A Modest Proposal For Next Month

[coyotewhacker]

Unless some miracle like the second coming of Christ occurs, I think most of us would agree that the walleye fishing on upper Bull Shoals is over for this year, and that it never really happened at all. We may never know the reason, but that should not prevent us from picking up the enjoyable get togethers some place else where the fishing has not totally evaporated. I know many of us enjoy the fishery at Stockton, we have summer walleye tournaments coming in the next few months, and there are numerous places that we could launch from without paying a $3 launch fee (although with $2 gas, three bucks to launch doesn't seem outrageous). I would like to propose that we consider having a get together soon after the PWT tournament is over next month, and have it on Stockton. Since almost everybody lives south of the lake, I would also propose the launch site be somewhere on that end to minimize driving time for the vast majority. Saturdays seem to be a bad day this time of year due to lots of bass tournaments, but Sundays are reasonably calm until the afternoon hours after lunch.
I found a floating cafe that has a breakfast buffet while getting a bite of lunch yesterday, so that is one option for chow. It is also on the south half of the lake, which is even better. And they have a two lane free ramp. Anyway, this would be a chance to work on your warm water walleye techniques, watch PD in action on the sand bottom, and maybe find you own honey hole on Stockton. CW will open the floor for comments, suggestions, constructive criticism, etc.

[Tablerock]

I've had enough punishment at BS.... Stockton is a pretty good drive for me but if there are fish to be caught...I'm in....!

[coyotewhacker]

One good thing about Stockton is that something is almost always biting. It's rare to go there and get skunked completely. You might have to switch the species you are targeting, but somewhere on the lake something will be biting. The fair weather walleye guys (aka known as the local bass boat crowd) are off the dam now, and back to chasing largemouths up and down the banks, so if you want to structure fish for the mooneyes, you will have much of the main lake to yourself. Go back in the feeder creeks and all bets are off, especially on a weekend. The Flats can also be a Chinese Fire Drill, but the walleyes will soon be there in numbers, if not monster size. If the walleyes are not biting, you can use the electronics and find some of the numerous brush piles and jig for crappies, look for a likely looking cove and go for whites, or work the brushy shorelines for largemouth bass. The bluffs hold a few small mouths, too. zIf you watch the posts put up by fishnxs, you will be looking at the guy who knows the upper end of the lake about as well as anybody....Gary keeps a close watch on the crappie and walleyes on Stockton, and if we decide to have this get together, maybe he can keep us up to date on where the best bite might be.

[fishnxs]

There are no fish in Stockton

[coyotewhacker]

You're absolutely right....so you and Ralph won't be joining us, right? You will want to go on over to Pomme de Terre where the fish are biting, even when the wind does not blow. After everybody hears about your last three Stockton runs, they probably won't let you fish anyway.
Serves you right for whuppin' up on the poor fish like you've been doing. The PETA A-Holes will be out in force for the big trial in Bolivar, and they just might come after you when they get through with the guy from Humansville. Poor lil' ol' fish...at least they get to go back and tell their buddies to avoid those mean ol' fishermen..........................

[fishnxs]

As far as knowing the upper end of Stockton I wish I did.

We learn something new almost ever trip, mainly places not to fish.

It is a good lake to be on. (at times)

I will have to agree that generally you can almost always find something to fish for. Now having said that today will be a total wash out.



Yesterday was another good day for us anyway.

7 wally's- 2 shorts rest keepers

10 keeper crappie around 30 shorts

only had 6 whites yesterday (but we were looking for crappie)

a drum and several blacks. Not as many blacks but could have been due to all the bass guys running the banks

[coyotewhacker]

I got a new graphite matrix rod at BPS to replace the one whose tip wandered away one day....looks like Billy wants to baptise it Friday afternoon...anybody wants to join us, feel free. Look for this little Richline aluminum runabout with CW at the tiller and BB up in the front chair watching for alligators and submerged hippos....we'll probably launch out of Ruark Bluff ramp around 2:00 or so. That's the plan as of today. Things could change. Had a great time today with Tablerock and his lovely bride learning the fine art of mushroom picking. The picking part is easy....the find part is not. They took me to some steep hills above the lake, and we walked up and down for three or four hours. CW did manage to find a few small ones on his own after my hosts pointed out what they look like in the ground. After I started home, Mrs. Tablerock and a neighbor lady went to some secret spot and came home with over fifty very large golden ones, according to TR....and rain is predicted for the next couple of days, which should shoot up another crop. The Tablerocks graciously provided me with a couple of freezer bags of beautiful morels. I dropped one bag off with BB, and will start in on the other bag tomorrow. My thanks to Marty and Jerri for "showing me the ropes" on this mushroom thing. I would put up the GPS coordinates of the spots we went to, but the batteries failed just as I completed the back trail to the truck. Darn.

[Tablerock]

[quote]coyotewhacker said:
The Tablerocks graciously provided me with a couple of freezer bags of beautiful morels.

Don't freeze them. Ya gotta eat 'em....!

[reelxtc]

CW,

I'm in for a Stockton get together. I would think one of the first two weeks in June would be the best. Several of us are leaving for the NTC the week after the PWT.

We did it two years ago and it was a lot of fun. We did it early and the weather didn't cooperate, but we had a great cookout at the Treehouse.

BTW: Gainfully Unemployed and I caught a nice mess of crappies up the Little Sac on Saturday.

[coyotewhacker]

Well, the driveway might get a little crowded, but a bbq after fishing sounds like a good idea. Of course since I now know where The Treehouse is, and where the gas lines are, we can still have an early get together while you are off at the PWT events.....then have another one when you get back. That does sound like a capital idea, though. Majority rules around here, so we'll start kicking around the proposal, and we might have an early "mini-get together" in May, then do a full blown one at your place.

[bullitt]

Dang CW, you're starting to sound like a timeshare salesman! Are you opening a kiosk at The ramp at Ruark?
Glad you found some fungus. It be good stuff Maynard.
Try a few in an omlette, the flavor is really great.

[coyotewhacker]

At three bucks a pop, a fella could make a good living off the parking concession at Ruark Bluff.....and that's just the vehicles with a boat trailer attached. I will definitely try the omlette with mushrooms....maybe tomorrow morning after a real early payback to the turkeys that stayed out of range today. I set up in one pasture, several hens wandered around three to five yards outside my pop up blind, but the gobblers stayed in the next pasture with another group of hens. Fortunately I saw them when they came off the roost and out of the woods, and late this afternoon I moved the blind close to their exit point.
Tomorrow they will probably have chosen to roost somewhere else.......arrrrrrrrrrgh.
Hey, I get really big kickbacks for setting up the get togethers.....Reelxtc has a great place over near State Park, and if he wants to host a cookout, who am I to object.
Maybe we can get "somebody" to come up with some good home brew, maybe "somebody else" to kick in a few bottles of homemade hooch, collect a few crappie and walleye fillets, ......I've eaten worse. BTW, you're invited when we do put this thing together.