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New high dollar gadgets...I will wait for them to be in the clearance bends next year with all the Alabama Rigs. Try an old fashion Pencil popper, I picked up a bunch of those last year on sale for $1.50 at Academy. Those big pencil poppers don't bring up a lot of little spots but when you get a bass on one it is worth taking to the scales. I love watching those strippers knock them 10 feet into the air also.....

If you go back past the water release and drop a jig or minnow next to the trees I have seen days every tree held 10 keepers. I have not seen a stocking report in years for that pond, but they used to put channel cats and crappie in there twice a year. Right across from the ramp there is a point sticking out and a house on the point. There is a deep brush pile on that point and I saw the old guy that lives there catching crappie off that point. I have also seen people crappie fishin at the ramp in the hole on the ramp, used to be a lot of brush there also. The trick to swepco is get in there before it gets cold on a week day. I am going back 5 years ago in my memory, once they started tournaments I quit going.

Just got the Academy flyer today and the big sell was on electric oil-less Turkey Fryer, is that not called an oven? So that put to thinking about eating a turkey/cranberry sandwich while watching four poles with live bait waiting for a big stripper. So I know my favorite way to eat turkey...What is your favorite way to cook it, and carry it on the water?? Sometimes a zip lock baggie full of dark meat can't be beat while using live bait.

Look at those huge mouths!!! I bet they are eating all the BASS !!! Have you ever tried crappie fishing on Swepco? A few years ago when it was a dirt ramp I saw some really big stringers out of there. Back then the bass were over crowed and stunned and most of the crappie were larger than the bass. I am curious what the crappie look like now there are fewer and bigger bass in the lake.

Looks like it slipped east, Dallas got hit for two days and lots of heavy rain and thunder that usually heads straight this way. I am not going to complain, just hook up the boat and play hookie this afternoon.

Looks like the bad stuff will be Friday, not into being a lightning rod myself. But if the wind comes up, putting my little boat on Grand is not even a temptation. Now Table Rock is a different story, I love the Rock when the wind comes up. Saturday does look like a good morning if you don't mind getting wet.

Don't forget the rain gear, Saturday morning looks cool and wet.

I read some reviews of yellow birds and walleye boards (the only ones I have experience with) and some of the reviews have remarked about yellow birds not tracking out when going under one mile per hour, like I would like to do with live bait. Has anyone had that problem?

More tackle means a bigger boat, that means a bigger truck, that means a bigger house with a bigger garage to keep the boat and tackle in....this could get expensive.

Dan would see a draw back to the smaller ones, maybe large bait pulling them under? Do you unhook the board from the line before landing a big fish or after you net the fish? Do you use flags? Are flags that important?

I have seen some green ones mini planner boards form opti tackle for $12.99, just wondering the difference. Seems like the smaller the easier to get out of the way when handling a big fish by yourself. I have never used anything that small and never used boards alone so I am waiting advice before ending with four sets.

I am looking at planner boards for live bait fishing this winter. I have fished with people and have seen the difference when you get the bait away from the boat and also it it is so much easier to troll more lines without tangling. The main question is how small and cheap can I go?

I think what he is talking about is a broken line looks like dashes right across the screen at 40 feet at least 5 feet wide, it looked like a small stuff suspended and stayed at 40 feet in 100 or 160 feet of water. I thought with the water cooling that the theromcline line should have disappeared but it seems to still be there. I am guessing the water temp is around 60 at that level but never dropped a thermometer to find out. J-Doc if you are seeing big fish below that line I am guessing stripper still hanging in cooler water, I am thinking the lake needs to cool another 10 degrees or so to scatter the cold water fish top to bottom. Crappie and bass really don't care about colder water since 70 is great to them.

Thanks for the tip on the hooks, picked up a couple of 9s in racy shad this morning thinking they looked like good stripper lures. Picked up some flicker minnows also, total was around $40 and still think I need more....

I saw that line also looked like a thermocline but that makes no sense at 72 degrees but I am betting it is algae and attracting shad. I have seen it from point 5 down to 10, I didn't see it south of the bridge.

I have also noticed with size comes a difference in diving depth, does anyone adjust for this? I lost two, now I am thinking I need a minimum of six.

No votes for Racy Shad?

I noticed a lot of people pull flicker shad and I am restocking. What size and colors do you recommend? Please don't say all of them, my wife will get upset....

Hey Dan, nice to meet you also. I was on the lake from about 12:30 -4:30 started throwing spinnerbaits since the wind was blowing so hard then went to the kitchen sink. I got some small smallmouth and spots around trees on a drop shot. I fished point 5 down into Rambo and did a lot of running around RB and did not see the shad that I have seen south of point 10. The small fish I caught were not as fat as the ones south either. I don't know what it is like north of point 5, but has anyone else noticed the difference? It was cloudy and water was between 68-72 I should have been able to find more fish, I couldn't even find schools on my depth finder and shad were not that thick anywhere I looked, small bait balls here and there. I saw several platoon boats checking deep water then speeding away, look like they were searching and not finding also.

Well they have added heavy cloud cover to the 20 degree drop in temperature to this weekend forecast. Should run off all the wake boaters and have the pleasure boaters heading in to get their boats ready for winter. I can't wait see those water temps drop and those big boats go into hiding. Time to find those warm hats and add a thermos of coffee to the packing list. Now where did I put that save face ??

The best part of Beaver to me is crossing paths with those big fish, even on a 40 fish day on Table Rock I just get down knowing that there is no chance of a big fish hitting my line. Guess I am just not a "true bass fisherman". This time of the year they are all up in the north end towards the dam but you will run into the 5lb little brothers around point 12 in the summer sometimes. If you are willing to get out and fish when you need gloves and all the fair weather boaters have shrink wrapped their boats then you can have those days when you can boat 5-10 fish over 20lbs on nothing more than a jerkbait or a few minnows dragged behind the boat. I have put 90 lbs of fish in the boat before and not used the main motor for anything but unloading and loading the boat. I hope you brave the cold and find out why we like that 50 degree water temp so much.

I was out at the same time from 4pm until dark. I pulled a flicker shad around Ventrus and found a bunch of short Walleyes around the point to the main lake but after that nothing but some 10in spots. Shad were so thick at one point out by point 10 that they were around my boat about the size of a football field and blacked out the screen down to 170 feet. All the fish have to do is yawn and they are full at that point. The Walleye were close to the rocks in 20 feet of water but nothing close to 18in, but they were schooling.

But you won't hook a 30lb striper in Grand.... On Beaver all you have to do is throw a $30 jerk bait on 8lb test and you will find a big striper every time.

I don't think anything will be bad right now, just Know that Beaver has a lot of cover that you can only see with your electronics. There are ceder forest and gravel humps well of the bank. I like plastics my self but the flicker shad a catching a lot of fish. Welcome to Beaver Lake and don't get discouraged, though this is not a river and there is NO grass to fish there are plenty of fish in the lake, just takes time to find a pattern and type of fishing that pleases you and the fish. The ned rig and drop shots are two ways of fishing that you will need to pick up when this slow down. IMO