shockley32

I've been reading your reports for a number of months. I don't understand something, how come you don't tournament fish? If you have the ability to CONSISTENTLY catch 5-8 pound bass why don't I see you at bass tournaments?? I've fished several bass tournaments and occasionally see some great fish brought to the scales but nothing like I read in your reports. I'm not trying to stir up any trouble but would you please put your money where your report is??? Brad

The crappie fishing has been good on Pomme De Terre. You can catch several fishing standing timber with a jig or minnow. The bigger fish are coming from the trees right now. Black/Chart, Red/Chart, Blue/White are all great colors. Slab Busters, Tubes, K Grubs, Triple Ripples are all working excellent. The fish are anywhere in 3 to 25 feet of water and 2 to 15 feet down. Pitching jigs, swimming jigs and vertical jigging are all working well. Fishing a minnow is bringing in a handful as well. Brush piles are hot and hotter. This is some fast action and would be a great place to take a kid or a beginner to crappie fishing. However the size is much smaller in the brush right now. Start by swimming a jig over the top of the pile and them go in to vertical the brush. Same colors as above and minnows are great. Until next time - great fishin'. Brad

Crappie Slayers Tournament Series Pittsburg State Park July 10th, 2009 7 Fish 1. Farrell/Farrell 5.84 lbs 2. Oliver/Williams 4.79 lbs 3. K Wilson/D Wilson 4.68 lbs 4. Roberts/Roberts 4.17 lbs 5. J wilson/D Wilson 3.81 lbs Big Crappie 1. Farrell/Farrell .955 lbs We all had a great time and several fish were caught. The lake level is getting back to normal and the fishing is heating up. We have one more Friday Night Tournament on July 31st. Come on out, catch some fish and meet some great people. Brad

Pomme is a great lake. There's no need to wait for the water temps to come back down you can catch several right now. For bass hit some main lake points, especially ones that are long and tapering. If you throw a crankbait and then follow with a jig, worm, tube, etc... you should catch several fish. Also find the green conservation signs and throw a jig and plastic worm right into the brush. For crappie hit standing timber and brush piles with a jig. Good luck and great fishin'. Brad

Booking a trip with Bob (Stockton Lake Guide Service) is one of the best decisions you'll make. I've been with Bob on a few trips and we have always caught a lot of fish. I've even been in sunny blue bird skies, not very good fishing conditions, and we've caught several. Good luck and great fishing! Brad

Crappie Slayers Tournament Series Friday Night Tournament Lake Pomme De Terre Pittsburg State Park July 10th, 2009 Weigh 7 fish 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM Entry Fee $20 Boat $5 big fish For more information please e-mail at shockley32@hotmail.com. The fishing has been great of late, come on out to catch some fish and have a great time. This Friday night tournament is starting to get going, we had 10 boats last time and look forward to it getting bigger. Brad

It was Halloween day in 07 I caught a brown male weighing 16 lbs 4 oz. About an hour later I landed my second biggest brown 12 lbs 6 oz this time a female. Both were caught below outlet one with three generators going. Used a 5" black/gold stick bait. Brad

Crappie Slayers Tournament Series Lake Pomme De Terre Pittsburg State Park June 26th, 2009 Friday Night Tournament 7 Fish 1. Halleimeir / Reth 5.38 2. Farrell / Farrell 5.13 3. Wilson / Wilson 4.79 4. Morgans / Williams 4.00 5. Shockley / Shockley 3.70 6. McGuire / Jackson .975 Big 1. Farrell / Farrell .97 lbs We had 10 boats show up. It's getting better and we hope to see it grow. This is a great tournament for any angler especially those who haven't fished any tournaments before. The fish were biting really good, however the big fish got lock jaw just before the tournament. Those who had prefished earlier in the week all said they were catching quality fish, then comes the tournament and only keepers! At least I know I'm not the only one this happens too! Several fish were caught and we had a great time. See you at the next one! Brad

Vince, After it's all over I'll help you find a new place to live if needed! Brad

I've used both of those Eagle units. They are more than sufficient to locate the stuff your wanting. However the last graph I purchased for the front of my boat was a Humminbird 717. This thing is great, I can see anything I want and have been very pleased with it. I only have about $200 in the unit. I have the 997 CSI unit on the console and the 717 works just as well and was a fraction of the price. Brad

Crappie Slayers Tournament Series Friday Night Tournament June 26th, 2009 Pittsburg State Park 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM 7 Fish Entry Fee: $20 Boat $5 Big Crappie Pays 1 in 5 The crappie fishing has been excellent. Come on out, meet some great anglers and catch some fish! If you would like more info or a flier please e-mail me: shockley32@hotmail.com Brad

The fishing is as hot as the weather! Limits are coming off Pomme in about 2 1/2 hours. Jigs around standing timber, brush piles and channel ledges. You can catch crappie anywhere from 1' of water to 15' of water. Today I caught most of mine on standing timber. Tried to focus on trees I have fished very little in the past, hopefully learn some fairly new areas better. The best bite came letting a 1/16th oz jig fall past trees. Sometimes they were up top on the tree and sometimes down deeper. Slow and patient was the key. Hit a couple of brush piles, vertical jig a tube in the top 2' of brush. At first they were just pulling my jig off my jig head, decide to outwit the suckers and put on a tube where the bottom of the skirt was even with the hook in the bend. They ended up with pierced lips and my tube body stayed on my jig head! My neighbor had an easy limit fishing channel edges. The fish today were a lot better quality than Saturday. Had enough weight this morning to have won the tournament. I suppose that is how it goes, just keepers the day of tourney and good fish during the week! Water Color: Moderate Stain Water Temp: 88 degrees Jig: Slab buster - blue/chart, black/chart Tubes - Black/Red/Chart, Yellow/Pepper/Chart, Pale Yellow/Pepper/Chart Grubs - Black/Chart, Yellow/White/Chart Go find Limitville! Brad

