Steady decline of the fish population.

[MoCarp]

15 hours ago, waterpossum said:

My first fishing experience on Stockton was in 1981 when I joined a bass club out of Joplin. I remember how all the area lakes would get locked up during the winter.  I sat some brush North  of the north Muttton creek ramp by walking out on the frozen 4" ice. This was not a unique situation. Grand and Table Rock also froze. I saw Grand frozen shoreline to shoreline and literally thousands of dead drum and shad hung in the ice. To the best of my recollection this occurred in the 80s.  When to anyone's recollection has Stockton frozen completely.  I would assume the year round lake temp has increased over the last three decades. Thoughts?

Late 70's and vey early 80's winters were the coldest on record, I remember talk of "the return to an ice age"

Shoal creek froze over in the winters of 75-79

 I went to Canada on a fishing trip in the second week of June 1981, and stopped on our trip up at our Consumers Super Market, in the corner of the parking lot was a pile of some singers stained pile of Ice still melting piled up from the cleaning off of the parking lot time after time all winter long was worried that the lake might be still froze over in Canada but ice out was just a few days before we arrived.

Winters are warmer than in my youth, once in Mobile Al in the 60's it got down to 2 degrees!...are we getting warmer? yes...but we have been since the last Ice age ended 12k years ago..is man causing it?

IMHO    NO!..at least not to the degree the media would lead you to believe...I'll link something to that effect at the end of this but I warn you, It may cause you an eye opening view on our human history and fragility of humanity and life on the big blue marble....

9 hours ago, lundone said:

A few years ago there was a build up of algae in Sons Creek so I called DNR who sent a man out.  He talked to some of the owners abutting Sons and concluded that it was a result of livestock run off in the upper reaches of the creek.  He also stated that DNR had no control over such run off.  In terms of quality of fishing on Stockton, I would have to say that this year was probably one of the most productive I have had for walleye fishing both in terms of keepers and size.  Watterpossum:  I have lived on Stockton for 15 years and can remember only one winter that it froze completely and that was probably 4 to 7 yrs ago.  

Walleye fishing has been bolstered by the massive stocking the state has been doing, the fish caught IMHO do not look fat n sassy like walleyes did in the 80's even early 90's fish...wish the state would bolster the smallmouth population, it used to be killa, catching several fish over 4lbs is not common any more.....or catching tons of the brown bass by the dam.......

 

here is the pod cast on global warming so break out you science hats and go for a ride you won't forget..so if you loose sleep its not my fault you watched this

 

[straw hat]

I remember 3 times the lake froze over and a lot of times it came close (more than half the lake froze). I agree with Mo Carp on the 80's. I slid a lot of brush piles out in the lake across that thick ice . Too chicken to walk out on it even though I saw a few 4 wheelers out doing doughnuts. lol.

I also agree about the number of walleye being good due to heavy stocking.

One last point. While the fishing may have declined, a bad day on the lake is still better than a good day at work.

[straw hat]

You know I forgot to mention something. Someone commented on the MDC brush piles not lasting very long. I use to live in the Branson area numerous decades ago and until 2 years ago my old bass fishing partner from down there was still alive. He often related to story to me about other bass fisherman we both new who went out with a large rope and hay hook, snag the new MDC brushpiles and dragged them to where they wanted them That way only they would know the location. I know that I put out over 200 brushpiles in my younger years at Stockton. During low water levels I have found them 200 ft away from where I put them. I have also found a great many that have been dragged up on the bank where only very high water would reach them. They were all secured with 3 cement blocks. That has got to be hard to move. lol

My guess is that those up on the bank were in someone's way and they didn't want to get hung up on it. A little frustrating after all that work. Just food for thought.

[MoCarp]

we used to sink whippy willow limbs, not many 3-4 sink easy with a grapefruit sized rock...didn't show up so well on electronics but fish loved them..also 3 or 3 sections of a bail of alfalfa hay wrapped in chicken wire was da bomb too...then there is the range cube trick in onion sacks......

