livingtofish

I agree it wont be long. Those walleye start moving pretty early up around turnback. I know a guy that says walleye will move much earlier than most think and that around valentines day is about right. With this year being colder than some it may be a little later but he would run up some of the creeks in a jetboat and catch them pretty good. I know why I don't catch them since I am still by the fire then.

All you guys be careful out on the water, one little slip and if you fall in there is no one to help. I wouldn't recommend fishing alone in winter. Had a good friend go over a few years ago and the good Lord was looking out for him and someone heard his cries. Doesn't make any difference if your the worlds best swimmer with 35 degree water it will only take minutes.

Was down last week and also caught some nice crappie and a walleye. Fish are scattered at different depths so I guess the lake has turned over? Caught crappie out of piles at 19ft, 25ft and had several at 36ft. The walleye was caught about 20. Doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason other than the shad are scattered as well. Great time to be on the lake, saw less than 10 boats all day and several eagles.

smiles like that make the whole day worth while

I appreciate all the tips and I see I have a lot to learn. I thought a worm was a worm. I am headed down today for some fishing but my buddy is really into bass fishing so probably wont do any walleye this time out. Again thanks for your responses.

Thanks RPS looks good, as always there are nice people here with good advice

Thanks for the information, I will just keep trying, I know I fish lots of channel swings up in the river but there is lots of timber around there and bottom bouncers and timber don't mix. I haven't had much luck on the main lake and was just wondering if some of the creek arms would be better but again I would run into timber. Even when I see a brush pile on my graph I cringe because that bouncer seems to have eyes for the brush

Thank you rps I will give that a try. I am just basically frustrated. I have caught 3 walleye this year, not counting the guide trip, and those were caught bass fishing. One on a brown jig, one on a chatter bait and one on a swim bait. I cant put a pattern on those because they were caught in less than 5 ft. I am doing a good job feeding bluegill though. I graph long points that fall into the channel and really see very little activity so I just go on. I see lots of boats down by mutton creek fishing those flats and I have put several hours doing that and I guess those fish must be very isolated because they don't like my baits. Ill keep trying, again thank you.

Don't know how you guys do it. I always see reports of people catching walleye out of Stockton and for some reason I just don't. I bottom bounce, jig spoons, jigs with minnows, troll with flicker shads or any other 2 to 3 in crankbait and I catch no walleye. White bass, all bass species, crappie, catfish and drum but no walleye. I even broke down and hired a well known Stockton guide thinking maybe I could get some for a meal, caught one after about 3 hrs of trolling. Is there a better arm of the lake than others, creeks or main lake? I am lost, a guy might think if someone is catching 15 to 20 at a time I could luck into a couple. Can anyone give a lost walleye fisher some direction.

Seems to be lots of interest in this subject. I agree that the largemouth doesn't seem to change much from yr. to yr. Lots of 14in. to 147/8 but not a lot of keeps. I also don't see a lot of gizzard shad but many of the threadfin that very small. Table rock and loz are full of gizzard shad and their bass size seems to run larger and the fishing pressure on these lakes is higher than Stockton. I don't know of any other reason other than forage that the bass on Stockton don't grow very fast. I was told several years ago, by a fishery biologist, that very few smallmouth make it to 15in on Stockton and could never understand why that was and I guess we will have the same problem with the spots.

Great topic, I too have fished Stockton for many years and while the catch rate for large bass has declined, the catch rate for numbers is good. I have had a couple of days this year when I personally boated over 50 bass, and with a buddy we were close to 100. I don't fish many Missouri lakes but I don't know of many where you could do a lot better. It does seem like the keeper ratio is down but I don't fish tournaments anymore so I don't care I just catch and release. I think we should give the Missouri dept of conservation a lot of credit because without there size limits, on bass, crappie and walleye the catch ratio would be much less. Just my opinion

Just wondering, with the fish suspended has anyone been throwing big worms around timber. I remember a few years back catching them like that at Stockton.

Have not fished Stockton in a month or so but was down last Thursday and found fishing pretty slow, but then again when there is no wind and clear water it is usually tough there. Put in about 7am and fished till 2:30 and caught about a dozen largemouth and spots with 4 being keeps. Nothing big with 16.5 being the largest. Fished mainly piles and drops on the main lake with drop shots, and finesse type baits. Fish were in a funky mood we would see fish on our electronics but could not get them to commit. We would catch one or two and that was it, if we returned later we could usually catch another. Fished several spots and kept moving but it was slow. Did catch 1 almost 16in largemouth and it looked really sick, very skinny and had sores on it. Don't see many like that there usually the fish look healthy.

I understand the issue that the marina ownership has a job to keep the patrons property safe but it seems kind of strange that an angler would have to stay 100ft or more from a dock. I also agree that tournament anglers should not be able to fish around the marina since so many fish are released there. If this issue is because it is private property then what would keep private dock owners on other lakes like table rock or pomme to rope off their dock for no fishing. It also seems odd that patrons of the marina can fish off any dock or around any dock but a general fisherperson cannot fish within 100 to 200ft of a given area. I am most likely not going to fish there since there are so many other areas to fish but the whole rule or agreement seems strange.

I would like someone to explain that rule to me since you say how close someone can fish to a marina dock. There are people fishing off of the dock all the time, whether it is from a boat moored to the dock or standing on the dock or from the bank. It seems rather discriminating that the general public cannot fish near a dock even though you are on public waters but someone that pays a fee to the marina owner that sits on top of public waters can fish. Seems like this rule has many loop holes.