Stockton Lake, Dade County

Just got back from Stockton; anxious to get out in the new year. Water temp 38-42. Lake 4 feet below pool. Toughest fishing I've ever had there. Figured the fish would be deep, so started out trolling 4 rods mostly in the 15-25 foot range. Tried to keep a couple a foot or two off the bottom. So first morning got three 12-13 inch crappie in a big bay near the Cedar Creek campground. Slow, but I figured that. Two and a half days later I still had only the same 3 crappie! Tried minnows and jigging deep on points and some by timber. Could find darn few fish on my side scanner. Trolled up by the dam and couldn't see a blip. Talked to several guys; no one had a fish. I'm trying to think about what else I should have done and can't come up with much. All the deep structure I checked showed mostly no fish. Are they like invisible this time of the year? Tried some small worms on jigs on structure I usually get bluegill on; zip. I would have been reasonably happy with 5 fish a day; that's not much for trolling 4 rods but still. I'd sure like to hear some of the regulars chime in here . . .

Just got back from Stockton after 4 hard days of fishing from my Alumacraft Competitor. Started with my usual; trolling 4 lines down to 30 feet deep. Tried that every day and virtually blanked out. Worst trolling effort ever. Used planer boards and Luhr divers to run everything I could think of at every depth.

So, then tried minnows and crawlers on fixed rods in 20-30 fow. Darn little there as well. At dusk I was casting Rippin Raps and jigging Raps in 20-30 fow, ripping and pulling them off the bottom, and first night from dusk up until about 9 I got a couple nice white bass and large mouth. Also picked up a fluke walleye two nights in a row, but no pattern there at all.

Was getting discouraged as you know, when I reexamined the situation and decided to focus moreon bluegill. I mean, if I can't catch gills I may as well pack it in! Looked for brush piles and found some near a point 17-25 feet deep. Gills hit immediately on crawler pieces and I got enough to bring home. Ran a minnow as well and got a few crappie; not nearly the action of earlier in the year but some fish. One dink walleye on minnows after 4 days of fishing them pretty regular.

Rethinking my approach, I would have marked deeper structure earlier, like 30 feet down, dropped a marker buoy right on the structure, and run slip bobber rigs around it. As well as jigging. Slip bobbers are such a pain on the points, where the depth changes radically, but they are mostly trouble free where its flatter. With the slip bobbers down, I'd still cast deep lures like Ripping Raps and similar fast sinkers and jig those along the bottom. If you do that make sure you have a lure retriever along; I lost my Hound Dog to a frayed string and then lost 3 lures in minutes. Ouch!

Don't know if that would have gotten me more walleyes, but I'm pretty sure I would have had more action.

DNR reporting catfish good while drifting nightcrawlers; bluegill fair on nightcrawlers along bluffs; walleye fair on jigs tipped with nightcrawlers or a crawler harness; crappie fair on minnows or jigs near standing timber or brush piles; white bass fair on swimming spinners or Rapalas early in the morning or late evening.