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Striper continue to  cooperate this week.  I’ve been finding them on points mostly .  I’ve looked on channel swings but haven’t seen much action on them.  They’re definitely schooling up now.  I went threw a huge school of them yesterday, had all four lines go down at once. Two popped off before I could get to them and one got cut off when it rubbed against another line.  I only managed to boat one.   Wednesday I got a couple also.  Those weren’t schooling fish, they were lone wolf stripers.  Fish are still deep though.  30 to 40 FOW.  Still waiting on surface action though.  Water temps were 65-64.  Here’s a pic from yesterday. I took him home the ones from the day before were released. 

Didn't get to the lake until 11 AM, had some stuff to take care of in the early AM.  Still pretty cold when I got there, mid forties and temps increased a bit as the day went on.  Water temp was around 67.
My plan was to fish the dam area for smallies which is what I started out doing, throwing cranks, jigs and the shaky head worm.  2 hours later all I had was a couple of bumps and no fish in the boat so I headed up Indian to see if I could find some fish up there.  Was tossing the jig when I noticed a bunch of fish on the sonar suspended in 30 FOW.  Only thing I had available for suspenders was a jerkbait, so started tossing it and working it hard, no pauses like I would use in cold water jerk tossing.  Started getting spotted bass on it, very location dependent, when you could find them, they'd bite, but finding them was difficult and when I did find them, they'd usually be moving.  Put 10 spots in the boat, no big ones, 12-15" fish.  Did manage to catch one smallie on a crank for the last fish of the day.
Had a double on the Pointer 95.

 

I dunno.  To me the shad looks like a baby silver carp, not the other way round..

Really nice boat and electronics, but you should have put back a little cash for a shirt. Maybe we can set up a go fund me site😛. Nice bass, it is not easy to find a keeper this time of year.That is why BASS and FLW start south and follow spawn north so they can fish when it is easy.

First time out in a couple of weeks, I was hoping the fish were in the same places they were a couple of weeks ago, but they weren't.  Caught a half dozen bass, 5 were brownies, one was a spot.  Nothing big, 13-15" fish.  C-rigging a UV Speed Craw got them, fish were deep, they came from 20-30 FOW.  
I launched about 0545 and was off the water by 10 AM.  Pleasure boat traffic was picking up, it was hot and no wind, I was ready to go.  
I saw only two other fishermen all day, pretty good sign that things are tough.
Surface temp 85 when I left.
 

I’ve been fishing points the last 2 days and have done ok.   Nothing big.  Small spots and LMB.  Going to have use ur electronics though.   I’ve caught them from 20-40 feet deep depending on the point.  Good luck out there fellas.  Stay safe. 

There is no Beaver Lake for at least a week.
http://www.kark.com/news/local-news/beaver-lake-renamed-omahog-lake-this-week/1262536871

There is no Beaver Lake for at least a week.
http://www.kark.com/news/local-news/beaver-lake-renamed-omahog-lake-this-week/1262536871

There is no Beaver Lake for at least a week.
http://www.kark.com/news/local-news/beaver-lake-renamed-omahog-lake-this-week/1262536871

The last few times I've been out, bass fishing, I was surprised by the number of striper guides coming out of PC and fishing between Shaddok hollow and the bridge. So i tried pulling brooders this am, 6-8 and got two stripers. Not giants, a 9# and a 10#, but fun to feel a real pull again. Basin north of Bear island. 50-65 fow, , 90-100 ' of line out with 1/2 oz weight. Trolling .5 mph. Saw another one landed, and I missed at least 2. WT cooled back to 80-81.

Fished the Everett/NWATT yesterday. Caught our first 4 keepers on a Ima Little Stik. Missed a big one that wrapped me around a tree. Fish seemed to be concentrating on cedar tree tops outside points. Caught several on flukes around same areas but those fish came closer to the banks. Had limit before 9:00 upgraded several times before we headed to dirty water to try to get bigger bite. It was tough in dirty water. Got lucky and caught what would be overall big bass of the tournament @4.78lbs on a wobble head with 5 inch fighting frog trailer. Not a bad day . Had 11.88 for 24th place and overall big bass that won us $500, two new rods and a swag bag with Aftco gift cards. 

