December 10, 2008 Stockton Lake Fishing Report

[Thompson Fishing Guide Service]

December 10, 2008 Stockton Lake Fishing Report

Here’s an email I received:

Marty,

You’re right about the winter crappie fishing. It is very good. I emailed you last winter about deep water walleye. When I go for walleye in deep water, 30 to 50 feet deep, I catch crappie. I am not complaining, but what am I doing wrong???? Also how do I find deep springs on Stockton Lake?? Thanks, David H. Mount Vernon Mo.

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David,

Thanks for your email and for reading my fishing report. Walleye, crappie and white bass will congregate in deep channels in the mouths of large coves. Crappie will stay put until the water temperature pushes up into the 50s. Walleye, however, will occupy these areas for a large percent of their time during the winter because that is where the shad are, but walleye tend to move from time to time into shallower water and then back into the deeper holes. If you scope a lot of fish in these areas, but you are not catching walleye, spend some time with your sonar in shallower water in the same vicinity. You'll scope fish suspended from time to time, say 30 feet down, over 60 feet of water. These are usually roaming walleye or sometimes white bass.

The best approach is a jig and minnow or a jig and night crawler vertically fished at the depth of the fish.

Reference finding under water springs: if the spring is pushing out enough warm water, and you have a high dollar Lowrance color graph, if you put it in the high sensitive mode, you'll be able to detect the springs. It looks kind of like a volcano spewing out lava. If you don't have that kind of technology, that's ok because you can still scope these large schools of fish as they relate to the cover. The bottom line is this: if you can find the fish, they are there for a reason whether it is a warm water spring or whatever. The shad are the fish that will seek out the warm spring water more readily than crappie, walleye or white bass. If the water stays below 40 degrees for an extended period of time, the shad will die, so water temp is more critical for them than the crappie.

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Crappie: It is interesting to note that for the last several weeks, I have been discussing the importance of water temperature and crappie movements. In the December 2008/January 2009 issue of North American Fisherman (in which I have appeared in several articles) they have talked about water temperature reference crappie movements. Very fine and informative article. When the water temperature is in the 40s, you’ll find crappie in 20-30 feet of water. As the water temperature gets into the high to mid 30s (which it does on Stockton Lake when you have extended cold periods) the fish will move into 30-60 feet of water by the gobs. Scope out bends in the river channels in the large coves. As the water progressively gets colder, the fish will move to deeper water and hang up on these major structures. These structures could be creek bends, drop offs, large rock piles at this particular depth. As the water warms, you do it in the reverse until the fish move into the spawning areas which we don’t need to worry about that until mid-late March and I’ll deal with that then.

Structure and/or cover will only hold fish when the water temperature at that level is most desirable for that time of year. This is true also for largemouth bass, walleye and catfish. The key to catching fish this time of the year in these conditions is a vertical presentation…that means get out of the wind, pay very close attention, because the bite will be light if you feel a bite at all. For this type of presentation, I use a 6 foot St. Croix rod with Stren Superbraid tipped with a jig (approximately ¼ oz) and a minnow. When you reel up your bait, check the minnow. If a crappie or white bass grabbed it, you can see where the scales have been removed, and obviously if a walleye grabs it, there will be teeth marks. I hope with the comments I made to Dave and this report, you have enough information to be successful. If you like to know exactly where I catch these fish, and more details on the techniques I use, you are going to have to hire me.

I have noticed that the Army Corps of Engineers has been doing a lot of clean up in the park areas; they probably wouldn’t mind if you would go relieve them of brush piles stacked on the shores to make underwater cover in your secret location. By the time springs gets here, your secret spots ought to be full of fish. I use PVC pipe in many of my areas, because it is very difficult to find with sonar. I punch it in my GPS and I am the only one who knows where it is.

One last thing, guide’s tip: wear a life vest and keep a change of warm clothing in your boat. No matter how macho you think you are, if you fall in the water, and you are not prepared, there’s a good chance you won’t survive the freezing cold ride back home. Countless anglers lose their lives every year when they fall in cold water.

Marty Thompson

Thompson Fishing Guide Service

www.fishstockton.com

417-424-2277

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