Stockton Lake: AKA walleye factory

Dennis Hymer with a six-pound walleye. The latest Missouri Conservation Department weekly fishing forecast shows walleye fishing listed as "good."

Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail

Back in 2008 a trio of anglers from Jefferson City were fishing on Stockton Lake over the Memorial Day holiday when they saw what they thought was white bass chasing shad to the surface. They cast silver spoons to the area and to their surprise they started catching walleyes.

Bob Gardner, said, “We were pleasantly surprise when we started pulling in keeper walleye. Ever since that Memorial Day we have been making an annual trip over the holiday weekend to fish for walleye on Stockton. We usually catch at least a few walleye and often we catch some crappie as well as white bass.”

Gardner continued: “We fish for walleye in several different ways. Sometime we use night crawlers hooked on a jig. Other times we troll lures and cast spoons. Over the years we have found that the night crawler on a jig is the rig we catch most of the walleye on.”

A limit of four walleye ready to be filleted.

Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail

Although more walleye anglers are turning to artificial (lures), they still don’t think live bait is dead. A recent survey of walleye anglers showed three-fourths of those surveyed used lures, but half used lures half of the time and live bait the other half. Only seven percent use artificial all the time while a third of the anglers used live bait 75 percent of the time.

Walleye fishing has changed big-time over the past decade. Al Linder, a noted walleye angler from Minnesota, said, “Anglers of today are extremely versatile. Fishing for walleye with artificials has gained wide acceptance. Artificial lures are effective.”

Many Missouri walleye anglers pick Stockton Lake as there choice for good walleye fishing. The reason is simple. Stockton has always been a productive walleye factory and, there is a current age class of quality fish in the 15-inch and over range. Equally important, it appears the forage base is solid. The shad population is good and they have always been the mainstay forage in the lake.

Jill Gunzenhauser, of Ozark, is one happy angler after catching a 20-inch walleye on Stockton Lake.

Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail

With the size limit dropping from 18 inches to 15 inches, the result has been an increasing number of keepers in the lake.

No matter how you like to fish for walleye, you can do it on Stockton Lake. There are shallow flats that almost scream for crank baits and, the fish on the flats will also respond to almost any other presentation, including a jig baited with a night crawler.

Several years ago fishing guide Mike Moore, took Brent Frazee and I on a walleye trip to Stockton in July. We both thought catching walleye in July in Missouri was something that wouldn’t happen.

However, in less than 10 minutes after pulling into Crabtree Cove and baiting a yellow Roadrunner lure with a night crawler, Moore and I had a keeper walleye on.

After a couple hours fishing we had nine keepers plus a five-pound channel catfish and several white bass. We became believers in walleye fishing in July.

Les Jarman, a fishing guide on Stockton knows that you can catch a walleye on the lake just about anytime of the year. In springtime when the walleye gather in large numbers to spawn, it causes anglers to get really excited. Jarman catches a lot of keeper walleye by jerk-bait fishing and trolling, as well as using jigs. He said, “ You never know when a walleye will hit a lure when fishing Stockton.”

Finally, one of the things visiting anglers should realize about Stockton is all is not lost should you get a hard wind blow that keeps you off the main lake. You can almost always find a cove out of the wind where you can fish.

Of course, all the lakes in the Osage tri-lake region offer quality and variety, which are two reasons that anglers come to our area to fish.