I believe I can shed some light on this discussion with a little background information,
Stump is partially correct regarding the utilization of the Beaver Lake Nursery Pond for walleye stocking.  We tried a couple of years to put walleye fry in the pond and grow them to fingerling size for direct stocking into the lake but we weren't very successful.  Because of the shallow nature of the pond, water temperatures would cool rapidly in the early spring during cold fronts, causing zooplankton die-offs and subsequent fry die-offs.  The pond had been very useful in producing sunfish species, smallmouth, crappie etc. but didn't work too well for walleye.  
Since the pond was sketchy for producing walleye, we changed tactics by utilizing the Charlie Craig Hatchery in Centerton.  We collected broodstock from the Kings River and the White River below the dam, took the fish to the hatchery where they were spawned by hand. The eggs were hatched in specialized jars with constant water flow.  The fry that hatched were grown to fingerling size on the hatchery before stocking in Beaver Lake and other lakes in Arkansas. The hatchery crew became so efficient at walleye fingerling production that they were responsible for almost all walleye stocking in Arkansas Lakes!
After seeing the survival and growth rates of the walleye fingerlings in Beaver Lake I decided to make a commitment to establish a good walleye population in the lake with routine annual stockings.  We did see some natural reproduction after a few years documented by a study that included marking all the stocked fingerlings with a chemical that identified them as stocked fish when captured in later studies.  Jon Stein, current District Biologist, tells me natural reproduction was very significant some years.  Hopefully it will reach a point where the walleye population is self sustaining.    
Hope this was helpful.  

My 70th birthday with my wife today was great with a few presents. 8 of them

They do spawn and so do stripers, but the river does not flow fast enough for the striper eggs to survive and become baby stripers(unlike parts of the Arkansas River). The natural reproduction on Walleye stopped for some reason unknown to me, since Walleye were native to White river before Beaver Dam was built. They tried to replace the Walleye serval times with no success. Many people think of the Walleye as a Northern fish but the World record was out of Arkansas for years.
They raised Walleye in the breading pond until they were 10-12 inches then released them around 2004 I believe (don't quote me) but those were the first to take since the original fish disappeared in the 70s. 
The river does not flow into Beaver like it did before the dam went up, the lake blocks that flow and by backing up into the river. The rivers leading into Table Rock have a much more natural flow plus there are more of them that is why fish like smallmouth and walleye produce better on their own. Fish the rivers leading into Table Rock in the spring along Hwy 62 and you see what I mean, you can catch 5lb fish in ankle deep water.
I have read several articles about the capture of walleye out of Table Rock streams for breading and those fish being put into Beaver but never have I read anything about Beaver Walleye being used. I did read that there were some natural producing walleye in Beaver but not enough to sustain a fishery.
If you fish Great Lakes you will see small mouth running in the streams and in New York you will get a fine for even hooking one even if you let it go right where you stand before 1 June. Back in the 90s that was $75, I paid one of those fines. Beaver just does not have a good steady streams so you will see SM breading in the lake and it is my belief that is why we don't have a larger population of  SM.
Just enough information to establish my beliefs, I am not a biologist.
 

Launched the boat at 0600, clear skies, just a little bit of a breeze in spots, water was greenish stained with 6 feet or so of viz, with scattered debris floating around.  Mike M was in the boat with me.
We went up Indian creek a ways intending to bass fish, but we started seeing stripers chasing shad on top, so needless to say, we started throwing top waters at them.  Had some pretty spectacular blow ups on the walk the dog baits, but most were missing the bait, had a couple knock my spook three feet in the air, always fun just to see the blowups.  We boated a couple of 5 pounders, and I lost a bigger fish in the trees.  The stripers stopped once the sun hit the water, so back in the cove we went to bang the cover for bass.
Couldn't find much of bite shallow, we caught a few spots on various baits, c-rig lizard, shaky head mainly but just weren't getting a whole lot of action.
We decided to fish some bare, rocky smallmouth banks with Keitechs and we started to pick up a fair number of smallies, Mike caught one that was just short of 18" and had another to the net that  got off that looked to be a bit bigger.  For whatever reason the smallies were up shallow, 3-10 FOW for the most part.  We ended up with about 25 bass, maybe 7 or 8 keeper sized smallies.
Water temps got as high as 68, air temps hit 88 when we left.  
 



