Knot-a-Bite

We have been having good luck with 10 inch worms. Early morning and late evenings have been pretty good to us as well with top water. We seem to be doing the best on points and on banks that have access to deeper water.

kramr and fishinwrench, Thank you for responses. I like the idea of set it and forget it. I was just wanting to make sure there was not a certain setting since I have never had a boat with a jack plate. Thanks again for the responses.

5bites - Thanks for the response. I was thinking it was just going to be some playing around to find the sweet spot

Just bought a new to me bass boat. This is the first bass boat I have owned that had a Jack Plate. I understand the principle behind the jack plate, but want to better understand where it should be by set. It is a hydraulic jack plate is there a certain location (ht) it should be set or is this something that I will just need to experiment with to see what the boat likes? Any and all advice is welcomed.

My experience during the late fall/winter months is very limited as I am spending majority of my time hunting deer/ducks, but for what it is worth I will throw my 2 cents in. My experience is that I personally seem to catch better quality fish north of Mutton Creek (hitting the main lake points and secondary points) I also have had good success from Ruark down to greaser creek and back in Power line Cove. My family and I were up there on Sunday afternoon between morning and evening church and fished the Greaser area and caught all of our fish about 5 to 10 feet off the bank throwing a shad color 3.5" swim bait. The fish really seemed to only key in on the bait if you were using a plain 1/4 ounce round jig head. my son threw the same bait only with a swim bait hook and had no hits unit he switched to the plain old jig head (it most of made the bait react just a little different triggering some strikes). Talked to a gentleman at the ramp that stated he had a really good day burning a spinnerbait right under the surface on flat points. You have heard correctly about the lake and wind....Stockton is a lake where you want to be very cautious of the wind and the future wind while you will be out....it can get very interesting in a hurry. Welcome to the lake and good luck.

We were camping at Hawker and on Friday night June 30 the park ranger from the Corp was going campsite to campsite letting everyone know that a Black was spotted within the Hawker Public use area and he made a point of saying that it was confirmed by the Conservation Department. They were wanting campers to be aware and not leave food out and around.

darinb - Stockton is a great lake, but like others have mentioned it can go from smooth as glass to whitecaps in a hurry so just be mindful of the conditions. We primarily launch out of Ruark (that is where we do most of our camping). Ruark is pretty steep and can be very congested with boats. When not camping we launch a lot of times out of the north ramp at mutton creek. If you are not concerned about being in the bigger water we like the Hawker launch as well. We have camped up there a few times and have always been surprised about the low level of boat traffic out of that ramp. I hope you enjoy your boat and your time on the lake.

MoCarp- I know what you are saying on being tempted to fish 24/7....it would not get really dark until about 10:30 to 11:00 and then it was daylight by 4. our first day there we fished until about 11pm and then went to back to camp and slept and woke up and it was light out (thought we had over slept) so we got up and started getting breakfast ready and looked at the clock and it was 4:15am. The mosquitos were not to bad last week but the biting black flies would tear you up if you did not have spray....but it was only around camp once on the water the bugs were virtually nonexistent. we saw several moose and the owner of the camp said she had a very large black bear hanging around the area but never saw it. the Float Plan pilot that delivered her a fresh supply of fuel on Monday said he seen it about 400 yards down the tracks when he was coming into land. Would definitely recommend to anyone to have a goal of doing a Canadian Fishing trip....absolute blast no matter where you go.

