Camped At Mutton Creek And Fished Cc

[duckydoty]

Got together for a family camp out this weekend and a little fishing on Stockton. My Brother Dave, sister and her son Mathew and her friend Kenny, my wife MC and I all had a blast this weekend. We got to the camp ground after dark on Friday night and man o' man was it cold! MC and I had to snuggle close to stay warm in the tent that night. Got up early and got the fire going. We finished with breakfast of farm fresh eggs and sausage provided by my sister Jen and clean up around 9:30. Drove over to the CC access and on the water by 10 a.m. My nephew wanted to have a little fishing competition, so we let him choose the teams. Team Ducky was MC, my sister and I in my boat. Team Brother Dave was my nephew Mathew, Kenny and Brother Dave. Team Ducky started the day by trolling #5 purple fire tiger flicker shad. We were not fishing 2 minutes and the first 12 inch keeper crappie was boated in 12 feet of water. We continued trolling over the flats down lake from the bridge working different depths and only picked up fish in the 12-14 inch range on the flicker shad. I think we had boated 5-6 keepers by noon. We switched over to dead drifting jigs in the wind working the same productive depth ranges and started picking up a few more fish. With the strong winds, we needed two 1/8th oz tandem jigs to get down and feel the bottom tick every now and then. Team Brother Dave was doing pretty good also dead drifting the jigs in the wind and race was just about neck and neck. We stopped for a shore lunch of pulled smoked chicken for sandwiches warmed up on the portable grill and chips around 2 p.m. You could not ask for a better meal and company lakeside! After lunch the dead drifting on the flats continued and so did the catching. We ended the day of fishing about an hour before dark and headed back to camp to count the catch and tally the days results. Team brother Dave ended up with 1 big drum, 1 blue gill, 1 just legal bass and 10 nice crappie. Team Ducky had one 18 inch walleye, one drum, one nice 3 pound channel cat, and 14 crappie from 11 to 13 inches. As we were cleaning the fish back at camp, the local conservation agent stopped by to check out the catch and chat for a while. We invited him to stay for the fish fry that was about to happen. He said he still had to work a couple of hours but wished he could. Im telling ya, he missed out. That was one of the best fish fries I have ever attended. That night MC and I added another sleeping bag to the bed and slept much better. Sunday morning we woke up to a heavy frost with promises of warm weather from the weather man. He did not lie to us! It turned out to be a beautiful day on the water! Again, we launched at the CC access around 10 am. Team Ducky started again with trolling flicker shad just to get a feel of where the fish were at. Took about 20 minutes to catch the first keeper and it was in 13 feet of water. We changed back over to drifting jigs in the wind and proceeded to catch plenty of shorts and some really nice keepers. I thought we were loosing ground to team Brother Dave, so on the next pass we got close to them and I hollered at them asking if they had any black Bobby Garland jigs. The said yes and asked why. I hollered back and said because I only have 2 left and that was what we were catching them on. So I boated over to them and got 3 from them. My ploy worked. They all changed over to black and we continued fishing our crystal lam and pearl colors. We continued catching lots of dink whites, some short crappie and quite a few keepers. If they were a keeper, they were at least 12 inches. We called it a day around 4 p.m. and went back to the launch to tally the results. Team Brother Dave boated 5 keeper crappie and Team Ducky boated 23. Four of the crappie were over 14 inches. Again, at the parking lot, the local conservation agent came up to check out how the fishing was. Over all, it was a little slower than the day before, but it was a great day on the water with family and friends. After the catch comparison, I did feel a little bad about leading Team Brother Dave in the wrong direction, but then again, he should have known better!

I will try and post some pictures later on

We drove up Friday evening as the rain and clouds were starting to clear





Saturday morning was a bit frosty

Saturday's shore lunch

Team Ducky picks up another nice crappie

Several dink males were caught over the weekend

Saturday's catch-Team Brother Dave and Team Ducky combined

Cleaning station

Fish Fry Guy

Sundays reward

[Ham]

DD look into getting a drift sock to slow down those dead drifts. A little hassle, but it can be so worth it. Make sure you get one that's big enough.

I have a nice one from Cabela's and I'm thinking about adding a second one.

[Quillback]

Good stuff!

[duckydoty]

Yeah, I've really been considering getting one.

[packersooner]

Great read. Thanks for sharing!

Jason

[duckydoty]

Thanks guys"

[Ham]

I really, really like Stockton as a multispecies lake.

[Sac River Jim]

sounds like you had and outstanding trip with your family. glad you got that nice eye too. those two flats at CC are my two favorite places to fish on the whole lake cause like Ham said ya never know what your gonna pull into the boat. thnx for a very good report.

[Phil Lilley]

File it away...

If you're competing against Doty, don't listen to a word he says.

[Ham]

File it away...

If you're competing against Doty, don't listen to a word he says

If you can't beat em join em, I'm not planning on fishing against DD.