June 27, 2007 Stockton Lake Fishing Report

[Thompson Fishing Guide Service]

June 27, 2007 Stockton Lake Fishing Report

Walleye fishing has been excellent on Stockton Lake, particularly if you know where to go and have an experienced guide to lead you. I can give you a bit of information without overstepping my bounds with my clients, who pay for information. Tactics: 1) deep trolling with down riggers or a weight system on deep diving crank baits (Husky Jerks, deep diving Wiggle Warts, or Rapala DT deep divers) fished where you mark the fish (which have been 30-35 feet deep depending on water clarity and sunshine) will produce action. 2) the old reliable crawler harness on a bottom bouncer rig, fished very slowly off of main lake points has also been productive. Normally this time of year the walleye fishing has slowed down, but this last couple of weeks it has really picked up for my clients. Night fishing is even better when you have an early, bright moon up until about midnight. The same techniques used during the day will also work at night. After dark, try fan casting along the shore line with minnow type crank baits either black and silver or black and gold and you'll catch fish.

Large mouth bass: for sublegal and barely legal bass (which provide a lot of action), fan cast the shore with shallow running crank baits such as the Lucky Craft BDS1, the Bomber Square A, Norman FatBoy, etc. Spinner baits will also work. I have also been catching fish on the floating worm technique, which is really a blast because you can see the bass come out of the flooded brush and attack. For your bigger fish (3-7 pounds), I use Texas rigged worms or jigs in 25-35 feet of water. Dark colors like blue seem to work the best, due to the fact that blue can be seen better in the water column than any other color. The less visible color is of course red, so you bleeding bait enthusiasts and red hook warriors have been caught before your bass have been caught. Always remember, think outside of the box. I have learned more from old time fishing and hunting guides than all of the myriad magazine articles and videotapes combined. Not to say that these are not good sources of informatin (they are) but many of them are fishing for one thing: your hard earned dollar. Top water action has picked up somewhat and it seems like Scum Frogs or other top water frog type baits have been best for me and my clients. I'll give you a hint where I have been catching most of my better fish, and that is off of deep main lake points that connect to a major creek or river channel. Catching numbers of fish has been no problem, but if you want to catch the big buck, you are going to have to work harder. They are smarter than the smaller fish and providing you are smarter than them, you should stick a 7 or 8 pound bass on Stockton Lake this summer.

Small mouth bass: Stockton Lake holds the current and previous record for small mouth bass. These fish right now are deep for the most part, and I had a client catch a 4 1/2 pound small mouth a week ago on a 1/2 oz curly tail white jig in 35 feet of water. Another good technique is the drop shot technique, using a 4 inch plastic worm, grub or crawdad. Not only is this profitable, but it is a real blast. Unlike large mouth bass, small mouth bass move a lot, so you need to move a lot. When you find suspended fish with bait, it's a good possibility that they are small mouth bass, therefore, your plan of attack should include either a Little George tail spinner (made by Mann's Bait, which I have used for decades) or Cast Master spoons with white bucktails. You can either vertically fish these lures at the proper depth, or if the fish are suspended more shallow, you'll have to back off, cast to the target, and let the bait drop down through the school on a tight line. The bite will come very quickly, so forget your salami and cheese at this time because you will need all of your concentration. Note: small mouth take 6 years to mature sexually, so if it wasn't for catch and release, the small mouth (like other game species) would all be gone.

Crappie: Same as usual, big crappie are deep (25-35 feet). Bouncing the bottom with a minnow off of main lake points seems to be the best technique. Another productive way to catch these big fish is slow trolling small crank baits behind a bottom bouncing rig like those used for walleye. If you want to catch little 9 1/2 inchers all day long, use small minnows on an Aberdeen hook and fish on the marked crappie beds.

Catfish: channel cat fishing is good as usual on Stockton. Bank anglers don't have a whole lot of bank to fish off of, but there are a couple of areas where you can fish from the shore (Cedar Ridge, Old State Park). For those of you who wonder why, the lake is up about 9 feet and there is hardly any access from the shore. It seems like night crawlers, chicken livers, and chicken wienies are the most consistent baits. They are not hard to find, any large cove like the coves in the Turkey Creek arm are good places to start. These fish are spawning or beginning to spawn, and it is important that you release the big females. The smaller fish are better to eat and the bigger fish make sure you have smaller fish to eat. Don't stick a big head on your fence because when you kill the big fish, you are wiping out generations of fish to come. This applies for all game fish.

Marty Thompson

Thompson Fishing Guide Service

www.fishstockton.com

417-424-BASS