Thoughts on the fishery at Stockton

[walleyesrus]

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of fish over 20" weighed in at Stockton, while the lake is still producing predominantly short or barely legal fish it does seem that at least a few of the fish are surviving long enough to exceed 20 "s, I can't help but wonder what could be if we could get the length limit raised to at least 17"s. The one thing that surprised me is that the habits of these fish seem to be changing, except for the winners, the majority of the high place finishers fish the lake only occasionally while many of the people who have dominated on this lake in the past struggled to find fish, 5 of my 6 fish came from a spot I would normally never fish whikle I checked at least 20 spots that have produced for me consistently in the past and caught nothing, I almost think it was an advantage this year to be new to the lake and not have any preconcieved notions. This year has proved one thing to me and that is I need to improve the way I prefish, I am spending too much time fishing memories or good looking spots and not actually finding fish, hopefully i can incorporate the new camera into my game plan, it will get extensive use this weekend.If any of you pro's that moniter the website have any thoughts on effective prefishing methods or ideas on how to approach a new lake I would be very interested.

[bullitt]

Good post 'eysrus. Just finding the fish can be a challenge. Learning to eliminate water has got to be a plus.

A guy ran a camera under one of the docks in my cove last weekend, and saw lots of walleye. People dangle minnows and worms under that dock on a daily basis, and never catch a walleye.

[Lakebumb]

The toothy critters are just different than other fish. They seem to march to a different beat. I bass fish a lot on Table Rock and have been here for 8 years and have never caught a Walleye while trying to catch bass. But when I target the eyes in their haunts I can catch a few now and then.

[Johnnie Candle]

Fishing a lake you are very familiar with is a difficult task. I personally would rather fish as far from home as possible.

When approaching a tournament, i do as much research as possible. That is how I found this site.

Upon arriving at the tournament site, I spend a day looking around. Not fishing, but looking. Deep, shallow, in the middle. Bluffs, points, flats, and any other structure I can find. Assume taht every mark onthe screen is a walleye until prooven otherwise.

Sometimes this is an all day process, but usually the first half of a day for sure. The evaluate what you saw and formulate a game plan to attack the areas you think had the most fish.

If you are right on, then things get easy. If you missed, then start over.

It is a frustrating learning curve as each event is diferent from theone before.

If you ahve any specific questions, fire away.

[walleyesrus]

Most of the lakes we fish are resivoirs with multiple arms, would you pick an arm that shows the most activity? Also do you basically follow the old river channel? I have always liked spots with channell swings close to shore, none of those spots produced fish nor really have they produced fish the last few years, hence the confusion to myself and others that used to fish Stockton frequently and successfully.

[scottwhitman]

I have and still believe that most Missouri Resaviors are Rivers and I treat them as such. On day 1 we caught fish trolling a small flat and I marked big fish all day, there was one other boat on this flat and they weighed 5 on day one we weighd 3 but lost two keepers at the boat one being a 4 or better.They started running even more water late on day 1, ( I checked that evening ) and I believe that pulls fish to the main lake ppoints. Its current and even though we can't see it they feel it. All the fish on my flat left(we looked on day 2 morning to confirm my thoughts) and headed to the points. We caught 16 fish with 4 keepers off one point...

[powerdivehome]

I've long suspected that there was an untapped pattern for big fish on Stockton, but have never tried investigating it. Those large walleyes that don't get meathooked out of the lake in early spring have got to go somewhere for the rest of the year. I always figured it would be the timber, or suspended fish in open water. But hey, maybe it's a depth thing....

Johnnie Candle, I would like to watch you go through that process someday!

[paperboy]

A rather humbling experience for me, getting beat that bad on my own water. Now I know how dad feels on Bull Shoals. I should have stuck to my original game plan (jigs) but it just didnt produce alot in pre-fishing.

[coyotewhacker]

PD...on the subject of sharing info...when I pre-fished with Steve Fellegy, he showed me a pattern he had worked out on Stockton a few years back. It was partially based on what walleyesrus mentioned in his post above. If you are going to be "investigating" Stockton in the near future, let me know and I will be glad to pass on what he showed me. The Express is running well again, so we can fish out of it, or I would squeeze into the Sylvan.....either way, I would enjoy a trip with an old Cheesehead. Given the traveling time between deep holes, you might consider a ride in The Express.

