straw hat

A lot of people felt the same way as you minnowhooker. There was also a millon boats out. (Well, a lot anyway lol) I stopped at CC launch on the way home and the bottom area was full and there was two boats on top the hill in the overflow parking. I also forgot to mention that the water temp was 51F.

Bank fished near CC today. Came home with 15 keepers. First limit in a long time. Must have caught 50 crappie. No really big keepers. The bite was strong and constant through the day. They were running 10 to 14' deep on a steep rocky bank. It seemed like they wanted a little action to there minnows. Water was a little murky but not too bad. I also caught a 6 lb carp. Real disapponted when I saa it was a carp and not a walleye. It was fun though.

Sorry to hear about your declining health. I will pray for you. Also, there is a seperate section on the forum for selling boats, don't forget to list it there as well.

Not bad considering the nasty weather we had yesterday. Sounds like you are getting the hang on those slip bobbers. Forgot to set your drag? Shame on you Huck! I have never done that. (Not more than a dozen times any way, lol) Was the water muddy? I am going tomorrow and will let you know how I do.

Hey walleyefishing, I was just thinking... The National Weather Service is predicting the possibilty of some heavy rain at Stockton tonight. You might want to check the following two websites before you go in the morning; http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ridge2/RFC_Precip/ http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv?06918460 The first one is a map of rainfall for the last 24 hours. By zooming in on the Stockton area you can get an estimate of the amount of rain they have recieved in the last 24 hours. The second one is the gauge height for Turnback Creek. It has been my experience that if the level rises to 9' or more then CC will probably be muddy.

The best place is the Trading Post. From CC go about 5 miles west on 160. Just as you enter Greenfield it is on the right, on the corner of 160 and H highway. You might want to call first and be sure they have bait, they get hit hard this time of year. Their number is 417-637-2410. I would appreciate it if you would post your results. I will be going to that area on Tues and would like to know what they were doing for you. Good luck!!

It starting to be the season for boats isn't it? Hate to see the lake get that populated but it sounds like you had a great day! You are right, CC is already in the high 40's and the last trip I made we caught around 2 dozen bass (all short; 10 - 12") with our crappie. This next week should be great. I have Tuesday penciled in. I am glad you had a great trip.

Crappie have been hitting fairly well from CC bridge north to around Shaw's Bluff. 5' to 15' on south facing banks. Been using minnows.

There are two major types of slip bobbers. One has a hole down the entire length of the center of the bobber. The other type has a small hole in the base of the bobber that the line goes through. Either will work. In-fisherman.com has several good videos and articles on slip bobber rigs. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Great info birdwatcher. Do the green lights attract less bugs than the white ones?

I use a string bobber stop. The string can be slide up or down the line to adjust the depth. As we all know crappie can be a pain in the ear determining the depth they are running, especially from the bank without a depthfinder. This rig allows me to play with the depth of my rig. I can fish 1' deep in 30 foot of water to just off the bottom in any depth. One rally nice thing about this rig is I can set it to drift just over the top of brush or rocks without getting hung. I also put my split shots on the bottom of the line like a drop shot rig. This way if I get hung on rocks I can just pull the split shots off the end of the line.

That is a new one to me but I sure am interested also.

MAN! I sure ramble a lot sometimes. lol

According to the corp the water temperature at the dam this morning is around 38. In the spring the water will warm faster at the mouth of incoming tribuataries (Sac, Turnback and Son's). The reason is as air temp warms the streams warm faster. Also the there is a lot more water at the dam than the shallower mouth of creeks. It can take a lot longer to warm the water around the dam. As streams flow the water is constantly mixing and being exposed to the air temps. The day after ice out at CC the water temp was 39 degrees. About a week ago during the height of the warm spell the water temp in a shallow cove near CC facing the south was 51F. Yesterday the surface temp was 48F in the same area. That all sounds interesting but it can be missleading. You have to remember that warm water rises. My thermometer has a long wire lead on it so I can measure down about 3 feet. The temps there have been running about 5 degrees cooler. The fish I have been pulling out of 5 foot of water are near normal color BUT those at 10 to 16' have been much lighter color and softer biting. No matter where you are on the lake this is the time of year to look to those south facing areas. Any area that is 2 or even three degrees warmer that the rest of the area can produce a lot more fish. I hope I didn't make you more confused.

