straw hat

It never made it home either, I must have dropped him alomg the bank by mistake (NOT!!). lol

I like catch and release but I must admit that they never made it back to the lake! lol

I have fished the CC area since 1985 and have never caught a gar until 2 years ago. Since then we have caught 2 gar (I didn't take a close look but I beleive they were short-nose). I am not sure that there is a reproducing population in that area. They may have just been washed in by high water. Hedgehog, if you think Mr. Banek would be interested I would be glad to give him a call.Let me know.

Hey waterpossum, when the wife and I went crappie fishing last Saturday the bluegill were spawning like crazy. We caught several while fishing shallow brush and stumps on pea gravel banks. I bet you could have a blast on them right now.

You got me beat waterpossum. My biggest was 4 even. Lots of smallies from Hawker to the dam. I don't know why but I always preferred fishing for them near the dam. They seem to be spreading too, I have even caught a few small ones in the last few years around CC.

I guess I should stop picking on BOB for his entries! I read my post and I guess I don't know what a question mark is for. lol

I agree with that waterpossum. Beautiful country and some of the best smallmouth fishing. The last time I floated down there was in '91, just after they started requiring Float Permits. They were $10 apiece then. The system was a mess when they first started. Have things changed any with the permits. How is the canoe traffic. I remember there was a lot of talk about limiting it. I remember sitting on the bank with some family near Jasper and we counted over 100 canoes an hour going through during the afternoon. Crazy!!

I remember the 80's also and unluckily I was not 12 or 13 (big sigh). lol Reading your account brought back a lot of good memories. I agreewith your accounts of the fishing except for the crappie. It was a lot easier for me to catch a limit of crappie but they were nearly all black crappie. That was probably because of the area I was fishing at the time. I also agree with the attractiveness of Stockton. When the lake is calm and no one is around I think it is the most relaxing thing in the world. All seems to be at peace at that time. I feel sorry for those who will not be able to enjoy it as we do. Eventually with time the "flying carp", zebra mussels and increasing boat traffic will change the lake but until then I plan on enjoying it (and my freinds on this site) as much as I can. Best to you all and see you on the lake soon.

Took the boat up to the Shaw's Bluff area today. Pretty tough. We started out catching crappie at 4 ft over brush piles. Each spot had 1 or 2 fish. Water temp was 88!! Sucks. Bite was very soft. By noon they had backed off to around 10 ft deep. By the time we left at 6 pm they were down to 15: deep. We only caught fish on the windy side of the lake. We tried several spots that were protected and had no luck. I bet that water was was pretty low on O2, they might have really needed that wind. The water was green and sort of milky looking. Wound up the day with 25 keepers and 1 cat. A lot of the crappie were around 11 to 11 1/2". All in all a good day.

First of all I would like to reiterate the safety issue. Also in the mid-lake all the way to the dam you have a lot of pleasure boaters, pwc and etc who may or may not like kayaks depending on what they have been drinking. On the plus side I have seen a lot of kayak fisherman around CC (known as Greenfield Access) which is where CC crosses Stockton just east of Greenfield about 5 or 6 miles. I would also rrecommend putting in just off of 39 highway about 7 or 8 miles north of greenfield where the road crosses the lake(this is the Son'd creek arm). Both of these areas can be great fishing for crappie, bass and walleye under the right conditions. Both areas are also smaller water and don't see the waves that the main lake can generate. Good luck and be sure to let us know how you do.

What can I saw Junkman, it sounds like you are right. Those are some nice cats. We don't have blues down here in Stockton and this year the faltheads are a little scarce. I don't get to do any night fishing and with this hot water the nights would definitely be better. I went again today down to Springfield landing. I could only manage two 2 pound cats. Not good for 6 hours of fishing. I also put out a couple lines for crappie and managed 8 keepers. The crappie were 4 to 7 foot deep. I fished the windy side because I figured there would be more oxygen there. The water temp was 89 !!! That is just rediculous. The water was also very green with about 2 foot visibility. At least I came home with a few fish but it was tough fishing today.

Thanks for the response Travis. I am going to try and go again tomorrow. No blueberry muffins for me in the morning! lol I was looking over your profile and I saw that you were only 21. Man, depressing, I have hangnails older than that. Keep your catfish tackle ready, October and early November are some of the best times for cats I will let you know how I do..

