Thompson Fishing Guide Service Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 July 25, 2007 Stockton Lake Fishing Report Lake level 873.15 Walleye: To catch walleye, you have to find walleye. As previously stated, in highland reservoirs in the south, walleye follow the bait schools throughout the lake. Here today, gone tomorrow type thing. Late afternoon or early evening, I have been trolling minnow type baits such as the Lucky Craft Pointer, or Cotton Cordell Riplin Redfin, or similar baits. Start your quest off of main lake points that connect to the main river channel. The best points are the points with rocks about 25-30 feet deep. Walleye will hold on these points waiting for shad schools to come by. When you locate these points, you can continue to troll the crank baits or slow drift a jig and minnow or jig and leech combination through the rocks. With the moon on the upswing, the next several days should be good night fishing. Stake out your claim before it gets dark and you’ll save valuable fishing time. You can try these same techniques on what is called the flats located across from Mutton Creek boat ramp. The fish will move up and down, so they’ll be at whatever depth they’re at at the time. You have to find them. Guide tip: in a recent In Fisherman magazine, I discovered that there is a website that deals with virtually every fish on earth. You can either hear the clicks, clunks and squeaks of the American Eel or the thumps and rocks of Gizzard Shad. To be a better fisherman, it is obvious that you should understand the basic habits of the bait. www.fishbase.org Crappie are still somewhat good throughout Stockton Lake, for white crappie and black crappie. There are more black crappie in the timber, and more white crappie in open water. For larger crappie, I have been dragging a jig and minnow for months now in deep creek channels (25-35 feet deep). Seems like the bite picks up later in the afternoon or early evening. With the upcoming moon phases, you might want to try fishing after dark over a crappie light. Like with the walleye, locate the fish before it gets dark. With no wind, you should be able to set virtually on top of the fish with your crappie light. Small crappie jigs with minnows, crappie niblets, or minnows on Aberdeen hooks seem to work the best. Warning about the crappie niblets: it’ll take you about 3 months to get the glitter off of your hands, or any other body part it comes in contact with. Largemouth bass: I have been catching most of my quality fish (2-4 pounds) in about 18-20 feet of water on the greatest bass fishing lure known to man, the plastic worm. It seems like fishermen are inventing a new presentation called dead sticking. Little do they know this was one of the most used presentations of the 70s. We just didn’t call it dead sticking. Nevertheless, let the worm sit for up to 10-12 seconds and then move it a couple of feet. All the time you’ll feel the bottom and then you’ll feel the drop off. When Mr. Bass grabs your worm, the sensation will be far different than that produced by bass caught in cover and structure. I lean into the worm when I feel the bite, give the fish a second or two, or a little longer on bigger worms (9-12 inches) and set the hook. To me, this is bass fishing because you make the bait a living morsel that Mr. Bass will go wild over. Anybody with one eye and half a brain can catch a fish on a crank bait, but only the true masters can catch the great ninja of the deep on plastic worms. Don’t let him run too far though, for 2 reasons: 1) he’ll get wrapped around the brush 2) he’ll swallow the hook too deep and dragging him in by the throat will probably kill him. Top water is still hit and miss, you need to experiment. I carry a rod loaded with a top water lure (BuzzBait , ScumFrog or Chugger type); the frog is real good in thick cover. For numbers of fish (around legal) use spinner baits or medium to shallow running crank baits, get on the trolling motor and pretend you’re a big time bass pro and go wild. Cover a lot of water. Main lake and secondary points are good, along with bluffs. Jigs are good in these locations and we have caught some large smallmouth (up to 4 ½ pounds on crawdad color). Channel cats: try the CC boat ramp area for channel cats. Slow drift night crawlers, chicken liver, etc. Across the flats, by the CC bridge is a good spot. Marty Thompson Thompson Fishing Guide Service www.fishstockton.com 417-424-BASS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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