I was useing live minnows nd the bite was very soft. I use a slip bobber rig and they weren't even taking it down. They would just pull it down about a 1/2" to an inch and hold it. That was enough to al least see. I think they were just laying there holding it in there mouth because I sure missed a lot more bites than normal.

I bank fished a rocky bank not too far from CC. Tough day with the wind blowing into the bank where I was. I caught around 20 crappie but only 6 were keepers. They started out at around 10' deep but by the end of the day they had dropped to 16'. Water temp was 48 and the water was a little silty but not bad. A lot more boats around on this trip. Most of the boats I talked to had a few crappie and one guy had 2 white bass. I also caught about 2 dozen small bass (10 - 12") and one smallmouth. Don't see many smallmouth around the cc area. Lets hope this rain tommorow doesn't muddy up the water too bad.

Sounds like you had a great time. How many keepers did you get and were they black or white crappie? Those I got into shallow last Fri were all blacks. Sort of curious if the whites were deeper.

Forsythians? Is that soemone who lives in a forsythia bush? lol Just kidding. Thise whites should be running up into Swan Creek soon down there.

I agree woth mrgungho. I fish the cc area a lot in the spring and usually start hitting the whites beginning during the first week of March. It is usually really good by the middle or end of March depending on weather. Welcome to the forum. I will look forward to your fishing reports!

Stockton is famous for its rough water. Matter of fact it is one of the most popular sail boat lakes. If your boat is small I would suggest you check the forcast closely before coming to the lake. It is particularly bad if the wind is from a southerly or northerly direction.

clf989s - Thats one of the biggest drums I have ever seen also. I hear they get a lot bigger than that though. The last I heard the stste record was 34 lbs. This one sure put on a good fight. minnowhooker - Never heard of that. I have heard of people buying the dead salted shad in vacuum packed bags and using them but I don't see why the salted shiners wouldn't work.

The wife and I know a south facing pea gravel bank with a couple small pockets in it that collect dead shad right after ice out. There is usually a couple of cats there feeding on the shad. We went there bank fishing today with minnows. We caught two cats, the biggest 4 1/2 lbs. We also caught 10 keeper crappie. All the fish had dead or dieing shad in there stomach. The wife also caught a 8 lb drum. She was pretty disappointed when she saw it wasn't a cat! All fish were 5' deep and caught in a 50' stretch of bank. The cat bite will only last another 2 weeks so I can't wait for the next chance to go.

Two great minds on the same track, Zac. My wife and I drove there this evening around 5 PM. Absolutely NO ice anywhere!! The bad news was that it was very muddy. I could only see down about 3". Water was 38 degrees. There was a few boats and several bank fishermen. The wife and I will fish in the area tommorrow and we will let you know how we do.

I put out 20 to 30 brush piles each winter and check with the Corp each year. The Corp is in charge of brush pile rules for corp lakes. Be careful, some corp lakes require permits before putting out brush piles. Stockton does not. Brush piles may be made of any time of brush or tree BUT if you are going to cut and use trees from corp land you need to get permission first. This even includes dead wood along the lake edge. You can not use any type of container such as buckets, barrels or cans. They worry that these items may still contain chemical residue from the original contents. You can use cement blocks, rocks or similar items. Brush piles can not be placed within 10' of the lakes surface at powerpool levels. Any type of wire or rope may be used to attach the tree to the weight. I prefer cement blocks. I place the base of the tree in the hole in the block and wire it in place. The Springfield brush collection center allows people to come in and pick up trees for use in the lake. These trees are cut in 6' length and are easy to handle. Soft woods such as maple, pine, cedar and such usually last 5 to 7 years. oak, hickory and hackberry last for decades. I have some hardwood brushpiles on Stockton that are still there after 20 years.

Thanks gee3. I wasn't going to be able to go for a few more days but was dieing with curiosity. That is worsr than I expected. Thanks again for the report.