streamer

Thanks for the compliment. I keep experimenting with different configurations for trolling and occasionally use planer boards, but they aren’t practical for most of my crappie trolling. Trolling long runs on flats for walleye, planer boards work well. When you need to make a turn to get back on a school of nomadic crappie, not so much! I’ll be adding a set of 16’ rods to my arsenal before next year! I’ll probably put the rod racks back on the front of the boat on occasion and experiment with pushing cranks again also. Sounds like a good option for quick turns to get back on those schools of crappie!

Got to spend the morning on Stockton with a new friend a week or so ago. We had a great time, but fishing wasn’t fantastic that day. I had much better luck the following day when I snapped some weights on to get the crankbaits down deeper. Check out his YouTube channel, he has lots of good videos on there. https://youtu.be/d39KteySReE

I just used snap weights this time, but have used 3-way swivels and a sinker off of a dropper line in the past! 30 feet of lead core line ahead of a bait works well also.

Found some fish out deeper today. An ounce of lead out ahead of the crankbaits got them in the strike zone.

That’s crazy how deep the thermo is. This is by far the clearest water I’ve seen on Stockton though. Those are beaver lake thermocline depths. I guess I’ll dive a little more in Stockton this year and skip out on a few scuba trips to Beaver lake!

Thanks for putting this tournament together. We had a good time on the lake and discussions with the other fishermen at weigh in. Looking forward to doing this again next year!

If staying for the meeting is not a requirement, can other arrangements be made? I’d be happy to fill out a form and send it back by whatever means necessary along with a check, money order or PayPal payment. For entry fee plus an additional Absent fee if needed! Getting out of work in Joplin at 6, heading to Springfield to pay, then getting home at 9pm to pack the boat. That cuts into family time and limits sleep before getting out of the house at 5am. Please let me know if other arrangements can be made. Thanks

Haven’t heard anything about this in a while. Has anything changed?

That’s good to hear! I looked at my calendar and it looks like I’ll be able to make it, already found a buddy to be my partner also. I hope there’s a ton of boats that show up, it’d be nice to meet a bunch of the local crappie fisherman.

I’ll probably fish this tournament if I can make it over as it’s for a good cause and Stockton doesn’t have many crappie tournaments. I feel there is a need for more crappie/walleye tournaments on Stockton. Having said that, I’m wondering if no one has responded yet due to the lower payout. I’m not trying to stir anything up here or criticize, I’m just observing that no one has replied to this post yet. There are a bunch of local crappie fisherman that follow this forum. Hope you get a great turnout and I’m looking forward to tournament. Thanks for the invite.

Where is Bud's bait at? Sounds like I need to stop in there sometime and get some binks spoons!

Made it back out today to BB for walleye with the youngest kiddo and a friend. Not as good of a day as we had on Labor Day because of no breeze or chop on the lake. Managed to get a dozen fish to the boat with 6 keepers over 4 hours. Still beats a good day at work!

Rps pretty much nailed it. Channel swings near points or flats always have some fish nearby somewhere. Might take a while to find them, and always a chance of them being tight lipped, but they will be around there somewhere during late summer/early fall.

The Arkie 350 series is very similar to the bandit 300 and has some colors almost identical to mad cow. They can be bought for $3.50 each and work about identical. I stocked up on about 25 Arkies this summer because of the Bandit price hike. No complaints yet, but they do run about 1' shallower with 100' of line out.

Nice work! We found a good bite mid afternoon that started slowing down after 5pm. Makes me wonder if the dam cut back generation around that time!