straw hat

This is where CC highway crosses the lake. Also known as Greenfield Landing. This is on the big sac arm.

Most impressive. If I was any greener I would look like a martian.

"Also, just thinking out loud, is there any way to neuter drum? " The best way I have found is dynamite. You could chum an area and then perform a mass circumcision. Just kidding. lol

Sometimes they I can get minnows like that at Bait Masters by Aldrich.

I use to do a lot of catfishing just after the last of the ice would come off the lake. Of course the timing varied a lot each year. The shad have a lot of die off during cold winters and those dead shad float to the surface and freeze in the ice. As soon as the ice starts melting those shad would be released from the ice and the cats would come up and feed on them. Look for steep shores where the wind is blowing in and fish anywhere from 2 to 10 ft deep. On a good day I could catch 4 to 6 nice channels. I never kept the fish to eat though as most had been feeding on algae all winter and had discolored meat and a strong algae smell. By the way I always used live minnows. They seemed to work well.

I can't believe they are fire ants. That would be far to north for them. You can never tell though how a species will adapt. That would be a bummer as they play heck with cows that stumble into them.

I guess that leaves moles. All we need now is a good dermatologist to remove the ugly things.

If it has an opening next to it then I would think it is excavation dirt from woodchucks, gophers or other burrowing animals, if not I would lean toward ants, moles or foraging animals like armadillos or bear but on those cases you can usually see the dig marks. If you think it might be from a digging animal then closely look at the mound, real close and you should be able to see any hairs left by the animal when digging. If you find hairs try and take a picture of them against a white sheet of paper and I should be able to identify it if I can tell the colors.

I wonder if you were talking about me. The wife and I had our boat sink in early March one year (1987). We went in to 28F water. Luckily there were a couple trees nearby we could hold on to. Someone heard us holler and came got us out of the lake. even half out of the water holding on to the trees we wouldn't have lasted long. I am so glad the Lord walks with us. BE CAREFUL! Please.

Merry Christmas to all and their families.

Merry Christmas back to you and to everyone on the forum.

WOW MoCarp. That brings tears to my eyes. My wife is Korean and her father was an ardent carp fisherman for n ot only the common carp but also the Pang. (a smaller carp). It brought back memories of many trips him and I made to the lakes in Korea. Except for 2 or 3 reservoirs (no boats allowed) all the other fishing places are private and are relatively expensive to fish. I have seen many of those places lined up with fishermen like opening day of trout season. My father-in-law passed away about 15 years ago and I miss our trips together. A fine man. By the way I have several of the big Korean fishing magazines (All carp) and if you would like to borrow them send me a PM. I will be glad to share.

All of the above are channels. Blues get close to 100 lbs and 20 or 30 lbs is fairly common. I am in agreement with Billethead, that one is a male channel in spawn. There is actually some good fishing for channels this time of year if you can find out which part of the bluffs they are schooled up at. Sometimes the schools will contain over a 100 fish but you better have good electronics to find them. When I ws younger I use to do that a lot during winter. I would have to make 10 or 20 stops in my favorite spots until (if) I found them. Then I might limit out I n an hour or so. That is too much work for an old man like me. lol By the way those are some nice fish in those photos.

The MDC has assured me they have never caught a blue cat in any of there annual fish surveys and with my 32 years of catfishing on Stockton I can say I have never caught one. The tail method is fairly good but not entirely accurate. The only way to tell for sure is to count the spines on the anal fin.

That is possible. I talked to many of you guys as you went by.

Many of you may know my posts from the Stockton forum. My wife and I do a lot of crappie bank fishing. Well yesterday we decided to head to PDTL to see what it was like. I was very surprised and impressed with the bass anglers. On Stockton my wife and I have problems with bass anglers running over our lines, buzzing by at full speed right next to our slip bobbers, casting over our lines, etc. Well yesterday seemed to be a busy day on Pomme for the bass anglers. We probably had 10 to 15 pass by us as they worked the banks for bass/walleye. EBERY one of them slowed down, went well wide of us and did not even try to cast toward us as they went by. The boats that were running down the lake and were coming in our general direction ALL slowed down to a trolling speed, went by well away from us and then gunned it back up to plane once well past. I just wanted to say it was a pleasure to share the lake with you and you should be proud of your sportsmanship. It is one of the reasons that my wife and I were able to walk away will 20 total crappie with several in the 11 to 13" range. 22 to 26' deep tight to bluffs. Good fishing to all.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you and your families. Give Thanks for your blessings and hold your families close.

