packersooner Posted May 1, 2013 Posted May 1, 2013 Targeted crappie in the Sons Creek arm. The good news is that we left them all there...not intentionally. We tried jigging shallow brush, fishing stumps/trees in the 5 to 13 foot range, and slow retrieving small crank baits and swimming minnows from 1-10 feet near the shore and on the flats. We managed a white bass and largemouth, The water was definitely off color with a lot of debris and averaged from 54 to 60 degrees. The 60 degree water was on the north side of a small cove. We then moved down the lake to slightly clearer water and tried the same stuff. Managed one decent male crappie in about 4 feet of water on a swimming minnow. He must of been lost...or felt sorry for us. We then tried trolling #7 Flicker Shads from 10-16 feet and only managed a channel cat. We trolled those from powerline cove up to Googer in depths ranging from 15 feet to 40 feet. We then threw in the towel and switched to bottom bouncers with crawler harnesses. We mainly targeted bluffs around Mutton in the 17-20 foot range. Of course, we caught a crappie! We also managed 3 walleye (2 keeps) in a little less than an hour before the trolling motor battery died. Fighting current and wind all day took its toll. The walleye were caught going against the wind and current from 0.8 to 1.1 mph. Hopefully someone found the crappie. I have fished Stockton for five years and still not caught a spawning female crappie. I've caught males on the banks. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Leaves more for you all! Jason
Members eking66756 Posted May 1, 2013 Members Posted May 1, 2013 I feel your pain! See our post.................
packersooner Posted May 1, 2013 Author Posted May 1, 2013 EKing, Yeah just read your post. Sounds awfully familiar. We did talk to a few boats Monday and heard similar results. Like you said in your post, it will probably bust lose all at once. Interestingly, the weather is going to get drastically cooler again later this week...enough so that water temps will drop several degrees. It will be interesting to see when they spawn. If the water stays high, it could bode well for the spawning class. We shall see... Jason
Members Slowtroller Posted May 1, 2013 Members Posted May 1, 2013 No bait fish. The crappie i caught had empty bellies. Has the weather kept the bait fish deep? That's where my thinking is right now. if so that's where the crappie might be and where they might spawn. I am going deep this weekend.
packersooner Posted May 2, 2013 Author Posted May 2, 2013 That's a solid theory Slowtroller. We saw some baitfish popping in a small cove in Sons Creek. Otherwise...we saw very little on the depth finder/side-imager. Just wish I wouldn't have been so stubborn and switched to walleye sooner Jason
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