Saturday Night Lights

[waterpossum]

Put in at the north Mutton Creek ramp at 8:30 p.m. with a friend and his 13 year old son. We all were pleasantly surprised that the lite NW wind kept us comfortable until we quit at 1 p.m. Fishing was just good enough to keep us interested. 6 keeper crappie all about 12" that we kept and threw back about 20 short crappie and 10 white bass. Fished on main lake channel break outside the mouth of Goocher. Used two submersible green lights set about 4' deep that we exteded about 4' away from the boat (its just easier to see your line and rod tip with the extra light you get by doing this) We were over 50' of water using jigs and minnows with equal success, but fish were suspended 12-15'. Not a great keeper report, but a beautiful evening on the lake. The 13 year did most of the catching.

[blue79]

Im glad somebody caught something.The forum has been pretty quiet lately.

[straw hat]

I hear you blue79. There is so many pleasure boaters lately it is almost impossible to fish. The wife and I ran down to do a couple of hour of bank fishing after she got off work last friday. we were overrun with skiers, canoes, kayaks and tubers. We were about 2 miles from the State Marina so that area is big enough for everyone but after we had our lines run over several times we just gave up and went home. This is the second trip in a row that we have had this problem.

[waterpossum]

I was curious about the bait fish I was seeing under the lights so I contacted Adam Boman the state fisheries biologist in Springfield that works in SW Missouri. The translucent minnows that are native to Stockton are Brook Silversides, but the primary forage is Gizzard shad that grow to 2.5-3.5 in the first couple of years. I was hoping that they would once again try to stock threadfin shad, although their past efforts have been unsuccessful. Just my opinion, but I think the quality of fish would increase dramatically if they could introduce them successfully. I did clean the fish at the ramp Saturday night. The stomachs were pretty empty.