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I am going to have to start using crappie minnows for striper bait, you hook more striper than anyone.....Good looking slab, they should be bunched together getting staged for the spawn about now. Glad to hear there are still striper in the river, I was afraid they had made their run North.

Take your phone with you, when you find the one you like check Amazon first never hurts to save $50-$100 for gas later, I even showed a manager at Academy where a reel I wanted was $20 off on their web site one time and she gave me the reel for the online price. When I got my Helix for the front of my boat Wal-mart.com had the best price. After you find the unit you are looking for, or two then you can get into where you want the transducer mounted. You can't shoot thru the hull of a tin boat so that takes one location out.

I would suggest a color sonar, makes a world of difference and if you are running at night a GPS is a must. I like the Helix series by Hummingbird but you do have to buy the map cards for them. They have really come down in price and are simple to learn and use. So many choices and how want to use them, most of the ones I see people have that I want use them in a total different way than I would. I don't understand people who spend $2,000 then don't trust what they see, if it looks like a fish it is catch it.

Will we ever see blue clear water again?

Your right I am looking at last weeks and today is the 18th. I want to go back to last weekend..... Ok, now I am on the right page and date. The only tournament I can find is Everett out of PC. Good luck to all.

Beaver Lake Elite series will be 12 March Prairie Creek Castmasters will be Sunday the 13th out of Prairie Creek Good luck to all, and keep eye out for prop gaters, last 3 weekends I have seen at least one boat loading at PC with a broke stainless steel prop.

Freeze warning out, looks like it will be below freezing for launch time on the tournaments this weekend. I think I will sleep in and wait for the temps to get into the 50s then head out and look for bait and try last light instead of first light. I used to like the pain and challenge of getting out with the crowd on mornings like that, guess I am getting old. To all the people launching early, take your time and watch for ice on the ramp. It will be really hard fishing next two days but there will be a couple people that find those big females stacked on a point and come in with a sack of 5-6 lbers. I just put on a new prop so if you see me running around in circles, I didn't loose my mind just trying it out.

Help, I need to get rid of part of my old privacy fence. I have the truck loaded with no where to go, I understand the Tontitown land fill will take them for $80 a truck load, that seems high for something that will burn and or decay. Heck the boards are 27 years old and almost decayed already. Are there any places you can burn boards legally anymore? Has anyone around here dealt with this lately. I know this is not fishing but thought someone on here would know.

That sounds like green fish will be bedding real soon, if not already. I love to see bedding bass just because it shows there are big bass in the lake.

Are the whites running?

I hope you are right, but not sure about the stripers. They usually bunch up near the rivers now they are moving with the green water. I do know all the whites do not run to the rivers to spawn because there is always a loyal following to those that run up near the dam. I have not been to the dam this spring but I have been there in past years when the whites were in the rivers and there were dozens of fishermen around the dam state park barging on 50 fish days. Please let us know what you see so we can track it for future years. I don't expect an all out call that will over run your fishing, but a report the week after would be nice. On the North end of the lake there are several large creeks that have been clear and running and I am wondering if they have experienced a white bass run?

I am thinking it is over, water temps are up in bass spawning temps now. Strange year.......I don't think the river will see the whites like years before. I saw 64 degree water yesterday, whites run around 50. After doing some research on this it is not unusual for white bass to avoid muddy water and spawn on "windswept shores". They do not have to run down the river to spawn. I really think the Christmas rains messed up the whites and stripers this year. I saw a lot of BIG whites around Hickory Creek a couple of weeks ago, thought they were getting ready to run up the river, but never saw them up there. We will know soon, once the water hits 68 they will be through. I saw some big bass up in 2 feet of water yesterday, looked like they were starting to bed on the back of blackburn, that is usually the sign that whites are finished.

You can work a spoon, gives you more to do. Another thing is you can put live bait down 50 feet, drift over the tree tops and hope the stripers come out of the trees to get them.

Looks like a cold front and muddy water for most of the lake, never one of my best times to fish. High today is 77 Saturday is 57. For those fishing tournaments wish I had some advice but I never know how Beaver is going to fish. I just hope those shad run back into the coves where I can find them. Good luck and get out before the front if you can.

Really nice fish, I was out a little yesterday but my green spot turned brown and only had small stripers in it. I knew I should have looked for green water. Water temp down in the back of Blackburn were I was trying to catch shad was around 64, so I think the stripers are making their run back North. Funny I never saw them in the river like they should have been this year but the water in the south part is getting too warm for them already. I can tell you if you want to net shad then down south of Hickory Creek is the run you need to make, or get out at sunrise. Those shad balls have moved off deep, I could not even net a thread fin yesterday. I see we were fishing the same spot I was between the Dam and 412 yesterday too...:)

The other side of the bridge, that is a boat ramp, same side of the road.

Small spoons or roster tail that you can cast really far.

You hear people on Table Rock talking tree tops, why not Beaver?

Sort of, it is like an unofficial beach, hard gravel a small entrance but sometime people launch small boats there.

When they leave the river go to the RT 12 bridge just past Prairie creek Marina, they will run up on that flat until about the middle of May after dark.

Your welcome to put the one you caught this week on this thread......:)

I know what you mean Bill, but I have lost some friends and fishing partners on this forum and others by talking about lures and locations when as vague as war eagle up to Hickory Creek. Once I posted that we junked fished all the way from War Eagle to Hickory Creek in a tournament and I was told I gave out to much information. So when I am around anyone else or have been given information I don't repeat it, yet I have been accused of doing so when I didn't even know the information myself. I had one incident a few years back where I fished a tournament with someone I meat on the forum, we had another forum member behind us most of the day. At weigh in that other member approached me and said we got his fish today but he would out run us the next day. Well the next day he did out run us and got to the spot first. I was blamed because I had "talked" and that guy left the forum and has not talked to me since. I gave up tournaments and have watched myself since then. But if you see me on the lake I will share just about anything, bait, lures information. The only problem with my information I don't know much, but sometimes I do have bait. Sorry to bring up so much controversy over my bragging about a nice fish, it was the only one I caught that day and just wanted to show off a little.

I have been reading about western highland reservoirs and all the guides talk about are tree tops, the stripers are always in the trees. I have read a lot of articles about Ozark anglers using jigs against the trees to simulate crawfish climbing the trees. But rarely see anyone over the trees in Beaver, Beaver Lake fishermen talk about points, coves and channel swings. We have huge forest underwater compared to those western highland reservoirs and a lot bigger trees. There are still oak trees 80-90 feet high with spreading branches in Beaver and with our sonars we can easily define fish vs branches. I personally like to fish for fish I can see vs beating an endless stretch of an empty bank, but I watch people cast at poles sticking up in 20 feet of water all day when there are massive trees near by in 80 feet of water with branches 20 feet down they never touch. I know there are some people that fish those trees and troll over them because I have snagged there lines and recovered crankbaits from 60 feet (down riggers I am guessing) but were they purposely targeting the trees I don't know. Any thoughts, tactics times of year anyone would like to share on deep trees? I know the crappie fishermen love the ceder trees between point 5 and 6, especially at night. But there are a lot of the forest I never see a boat on, even when the well known ones are full of boats.

Somebody saw YOU catch a fish?

Good luck, just remember there is current right now and fish will move when there isn't one. Readjusting is not my strong point.