The name of the fishing camp was Flindt Landing Camp. We drove to Sioux Lookout Ontario and stayed the night and then took a train to camp. You either have to fly in from Sioux Lookout or take the train. The train ride is about 2 hours and it drops you off on the tracks at the camp (this is an experience all in itself). The Train can be a little unpredictable as to being on time. The boats were 15 foot v bottoms with 9.9 HP motors and you got 5 gallon of gas per day. The Lake was Called Heathcote. I believe the lake is 17 miles long and at the widest maybe 3/4 of a mile. Flindt Landing is the only fishing camp on the lake. There are several small cabins on an island that can sleep 4 and then one bigger that can sleep 8. We had a total of 12 in our group so we had the big cabin and then one smaller one. This is not a 5 start resort but a typical Northwest Ontario Fishing camp. New 5 gallon gas tanks were waiting for you every morning at the main dock and the lady was always out there to help switch tanks out and to offer any fishing advice and also ask about your days plans just in case you did not show back up. My son was beyond excited and once there he could hardly wait to wet a line. Growing up my dad would always say that he was more happy to watch me kill a deer of catch fish then he would have been if would have killed it or caught it. As I got older and my two boys are getting into hunting and fishing I am starting to fully understand what he was saying. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to watch him catch fish and nice ones at that, and to see the overall excitement on his face. It was also a pleasure to my two nephews doing the same with their dad and then watching my Dad spending time with 3 of his 4 grandsons (my youngest son has a few more yrs before he will be old enough to make such a long trip). I hope we can keep doing things like this in the future.

I know this is not a fishing report for Stockton but thought I would share. My Son and I along with my Dad, Brother-In-Law, two of my nephews, and 2 uncles made a trip to Canada last week. This was my sons first Canadian Fishing Trip. We had a great week of fishing and weather. No rain all week, which is my first, I have never had a full week without a rain storm. Anyway we fished primarily for walleye, but did spend sometime fishing for pike as well. We caught more walleye than you could count and majority were 20 inch plus with the 2 biggest of the trip going to my Brother-In-Law who had a 10 pounder and my Son had a 7 pounder (pic attached) as well as a 36 inch pike (we did not have the scale with us when he caught the pike, but the lady running the fishing camp said it would have went 12 to 15 pounds). It was a great week of fishing and spending time with oldest son and my father and other family enjoying the great outdoors. On a side the big walleyes were all released to swim another day as well as the big pike. My son was excited because he was able to register is walleye and pike and received a free spoon and will go into a drawing at the end of the season for prizes.

We fished the Ruark area last weekend and on Saturday there were several large floaters down around the mouth of Greaser. On Sunday fished the same area and did not see any floaters.

Spent the weekend camping for Mothers Day. It was a beautiful weekend but we experienced SLOW fishing. Caught some fish in the brush, some out deeper, and some in between. The fish we caught were caught on a variety of baits.....wiggle wart, top water, and creature baits. We started our day Saturday out of Ruark and because of the fog we made the decision to just put the trolling motor down and work the brush and rip rap to the bridge until the fog lifted. The fish in the picture is an example of the majority of fish we caught. My oldest boy was using a Live Target Top water bait. Sunday morning we got a late start...slept in and then had a great breakfast for mothers day and then the boys and I went fishing while mommy stayed back at camp with a cup of coffee and book and enjoyed a couple of hours of sipping coffee and reading. Sunday fishing was not much better slow and fish caught on a variety of baits.....never locked in on a pattern of bait or location. Ended the day with my mom/dad and sister and her family coming up for mothers day lunch and then spent the afternoon cruising the lake and my boys and nephews deciding that it was warm enough to swim......that was one thing that was not slow....when they hit water they moved pretty quick finding a boat to get out. Even though the fishing was slow....who could say that time at the lake with family is a bad thing. Thanking God for a Family that loves to spend time together.

A few pics from this weekend. No big fish this weekend but was definitely fun to catch them...the boys had a blast. Most fish were in the 14" range. Will be back up in a few weeks to go after them again.

Well despite the cold and rain for part of the weekend we did manage to catch a good amount of fish. On Saturday we fished only the Ned rig and a texas rigged pb&J biffle bug. Majority of the fish we caught in the 5 to 10 foot depth and we still picked up several right on the bank. total for saturday was around 20. Sunday morning/afternoon we caught around 15 give or take on the same baits but most were caught in 3 to 5 foot depth. All in all a great weekend with the wife and boys. Will try post pics later. Almost forgot. We fished greaser to the MDC ramp on around the bend from birch branch. Water temp all weekend ranged from 58 to 62.

Will be at the lake this weekend for our first camping trip of the year. I figure the lake will be on the rise and with the colder weather moving in should we slow our presentations down and also downsize our baits? Will the bass just hunker down in place and get closer to cover/structure or will they move out deeper? The plan of attack at this time is to slow down and move a little deeper and maybe concentrate on points. What do you all think?