 
 

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I just got back from a 110 mile solo kayak trip last night on the current river.  I woke up today wanting to fish ol beave’s so I got the boys ready and headed to the lake.  I wasn’t expecting much success sense I haven’t  been on the lake all week and didn’t know what was going on.   But I was pleasantly surprised with the bite.  I had bought some crappie minnows for the boys to use and pitched them about lay downs and caught quite a few fish.  We must have caugh 20 or so but only kept 10 or so.  I wasn’t really keeping count cuz the boys had me busy helping them.  If ur into crappie this would be a good time to go.  My 9 and 7 year olds tore them up for  a few hours today.   Here’s a couple of pics. 



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I am not a good fisherman, and I caught 6 Saturday. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they must be eating lol!
1. Beaver Shores in 5' from some flooded brush on a yellow square bill. this was around 9:45 Saturday morning (4-21-18). This particular girl was awfully white - not sure if that's because of the muddy water (it's awfully muddy around that part of the lake) or if she'd just come up from the deeper water. My hand help scale put her around 2.5 pounds, of course that's an uncertified scale. 15" spot.
2. Ford's Creek in 5' in front of flooded brush PB&J 3/8 jig 2:03pm - 13" spot
3. Ford's Creek 20' along the channel - red/orange Storm Deep diving crankbait (can't remember exact name - it's the one with the funky line tie that has a gap in the lip)  2:34pm -13" spot
4. Ford's Creek 5' out in front of flooded brush PB&J colored lizard on a wobble head - 3:12pm - 16" spot
5. Ford's Creek same deep diving crankbait between trees in 20' of water (I am starting to understand why folks like deep diving crankbaits)3:48pm 13" spot
6. Ford's Creek in front of flooded brush about 5' water 4:21pm 14" (maybe could've coaxed him to 15") smallie
 
That's all I know.
Seriously, I am not a good angler - if I can catch 6, most of the folks on here can likely catch 20.
Water temps in Beaver Shores were 56-67 if I remember correctly and 52-54 in Ford's Creek.
The times seem very exact because I looked at the time stamps of pictures (I try to send pictures to my 9 year old princess no matter the size) taken Saturday.
Tight lines everyone, go have some fun while they are eating!
Joe.
 

Made it an early start today, Mike and I launched the boat about 0630.  Probably should've had started later in the morning, it was cold, windy and cloudy to start and the fishing was slow.  The bass fishing never got good, we caught about 15 bass, mostly spots, mostly 12-14" fish.  I caught a meanmouth that I weighed that was just short of 3.5 lbs., but that fish was an exception
The walleye bite was good however, we boated 4 keepers (and they were kept).  Nothing exceptional, but three of them were in the 20-22" range.  One was on a jig, the rest on a 2.8 Keitech.  Slow rolling the Keitech, keeping it near the bottom.  
Also caught a striper that was in the 6-7 lb. range.
We threw Keitechs, Neds and jigs, Keitechs out fished everything else.
Water remains stained green in Indian and clear near the dam.  WT52-53.
 



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Got on the water at 6.30- wind was already blowing pretty good.  Cloudy, 43 degrees.  Went to the back of Indian.  WT was mid 50’s.   Marked a ton of fish and my buddy  hooked up with a 7-8 lb striper right away.  Unfortunately we were throwing 6lb test and as he got the fish to the boat I realized my net was missing (thanks kids).  I tried to lip it and pull it in but the line snapped as soon as I touched it.  Anyway- we ended up getting on a school of whites with some big fat females in there for about 45 minutes or so.  Lotta fun- multiple double ups and a couple of real nice whites.  Clouds broke up some and we lost contact with them.  I went out there today intending to find some smallies but by the time we were done with the whites (hard to leave a school of feeding fish) the wind was so wicked that anything closer to the front of Indian or the dam was completely unfishable.  Off the water at 9.45.  Caught about a dozen fish- all of them on a KaiTech 3.8 with 1/4 oz head.  Color didn’t seem to matter as long as it was shadish looking.  All the females were loaded with eggs!





