What I heard...

[powerdive]

I heard that the winning fish in the Stockton tourney were taken from 60 feet on jigs and plastic. Sounds incredible, but maybe it's true. Depends how much oxygen is down there...

My partner is one of the deans of Stockton walleye fishing, and he said in 20 years of fishing the lake HARD, he's never even come close to a stringer like that. Give them boys credit, he said. They're obviously doing something no one else has thought of.

I would think that jigging 60 feet down in mid-July would qualify...

[meat man]

Maybe it is true my tolling motor gave out about 1;45 so we drifted I used a big jigging spoon and caught 2 fish on that contraption.Who knows but that was an impressive catch.

[coyotewhacker]

I fished with walleyesrus back in early spring, and he initiated me into the deep jigging techniques he uses, what he looks for, and how he goes after the ones way down there. If the fish are down that deep, he could have gotten some out with his methods....if the remnants of Hurricane Dennis will get on through here early enough, I may go back over and see what the X135 has to say about some of the areas we fished deep. The places Mike and I fished this weekend were in the 25 to 35 foot range, and he was marking a bunch of arches....we just couldn't get them to come out and play. 60 feet down...talk about needing a fizzing needle......

[walleyesrus]

I do know most of their fish were dead so it makes sense. I know fish can survive below the thermocline but usually don't stay down ther long. I guess the more we think we know the more we still need to learn. I understand that guy fishes nearly everyday, there nothing like time on the water to figure things like that out.

[Lakebumb]

Deep water may have been the ticket. I graphed many archs at 30-35 ft on the one deep spot we tried. Did not get any takers though. We had found our fish in 20' in the days befor the tournemant but with the water dropping almost 2' we caught most all of our fish in 18'. Seems they preferred the structure.

Here on Table Rock they are talking about catching Bass at 40-50' suspened. I caught some the other day at 35. Maybe the Eyes are down there also.

[powerdivehome]

I wonder how easy it would be to see those fish on a graph? Small matter of a thermocline in the way, maybe. At least on my old unit. Never see the bottom of the thermocline, just the top...

[coyotewhacker]

PD....the Lowrance X135 knows all, sees all. Just not in color. It has almost twice the available power of most units, so noting can hide in the water depths I will ever fish in. Too bad they don't make it in a bigger screen.
The most amazing units I have ever seen are the Genetrons that Fellegy uses. Momma mia! They have a huge cone angle and will pick up a penny on the bottom..........well, almost. Steve said that most units will not differentiate between a fish and the bottom when the fish is within six inches of the bottom, but the Genetrons can do it. Of course, there is the cost consideration.....

[Tablerock]

You can see them with a LCX 110c ......

[powerdive]

Youy empty nesters sure have nice gear!!!

[coyotewhacker]

When TR gets that camera integrated with the LCX110, he's gonna need a bigger boat with a 100 gallon livewell to hold his catch.......Arrrrrrgh!

By the way, Bass Pro Boy....if a fella already had a nice sonar unit....say for instance, an X135, and wanted to supplement it with a GPS only (color not necessary) unit, what would you suggest? I'm seriously thinking about one that uses the Lowrance chips so I can watch the contour as I wander aimlessly around on the lake. It might also come in handy on those foggy days to get back to the launch site when you can barely see the front of the boat.

[Ozark]

I've wondered for years about the big deep-water fish I always scope in the summer and fall far below the thermocline in the area of Tablerock Dam.

The Eagle depthfinder on the front of my boat doesn't see them, but the Humminbird Wide Portrait on the back sure does. VERY large arches in groups of 4 or 5, just off the bottom in depths around 100 or 110 feet.

I think they're really fish because of they way they're bunched up - and they're not there at other times of the year. Whatever they are, they sure don't need much oxygen. I've wondered if they are paddlefish?

[coyotewhacker]

Sam....welcome back. Haven't heard from you in a couple or three weeks. I don't know about Table Rock, but other lakes I have fished in, most notably some of the deep hill country lakes in Texas have monster catfish that spend all their time near the base of the lake dams. Divers in some of the lakes will only go down the face of the dam in pairs because of the size of some of these giants. Chances are pretty good that is what you are seeing.

[powerdive]

They have that story on every dam on every river...

[Hellbender]

They have that story on every dam on every river

Thats probably very true, I know I heard it about LOZ when I was a kid, and that was in the 50's.

[Shannon Woods]

Right on PD I've always heard these wild tales of catfish the size of cars lurking at the bottom of Beaver lake near the Dam, who know's?