Big Walleye

[Plan B]

Big walleye are a nice feather in your cap, but they do not eat as well as the smaller ones.

I find that same thing with Bass both Large and Small mouth.

[frying eyes]

I grow up around Stockton and have fished it my whole life, about 35yrs.I've caught a lot if walleye 22-26in over the years but only a couple over 28in.I now live around kc and believe it or not my biggest was at Longview lake 31.5in,late September. Don't go there from May-september , a lot of dumb asses. MCD stocks it to.

[Harps]

Big walleye hard to come by on Stockton. I heard of an 18 lb'er from Stockton about 10 years ago. The guy that told me about it doesn't lie to me, but I don't know about the fellow who told the guy. Most of our walleye we catch run 13-18 inches, with a few over 20 each year.

[blue79]

I grow up around Stockton and have fished it my whole life, about 35yrs.I've caught a lot if walleye 22-26in over the years but only a couple over 28in.I now live around kc and believe it or not my biggest was at Longview lake 31.5in,late September. Don't go there from May-september , a lot of dumb asses. MCD stocks it to.

I have never caught a walleye at Longview but i grew up in the Belton Grandview area and i agree with you about the dumbass"s.Very dangerous lake!They are always pulling body"s out of the woods.Drivebye shootings,rapes.Your not safe at that lake unless your in a boat.

[MoCarp]

for YEARS I fished stockton for walleyes and smallies, Huge walleyes were in the lake the native river strain they look more bass belly shaped... they got huge

back in th 80's you had to work hard for eyes, caught nice keepers from 3-8 pounds, sometimes a guy bass fishing would nail a real monster bassfishing in the mid teens, almost always in the fall.

at some point they stocked a "lake spawn" northern strain but they never seemed to break 4 pounds, Truman, LOZ, BullShoals better for huge fish more about genetics than food....I had a conversation with a state biologist once he said that the native strain doent repoduce well in a hatchery.........I have seen fish in the 15-world record class in BS back in the day havent heard of one over 17 in a long time......I wish the state would spend more time trying to save the old "jack salmon" that used to come outa the lakes.......you would have thought that the state would have used a better brood stock cause in spots up yankee land they get huge as well.......sometimes quality is better than quanity......

[luckycraft]

at some point they stocked a "lake spawn" northern strain but they never seemed to break 4 pounds

you would think with a Northern strain, the genetics would be in the lake. Just my thoughts. I think it is something else. I heard that the MDC also tried to introduce nothern pike to the lake as well, which didn't fair too well. Stockton does have records for Northern pike, but I beleive that these have been eradicated. Might be something about the lake itself that isn't condusive to these fish. Just my two cents.

[powerdive]

My understanding is that MDC did plant northerns in the lake, and they did OK for awhile--even produced the 17-lb. state record. But eventually a virus wiped 'em out. Fisheries also stocked lake trout in Bull Shoals...not sure what happened there.

Aside from everyone's beliefs about genetic growth potential, one of the pitfalls of stocking non-native fish has to be disease...and it can go both ways. I'm guessing the northern pike experiment turned out to be a good reminder.

I talked to a really strange person--a deep water diver--at a Stockton ramp a couple years ago, and he swore that there were record class muskies in the lake, living permanently far below the thermocline up by the dam. He'd seen them, of course. While I believe there may be the odd struggling muskie in the lake (since they exist upstream), his story makes absolutely no sense at all.

I've heard the occasional wiper shows up in the lake every few years or so, but I've never seen a gar on Stockton. Why is that?

[Walleyedmike]

PD, I had a bass fisherman that swore he caught a really big tiger muskie on Stockton about a month ago. He was on the Little Sac arm of the lake. Of course, it broke loose at the boat, so no pictures. Seems like Tiger Muskies were stocked for a few years in Stockton in the late 80's. I've never seen a gar caught at Stockton, but some guys posted about a year ago they had caught an occasional gar. Seems like it was around CC. The large walleye that are surely somewhere in Stockton stay clear of my lines, too.

WM

[frying eyes]

A friend of my dads was lucky enough to caught a tiger muskie back in the early 90's, its hanging on his wall. He also use to dive a lot.he doesn't believe there's any left in the lake, but who knows.sure would make your day to pull one in some day!

[9LB]

That is a big walleye. If they did not taste so good and were not so easy to fish while you drink beer you could keep these little walleyes in Stockton. I am from Northern Michigan and growing up I have caught so many nice walleyes. I have been fishing Stockton for 10 years and I have caught my fair share but nothing over 10 lbs. A 10 lb walleye up there is like catching a 5 lb bass in Missouri. The more I walleye fish stockton the more it feels like I am fishing the Rainbows on Taneycamo. All hatchery made and realeased at 1 inch under the limit. Big fish are everywhere but Stockton is NOT a quality walleye lake. It just happens to have small fry stock dumped in it every year. In saying that...I am heading up in the morning to go try and catch a few !