Well, a little cooler today so I decidedd to go catch a few cats. I fished about a mile from the State marina on a steep shore line. The water temp was 84 and about 5' visibility and slightly stained. I caught one 2 lb cat at 24' and lost a moderate size flathead (maybe 7 to 10 lbs) in the first hour. Around 10 AM my breakfast decided it didn't want to stick around if you know what I mean. I packed up my stuff and headed back to the truck. Every 15' I would get sick again. It took me 2 hours to get back to the truck. A shame, it looked like it was going to be a good day for cats. On the way to the lake I passed over the Y bridge near Ruark and they had one side closed. I had to wait 15 minutes to cross. I bet that will be a disaster on the weekend. If you are going to head that way you might want to plan on a little wait before you can get through.

Thanks Kevin. I know how you feel, a lot of guys on this site have helped me as well. On a side note ... I guess I owe BOB an apology. I gave him a hard time about his entried with his new sophisticated phone (crabs, kids etc.). If you look at my last few entries you can tell that I can't even figure out how to attach a file. lol What a dumby!

bass.doc

Well lets try this again.

I had some time to waste so I decided to look at some of the research on spots. Included the abstracts (summaries) for you guys to look at. I think you will find some of these real interesting. With it umpteen jillion degrees out it can be a good time to do a little reading.

I found that earlier string. It was started on 24 March 2010 by a guy called Walcrabass (Hmmm, seems like I have heard that name before) The document is attached (I hope). Spotted Bass2.doc

Walcrabass, thanks for the complement. I will see if I can find that earlier posting. You are right, the crosses are slower growing than either parent species and the seven inch maturity is right on. That early maturity is one of the things that leads to their high population levels and their ability to compete with other bass. The decrease in population levels don't really suprise me. When sampling there are so many variables. Most likely they simply sampled different habitat than the time before. Weather, time of year,time of day and many other factors can affect those results as well. Just to through this into the mix as well ....spotted bass prefer cooler temps than largemouth and grow better at those lower temps. That is why you often see larger spotted bass in mid-lake to near the dam where the water doesn't warm quite as fast as say the shallower tributaries. Those tributaries often have more and smaller spots than the mid-lake area. Electrofishing ONLY yeilds valuable location if you repeat sampling under nearly identical conditions and location each time you sample. This is nearly imposible with annial changes in lake levels and weather.

I dug up the following two links; http://www.tnfish.org/PhotoGalleryFish_TWRA/FishPhotoGallery_TWRA/pages/HybridBassLargemouthSpottedNorrisNegus_jpg.htm http://www.ncsu.edu/project/fish-lab/pdfs/godbout_2009.pdf The first article is specifically about the largemouth/spotted bass hybrid in nature. In the first paragraph it references 6 other research articles that have addressed this issue in the past. If anyone is interested in reading any of those articles let me know and I will try to get a copy if I can. The second link is a supposed picture of one of these hybrids. Have fun reading.

The Illinois game and fish people were the first people that I am aware of to cross a largemouth and smallmouth in hatchery conditions. It was nicknamed a meanmouth. If my memory serves me correctly that was back in the late 60's or early 70's. I remember it created quite a stir at the time as it was as fast growing bass with an aggressive attitude but ultimately teh cost of production and reproductive issues really made it a non starter. Since then meanmouth has been used most often as a reflection of the smallmouth x spotted bass hybrid that is infrequently seen in wild populations. When I was working in the field the term meanmouth was usually not used as we often weren't sure which type of bass hybrid the other person might be talking about. In my years of fishing on Stockton I have only caught a few bass that I thought might be a largemouth x spotted cross (maybe 8 or 9) but never took the time to really look at them closely. I have always been more concerned with the number of those small spots I have caught over the years. I must confess that I often fish steep rocky banks which the spots really seem to like so maybe it is just the habitat that makes the difference. As far as the question of largemouth x spotted bass hybrids, I know it has been artifically been done on labs but I don't know if it has ever been documented in the wild. I am going to set here at the computer a while and search some of the archives. If I don't fall asleep I will post later on what I find. lol

Great picture Fishinokie1!! That must be one of those Stockton crabs that Bob was talking about catching a week ago. lol Man, I guess everyone can catch those but me. Sorry, Bob, but I saw that picture and just couldn't resist one last shot.

Thanks for the info. I remember about 15 or 20 years ago a group from KC came down and stole some empty trailors from the Greenfield Landing. Luckily they were caught trying to sell them. It is a shame that people do such things.

I sure can't help. Been too hot for me. I just can't bring myself to face that much heat. Hopefully it will cool soon.

You were told right TG but the problem is so does a largemouth until he gets older. Some studies indicate that the largemouth looses that patch of teeth around 6" long and other have shown that he looses it around 12" long. It prbably depends on growth rate etc.,