straw hat

Welcome Cptndeez. Always good to have a new member.

No argument from me oghfm. I fully agree.

Man, that is crazy. I guess I will stay near the fireplace a little longer.

Just a guess but with it being around 60 on Tuesday I would say that Wed would be a safe bet for launching but you might need a torch to thaw out the fish if you catch any. lol

Cute kids Mitch. You are blessed.

AGMs are great You may not believe this but I have a big AGM (110 amp hour) that has run the main motor in my pontoon now for over 12 years. I also have two other 31 AGMs that I use for my trolling motor and small electronics and they are both over 6 years old. I love them.

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you. May God bless you.

Well I guess fun time is over. We hit the same spot today and only had two bites, a small crappie and a 1 lb channel. Both bites were barely detectable. Water still stained and down to 42F. Nice weather though.

That is a great job. I am so envious. 😩

Thanks L2S. We were north of CC a few miles.

Things were a little slower for the wife and I this Saturday but it was steady. The pod of fish was still there but the bite was much lighter. The fish we pulled up were very white in color and had mud on there stomach so they were laying on there bellies I guess on the bottom. We caught 3 whites, one keeper crappie (6 small ones), two channels around 3 lbs apiece and i only caught one cat but it weighted close to 8 lbs. Water temp 44, 3 ft visibility. Only saw 2 boats all day. beautiful day on the lake.

Fantastic Lifesshort!! Way to go.

First of all I hope all had a happy and safe thanksgiving. My wife and I had our annual Thanksgiving day fishing trip. We went to one of our favorite bluff drop offs. Found a pod of catfish. The wife caught the biggest two (6.5 and 7 lbs) and we also caught another 5 in the 1 to 3 lb range. Also managed to pick up 3 keeper crappie as well. Only saw one boat all day. All in all not a bad day. Water was very dingy, 52 degrees. Maybe one ft of clarity.

Really? Boy I guess I am really getting old. Thanks for letting me know MG.

what happened to the topic "they are back"? Suddenly it is gone from the Stockton forum. Anyone know what happened?

Olfishead is correct. Well researched and established principle in aquatic systems. Noticed he said "as the vegetation decomposed,". This includes brown grass, leaf litter and any microscopic animals in the soil that overwintered. In some situations oxygen levels can drop by 3 or 4 ppm or more.

Been there done that. Thank God for my fishing buddy (wife).

The wife and I went bank fishing on Thu, Fri and Sat. Thu - Bluff fishing near cc, water temp 53, dingy and stained with 4 foot visibility. Crappie 14 to 18 ft deep, caught 9 but only 3 keepers. Also caught around 9 channel cats, biggest was a 8 1/2 lb monster. The cats were running 17 to 20 ft deep. Fri and Sat fished on the twin bridges area. Water temp was 55, visibility around 6 ft and stained. Crappie were 24 to 28 foot deep, caught a total of 12 crappie but only 4 keepers. Also caught one 14 1/2" walleye at 22 foot. Not great but it sure was beautiful out. The only bad thing was the wind was so bad I was worried it my blow us into the lake. lol

I also saw a notice at Ruark today that as of November 9th the east Ruark campground will be closed.

I have caught 3 white crappie at 15" each. My brother caught a white crappie a long long time ago (1996?) that was 17".

I think this discussion highlights the complexity of setting seasons, length limits, size limits et. that is one of the reason that computer modeling is often used to determine potential effects of changes in regs to fish populations. Lean on the science and not on subjective guessing.

I remember a guy catching a tilapia from below Lake Springfield dam a couple of years ago.

MoCarp, that is exactly how I remember that as well.

Interesting conversation. First of all thanks to JD for the information on the MDC program. The interesting thing to me was that the Chesapeake hatchery walleyes are the Black River strain genetic strain which can be quite large. I have to assume that these are the strain that are in Stockton as I know that the stockings come from Chesapeake. I am also glad to see MoCarps note on the northern lake strain variety introduced in the 80's. I am glad to see that it wasn't just my imagination. Thanks for the info guys.

Hey MoCarp I really liked your post and the comment on the river strain of walleye. I fully agree. I have had talked with some of the fishery biologists and they say they have no knowledge of them ever being stocked in Stockton and a couple said there was no such thing as river run walleye. That is quite remarkable because I worked on a river run walleye strain when I got my Master's in Fishery Biology. I have searched on the internet though and can find no reference to this bit of history. I am glad you mentioned it. I was beginning to think I was nuts (which I probably am!!)