jwilson48

yeah its getting bad. that is one of the reasons I am getting tired of that lake. that and the crappie are sooo stinking small. can catch a limit of eaters in no time, but gets old after a while of doing it every week for the last couple years. quality fish continue to get fewer and further between. we went to Stockton last weekend, and while the fishing was tougher, was a much better time. Bigger fish and not near the boat traffic. have no idea why pomme has become such a popular spot for boating, but it's too small and just ruins the experience imo.

had a great morning saturday. 2 limits of crappie and headed home at 11:30. they were suspending in 15-20 fow 5-10 ft down. we were spider rigging and most of the fish weren't schooled tight. one here one there but we did get over a couple nice schools and have several rods go down at once. also caught 3 doubles on the day. probably landed 75+ fish lots of shorts (just barely) and never had one over 12". we were using minnows and water temp was 43 degrees and muddy. we were fishing a couple miles from the dam in a cove with no structure. about half and half black or white crappie, seemed like they came in bunches. we would catch whites for a while, then blacks, then back to whites, and so on. most of the shad we seen on the graph were still in deeper water but i don't mind fishing away from the shad as long as the fish don't mind either lol. not my favorite way to fish, but i just built this setup to use in my boat without drilling any new holes so i had to try it out...worked great. go get em boys!

Gonna give it a go for a couple hours in the morning before a kid's bday party. sounds like i'm gonna need a little luck on my side....

after 40+ fishing trips to pomme in a row catching my limit, I only caught 12 keepers last weekend. that isn't bragging either and it's not an exaggeration. pomme has had so many good spawns the last few years the crappie has been ridiculously easy to catch. i would say most people that fish every weekend have had the same success. my dad went in bolivar landing area and caught his limit. i was by the dam. he was fan casting in the river channel. said they wanted it moving or couldn't get nearly as many bites.

We did catch some as shallow as 15 fow, but most were 30-40 fow. Caught some right off the bottom in the deep water all the way up to 15 ft down. Yes I feel like side imaging is the cat's meow. The later in the afternoon we started seeing fish come out of the brush and suspend above it presumably feeding. That was also when the bite was the best (go figure). Some of the schools we got over would have 40+ fish in them and only a few would bite mid day. Not sure if it was our presentation or they just weren't hungry. Any other questions, just ask. If anyone has any advice I'm all ears. Winter crappie at Stockton is far different than what I'm used to.

We went to mutton today and no ice at the ramp. Water temp still 40 degrees. only ice we saw was shallow backwater and the ice on our rod eyes! Good luck!

We had the lake to ourselves today. As I said in other posts I'm trying to learn this lake and it is tough. We fished from 11-5 and caught most in the last couple hours. Put in at mutton creek. Caught a lot of small ones but when you caught a keeper it was a nice one. Only had a couple under 11 inches. 9 fish is all that would fit in a Ziploc bag packed full. Much better than pomme where a lot of the time 15 fish fit in a bag. Ice in the rod eyes was a major problem today but the water temp was still 40 degrees and no ice at the ramp. Best bite seemed to be with some movement, cast and retrieve, drop to the bottom and reel up, slow troll, etc. Had a few hit it on the fall. Caught suspended fish, fish in brush, and fish on ledges. Covered a lot of water with side imaging and its very true 90%of the fish is in 10% of the water right now. I have a love hate relationship with this lake. Love the challenge and the beauty of the lake. Hate getting my butt kicked by the fish. Best bite was chartreuse, white was good, blue/ pink was good. Also caught 1 white bass that was as big as I've seen for a few years but turned it loose. Had a couple big mystery fish on today and lost em before we got to see what they were. Had a great day fishing with my dad. Been too long since we fish against each other spring - fall. This post has been promoted to an article

what ramps are open right now due to the low water? I know Ruark and Cedar ridge, but I am just starting to learn this lake. I've grown up on Pomme and Truman and Stockton is a different beast for sure. Lot less timber, deeper water, a lot more wind, and crappie fishing seems harder to get figured out. On Pomme (the lake I fish most) there may only be a couple days out of the year I go and don't catch my limit. I fished Stockton a few times over the summer between tournaments and had 3 or 4 awesome trips then like a light switch flipped the fish were just gone! Now that tournament season is done for a while I figured I could spend this winter learning this beautiful lake a little better even though they are still on fire on Pomme right now. I see a lot of reports right now of people fishing brush in the 40 ft range, but when I went to cedar ridge friday after work for a couple hours I couldn't find any conservation piles that deep close to the ramp. Only had a couple hours to fish and it was cold! Ended up with 4 keepers and a 17" bass caught around 15 crappie total. They were slow. Each pile I fished on a ledge had a fish or two on it, but no schools to speak of. I think if I had all day I could have caught a limit maybe but with a partner we wouldn't have been able to get 30. I tried fishing a couple piles on more of a flat and there wasn't anything on those at all. Any advice (not looking for specific spots) would be great, but knowing what ramps are open when the lake is down is my biggest question. Also, any of the ramps not very steep on Stockton still open? My brother wants to drag his boat to Stockton as well, but he doesn't put in at steep ramps....big heavy boat with a little toy truck. TIA

weekend before last we caught two limits in 2 or 3 hours fishing timber with minnows. 16 ft down in 16-26 fow. last weekend they just weren't there. only had 8 in the boat from 8 am to 2 pm. hit two brush piles one in 25 fow the other in 15 fow. finished up our limits there in short order. fished with jigs. size is still a problem for sure. a lot more dinks than keepers only had one over a lb each day.

good luck bassfisher! let us know how it goes. deer hunting has had me too busy to fish even though i just got my new boat. had a big buck at 10 yards bust me last weekend coming to full draw. need to get some venison in the freezer and get back on the fall crappie before they get on their winter patterns.

It has slowed considerably for us. We fished the crappie slayers tournament last saturday and only ended up with 21 keepers. the tournament before we had easily caught 4-5 limits in the same amount of time. Size has been good though. Our best 7 saturday was 7.42 lbs and the month before 7.27. With that said, the big ones aren't everywhere, we've only found them in a few spots from one side of the lake to the other. The best bite has been 15-20 fow 10-13 ft down in timber and brush. can't give up my spots though lol

He actually did this time!

lol been waiting for this so I can print it and put it up on the wall at the shop for Kenny to stare at every day how are the yearly point standings? want to know if dad and kenny are still ahead of us or not.

Glad to hear it's looking up for someone. We have went the last couple weeks and it's been more of the same. Boat full of dinks, 10-12 keepers, and only 1 nice one. We've fished every part of the lake we caught big ones last year and they just aren't there. We've fished a lot of new areas and they just aren't there lol. To say we are lost is an understatement. Where we were catching big ones this spring I really thought they should be close by but they just aren't there. The bluegill fishing has been good in brush though. Sad to say a couple weeks ago we brought home more bluegill than crappie.