zarraspook

J-Doc... A striper tournament.........man that could be fun. The weigh-ins would be thrilling! I joined the national striped bass association about 6 years ago... apparently they folded and are now the "Striped Bass Conservation Coalition".. The only place they were getting enough boats to pay for a tournament was on the east coast.. Plus the expence on adding "Striper Tubes" to a boat was about $ 1500-2000 .... You HAD to have them for "catch and release"........ .

That isn't a crappie and half -- That one is two and a half !!! I hope the bank fishermen ( and women ) are seeing / reading your reports... There is alot of good info in each one.... Keep thinning out those crappie so, they won't eat my bass eggs........................

I only caught 13 bass... so as the saying goes "nice guys finish last" (LOL).. I tried so many different lures, it looked like Bass Pro Shop exploded on the front of my boat... I caught a couple on a spinnerbait, a couple on a crankbait, a couple on a 6" lizzard, but the biggest two came on "OLD FAITHFUL" - zarraspook!!!!!! Was good talking with sixstring and his dad... They both were "kicking bass" when I caught up with them and it was obvious they only need a place to start....

GOOD deal..... I don't start night fishing for crappie until mid June... Sounds like I am missing the big boat !!!

Most of the people on this board have got burned on giving advice on where to fish on a given day.....When the requestor blanked , they blamed the advice.... If I was going to put in at Mutton creek , I would go around to Chicken Rock.. as you go into the cove - on your left is a steep bank that turns into a "pea gravel" type of bank that runs back to shore line brush... NO GRANTEES... Just an suggestion !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crappiequeen, I don't know where you are fishing but, my neighbor took me to stockton weds. afternoon and from 2-5pm we caught 19 crappie and all but 3 were 11.5-12 inches.... I had to swear to keep the place secret but, they all were caught in 4-6 foot of water.....

Fantastic report !!!!!! Thanks

Kwall... This link will take you to the Stockton map with boundies ... there a place to "click to enlarge" ... It shows how much land around Stockton is for hunting.... http://www.stocktonlake.com/pages/map

Here is a map of Greenfield, "CC" , "Springfield Cove" and the "39-Sons Creek" areas.....

I am supprised you found enough water , between boats, to fish.....

THANKS for the heads up !!!!!!!!!!!

4-3-12,, 9am-2pm Fished mouths and secondary points of coves for a mile either side of State Park Marina... Fishing was great until the sun came out.. Had 10 smallmouth – biggest 16.5” on a zarraspook and 9 Largemouth - biggest 17” using a Rogue jerkbait... Did take two Largemouth out of beds using a “sweet beaver” .... I want to again THANK EVERYBODY for their inputs on the Smallmouth for my son’s trip !!!!!!!! He should be here around the 20th.... I will post the results ....

There is a FREE ramp in the back of Greaser creek but, you wll need a good map to get to it... The roads are blacktop all the way... Greaser is a great place for crappie... Just off of the ramp is an old pond and I have caught a limit in less than an hour ( if they are stack there) .. Right now I would go north ( left standing on the ramp looking out at the lake )... This time of year the crappie are on the shore-line.......

There are two ramps at Cedar Ridge.. One is in the camp grounds for campers only BUT, the campgrounds don't "officially" open until the 16th of Arp and anyone can use the ramp until the campgrounds officially open.... There is plenty of shore line by both ramps and you should be able to launch your boat and move it off the ramp and finish loading your gear... If you have BING or Google maps ; you can see the lay-out of all the ramp areas.....

That is good info to know... Local readings are taken and sent to KC District office and then District post them on all the Lake's info page; that are under the KC office... http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/st/daily.cfm

THANKS for the additional information.......

Corp's Daily lake level and water temp on Pomme de Terre Lake :: http://www.nwk.usace...il/pt/daily.cfm It is usualy posted between 8 & 9am mon-fri......

Corp's Daily lake level and water temp on Stockton Lake :: http://www.nwk.usace...il/st/daily.cfm It is usualy posted between 8 & 9am mon-fri......

The "Daily Info" page on Stockton for today (( http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/st/daily.cfm )) says: Lake level = 866.64 and water temp = lake-53, river-54 With one live well in my boat -- I use small brass "Saftey pins" from Wally-World ; (a pack of 50= $ 0.69) to identify the second person's fish......

Mutton Creek has an year round camp grounds... LINK::: http://muttoncreekmarina.com/camping--watercraft-rentals.html I stayed there two years ago and they were reasonable and clean..

FIRST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE LAUNCH AT OLD STATE PARK RAMP ABOUT 10AM... THERE WAS SIX (6) PARKING SPOTS WITH BROKEN WINDOW GLASS IN THEM !!!!!!!!!! I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG THEY HAD BEEN THERE BUT, IT WA LESS THAN 12 HOURS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seen a DNR truck leaving the parking lot as we pulled in...... Fishing report—Fished main lake and secondary points on the west side from Hawker point to half way to Orleans Trail... we caught 13 Smallmouth- 3 over 15” , 2 largemouth-both over 15” and 4 Kentucky’s-all 13-14”; in a total of 2.5 hours (all catch and release).. We wanted to stay longer but, I would have needed 3 more sets of trolling motor batteries ...... Kentucky’s came on 3” swimbait (shad ).... Largemouth came on “red-eyed” shad and the Smallmouth came on the 3” swimbait (shad) and a 4” lizard (watermelon with chart use claws)...

Check the "Stockton Smallmouth Follow-Up" report ( just below your post ).....

Went to Stockton today, to follow up on the smallmouth leads from my request for info.... Worked both sides of the L’ll Sac arm from the State Park marina to Cedar ridge ... The wife went with me and we took 2 dozen minnows ( just in case )... Arrived at the lake at noon and left at 1700hrs.. To make a 5 hour story short – I threw jigs, tubes, 4” lizards, chigger craws, crawdad cranks, spinnerbaits, deep jerkbaits, 3” swimbait, spoons, and the wife had one minnow set at 25’ and tried to follow the contours with another as I worked around... WE CAME HOME WITH **** 22 minnows **** I found pockets of 54-55 degree surface water.. most was 48-50 degrees... We worked from 1’ to 25’..... Graph showed small balls of bait fish 20-25’ and bigger fish(?)[wouldn't hit a spoon or minnow] at 32-38’ over 40-50’ of water and showed NOTHING from 8-18’..... I did get to see a lot of structure that will hold smallmouth , when the water warms...... THANKS FOR ALL THE INPUTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! P.S. I will make you proud next trip...............

Your, yesterday, trip was very tipical for a "winter-time" fishing trip... The Conservation agent was right on the money about the water temp.. To clairify general water temp of 50 and pockets of 55-60.. In the winter if you get on the water before mid-day it is just because you enjoy the sunrise..... Being "new" to the lake, you really need to get a contour map to find the areas talked about on the forums...

Fishbait3, Thanks......