Walleyedmike

Crappiequeen, if money is no object get the Minn Kota Terrova with I-Pilot. You will not be disappointed, it's the cats meow! I have to disagree with fishinwrench, the spot lock works great on mine. If you have the room to add an extra battery, you might consider bumping up to a 24 volt 80 lb thrust. You should be able to troll all day with it, and it's not that much more expensive than the 12 volt 55 lb thrust. WM

Good information Straw Hat. Do you think the winter circulation on an unfrozen lake is similar to the spring and fall circulation on the charts? WM

Thanks for the report Bob. You can PM the GPS coordinates of those crappie locations at your leisure. LOL! WM

http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/st/Brochure/Stockton-LakeMap.pdf Here's a link to the Corps of Engineer map of Stockton Lake that may help a bit Keith. You might consider cutting loose with a little cash and buy a good Stockton Lake map at one of the local bait shops or Bass Pro. You can mark area that have been good for you on it for the future. WM

I've heard reports of people catching a few in their favorite spawn fishing areas. Hit 'em you'll probly catch some! WM

No rehab will be any more effective than a little fishing Straw Hat! Glad you were able to get out, I look forward to your future reports. I'll start heading back down in April when the campground opens, so will let you guys know where not to fish then. LOL WM

I haven't heard anything from any of my sources about the spawn being on at Stockton. It looks to me like it would be some tough walking on that rip rap on the dam to try to fish it, but I'm sure there are some that do it. A lot of the casting suspended cranks along the dam is done at night when you may have less wind, otherwise you might try points near the dam where maybe you can stay out of the wind a bit. Post up if you have any luck! WM

Let me preface this with the fact I haven't fished Stockton pre-spawn. If the walleye are in fact still pre-spawn, I'd fish staging areas like points of coves with feeder creeks/rivers. Points near the dam or the rip rap along the dam may work as well. Casting suspended stick baits especially at night is a popular presentation. Might try trolling spinner rigs or drifting a lindy rig near the points. Don't be afraid to fish shallow. I'm sure others will check in with more local info and maybe some spots to try. Best of luck! WM

Heck Straw Hat, I must have missed the discussion about your surgery. Glad everything worked out okay. Best of luck with your up coming surgery in 2012. You might have to get one of those phones that you can talk into like Bob Bennet has to make posting here easier while your arm is out of commission! WM

Merry Christmas Stockton fisher people! May your New Year be happy and healthy. Thanks to each of you for the fishing information shared on the Stockton Fishing Forum. WM

I think they don't put brush in the lower part of the lake because straw hat has it all full of brush all ready. WM

I just email the pics on my phone to myself and then I can open the email on my computer and save the picture in my pic files. Most current cell phones allow you to add email addresses to your contacts, just add yourself as a contact and share your photos! WM

Nice...pics would be better, though WM

The link is working for me, Tom. Hope you get it working, lotsa valuable information there. Might try to copy and paste it into your internet address bar? WM

...and don't forget to PM your waypoints to me!!! WM

Nice. Thanks for the report Straw. WM

I still have this trolling motor. Its a 24 volt, though. I took it off to put a Terrova w/i-pilot on my boat. Only problem is, I'm not sure when I'll be down again. If interested, shoot me a PM and we'll figure something out. http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=27748 WM

https://larsensa.hostinggreatlakes.com/appieshop/ I have not personally used these products, the wonderfoam and restore boat polish get rave reviews on the walleye central website. Seems like the wonderfoam is not recommended to use on plastic, though. If you try it, please let us know if it works as advertised. WM

The camper will stay, the boat will come home. May try to hook up with a buddy or two for a couple of winter trips. Thanks for the pep talk Straw Hat! WM

Welcome back Time Killer. Hope you don't mind straw hat, but I'm gonna post my October 8th results here as well. You will feel like a far superior fisherman than I, which you should. I trolled crawler harnesses for several miles along the north bank of the little sac arm of the lake. One 17" walleye and an 11" crappie along with some really small bass. Fed a couple dozen crawlers to other little bass and gills as well. It was pretty windy, but a beautiful day on the lake. Unfortunately, the camp ground is gonna be closing at the end of the month. I'll probably only get down one more time to fish a half day or so and close up the camper. Where did the summer go? WM

That is indeed a walleye yaknar. Cute little guy. Be careful, if you catch a few more you may become addicted to walleye fishing. WM

Headed down to Stockton last weekend. Fished for a couple hours on Saturday before the rain pushed us off the lake. I have had big problems figuring out a summer pattern this year, but was able to catch a limit of 15 1/2 and 16" walleyes on Saturday. Last year, slow death rigs was my go to presentation. Haven't had any luck with it this year, so I kind of abandoned it for spinner harnesses. Gave slow death another shot and it paid off. I did change it up a bit, used a whole crawler instead of a half crawler as is recommended. I usually put in at Hartley, but the lot was full (looked like kwall got the last parking spot) so I put in at State Park and fished the little Sac arm around an island (hint, hint). All I caught were keepers, but none over 16". Didn't get to talk to kwall, but he came in a few hours after me, so I assume he was catching a bunch. (Report kwall?) WM

I was thinking the same thing boobie. He had a family member with some health issues a while back, hope all is well. WM

Good job guys, I haven't had muck luck figuring out a summer walleye pattern. Hopefully I will get a better grip on the fall fishing. WM

Thanks for the report Bob. I haven't been able to buy a keeper walleye on Stockton the last few trips down. I haven't used the intense action crawler hooks for a while. Guess I should have, I had switched to trolling cranks on lead to cover more water and hopefully get reaction bites...VERY limited success and no keepers. Leave me a few for Labor Day weekend. WM