straw hat

I fish the rig straight up and down below slip bobbers. The depth control of a slip bobber allows me to keep the bait just above the bottom or say a brush pile. I use a couple split shot a few inches below the lowest hook. That way I am more likely to lose the split shots before I am the whole rig.

The wife and I decided to go to the same cove were I caught the cats on Thursday. We started out 18' deep on a channel drop by the back of the cove. We use a double hook rig. We usually fish worms on the bottom hook and a minnow about a foot above that. The channels like the worms and the flatheads like the minnows. Third cast I caught a keeper crappie. By the end of the day we had 17 crappie, 1 3lb channel, 1 walleye and a 16" white bass. Most of the female crappie had spawned except for 3 or 4. We tried fishing shallow for spawners but never got a hit. Almost all of the fish came in 15 to 18 ft of water. We were lucky, we sat in the same place all day and never had to move. We caught 7 walleye but only one keeper. What started out as a cat trip turned into a crappie trip. I can deal with that. Water temp was 58 and slightly stained. 2 foot visibility.

Thanks HF. They should be up on the rock riprap in about 1 or 2 weeks depending on temps. The eggs are still a little underdeveloped though. They may be coming up on the flats on warm nights now. I am too lazy to fish at night though. lol

I thought after all this rain I would try for some cats in the back of a couple coves. I caught a channel and a flathead. Both around 2 lbs. I also lost a couple more cats. I was supprised how much the water had cleared in the back of the coves. Stained with about 1 1/2 ft visibility. I stopped by CC on the way home. Man, you could cut that lake with a knife!! Make that a chainsaw. lol Not many boats there and only 3 bank fisherman. They had two small cats. I think if we have a couple warm sunny days it should help the catfishing. The water temp was only 55 at both places. A little cool for the best cat bite.

I can respect your directness on tournament fishing for bass. I fished some tournaments back in the early 70's. There were a few fishermen who from time to time got caught padding there catch with fish they had caught the day before.. Mostly I stopped because of unsportsman like conduct. They would buzz within a few feet of your boat so as to ruin where you were fishing. Dangerous too. Just a note that there are a lot of your people that read this site and try to learn from it. You might want to watch the "creative" language if you know what I mean. just a thought.

It looks like reflection of sunlight. The sun is on the left side of the fish and the fish must have still been wet. Just a guess.

The curremt lake level is 4 foot above normal. The lake is rising at the rate of 1 foot per day. The rain has stopped and I would normally expect the lake to level off in a couple of days BUT ... we are suppose to get more rain starting on Tuesday night and running through Wednesday. Turnback and Little and Big Sac are all 9 to 10 feet above normal. The lake and river stages can be monitored at; http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv/?site_no=06918990& http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv?06918460 http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv?06918440 http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?06918740

Correct Thunderin Gobbler, and in his first post jamesedward said largemouth.

I am a crappie fisherman jamesedward so that is what made it such a good report! Now if I get feeling better and the rain slows down maybe I can get to go again. If keeps raining I may be able to fish out my back door soon. lol

Great report!! Congratulations on another big bass.

I don't know butI would imagine it will be fairly muddy. I just checked the USGS website and Little Sac is up 1 1/2 feet in the last 24 hours. With more rain coming today it will probably get worse too.

Yea, thats a lot warmer water than I have been able to find lately. What me jealous? Darn right! If your plug is missing from your boat on the next trip...well it was just me!! lol

The site said that it should be done tomorrow.

Just a quick note to let you know that I noticed that the finish date on the work on the 123 bridge has changed. Originally it was scheduled to be done by July 1st... Now they say by August first.

Be glad to. They should start moving onto the chunk rock banks and rock rip rap soon.

Those are some awesome fish jamesedwards. I couldn't agree with you more on the shallow fishing. You see guys just working the bank randomly casting, you guys are right, to routinely catch those big ones you have to really know the lake and very specific shallow cover. Those kind of fish don't just hang out everywhere. I wish I had thought of putting out logs for cover when I was young. I probably would have done better. It brings back fond memories. Next time out catch one for me!!!

I hear you BlackWaterFishing. With the fishing pressure on Stockton for crappie I would really like to see a heavy spawn just to be sure the fishing stays good in the future. I see in the forecast they are predicing a lot of rain over the next week. That should really turn on the cats too. I could handle a little cat fishing also.

If the fishing is tough for someone like you Bob then I don't feel quite so bad. You know Bob, twice during my working years I saw what we use to call a "spoiled spawn". This happened when the spawn started out like normal, the fished developed the mature eggs and started spawning when a major front happened and dropped the water temp around 10 degrees. That temp drop lasted for nearly two weeks in both cases. The remaining ripe females simply stopped producing hormones and the eggs deteriorated in the egg sacs and were reabsorbed. I have seen this happen in both crappie and bass. I sure hope it doesn't happen on Stockton. In both cases the lake had a very poor recruitment year and really effected the fishing for several years. Keep your fingers crossed. Good luck out there on the lake Bob and be safe.

I don't know if anyone is interested but there is a nice house on 1.5 acres for sale on Stockton. What makes this so special is it comes with a private dock on the lake just 1 mile from the house. It is for sale by Lowe Reality for a little over $187,000. I saw the dock today and it looks like it has been fixed up noce for the sale. It has two small slips for your boats. It was locked up so I couldn't get a good look at the size of the slips. The dock is located on what is called Sprinfield landing. This is about 2 miles north of CC by water and is in a cove on the west side of the lake. You better hurry if you are going to buy it because I am planning on winning the lottery this weekend and buy it (fat chance!!) lol. There home website is below. Look for listing number 24198-46340. http://www.greenfieldmorealestate.com/

Bummer of a day. Spent 4 hours on two off my favorite spawning banks. One crappie. Ever since that cold front last Friday it has really been tough for me. I finally went to one of my best postspawn spots, two brush piles just off of a good gravel point. An hour and a half and no bites. NOTHING. I gave up and went home. The water was fairly clear near Ruark, about 3 ft visibility. The water at CC was also pretty decent with a good 1 1/2 ft visibility.

Thanks for the info charliehorsejigs. Don't feel bad, I had the same luck Sunday.

That would be on the bottom Huck. The smaller channels (say 1 to 3 lbs) often come up on the gravel areas where the crappie spawn to nose around for clumps of eggs. So during the day they usually stage on the edge of these areas as long as there is deep water near by. With the drop in water temps lately they have probably (educated guess) dropped back in this deeper water until it warms back up some more. The wife and I stopped by a couple spawning areas today where we have been catching crappie. Big disappointment. Water temp had dropped several 6 degrees since our last visit and only we caught only 1 keeper. Water temp was 54F!! This was in the Ruark area.

As long as the water temperature isn't dropping those fish will still be shallow spawning. Some times they slow a little during the middle of a sunny day but otherwise those hormones will keep them shallow and active.

Wow!! Nice stringer of fish. Tis the season to enjoy that shallow action. Thanks for the post.

The cats are just beginning to hit well. They should be on the deep side of the points in about 10 to 15' of water. This time of year I prefer fresh cut bait or fairly large minnows. It should be good fishing for them today and tommorrow as a cold front approaches.