That's probably it. Makes sense. Thanks for the info.

I noticed the Corp has really increased the discharge from the Lake in the last few days. They have dropped it 4" in the last 2 days alone. Anybody know why? Maybe increased electrical demand because of air conditioner use? NOT

Just wanted to throw this in the mix. Prime otter pelts have been selling at around $30 each until about a year ago, They are now estimated to bring around $13 a pelt this winter. Popularity has declined.

You know I forgot to mention something. Someone commented on the MDC brush piles not lasting very long. I use to live in the Branson area numerous decades ago and until 2 years ago my old bass fishing partner from down there was still alive. He often related to story to me about other bass fisherman we both new who went out with a large rope and hay hook, snag the new MDC brushpiles and dragged them to where they wanted them That way only they would know the location. I know that I put out over 200 brushpiles in my younger years at Stockton. During low water levels I have found them 200 ft away from where I put them. I have also found a great many that have been dragged up on the bank where only very high water would reach them. They were all secured with 3 cement blocks. That has got to be hard to move. lol My guess is that those up on the bank were in someone's way and they didn't want to get hung up on it. A little frustrating after all that work. Just food for thought.

I remember 3 times the lake froze over and a lot of times it came close (more than half the lake froze). I agree with Mo Carp on the 80's. I slid a lot of brush piles out in the lake across that thick ice . Too chicken to walk out on it even though I saw a few 4 wheelers out doing doughnuts. lol. I also agree about the number of walleye being good due to heavy stocking. One last point. While the fishing may have declined, a bad day on the lake is still better than a good day at work.

Absolutely agree MoCarp.

Someone mentioned lake fertility may be down. Lake fertility can be an important factor in fish production. You can have too little fertility and too high fertility. For the last 8 years you can see a dramatic rise in fertility in Stockton (measured by looking at phosphorus and nitrogen). The levels on Stockton are now at 2 to 3 times the US department of wildlife commended levels. for fish populations. Stockton has had a few small fish kills due to low oxygen levels over the last few years. These kind of oxygen levels can have a significant effect on growth and survival of fish. On more of a subjective note....There has been, to me, a tremendous growth in the amount of algae in Stockton in the last 10 years. I can not remember fighting the slimy algae when dragging the bottom with a bait say 10 to 15 years ago. Now it can be impossible to deal with during the summer and fall. Two years ago in the CC area my wife and I checked out an area of floating algae that we estimated to be about 200' long and 50' wide. It was filled with gas bubbles that when disturbed smelled like rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide) and are produced by low oxygen levels in the water (anaerobic conditions). Sad to see such things. Maybe we need Zebra muscles to clean the water. Just kidding.

30 years on Stockton fishing for crappie, catfish and bass (occasionally). Kept records on every trip, good or bad and on all larger fish. From 86 to 2009 catches where up and down but averaged out year to year. Starting in 2009 to now the catches of crappie are down 40% per year, catfish 30% and larger bass by 80% (over 4 lbs). Those numbers are based on hours fishing not total numbers caught per year. My wife and I always count the number of boats parked where we launch when we get there and when we leave. This has helped us to determine which launches are not busy at which time of year. That way it is less hassle to launch and less pressure on that area when we fish it. Boat traffic up 28% since 1986 at these 'none busy' launches, Probably higher at the busy places. The comment about this starting around the time water started pumping to Springfield is an interesting one. I wonder when they started. I also see very few fish on my finder anymore either. Unluckily due to health my number of fishing trips over the last two years has declined some. Just adding to the conversation.