OutdoorMissouri.com

Gonna be nice this weekend. Where ya fishin'? I'm headed to K Dock...

Hey powerdive, there's this little hump about a half mile east of my house here that has been good to me this time of year in the past. It hasn't yielded much lately cept a few bass. I just haven't been able to catch limits consistantly since about the middle of May. I guess I'm gonna have to buy some leeches.

Nice catch you had last week that you posted pics of, very nice.

DSG, thanks. This seems to be a weird year on Stockton. The fish aren?t all over the flats the way they normally would be. In my experience, this time of year is when the crankbait trolling bite really kicks in big time on Stockton, especially around large humps and the edges of the flats--but who knows if that'll be the case this season?

We caught our fish on a big hump that's always done well for us in the past--but someone had dumped some brush onto one corner of it earlier this year. If it hadn't been for that, I don't think we'd have done very well there at all. Since you're now a lake resident, you might consider juicing your spot by adding a well-placed brushpile or two, which would probably make it an all-year producer no matter what the rest of the lake is doing. Just a thought...

Large leeches aren't magic, but I have confidence in them and tend to fish them more effectively than crawlers. 3 advantages that they have: they attract bigger fish, they don't get pestered by panfish, and it's easier to get a good hookset with them. If you're rigging a smaller area, they're pretty bait.

Powerdive, a couple of thoughts.

This is extreme I know but I have talked to a number of folks here locally and I haven't heard a lot of disagreement on the theory. This spring was just a phenomenal spring for 'eye here. I mean people were hauling them out right and left. You rarely caught one that was short, you catch one he usually went in the bucket.

This went on from late February till early May. There is a theory floating around out there that the reason the fishing has been tough this summer is because we made a huge dent in the population this spring. I can't disagree with the theory.

You hit on something when you mentioned the leeches. I have always prefered crawlers cause they were cheap and accesible. The panfish have just started driving me crazy on them though. I didn't have that problem back in the spring when I used a crawler. If I got bit, it was usually an 'eye (sometimes a bass.) Not so this summer. As soon as the water warmed up the panfish started stealing them. I'm gonna have to stop in Mini Mart and get some leeches I guess.

With regard to the brush, as soon as it cools off a bit I'm gonna start constructing some structures on some of my spots that are void of cover. A lot of people don't think 'eye relate to [brush] cover but if it's there they sure do.

Put-and-take syndrome. Regular population dynamics (derived from every-other-year stocking) dictate that fishing for legal-sized fish in odd years will be very good, at least in theory...and of course, the earlier the better. The last two years (!) they've raised those same late-summer questions--i.e., "Duh, where'd all the fish go? Duh, did we keep too many?" I believe the easy populations do get fished down some, on a temporary basis, but there are plenty of untouched fish out there. Perhaps in the timber, perhaps suspended over the basin, etc. Also, the fish and forage aren't going to be stuck in one all year, like many fishermen will be.

If you can get them, use the largest leeches you can find...

I heard the same thing from many fisherman. Lots of nice walleye were taken during that time. I can agree that the fish were very active for a very long time . Years past the prespawn bite seemed to only last 3-5 weeks. I also know that there was a very good bite May & June, I caughtseveral myself. They seemed to quit in early July

PD
I went to tucker hollow yesterday afternoon , got there maybe a little to late. The sun was already creeping through the clouds boated only one eye he was short. One sheephead I thought was a big eye. One bass and one big something I did not get to see ,I thought I had him worn down he was 19ft out on my counter reel,I reached over to pick up my net ,and he made a run about took the rod out of my hand in the process of all this, I triped my line release and let out about 6ft of line when I got the line back tight he was gone . I marked a lot of fish though around 35 marker on that flat .Also found fish on the mouth of bear creek .Both sides. Good Luck this weekend,let me know how you did.

Meat man, you still working that 30-35 depth??? Thanks!

Yes, but with that front moving through yesterday fish were anywhere from 23 to 45 feet mostly on bottom but some suspended. Maybe stable weather for the next couple of days they will find a happy depth.

Went to Stockton Wed. afternoon. Didnt expect to catch much, but I did. I only caught 1 legal walleye, about 10 BIG whites, and lots of decent kentucky's. Fish seemed pretty active but they were all deep.

How DEEP?

between 30 and 50 ft