The crappie fishing continues to be excellent. There are a tremendous number of fish being caught. The lake level has come up 3-4 feet since the rains on Monday night / Tuesday morning. The water up the Lindly and Pomme arms is pretty dirty. When fishing the dirty water make sure to use the appropriate colors - black/chart was pretty good. The better fishing was found where the water turned from muddy to a stained color this is from the dam about 7 miles down both arms. Use jigs fishing standing timber (what standing timber you can find right now) 5-10' deep. The brush piles produced a number of fish, swim jigs over the top of the brush and then vertical jig in the heart of the pile. In five hours today we caught 50-60 fish. Jig color - black/chart, electric chicken, yellow/chart/pepper, red/chart water temp - 82 water clarity - muddy to stained Good luck and great fishin'. Brad

Crappie Slayers Tournament Series Results Hermitage State Park Lake Pomme De Terre 7 Fish 1. Hallemeier / Reth 6.24 lbs 2. Bacon / Wheeler 6.18 3. Morgans / Williams 5.74 4. Shockley / Stokes 4.96 5. Massey / Meyers 4.74 Big Crappie 1. 1.15 The fish were biting like crazy! Tons of dinks plus a lot of keeper fish. Look forward to seeing everybody next Friday night for the night tourney. Brad

Tube Color: Green pumpkin with purple flake, puke and smoke with purple flake. Brad

What an awesome response! Brad

Thanks for the explanation and apology. That makes more sense. Sorry to hear about your dad. If you need anything please let us know. Brad

Crappie - fish standing timber and brush piles. Right now any jig with chartruse in it is hot. There are several green signs marking brush piles all over the lake, if one doesn't hold fish just move to the next. Start by swimming jigs over the brush and then move and vertical jig. If no bites in 10 minutes move to the next. It won't take long and you'll have a good mess of crappie. Bass - check out any cove with secondary points. You should be able to locate fish with crankbaits, Bomber fat free shad have been great. After fish are located slow down and throw a jig or plastics. There have been a lot of 12" fish, must work through those to find some good ones but you eventually will. Muskie - Cast 10,001 times! With all that said that's the report before the tremendous down pour this morning. I know it will cause the lake to come up and make the water muddier, we'll just have to see how the lake changes. Good luck and let us know how it goes! Brad

Crappie Slayers Tournament Series Lake Pomme De Terre June 20th, 2009 Hermitage State Park 7:00 - 2:00 Weigh 7 Fish Come on to Pomme, catch some fish and have a great time! They had a tremendous rain this morning so I don't know what the bite will be like but we'll give it a go! If you want a flier just send me an e-mail at shockley32@hotmail.com. Brad

They're trying to get a good quality tournament series going. These things take time, especially crappie tournaments. Crappie tournaments are just as much about getting to visit and develop friendships than the money. Why all the hate? If you don't like the tournament series you don't have to come back and fish anymore but why try to drag the whole thing down? Perhaps I'm missing something and you can explain. Brad

Pomme is a great bass lake with plenty of good fish. However you will have to weed through the 12 inchers to find them. You should do great throwing cranks, plastics and jig. Try the first three coves by the dam, you should catch enough to make your trip worth while. Brad

Les, I did a little of both. Generally I'll just pitch a jig and let it fall back to me, sometimes I will swim it back depending on what depth they are holding. Normally I'll approach a tree, log or brush pile by pitching on all sides first, or swimming a jig over the top of the brush pile, and then I go in and vertical jig. Yesterday it didn't seem to matter how you approached it or what you did cause they were hungry! Although we caught a lot of fish in a short period of time you had to pay extremely close attention or you wouldn't know they hit. They were just barely picking up the jig, mostly you could see you line stop moving or come up just a little. Brad

Hot, hot and hot! You should have no problem catching several fish. Two of us caught our limits in about 3 hrs. We also caught 30-35 shorts. We had about 10 that were 12" and 20 that were 10"-11". Fished standing timber, brush piles and channel edges. Didn't seem to matter where you fish they were biting. Fished from five feet of water to twenty, anywhere from one foot down to the bottom. Used Jigs: Slab Busters - black/chart, red/chart, white/chart. Grubs - black/chart, electric chicken, yellow/white/chart Water clarity - stained Water temp - 75.5 degrees Go get 'em! Brad

Thanks for the info. The next time I make it down to Joplin I'm going to load up. Brad

Vince, I'm sure you already know and have experienced the tournaments. Any time the weather is adverse - wind, rain, snow, cold front, etc... the crappie tournament fishermen just don't show. It's also been my experience that any other kind of tournament can have an adverse effect on the one you put on. Most guys who tournament fish will fish crappie, bass, walleye, etc.. They will always go where the biggest payout is. Generally far more bass tournament fishermen than crappie so that is where they go. Good luck with the next one. Hope to see you at the Friday night tournament in a couple of weeks. Brad