[Old plug]

On August 30, 2017 at 9:13 PM, waterpossum said:

There's a lot of obvious factors involved in the decline in fisheries, such as fishing pressure, loss of shoreline structure  and a general decline in lake fertility. Stockton does not have a lot going for it as far as large feeder arms that supply massive amounts of water. Think Grand i.e. Elk River, Neosho River, Spring River, any of which pour more water into the lake than the two Sac Arms. Table Rock, supplied by the White River run off from Beaver, Kings River, Long Creek, James River are major arteries. Don't get me wrong, I bought and built on Stockton because of it's untamed shoreline and remoteness. I think the lake has gotten better starting about the early 90s. The forage base is more than adequate. 

Sounds like a nice quote from MDC. LOZ has a ahoreline full of docks and it is one of the beneficial things as far as fishing goes .Fish of nearly every species on the lake benfot from docks.  The thing is ther are more wanna be fisherman out there that with more knowledge about catching the fish and less knowledge about how t care for then. 

[Old plug]

3 hours ago, MoCarp said:

we used to sink whippy willow limbs, not many 3-4 sink easy with a grapefruit sized rock...didn't show up so well on electronics but fish loved them..also 3 or 3 sections of a bail of alfalfa hay wrapped in chicken wire was da bomb too...then there is the range cube trick in onion sacks......

That is interesting about the Alfalfa. This is the scond time in about a week I head about using it A friend of mine bought a house across the lake from me. He put plastic pipe in the lake for feeders and puts Alfallfa in them? I never heard f that before. I know the purpose it is to drawe bait fish that draw the crappie. I will have to reserve judgement on that. If it draws minnows and the crappie come to fed on the minnows it sort of looks like it will work against the fisherman to me.

I have sunk enough brush over the years to fill an couple of dump trucks. Never Tried willow My fovprote is Oak because it does not need to be weighted if you are gomg to hang it. I love those garly oak top you see hi up in some oaks. Kind of hard to come by.

I found long ago that side scanning finders my and my not work. I watch them come by here all the time marking the brushy docks then come back and not catch any fish. 

[MoCarp]

new brush usually need to age a bit before catching fish...not willow for some reason..used to look for black bell wire or binder twine on docks ..that told you brush was there....if you didn't get bites keep dropping line size..many times 2# test was the order of the day....I think the hay draws in planktonic critters, then bait, then bait eaters...I bet a pvc pipe drilled with holes and weighted would work great, plus not look like "brush"... just some kind of dock structure....I'd prob fill it with range cubes and hay.......1st  jam in a ball of hay.... ram it with a pole....then a layer of range cube..repeat...kinda like loading a black powder shotgun!.....perhaps rolled up weeping willow switches..lots of ways......most fishermen would think it was sone kind of water logged boat fender etc....

 

 

[Walcrabass]

Everyone,

 I too have had many brush piles moved by others. Pretty discouraging to think that someone is so lazy that they can't even pull a piece of brush into the lake and sink it. Instead they have to  steal the work of someone else. Before anyone says it I am talking about brush that was NOT in the path of current and may have been moved by water.

Point number two is to sink small logs. They are very hard to hook onto and move. ALso show up not so good on graphs.

Point number three, the MDC piles today would be very hard to move. Usually have a massive amount of weight on them.

Point number 4, if I ever catch someone moving one of mine they will need to hook their boat with a hay hook ( and a barge)to get it back to the dock.

Walcrabass

 

[blacknoseddace]

Probably the same guys that frequent the woods taking tree stands and game cameras. 😡 Just Kidding.

[lundone]

On 9/3/2017 at 7:19 PM, Old plug said:

That is interestng I got to wonder though jus how much you fish.

Haven't been on here much lately so my answer is a little tardy.  I retired many years ago and have the time to fish and love doing it.  For quite a few years now I have probably averaged well over a hundred days each year on the water.