Walleye Fishing Friday

[cculler10]

I am considering fishing stockton this Friday. Would you recommend or not recommend trying the lake out for walleye? I fished Labor Day around Mutton Creek and caught 4 walleye (1 keeper) and a bunch of largemouths trolling a bass pro lazer blade. We fished in the afternoon/evening when the wind died down a little. Are the walleye active all day or just low light conditions? Is live bait the best bet or would i have equal success with cranks? Thanks for the input. I will be coming from Springfield so the east and south sections of the lake would be best for me if you know of any spots.

[Walleyedmike]

Stockton is a great place to fish for walleye. If Labor Day was your first time on the lake, I would consider that a success. I'm not familiar with the lazer blade crank bait, but you may need to get a little deeper to increase your catch rate. I was trolling flicker shads with lead core line on Sunday. I was running the crank baits about 15-18 feet deep in 20-25 feet of water, but I caught my best 'eye in 8 feet of water scraping the bottom with the crank bait. I was working the shoreline north and west of Masters, but there is no reason the same won't work near Mutton. There is a large flat north and west of Mutton where I have had a lot of success this summer trolling bottom bouncers and spinner harnesses or slow death rigs, each baited with crawlers in 12-25 feet of water (slow trolling with bow mount). Bob Bennett always recommends jigs and crawlers on points, but I kind of prefer to be more mobile. I am also generally in LAZY mode when I go to the lake, it is not uncommon for me to not hit the water until noon. I have caught walleye all day, although my catch rates are usually better in the morning. Read up on other threads on the forum, there is a lot of information out there, although nothing will replace time on the water. Good luck and don't catch 'em all, I'll hopefully be back down in a couple of weeks.

WM