top_dollar

They have been shallow at stockton too....10 fow or less, out to about 20 feet even when surface temps are 85. I am sure there are deep walleye to be had if one were to drag 30 foot cranks or jig spoons in ditches....but when enough are shallow at any given time they are normally the ones actively engaged in feeding and easier to catch imo. Its amazing how often the fish just don't follow the rules of fishing. Nice catching!

Thats what i was thinking. Just gotta get a big and bad fishing boat now.

Thanks for the information!

Who doesnt love a good old fasioned hummingbird hunt.

Do ya mind sharing how ya caught em? Trolling cranks?

Itll be busy for stockton, but still not bad. Table rock (kimberling city) is way worse on a random weekday than stockton will be on the busiest holiday. A few years back i was down over the 4th weekend and was amazed at how few people were out. The wind will most certainly be more of an issue if it whips up around there.

This defines you perfectly......reread that definition then think about why you posted this thread. I think its Mr. MoCarp petitioning here for a "safe space" Conservatives calling liberals "snowflakes".....pot meet kettle.

Even when you are by yourself? What do you do when you get snagged or bit? Thats when other lines out have caused me problems the most.

Nice catching! Imo trolling too many rods is a mess. I use a 9 foot downrigger rod and metered braid line....but like you i dont deal with rod holders. When im by myself i have 3 rods rigged up with different crankbaits and just troll one at a time.

Fish long runnout pea gravel points. Deep fish will bite well.

Lol

Yes, this is a great time to troll for crappie. This pattern will generally hold through summer. After crappie spawn, they move back off of shallow structure, and in my experience do 1 of 2 things. 1.) They will move out in the middle of a spawning cove and suspend, often times in areas devoid of structure, but they will hold at a specific depths. I start trolling at whatever depth i can see the bottom plus 5 feet...meaning, if you can see bottom in 6 feet of water, i start at 11 feet....thats general, and just my own little way to pick a starting point. 2.) Others will move back out to the main lake areas, and will hold on points with brush and various other structure. Main lake flats, points, islands, humps and rolloffs....areas where one might troll up some walleyes will often hold crappies, and giant ones at that. Repeat ability is key, if you pick a fish up, make a mental note of the depths and type of area you are in. The other nice part about trolling this time of year is that you will catch tons of fish, regardless of species the action is usually quite consistent.

Cool video thanks for sharing. I love wacky worm fishing. I have a friend who is a one trick pony with his watermelon red dingers, no matter what or where, thats what he uses.....its a pretty good trick.

Or can save it... Seems like a good deal for a weightless dinger.

Correct. It is the most common snake in missouri and highly dangerous, Better just keep a safe distance!!

Cant help with fly fishing. I generally use short rods and im in tight quarters.

Yeah its been a lot of fun, anything small they will attack. Even your bobber! Plenty of fish in the 8 inch range, no real big redears though.

Bluegill and redear are going crazy right now. Tiny jigs, live bait under a float, and small topwaters will work. Some are holding off the beds 4-6ft deep amd others are right up on the beds 1ft down (truck tire size circles/holes in the vegetation).

Also....if your just looking to have fun and catch fish...its the time of year where if you look for gravel runnouts you will find all kinds of fish hanging out there. Heres an easy way to catch em. Get you a few boxes of night crawlers. Rig up a med light power fast action rod with 6# mono (ned rig rod). Slide a bobber stop, then a bead then a 1/16 to 1/8 oz weight, another bead and another bobber stop. I prefer the lighter weight, but you may feel more comfortable with a 3/16 or 1/4 oz. Space each of the components out about 1/4 of an inch above a #4 or #6 baitholder hook. Run the whole crawler up the shank of the hook as straight as you can get it. Thats the rig I use...a normal split shot rig will also work well, but you will eventually have twist and kinks in the line between the hook and weight and you need to retie often. The setup i mentioned above, spaced properly will alleviate that issue. Drift that rig a few feet off the bottom of any long gravel point or gravel rolloff into the main lake. If you dont have any electronics just drift around the point starting shallow and getting deeper trying to keep the deal near the bottom. You'll catch plenty. If you have some electonics on board you can look for certain things: 1.) Large humps on/near the bottom are usually catfish, walleye, and bass. 2.) A continuous squiggly line just above the bottom are bluegills, cut that crawler in half if they are biting the tails. 3) Clouds in the water column...shad...there will be predators near. 4) Fish humps in the middle of the water column are usually spotted bass and or white bass. Both will eat the crawler happily, but if you can find some spots stacked up, you can catch lots with a crawler. I generally start in about 12-15 feet and work out to 30-40. If your not seeing/catching anything you can move out over the channel, quite often you can find em at the same depths as the flat but suspended out over 100 or more FOW. I know live bait is generally looked down upon from bass fisherman, but a couple boxes of night crawlers can find bass about as easy as 2000$ worth of electronics.

Holy cow thats a lot of options. I often feel most confident with sticking to just a few techniques all day. Maybe cuz im not a particularly versatile fisherman, but its hard for me to see if somethings working if i don't fish with it for very long. Could be laziness too, but i try different presentations of the same bait before switching techniques. I think a crawdad bait, a shad bait and a worm will always work, table rock bass will undoubtedly be feeding on those. For me it's a spoon, a keitech, a dropshot and a jig. Ill often times try to force a topwater bite that isnt there, but thats my own stubbornness cuz i know the spoon would work better.

Ah gotcha. I just now saw the line tie up on top.

Does the heddon cousin float or sink? Its shaped quite a bit like the stutter step lure.

Interesting to note that that 1 of those pilings consistently fishes better than the rest for me.

Ive noticed this as well.

I like that bigger size one in white, shad, and cole slaw. Med heavy power casting rod, moderate fast tip. Metered braid with a few feet of leader. That little setup does the job on spots in the summertime.