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Yesterday I fished with my buddy Mike.  With it being ridiculously cold for April 4 we did a delayed launch at 11 AM to let the temps get above freezing.  It stayed chilly out on the water all day with a brisk wind blowing.  However, it was sunny and I am learning that when the water is cold, smallies like sunny banks with some breeze.  The fishing was pretty darned good, took us a bit to figure things out, we started throwing Neds but the fish were just not biting them, we got 2 Ned fish in the first hour, and I decided to throw a Keitech, been hearing a lot of good reports coming out of Table Rock on Keitechs so decided to throw one.
Caught a 2 lb. smallie on my first cast with it, then a 2 lb. spot on the next cast.  I think I caught about 10 in a half hour before Mike decided it might be a good idea to throw a Keitech himself.  We had a good bite on them for the rest of the day, as always some banks held multiple fish, some banks not.  We slow rolled them, keeping them close to the bottom and doing a lot of reeling and pausing to let the bait drop.  Bites came on the retrieve and on the drop.  Color didn't seem real important, Rainbow Shad, and Sexy Shad being two good colors and we got bit on 1/4 and 3/8 oz heads.
Final score was 35 bass, 2 stripers (one was 10 lbs.) and 2 walleye.  Had a bunch of keeper sized bass, maybe 10 smallies and 10 spots that were in that 2-3 lb. range.  No really big ones, but some nice fish.  Best day for bass I have ever had in Indian Creek.
 

 
Today I went by myself.  Launched early, morning was gray and calm.  The fish didn't like it.  Never got into them at all like yesterday, but the bite did pick up a bit around 11 AM when the sun poked through the clouds and the wind picked up.  I caught 10 bass, mostly smallies, several in the 15-17 inch range, all on Keitechs.  No Ned bites at all which surprised me.  Had a bit of a multi-species thing going, caught a hybrid, a drum, and a walleye.  
WT's were 50-52.  I could see down about 14 feet in the dam area, Indian Creek is stained green.
Smallies are just footballs right now.


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That was a nice one, when did you catch that one?

He meant the drought is stuck west of us, west OK and the panhandle of Texas are seeing drought right now. Wish we could see a dry spell.
Sorry about your drive way, it will take a week to dry out if it ever stops.

It is showing one day break here then .21 to .5 inches daily for next 7 days. That is enough to keep us on the upward climb. No sun also means slower to clear and the striper season will be really poor fishing for 75% of the lake. Netting bait and fishing brown water is just not good striper fishing and just kills the hope of 35lb plus fish when they should be the easiest time of year to fish. On the other hand less stripers that end up in a freezer are bigger fish for next year.  

Went fishing with my buddy Mike today, Mike hasn't fished with me in a while as both he and his wife came down with bronchitis and it took them a couple of weeks to get over it.  I had told Mike that the fishing has been pretty good, so he was ready to go.
We launched about 7:15, it was cloudy, cold and windy.  Fishing was tough the first couple of hours, we had maybe 3-4 small bass.  Mike was saying things like "cold front has shut them down".  "Wind out of the East, fish bite the least".  I kept telling him to hang in there, we should get some, but I was getting a bit discouraged myself.  
Finally we starting getting fish, I don't know if it was just finding the right location, or they just started biting, but we started to get some consistent bites.  We ended up with somewhere north of 20 bass, not much size, mostly 12-14" spotted bass, but one nice 2.5 lb. meanmouth, a couple of 15-16" largemouth, and one smallie that would've gone 16" or so.  Mostly Ned rig fish with a couple on the jig.  Also got a nice walleye, didn't measure it but it was an obvious keeper, probably 21-22".
I did get a couple of surprise stripers on the Ned, first stripers on the Ned for me.  Lucky to get both of them in the boat, got them in the trees and with 6 lb. test there isn't a lot you can do with them.  I just followed them around with the boat and let them pull drag when they wanted, and when they stopped, put some pressure on them.  Eventually they tire out and are easy to net at that point.  Mike took them home.  
Missed one good spotted bass, got it right to the boat and it then jumped and tossed the hook.  For a Beaver spotted bass it was a good one, at least 3 lbs., maybe a bit more.

 

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