Fishin' Report 05/27

[packersooner]

Well, I was off the lake by noon, unfortunately WM had just gotten there so I didn't get to see him.

This was my first trip to stockton and I was fairly pleased. With the exception of the WIND. Jeeeessuusss, My legs hurt, my knees are killing me. The bow of the ranger almost went under a couple of times.

Only caught 2 eyes on bottom bouncers and spinner rigs around Master island. Switched to the 45 degree bluff banks across the lake from Master island, broke out the leadcore, flicker shads and went to work.

I was trolling two leadcore set ups, working the kicker and steering with the foot pedal on the MG exceL from the back of the boat, while being tossed about.

Managed a REAL good limit of crappie with a 12 inch average some were 13 plus. A couple of keepers eyes with another lost at boatside which was about 17 inches or so. I got so used to just pulling them in the boat at BS that I didn't even think about it being a keeper at the time. Total caught about 25 crappies and 13 or so walleye. Had 2 or 3 doubles on which made things very interesting.

Then the sky got dark and a couple of strikes of lightening chased me away. Figured I better not push my luck. All in all a good trip.

Upwind I had the kicker throttle little past half open. Trolling down wind, I barely had it idling and still couldn't slow down past 2.3mph. Had the trolling motor on full blast trying to steer, at least when it was in the water.

I don't know if the whole lake was windy like this or it was just one of those spots where the wind hit it just right.

Both the crappie and walleye were in 30 to 35 foot of water and I was fishing about four and half colors of core.

Good luck guys and may the force be with you, I'll definitely be back.

Nice report Rangerman. I'll have to give the leadcore approach a try. Maybe those Depthmaster reels will go on sale soon at Cabelas. Are you trolling those on shorter rods, or using your 8 footers?

Jason

[rangerman]

PS,

I use the 7 foot medium action ugly stick trolling rods for leadcore. They work marvelous. I dont think the 8 footers I use for flatlining would have enough backbone.

[powerdive]

I use 8.5' BPS Walleye Angler Deadstick rods (my favorites, nice moderate action, tips are giving but easy to read, good backbone) and Cabela's 5' Leadcore Shorties (tough to use in a tiller boat, but the oversized guides are great for letting line out).

For reels, I've used BPS Gold Cup 4000LC (discontinued but still my go-to's), Daiwa SG47LC (best of this bunch, but it's on a longline rod), Daiwa AD47LC, Okuma Magda and Convector linecounters, and Cabela's Depthmaster. Sorry to say, and this is only my experience, I would not recommend the Depthmaster. Cabela's was very good about replacing the two that the gears quickly stripped out on, but the third time it happened it went into the trash. Spend $10 more and get a low-end Okuma 30-class if cost is a major factor. Again, that's just my opinion.

Note: the soft-action 8' Cabela's Depthmaster rod that came in the combo turned out to be an excellent bottom bouncing rod.

[Martin]

Powerdive, who was the first to use leadcore in your boat ?? lol... Where we you ?? What was the month and temp ?

[rangerman]

I have never had any probs with the depthmasters....I got 5 of them and 2 sealines.

[powerdive]

Powerdive, who was the first to use leadcore in your boat ?? lol... Where we you ?? What was the month and temp ?

Uh, that would be you, Martin. At K Dock on upper Bull Shoals. You were just learning, and I'd never seen leadcore in action. You got me pretty good--your core took a pair of fat 24-inchers, and my longlining only managed one skinny 19. It was the only time I know of when a jacket was needed all day in July--the high never hit 60.

As someone once said to me, I may be stubborn but I'm not stupid. I had to try it after that. What an awesome deal not to have to put out 240' of braid with two splitshots to get a Deep Jr. down to 23' (and also to be able to dodge those freakin' stumps down there). If I never said thank you, I'm saying it now.

[powerdive]

I have never had any probs with the depthmasters....I got 5 of them and 2 sealines.

RM, they sell thousands of 'em, so those reels can't be all bad. I'm just 3-for-3 on the lemons.

[packersooner]

Have any of you all tried the clip-on weights? Church's makes a kit using similar clips to what they use on planer boards. The only downfall I can see is having to remove the clip while fighting a fish.

Jason

[rangerman]

I've used snapweights at BS when getting 800 series reef runners to run DEEP. They work good but, haven't really used them that much to develop a real good opinion.

Jason

[powerdive]

I have a set of Church snapweights, but I've only used them a couple times--not really needed on Stockton, at least during the warmer months, most years. (Might be different this year: looked like a thermocline was starting to set up at 44' last weekend--that's way deep for Stockton.) Cinch the screws down when using lighter braid, and they'll hold pretty tight even when dragging bottom on contours--but probably not as well in brush or craggy rocks. Haven't lost one yet, knock on wood.

Removing the clip is a breeze. A whole lot easier than planer boards. And most folks run them 20-50 feet ahead of the bait, so there's room to work when you need to pluck the weight.