straw hat

I think you are right. It would make sense that with water levels lower the water would warm faster and things would spawn earlier but I have never seen the water this warm this early before. but of course at my age my memory is sure not what it use to be. 🥴

Just a quick note on a few things we have observed since 4/3. NO flowering dogwood this year. I have not seen one flowering dogwood on my trips around Stockton this year. I have seen a lot of dogwood fully leafed out. Been seeing huge schools of baby shad the last two weeks. About one week ago. The whole surface at CC (Greenfield) was covered with them. Also seen a lot of them around Harley, Birch Branch and Price branch. Most were 1 1/2 to 2". I don't remember seeing so many baby shad this early in the year before. The shad must have spawned in February. lol In the last two weeks we have been fishing pea gravel spawning banks for crappie until around 9 AM, then going to steep channel drop of banks and back to spawning areas around 4 PM to finish off the day. We have not caught even one crappie on spawning banks. All of our crappie have come off the channel drops at 10 to 15'. All were p[ost spawn crappie even in early April. I must have slept through the crappie spawn. With the water temperature reading at 70F the wife and I decided to try for some spawning cats on the rock riprap at Greenfield yesterday and believe it or not they were there. Loaded fat with eggs at around 5 to 8' deep. What?!! Catfish ready to spawn in mid April? I have never seen that before. Has anyone else noticed these types of strange patterns or am I just getting too old and senile?

we don't us cranks, we just drifted minnow under a slip bobber in the mouth of those coves. Same principle though.

I highly agree with nomolites!!

Just a note for you Dutch. The wife and I fished the Greenfield area on Wed. Soooo many boats. There were times we could see 15 boats from where we were fishing. The water was not too dingy with about 2 ft visibility. The surface temps were around 55, at 5 ft it was 54 and at 7 ft it was 49. I hope that info helps you. Caught 4 keeper crappie. Didn't see a lot being caught but I am sure someone had some success.

I remember an old Terry bass boat coming out of a sheltered cove on Table Rock on a windy day (30 mph?) back around '77. He turned at the point into the wind doing about 35. The wind got under the boat due to waves even though he was well trimmed out. It flipped his boat around 30' in the air. I never heard if they ever found his body or not.

Your right but not dragged up on the shore and had the wire used cut up in little pieces.

You know all this talk about fisherman trying to spot where other fishermen are catching fish and telling others/posting reminds me of another subject that bugs me. As many of you know I have put out probably 100 brush piles in Stockton over the years and every year I find several that have been hooked and dragged up on shore. Most of the time they have been broken up and i have to redo them. They are not shallow, maybe 10 to 15 ft deep and are weighted by around 50 to 70 lbs of weight. This tells me that someone is targeting them specifically to get them out of the lake. I remember one year in winter I went into the CC area and put out cedar tree brush piles. While I was doing that I guess there was a bass fisherman watching who saw me and later removed the brush pile to a new area. The next spring while fishing I was surprised to see that one of the brush piles was gone. While fishing the area in the spring a bass boat came by and the fisherman said he had seen someone put out a brush pile there during the winter. He said he had hooked it and drug it to one of his favorite bass areas and thought that was really funny. I told him I was that guy and he stopped laughing and boated away. What a jerk. Too lazy to make his own brush piles.

MG, you don't need luck. you are good!! 😁 I am sure you will do well and keep us posted.

A happy New Year to all. May you all be healthy happy and successful (especially when it comes to fishing). This last year was great for the wife and I. We didn't get to go as often as we would have liked with the high water and then excessive heat but we managed to sore an average of 18 keeper crappie per trip. Our PB. I am concerned as we certainly caught very few small crappie. we hope that is not a sign of bad years to come.

The crazy thing was the wind was pushing the ice up on the bank and in some places it was 2 to 3' deep. A lot of noise too. Reminds me of a small version of what happens up on the great lakes during high winds. The lake was really rough and only saw two boats while driving around. Should of stayed home and got some work done. (NOT!!)

Decided to take a small fishing trip today. The first two spots were in the CC area but they were iced in. A couple of open water spots in places. Water was very clear. The last stop was near twin bridges. Water was open, very clear, water temp 40F. Only one boat at the Roark Launch when we drove by. All the launches we passed today were clear of snow and ice

Decided to take a small fishing trip today. The first two spots were in the CC area but they were iced in. A couple of open water spots in places. Water was very clear. The last stop was near twin bridges. Water was open, very clear, water temp 40F. Only one boat at the Roark Launch when we drove by. All the launches we passed today were clear of snow and ice on the ramps.