[powerdive]

CW, we'll do it. I'm familiar with Steve's approach--he laid it out in a post on WC a few years back, when Scott Golden was fishing our Stockton tourneys and fishing for info on how to fish the lake. He even laid out a couple spots to try--one just above, one just below the Mile Long Bridge.

The lesson from last weekend: don't pass stuff by in favor of your preconceptions. Investigate things you don't understand (such as, what are all those hooks in super-deep water?). Learn something. Try new stuff.

If fishing memories doesn't work, I'm going to be a lot quicker to develop a Plan B from now on...

[Johnnie Candle]

PD, anytime you would like to see it happen, you are more than welcome.

It is hard to get away from fishing memories. I am guilty of it here at home in and on Devils Lake. So far thsi summer, I have yet to fish a new spot. I rely on the old information to put my family and guide clients on fish.

That said, upon my return form the next PWT event, I have very little scheduled for guiding. I will spend this time exploring, creting new momories to fish in the future. Of course, the end of each day will take place on a familiar spot catching a few fish. Only if the new spots don't pan out.

Just keep plugging away. It takes time to feel comfortble fising the unknown, but a fe sussesful outings and you will enjoy the searching as much as the catching.

Best of luck to all of you guys and I hope to see everyone again soon.

[coyotewhacker]

Went to Pomme today...didn't catch a walleye, wasn't trying to catch a walleye, wasn't even looking for a walleye. This was a "clear the head" trip to see if I could go out without breaking a rod or something on the boat. Not only did CW fish all morning with no equipment breakage, but caught a couple of those "green trout" that the boys in the glitter sleds go after on tv. Gulp worm, naturally. It did feel good to go out, everything worked, and get back home with no trailer jump-offs and no mishaps of any kind. Now the head is clear, and ready to take another beating from the walleyes. BTW, does anybody know if there is any kind of penalty for cutting a medium size PWC in half if it cuts across your bow too close? That is getting to be a real common occurrence, and since my hull is some seriously thick fiberglass I am guessing that it will completely cut a lightweight PWC in half .....CW does not bluff if the idiot on the little floater wants to play chicken. I know fighter pilots get to put a small enemy flag on the outside of the cockpit for each enemy plane they shoot down...wonder if anybody sells little vinyl silhouettes of PWC's ??????????

[Steve Johnson]

Correction CW, we here in the Walleye world refer to Bass as " Green Carp". To refer to them as Green Trout is a slap in the face to Trout fisherman. These Bass guys out there DON'T realize it, but their world is slowly being taken over by the Walleye. More & more people are pursuing walleye than ever before, and Bass fisherman DON'T like it. At the Stockton two-day tourney in July, there was a Green Carp fisherman waiting to launch on Saturday morning, and I didn't know if they were in the tourney or not. When I asked the driver if they were fishing the tournament, he quickly said " NO " in an angry voice and then as I walked toward another boat to do a livewell check, he made some smart *&^ (another word for donkey) comment. These guys are just going to have to accept that the Walleye's popularity is starting to move up the scale and put a dent in Bass Fishing. But CW, in the future, please refer to all Black Bass & Kentuckies as " Green Carp ". Brownies(smallmouth) are in a class of their own and Not considered part of this terminology, as we Walleyers " RESPECT " this particular bass.

[coyotewhacker]

I was brought up down in Louisiana...that's what the old timers down there call a largemouth bass. Crappie are called "white perch" or "sac-a-lait" whether they are white crappie or black crappie, and the numerous varieties of bluegill and other sunfish are lumped into the category of "perch".
I have been watching the Bassmaster's Classic being held on the Three Rivers out of Pittsburg....fishing is tough on the final day...12" minimum, smallmouth count. The best in that game are having a hard time catching legal fish so far. I hesitate to degrade the fish because of the actions of a lot of "bass tournament fishermen"....the bass have a brain the size of a pea...not much bigger than the brains of some of those who pursue them. I may be wrong, but the phenomenal growth of competitive fishing, whether walleye, bass, crappie, or the saltwater versions, is bringing some negative beliefs from the general public down on all of us.
People who don't fish often get the wrong impression of those who do, based on what they see. The same thing is true about the hunting sports....a few slob hunters make life tough on the vast majority of the rest of the genre.
I have often wondered how some guy feels when he has gone out on a peaceful lake at sunup, is sitting there sipping a cup of coffee and watching a bobber, when all of a sudden a floatilla of boats come flying past him at 55 to 60 mph because he just happened to be in the path of a tournament blast-off. None of us make any points when that happens.