straw hat

I also like to catfish and most of the time I bank fish. I can understand your concern over the lack of places to bank fish. Over the last 10 years many of the areas I use to fish have had there road acceses closed. The only suggestion I can make is to focus on the rock rip rap at the bridges around the lake. Most of these have side roads that give access to the rip rap. I have fished nearly every one of these and have caught cats off of most of them. Good luck and I look forward to your fishing reports.

Great info walcrabass. It gets my catfish fever up!1 The weatherman says there is a chance that this heat wave will end toward the middle of NEXT week. Maybe I can get a trip in then.

Absolutely, a LOT more channels than flatheads. And flatheads are solitary fish who feed only on live bait. I really feel like they prefer soft finned bait like shiners or goldfish compared to perch but that is just me. Concentrate on the bank edges and use live bait and it is just a matter of time. Good luck.

Your question breaks my heart. lol July is the best month for flatheads and my wives car is in the garage, on top of that it is hotter than ... well its real hot. They are just finishing their spawn right now and there will still be a few up shallow(less than 10'). The rest will be running a little deeper and holding tight to cover during the day, especially on deep rocky banks. With this heat your best chance is at night. They will come up shallow and runn the banks looking for food. Most people use small perch on limb lines or trotlines. I like using large shiners. Are you day fishing?

Bob, I sincerely appreciate the offer. There is nothing more I would like to do but my heart problems won't allow it. I have to lay down several times a day and rest (when I fishing in my pontoon boat it's pretty easy to do and my wife can keep fishing!). In the evening I am in bed usually by 6:30 and by that time my meds have me pretty much down and out. God bless you for the offer though. Enjoy catching some of those cats for me and be sure and leave a few for me for later.

Thats OK Bob don't feel bad. If you want to make it up to me maybe you can take me crab fishing! I haven't had much luck with them on Stockton. lol I was going to make my trip tomorrow but my wife's car broke down so it looks like I will be taking it in for service tomorrow instead. Thats the breaks.

Thanks guys. So if I am catching you right I should focus on the pea gravel point at around 18 to 22' and adjust from there as necessary. Sounds like a plan. I will post when I get back.

Either tomorrow or Thursday I will be making a trip to the lake. I am going to be fishing with large shiners for cats. My question is can I expect to have a chance at walleye at this location and if so at what depth do you recommend I start fishing. This is a relatively long bluff and fairly steep made up of large chunk rocks from the size of a basketball up to the size of a small Volkswagon. The bluff ends in a steep pea gravel bank. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

I fish the CC area and also have had problems with my usual summer brushpiles. They just don;t seem to be on the channel drop offs or in the standing timber. We have been finding most of ours on isolated groups of trees along shallow banks, many of them pea gravel, with the crappie just 10' deep or so. Most of the better trees are on points. We may hit two or three areas before we find them. Usually when we do they are stacked in there tight. On one spot last weekend my wife caught 8 keepers on 9 casts!! But we had only caught 1 keeper in the hour before that. I don't know what else to say but good luck, they are out there.

Thanks for the report Kevin. I am going to try and take a trip soon with big shiners. You have given me an idea where to start. Now if I could just get a day where it wasn't 100 jillion degrees! lol

Yup Dennis, CC is Greenfield Landing. Thunderin Gobbler - Shaw's Bluff is about 3 or 4 miles north of CC. About 2 miles north of CC is Springfield Landing, a small cove on the left (west side)with a few private docks in it.. About a mile and a half further on you will see a large bluff on the right. It is probably 3/4 mile long and loaded with timber. The bigger trees along the channel are usually good this time of year as they provide some shade and cover for the crappie. There is also a lot of trees on the flat across from the bluff. Watch out when boating there because there are a lot of these trees that are broke off just below water level. There is a nice wooded cove on the east just before the bluff starts. You can usually pick up crappie along the mouth of that cove as well. Good luck!

Put in at CC. Suprised by the number of boats. Overflow parking was about 2/3 full. A few tubers and some PWC but they all kept their distance from the fisherman and all enjoyed the lake. We started out on the same brush piles near Shaw's bluff where we had been catching some lately. After 3 hours only 3 keepers. Started experimenting with location and finally found some on an isolated fence row no where near the main channel. The trees were about the diameter of a golf ball (no shade there)and the bottom was pea gravel. The fish were 8 to 10' deep in 10 to 12' of water. By 3 PM had our 30 crappie and one 4 1/2 lb cat. Dumb crappie! Don't they know they are suppose to be in deep water and standing timber right now? lol Take'm where you can find them I guess.

Dutch is dead on. I usually refer to Greenfield Landing as CC because there is a small launch off of highway 39 that some people refer to as Greenfield. In order to avoid confusion I call I call it CC because there is only one highway CC on the lake. My take on the flats is any mud flat on the lake. This area was (is) very hilly when they flooded the area so there is a lot of steep drop offs and bluffs on the lake. To me any area with a level bottom for more than a few feet is a flat! lol By the way ... welcome to the area and I look forward to you posting your results. Good luck with the surgery.