Also... "Cold Immersion deaths represent the third most common cause of accidental death in adults, and the second in children, in most countries. In 2000, around 450 000 such deaths occurred worldwide, with young men and the elderly constituting the high-risk groups." https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(03)15057-X/fulltext

FYI "In 50 to 60 degree water, your survival time is six hours. In 40 to 50 degrees, survival time is half that — three hours. You’ll survive for one to1 1/2 hours in 35 to 40 degree water. In water less than 35 degrees, you’ll succumb fast." https://fishingmeet.com/what-temp-can-you-get-hypothermia-in-water/ Cold shock response The physiological response to a sudden immersion in cold water may be divided in three or four discrete stages, with different risks and physiological changes, all being part of an entity labelled as Cold Water Immersion Syndrome. Although this process is a continuum, the 4 phases was initially described in the 1980s as it follows:[3][4] Phase Time Physiological Changes Initial (cold shock) First 2 – 3 minutes Cooling of the skin, hyperventilation, tachycardia, gasp reflex Short-term After 3 minutes Superficial neuromuscular cooling Long-term After 30 min Hypothermia, later collapse Circum-rescue Immediately before, Cardiac arrythmia, heart attack, unconsciousness, death. * collapse during or after rescue *In cold water immersions, such as by falling through thin ice, cold shock response is perhaps the most common cause of death. Death which occurs in such scenarios is complex to investigate and there are several possible causes and phenomena that can take part. The cold water can cause heart attack due to severe vasoconstriction,[2] where the heart has to work harder to pump the same volume of blood throughout the arteries. For people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, the additional workload can result in myocardial infarction and/or acute heart failure, which ultimately may lead to a cardiac arrest. Stay safe everyone and a Merry Christmas.

Way to get it done B4F!!

The wife and I went crappie fishing last Friday. I decided to take along about 6 to 8 large shiners (4 to 6 inches). By the end of the day I had 5 bass. one of which was a smallmouth (14"). Three were over the 15" limit. (all catch and release). The biggest was just short of 19". All were at 25 ft deep and in excellent condition. 5' of visibility and water temp of 48F. Also caught a 17" walleye on one of the big minnows. I just thought some of you bass fisherman might find this interesting.

Happy Thanksgiving to all as well. Yesterday, also on the lake. Bite was terrible for us on crappie but had a very good day the day before with 20 keepers. May God bless all of you.

I agree with Dutch. I also have to admit the water just plain looks nasty in many places.

The wife and I have been fishing there a few times recently. We had to stop launching there last week as the water was low enough that our 18' pontoon boat would go over the end of the ramp when launching. Boats with shorter trailers are still having no problems though. Fishing has been very slow up to that point. Very few fishermen. The water is dingy and 72 as of a week ago. Good luck, i think you are going to need it. lol

I hear what you are saying Bassin4fun. A round trip for me costs around $45 and tha6 does not include minnows. That does not fit into me budget.

867 is not "normal" level but is referred to as power pool level. This is the estimated water level that is necessary for the Lake to meet its regular power demands for hydroelectric power production.

My suggestion for walleye this time of year is steep banks/bluffs at 18 to 26 ft. I prefer minnows but there certainly are other options. Crappie are typically caught on minnows or jigs. They usually don't hit worms. Good luck.

The wife and I got in a few hours fishing on Saturday. Definitely windy. We managed 11 keeper crappie and two keeper walleye. Also caught 2 small walleye. Depths varied from 18 to 31 ft. No real pattern, just one hear and one there. Water temp was 50F.

The wife and I tried a new bank fishing spot in the mile long bridge area Saturday. A little disappointing. No crappie however we did catch one keeper walleye, a 16" smallie, and two 17' largemouths. All fish caught around 25' deep. Water 52F and 6 to 8' visibility. A lot of filamentous algae on rocks out to around 15' deep. Sunday we hit one of our regular areas mid-lake. Four keeper crappie and a lot of smaller ones. The bite was extremely light. We also caught 4 walleye with two being keepers. Walleye were on shelves in 22 to 25' of water. The crappie were running 22 to 30' feet deep. Water clarity was around 6 feet and little to no algae on the bottom.