GRANDPA TATER

If you're not going to brag Ed, I will for you! I have lived vicariously following Ed's first season as a co-angler on the National Walleye Tour. In a year of ups and downs on the Tour he had a lot more ups than downs! At Lake Erie he was in 75th place after Day 1 and ended in 8th! He qualified for the season-end championship (top 40) at Ottertail Lake in Minnesota and then made it to the Top 10 finals and ended with a 5th place finish! And on top of that he finished 2nd in the Co-Angler of the Year standings - only 2 points out of first! Congrats on a great season brother!

Our totals in 3.5 days last week were 10 keepers and 22 shorts. From what I was told that is actually a better keeper to shorts than most people are experiencing.

I mainly fished mid-lake to the dam the past 3 and a half days. We were finding some walleye bottom bouncing 2 oz bouncers with 5 foot crawler harnesses. Majority of the fish we caught were 14 - 19 foot. We caught crappie trolling on both Bandits and Flicker Shad. It seemed they really preferred something with chrome on either baits. Most of our crappie were 20+ FOW in coves usually related to brush we saw on the electronics. We trolled at around 1.5 mph. We had a 14 incher and 2 others over 13. Good luck I hope this helps. I am certainly no expert but we found a few. The other fish will keep you busy too!

A buddy and I spent three and a half days on Stockton this week and had a blast! We did not make it down in 2020 due to Covid. Due to work and calenders we came down a couple weeks later than normal. We drove down and got on the water Monday at 8. We started out trolling Flicker shad, jointed Flicker shad, and 200 and 300 series Bandits. We started on a couple of the spots that have been productive and didn't even get bit. We went into a different cove and caught a 15.5 walleye on a secondary point. We were on the board! Once again spots that produced on previous weren't doing it. We finally caught a nice crappie in 25 feet of water over a brushpile. We found a few more brushpiles in the fromt third of same cove in 25 -30 feet with fish suspended over them and managed 5 more keeper crappie including one over 12 and one over 13 inches. We pulled the boat out about 12:30, cleaned fish and checked into the Owl Haven. It is under new management by the way and they are working on it - Van and Brenda are super nice. We really like having a full fridge and stove and cooking. We unloaded our gear, sat in the A/C and ate lunch, and then went back out about 4:30 and trolled until 7:30 when we ran out of battery. We caught another 15.5 inch walleye on a secondary point. We caught one more keeper crappie along with a few other fish. We went to troll the dam and on the east end there were 3 loons. Hearing them calling was cool! Tuesday morning we went out with Ed Callaway aka LMT-OUT guide service (660-890-5262). He told us it was a tough bite as the fish were still in transition and weren't really in a summer pattern yet. I would highly recommend any one wanting to learn the lake and how to walleye fish to go with Ed. We had a great time, learned a lot, laughed a lot and ended with 6 keeper walleye and 4 shorts. The majority of our fish came bottom bouncing with crawler harnesses. By the end of the trip fishing with Ed was like fishing with a fishing buddy more than a guide. On Wednesday we started out using the new bottom bouncing technique Ed taught us and we caught 1 keeper walleye and three shorts. We also lost a couple including another definite keeper. The smallmouth, largemouth and drum kept us busy as well. By 11:30 it was hotter than blue blazes without a hint of wind. We decided if we trolled we'd at least have some wind moving. We went back to try where we caught the crappie on Monday in the first third of the cove and struck out. On a whim we went further in and found fish in the back third. We hit the walleye nursery and caught another 10 shorts. We managed another keeper walleye and four real nice crappie including one over 13 and another over 14 inches! We even managed 4 big bluegill that went in the livewell. Once again the smallmouth, largemouth, channel cat and drum kept us busy! Even had a first trolling by catching about a 3 pound flathead. Pulled off the water about 5:30 after 9 hours of fishing tired and hot. We pan-fried the blue gill and and a couple of the crappie in butter with a little Old Bay for dinner and they were awesome. We only fished a half day on Thursday before needing to drive back. We bottom bounced the whole time and caught all the usual culprits (we were especially hard on the drum!) along with five short walleye. It's amazing how you keep being hopeful that it's a nice walleye when the drum hit! The walleye all came in 14-18 feet on secondary points. And by the way for us it seemed a lure, whether a Bandit or a Flicker shad, had to have chrome on it to get bit consistently when we were trolling. I can't wait to get back down and hit my favorite lake again later this year. I'm envious of all you who live close! Tater

Thanks for the replies.

Actually not heading down until next week. Hopefully the weather stabilizes.

Weather.com has a chance of rain for the next 4 days. Has the lake level increased much? I imagine the upper lake is dirty and any place the cove has any significant water coming in. How far up the lake has the dirty water made it? TIA for any reports. Tater

Thanks for the heads up on colors Big Keene! We're you pulling 200 or 300 Bandits? Will do! Really looking forward to fishing with Mr. Callaway!

Thanks for the replies/advice! We will pull baits on four rods and will try a variety of colors of Flicker Shad and 200 and 300 series Bandits until we hopefully find out the preferred bait and color. With 3.5 days to try (the other half day will be with Ed) I hope we can get a pattern going. Either way it's going to be fun.