I don't know if this applies or not Hammer time but research shows that black bass are more active the three days before and after a full moon and least active the three days before and after the dark of the moon. I also know that when they do the testing they make sure that the weather is consistant and comparible during the study periods or they don't the results. I know my own records reflect the same thing for crappie. During a full moon I usually have more trouble catching them during the day. I guess because they are more active at night. Just food for thought, obviously there is a lot of other factors that get involved such as wind, rain, ...

Thanks Marty. Good report. They are predicting 95 to 100 degree days for the next week so be careful out there and stay hydrated.

Fished the CC area twice last weekend. Water was a little green but not bad, temp 80. The white crappie were suspended at 10' below the surface just of the steep banks. They should stay that way for a while. I think you can probably pick some up with the crank baits. The problem the wife and I had was that they were mostly small. Saw a few good bass hit the surface during the day so you might try a spook or such. Good luck. It is suppose to be real hot out so stay hydrated and watch yourself.

Good trip. Really relaxing when there aren't many boats on the lake.

Had a few minnows left over from yesterday so the wife and I ran down to fish by the CC boat ramp. Nice day but a fair number of boats, even a couple up in the overflow parking. Caught around 30 crappie but at the end of the day we only had 7 keepers. The black crappie were 7 to 10' deep along the bank. The white crappie were 10 to 13' deep over 18 to 20' of water. The wife saw some white bass breaking the surface near her and manage to catch 2 (both around 12") before they moved out to far for her to cast. I know a lot of you guys really look forward to when the whites start breaking the top so I though I would mention it. I also had about 6 of those big shiners left over from yesterday so I fished them for cats for a while. I managed to catch two small flatheads on them, that was all. They were both around 2 pounds so not very big but should make fine eating. Also caught one 13" walleye at around 6 feet deep. Dumb walleye doesnt it know that that water is too warm for him. lol He should be down in the main lake where he can find cooler water. Not too bad a day for just setting on the bank under a big shade tree.

Put in at CC this morning. Went up toward Shaw's Bluff. Fished 3 different brushpiles off of rocky points. By 4 PM had our 30 crappie. Water was a little green but nearly 3 foot visibility. Temp was 82. Fish were from 10 to 12' deep. Bite was light but steady. About 80% of the keepers were black crappie (10 1/2 to 11"). That was good to see, last year most of the black crappie in that area were only 9 1/2". I had purchased 2 dozen big shiners (4 - 5") and was hoping to get to throw them for some cats. After we limited out we went to a steep rocky bank and fished with those for an hour. We caught 3 channels, all around 8 ft deep. They ranged from 2 1/2 to 8 1/2 lbs. The big one was a female that had already spawned. I bet she would have went around 10 lbs full of eggs!! Dead tired and ready to close my eyes. Good day on the water and better yet I can sleep late in the morning.

Thanks for the info Thunderin Gobbler. I heard about the kid on the news last night. I wonder if he was under the influence. As many boats that buzz through there, especially on a weekend, that would be a dumb move.

I am sure no expert. I am primarily a minnow man but I do carry a few crank baits with me for when I run out of minnows and the fishing is still hot. I cast from the bank using bandit 200s and my favorite colors are nearly identical to that of cwater. I fish primarily the tributaries (eg. CC) so I prefer a little chartreuse or green on my pink or shad colored cranks. I also like to fish them along or near creek channels.

Thanks for the good report Whit Warrior. I have a trip coming up where I may be bass fishing in that same general area as your Saturday trip. I was wondering how deep the bigger bass were? Also, what did the water look like at CC when you went? Was it getting real green yet and did you happen to get the water temp? I would really appreciate any info. Thanks.

There finally up on the rock and riprap banks spawning. I haven't been in nearly two weeks but several of my freinds have tied into them since. They really seem to like river or garden warms here while spawning. The lake is still dropping but fairly slower. I would recommend around 5 to 10 feet deep in early morning or late evening. Come up and give it a try and be sure and post how you do, we would really like to know.

It sounds like you guys had a great time. That is the way all vacations should go! Thanks for the report. The last time I went was two weeks ago and there weren't hardly any on the brush piles.

WOW! Thanks for the explanation powerdrive. I have been so worried about this I can't sleep. Just kidding. You may have made this up but it sounded pretty good. That sounds like something a psychiatrist would have come up with. Are you a shrink? On second thought I don't want to now ... I wouldn't want to have to shot you! HAHA I do think that the current generation (in general) are pretty spoiled and haven't suffered the hard times of some of the past generations. Vertually none of us had cars when we went to high school. My neighbor's kid was complaining about having to drive a USED car to school and that it was embarrassing. Get over it, it beats walking.