Fishing Report

[Stockton Lake Guide Service]

Lake level is about 872.79 and starting to level off it looks like. Supposed to rain another inch tomorrow and, well another front is supposed to pass thru. Perfect conditions to test your skills out on the lake. The lake came up about 4 foot in 2-3 days.

The sac river and turnback are a mud pit. I went up there saturday where I had been catching some big fish, but that was a mistake. It took me over an hour to get there due to the fog and logs floating down the lake. The water temp in the river was 52 which was down 12 degrees from a week ago.

Anyways, the walleye have started to move up for the fall feed. Crankbaits on the points and secondary points are your best bet. With the rising water and the rapid cooldown, these fish might be all the way back into the brush, which can make them near impossible to get to. Look for points that don't have as much brush up on them and try fishing for the walleye shallower if you don't find them in front of the brush. Trolling will work, but the fish move pretty shallow in the fall to feed, so casting will probably work better. Remember that the walleye school, so if you catch one work the area hard.

Bass are biting good on square bill crankbaits in shallow water. The backs of coves and creeks are your best bet to catch a good number of fish. The tournament was won on a jig bite in deep brush piles. The problem is if you don't know where these brush piles are then you will be burning daylight. I used a lucky craft bait all day saturday and we ended up with 5 keepers and we probably caught 15 fish between 1130 and 230. The bite seems to get better as the day goes on, and if you have a little sunlight. Watch for the shad in the backs of the coves. If you don't have shad then you probably won't have many fish either. It's not an easy thing if you are not used to fishing shallow, but keep casting and keep trying and it's a lot of fun once you figure it out.

Crappie have been really good in brush piles and off points on jigs and minnows in 15-20 foot of water. If you find the right spot you can load the boat up, but if not then you get a lot of little fish, under the 10" limit. I have a special going thru dec. for 2 people, up to 6 hours, for only $125.00. If you have trouble catching these fall crappie give me a call and I will take you out and show you some spots. Fall fishing is by far the best time to catch big crappie.

Catfish have slowed down on the flats, but if you find water coming in, like the very back of the creeks, then you can load the boat up with channel cat. Just don't catch over 10, because then you would be overloaded.

Good luck to everyone. Remember to keep your hook sharp and give me a call anytime if you have any questions. The best number is 417-208-9535.