My buddy and I are headed down to Stockton for 4 days of fishing here in a few days. We did not make it down last year due to Covid and I missed it baaad! We have a trip during our scheduled with Ed aka lmt-outfitters. I'm really looking forward to learning from him! Besides that we plan to be doing a lot of trolling cranks primarily looking for crappie. Has any one been trolling cranks lately? Any success? And I'm not looking for anyone's specific spots, but any advice on depth, arm, part of the lake, baits, etc. to get us started in the right direction would be appreciated! TIA Tater

So is anyone still pulling cranks this late? Or has water temp dropped enough that the fish won't chase? I am a generalist and enjoy Stockton because of the variety of fish you can catch other times of the year while trolling. Just wondering if it would still work this late in the fall. Thanks in advance for advice and thoughts. Tater

I'm just wondering how much rain fell in the area down there? It was pretty incredible in the KC Metro. The official measurement at KCI was .25". However 17 miles south of there the report was 8 inches. We received 6 inches at my work in Raytown. Widespread 4 -6 inches in the area. Just wondering how much down there and if it wull be muddying all the water up. I'm hoping to get back down that way soon. Missing my favorite lake bad!

MrGiggles what baits do you have success with when trying to troll at shallower depths?

Thanks for the hint MrGiggles. I did not try fishing higher in the water column. I tried changing trolling speeds, bait colors, different depths of water, and pulling different directions i.e from shallower to deeper and vice versa. I did note we caught some of the crappie on the turn but that seemed normal.

We didn't run real far south but there was not a lot of "Big stuff" floating in the main channel on Wednesday. That can, and likely will, change with all the Tuesday through Thursday water being added. It was definitely a challenge with the spikes pf barometric pressure not to mention the high water. I hope to get back down there later after she goes back down closer to normal. I do love fishing on that lake! I was really surprised that we did not catch a single white bass while trolling. That is usually almost a given..

Many have questioned my sanity (and rightfully so) for many years.. LOL

The gentleman at Orleans trail said he had to wade to work yesterday! They came out and added another extension onto the ramp by the time we got there to clean fish in the evening.

My buddy and I drove down to Stockton on Tuesday morning and came home today. We planned on 3 days of fishing but ended up getting to actually fish less than a day and a half due to the weather. We got into Stockton on Tuesday about 9 AM in the middle of a thunderstorm. By looking at the radar we saw that we'd have a wait until it would be safe to get on the lake. Many thanks to the kind lady at our motel who let us get into the room well before check-in. We unloaded the gear into the room and watched the radar and finally thought everything with lighting in it was past us and put in on the water at Orleans Trail at 2. The very nice staff there were concerned about us going out and let us know if it got worse to come back and get in a slip. We fished from 2 until 5 in the rain (in every variety from pouring to drizzle) and the bite was excellent! When the sun came out the bite dropped off to next to nothing. We fished until 8 and am not sure we put a fish in the livewell after 5. We were trolling Bandit 300's and #7 Flick'r shads. I am normally a big Bandit guy but will have to say that the Flicker's outperformed the Bandits on this trip. Our first fish (about 10 minutes in) was an almost 21 inch walleye! We ended the evening with 15 keeper crappie, 5 walleye (only the one keeper), 4 smallmouth (one was 16+) and two drum. The crappie and walleye made a nice bag of fillets. The two best colors on the Flick'rs were purple over pink and firetiger. Tuesday we started by driving to Mutton Creek (with a stop for breakfast in Arcola at Ken's Kafe - two thumbs up!) as we heard there had been a good bite down there at Mutton and at Ruark. We fished for about 6 hours there around Mutton and over toward Ruark but the bite was very tough and the wind really picked up with white caps. It made boat control difficult. So we pulled out there, ate some lunch, and moved up closer to Hawker. We fished there for a couple of hours until a buddy texted us about the weather forecast. I'm sure glad he did as neither of us had internet service and had no idea what was coming. The weather last night was certainly something with storms including tornados (according to the weather channel) passing on either side of Stockton. We ended yesterday with 6 walleye (2 keepers) but only 6 crappie. The water in the backs of coves was starting to dirty up. There was a lot of floating stuff that slid down the line to the baits killing the action so we'd have to reel them in and re-deploy them. We intended to fish for 4 or 5 hours this morning but woke to thunderstorms and saw they were going to continue all morning. We packed out tin the rain and headed home. I understand that areas around Stockton have received almost 15 inches of rain since Monday. I have a feeling the lake (which is 11 feet over pool) is going to keep rising fast and expect the water in coves may dirty up some more. BTW Many of the females we caught still had eggs. Water temp ranged from 64 to 70. We still had a great time! It was my buddy's first trip to Stockton. He loved it and I'm sure we will be back soon. Thanks to all for putting fishing reports on here as it does help - especially for those of us who aren't local. Tater

Thanks all for the reports. I am sitting at my desk at work chomping at the bit! We hope to be on the water by 9 tomorrow morning. Weather forecast looks iffy for fishing tomorrow afternoon but Wednesday and Thursday look good at this point!

Awesome! Thanks so much for the information. I hope to be posting up some positive reports next week.

Thanks! I've been down there trolling cranks a couple times in the last 3 or 4 years with a different buddy who does it pretty much every year. I have an idea of some places to try and hit. I hope the T-storms clear out early on Tuesday as we will be down there fairly early in the AM. Other than being a little windy, the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday look pretty good. He has a big Lund with a 115 so I think we'll be OK even if it's a little bumpy. I love Stockton and am hoping to show my buddy what a really cool lake it truly is!

Nice!

Thank you for the update and information on pulling cranks. I am headed down there next Tuesday - Thursday. It'll be my buddy's first time to Stockton after I've talked about it for years. Our primary purpose is crappie but would like to run into a walleye or. We are bringing bottom bouncers to try for some walleye as well. Not looking for any spots but would you mind letting me know the depth of the water you were fishing and what depth the fish were hanging at? Thanks!