Just park around bridges and follow current up to the bottlenecks and start fishing. Any good cat baits will work. Worms, liver, shrimp, or cut bait will be great for hungry channels. Good luck boys go get some meat!

Kdub...sorry so late replying. Looks like the guys already answered your questions. I'll just add a little more. Your speed sounds fine in warm water temps on active fish. I usually am in between 1.9 and 2.3 mph depending on wind and such. I have Lowrance Elite 7 HDI in console and The 5 up front both have chart plotter and GPS. The biggest thing is depth and finding fish suspended in the zone you can reach. Trolling post spawn crappie I look for fish suspended in middle of coves in 10 to 15 FD in 20 to 40 FOW. With my set up I know I can reach these fish and put a bait in the zone. I use 6lb mono and #7 flicker shad most days. Have done well with pulling a #5 and a #7 off each side if fish are vertically scattered on screen. In summer months when fish go deeper I down size My line to 4lb mono and Bomber 6As and let out 100Ft of line thistoo get down deeper. Summer time trolling for crappie isn't as good as late spring post spawn but can be good in right locations. I troll flats early and late in the day close to deep water. You'll find feeding fish at these times in shallower water hunting the flats. Mid day I troll channel ledges and channel swings. Points are good at times but my second would be bridges. I troll down the outside of bridges and then between pillars. Summers not my fav time to troll but can still be effective. I mainly vertical fish structures and run bottom bouncers for walleye. Keep an eye out for surfacing whites in summer also can fill the boat with them and have some great top water fun.

Kdub...What's your speed when trolling? Another questions is what depth are you running cranks in? Just trying to help you out.

If you plan on keeping any fish to eat, my opinion Ice water is better than just ice. Just ice will cause the fish to lose there protective coating of slime and the slime Will settle to the bottom fish and just gets nasty. Make a ice slurry in your cooler and won't have to worry about it the little bit of water will hold the slime on them and not all over your fish and cooler. I Keep them in live well till I see them start to fall off then throw the ones thats not looking to alive in the ice slurry in cooler. The most important thing I can tell ya about summer time meat fishing is as soon as you clean your fish rinse the fillets with cold water till they start to curl. You crappie guys know what I mean. They will get solft in summer and rinsing the fillets with cold water till they curl will firm up the meat and make for better eating.

Big black perch and Bull heads are my fav big flathead baits.

I use to limb line the rivers and trot line the lake but never broke 50lbs on flats outta Stockton. Not saying they arnt in there and maybe in Good numbers. I don't know. Have seen several 30 to 50 pounders taken from Stockton so there's gotta be some real giants in the lake also. That's a fish of a life time where ever your from. Congrats to him. Haven't done much rod and reel fishing for big flathead at Stockton it takes a big bait, big equiptment, and alot of patients fishing for trophy flathead. You are pretty much fishing for one bite all night and it may or may not happen. Have had good sucess rod and reeling big flats at Truman in the Osage River but it's pretty much a one Big fish per night thing. Flatheads are real territorial fish and if they can't eat it they will run it off. So if you catch a big one it's time to relocate. Think of it as one fish per log jam or log littered river bend. Good luck if you chase the giants and please post pics of them. I have a solft spot for giant Flatheads.

Haha ment bowfishing tourney not nourishing tourney.

Made that mistake on my first nourishing turney. Brought in a limit of gar and took last place. Everyone else had limits of fat carp and blew me away on weight. Lake won't be that busy unless your night fishing. Most bowfishing tourneys are at night when the fish arnt as spooked in shallow water.

Nice crappie Bud...Ahh...White bass...They always spice things up dropping lights. Especially if you have multiple rods and people in boat. Great mess of fish. Congrats on the slabs. Good post.

I use to drop lights alot and always had good sucess with catching some kind of fish. Find a brush pile in 15-30 fow and set up. I like submersable lights best (less bugs) green is my fav but any will do. I know old timers that use nothing but a car headlight in a chunk of Styrofoam (home made) and do just as good. I found that your fishing will be more enjoyable with few to NO bugs in your face thats why I mean more towards the submersable style lights. Also black lights and florescent line will keep the bug attraction down for tying hooks and general lighting. Those who don't know fishing over lights goes like this. First find a spot that will attract fish or fish are already holding there. Brush piles, points, pole timber, bridge pillers, channel swings, are all good places to start. If you can find more than one mentioned together in one location that's a honey hole and you need to fish it. Ok so you've found your location and anchor out front and rear right over it. You set up lights and start fishing. That's the time people make the biggest mistake night fishing. They fish an hour in a spot and move that's the mistake. Dropping lights is a cycle that takes time to come together. You are putting out the lights to draw the zooplankton to your location. That's the bait fish food source. The lights attract a swarm of zooplankton which attracts the bait fish which attracts the game fish. It may take over an hour to make the full cycle but give your location a good chance before moving. I don't move from a location unroll the fish quit bitting or I can see zooplankton the bait fish but no bites in long while. You will be able to see the cloudiness in water that's the zooplankton and we all know what the bait fish look like. Stockton will give up some great stringers of fish and most times a great mixed bag of fish as well. Dropping lights will also give you a chance to get out and get a mess of fish in summer without sweating to death and fighting the pleasure boaters for a cove to fish. I use to do alot of night fishing while working 292nd shift and got fond of having the lake almost to myself. I haven't had the chance lately to get the lights out but I see myself sitting in the green glow soon. Hope this helps out some. If you have anymore questions just PM me I'm glad to help out!

Good read. Thanks SRJ.

Great report. Glad to see you posting reports again. Hard not to listen to a guy that gets to fish as much as you do.

Bet he dropped lights with minnows, it'll usually gets you a good Stockton mixed bag. No Whites???

I know you like the LS Arm so anywhere from Cedar Ridge to Price Branch. Jig and cawler combo is good on points but trolling cranks and bottom bouncing crawlers is best to cover more water. Have found them from 4 to 40 FOW so you'll have to try different depths till you find them. I would start in 15 fow and work out deeper. Lundy rigging shinners and crawlers is also effective if you have the patients. I like to long line (slow troll) a road runner head with a crawler rather than use a bottom bouncer but if in deep water the BB is best. I'm not sure if they sell what I use but should find something close. I pour my own RR heads in 1/4 and 3/8 oz and add a #3 good willow leaf blade. Color doesn't seem to matter most days. I like to troll till I find them then go back and work a jig and crawler or minnow and pick apart an area holding fish. Walleye are schooling fish so if you catch one go back and see if anymore are willing to bite. 9 outta 10 you'll catch another one or 2 fish in same area. You shouldn't have ANY trouble catching walleye on Stockton but finding the bigger fish gets tricky sometimes. Lots of small walleye in the lake and they are usually willing to bite most days. Good luck and post pic if you hang a Hogg EYE!