July 22, 2009 Stockton Lake Fishing Report

[Thompson Fishing Guide Service]

July 22, 2009 Stockton Lake Fishing Report

Lave level: 868.7

Normal pool: 867

Fishing is not golf. The golf ball does not think or react on its own volition, but a fish does. Fish were designed with the ability to survive and to make other little fish. Within the scope of these two attributes, one needs to ponder the question: Why do fish do what they do? To get into the deep psyche of the fish mind, we (the predators), must think like they do. Why does a fish with a tiny amount of brain mass grab a lure that has “Bill Dance” written on both sides? How do I catch fish when they are not hungry? How do I catch fish when they are not protecting their babies? Why do fish bite in the first place?

Have you ever noticed the anatomy of a fish, be it bass, walleye, or blue marlin? Fish do not have hands like we do. Therefore, information is limited by what they detect with their lateral lines, inner ears, sense of smell and sight. Fish use their mouths much like you use your hands. You may use your hands to eat a hot dog, or pizza with anchovies. You still use your hands whether you are hungry or not for investigation, or defensive movements. In the fishing world, this is what the big time pros call “reaction strikes.” Fish may want to remove an irritation or something that is in their space. What technique and what allurement do you know of that will engage at least one or more of these fish mechanisms? How do you catch fish when there is an overwhelming amount of bait at any given time?

Bass go shallow to eat, but when there is food available in their comfort zone of 20 feet around the thermocline, they never leave home. You need to center on their mind set and that is “I am at home and I have shad on the grill.” How do you catch them? You must appeal to the other senses. A bass, walleye or crappie will not generally chase fast moving baits such as spinner baits and crank baits when they have food in their comfort zone. Therefore you need to fish in the comfort zone and provide them with something that looks alive; for example, a jig or plastic worm for bass, a small jig tipped with night crawler for walleye, or a crappie jig fished slowly right in the crappies’ faces. If a bait looks alive, and it stays in the strike zone long enough, sooner or later a fish will strike. A lot of the techniques will come from experience on your part. Always remember for one reason or another, like a little kid, fish will put something in their mouths if it made available in the proper way.

Walleye fishing has been slow to fair, it is a day to day thing; as of yesterday, we have received two inches of rain in Dade County, so things may change, good or bad. They always say when you have a big rain it washes little bugs in the water, and the fishing goes wild; that is very true providing the environment in which they live is not already inundated with bait. That is the situation on Stockton Lake. More food means one less reason to grab a lure, unless it is presented in a timely fashion and manner. If you fish a high mountain lake in Colorado where there is very little forage, as opposed to a lake that has an abundance of forage, you will see the difference. The mindset that you have to have on Stockton Lake whether you are fishing for walleye, bass or crappie, is that fish don’t bite because they are hungry. To be perfectly honest, this situation is very good for the fish, but not good for the fishing. It makes it tougher, but you can overcome this. Think like a fish.

Late evening fishing around the dam has produced fish 22-24 inches. Slow trolling the points and fishing around 20 feet deep (slightly above the thermocline), drifting jig and night crawlers or crawler harnesses have been catching fish not only around the dam, but also on the flats north of Googer and points around Cedar Ridge boat ramp. I had a client catch a 24 inch walleye a week ago and as I filleted his fish, I recovered two handfuls of fat from the belly of the walleye, attesting to my theory that fish grab a bait for a different reason than to eat it.

Crappie fishing: deep brush piles 20-25 feet down are where you need to concentrate your efforts; the best are on main lake points or secondary points. To catch more quality fish, don’t sit right on top of them. The first time Bubba slams a compartment door, it will spook the fish. They’ll either move or go into alert mode to where they won’t bite until you and he move on. The key to this is to position your boat a cast length away and throw a crappie jig or Road Runner. You need to let it sink to the depth that when you reel it back, it will be about 2 feet above the top of the brush pile. If it is windy, forget that idea, and try to anchor so that your boat will be positioned about a cast away and use a slip bobber. The anchoring is a feat within itself, due to the fact that the stump you finally do get hung up on is 3 casts away and you have to cut your anchor line in order to get home. If you need further detail, you probably should enroll in a fishing guide school near you.

White bass fishing has been slow…most of the fish we have caught are ones that didn’t have anything else to do but grab a crawler harness. That’s ok, because it is a quick thrill for a few seconds. The fish that are being caught are caught off main lake points at least 20 feet down on jigs or spoons.

Largemouth bass: I haven’t had as many days to bass fish as I would like, due to walleye trips and other days when lightning was ripping through the universe. However, on a short day, in between bad weather, and my wife making me mow the lawn, I caught 3 bass. One was 4 pounds, the other two were about 2 pounds each and I lost what I thought was another decent fish. My technique is to fish deep and slow. I know you can catch them on deep diving crank baits, and maybe a top water bite here and there, but you have to admit that if that is the only way you are fishing, you are not catching quality fish. Main lake points and secondary points with cover and or structure are the places to target if you don’t have your own secret spots. Bass don’t move that much so if you did well on one of your secret spots, it behooves you to find out why it is so productive. That is fishing. Catching is the frosting on the cake.

Marty Thompson

Thompson Fishing Guide Service

www.fishstockton.com

417-424-BASS

Often imitated, never duplicated. Fish The Finest!

[charliehorsejigs]

We are also finding crappie in the old hedgerow between CC and Birch Branch. They have been running 10 to 15 feet deep. Just tie i up to a tree and cast toward the nearest one, let it sink down, and reel very slowly. Sometimes the fish will follow the jig all the way back to the boat, within 2 feet of the surface, before biting. Jig color didn't matter as long as it had a yellow or chartreuse tail. Don't forget to use the crappie nibbles. The Crappie wouldn't touch the jigs without them. A friend of mine has also had good luck trolling the same jigs along the edge of the trees slowly, about 12 to 15 feet down. They bite best between sunup and noon.