Stump bumper

I can give the location of two more.

I have seen Spoonbill jump in Table Rock didn't know there were any left in Beaver but after looking up your GPS location it looks like they might be on a spawning run. That is really cool. The problem I have seen with most SI & DI units is the size of the screen, if you have a 5in screen you can't see much until you record the images and look at the on a bigger screen. I don't understand why a 10in screen for a sonar is as much as a 60in HD TV. But I can wait for the next big tech advance then I will be able to afford what I want now, heck I just got my first flat panel TV last month.lol

Have you EVER seen a striper guide. Come over to Beaver and you will see people paying $250 for half a day fishing like that on 5-10 boats any day of the year. That is where the idea came about for the A-rig(stirper fishermen catching lots of bass not Beaver lake), they have just been using the umbrella for about 25-30 years. Most of the time the catch rate of black bass to stripers is 3:1. These people feel their guides do a great job and come back regularly, to each his own. Then it is time and place, I have seen guides pulling 10 rods past me without a fish and I would be having the best day of my life with jerk baits up close to shore but their clients didn't have the skills to throw a jerk bait so they just sat on the boat and watched me catch fish.

There are plenty of places around here that sell wood for $35 a rick and craigslist always has some free wood. If you PM me around the time you are coming I will try to line some up. I have seen camp wood for sale on the way to Horseshoe before but it has been a while since I have drove that road. I know on 71B there is a lot across from Zero Mountain that always has wood also, just to let you know Striper chasing now is not bad.

All around the boat docks are not bad, but all the way up war eagle in the early spring is usually the best in the Spring, later in the summer the lighted area around horse shoe bend marina is a hot spot. It is hard on most days to put together a "mess" of 10in crappie on Beaver. On the North end of the lake it seems to be a run from brush pile to brush pile for one or two keepers each, something I have never done but have seen people doing it. The trees at the mouth of Fords creek are good for holding crappie, I have found them there while bass fishing but not sure what time of the year that was, but a lot of standing timber along that creek so I am guessing they would spawn up the creek.

Sounds like a plan, most people slow way down for small boats in that area and I even see people fishing out of kayaks. It is customary to slow to a craw when passing by someone fishing the river, it is only n the summer when you get water skiers looking to cool off that it can get dangerous. There are some really good holes on the area you looking at, good luck.

If I am going to use five strands of .043 stainless seems I would need a sleeve at least .215 in probably larger but I didn't see any sleeves that large in the Jane's net craft catalog. Any suggestions?

I can tell you ARE NOT using braid. I have become a braid believer on spinning and baitcasters lately and I have always thumbed a reel, but not a good idea with braid. When that reel gets to spinning your thumb any where around that spool will get hot fast, made me a true believer in setting the brakes and retraining myself to keep both hands on the rod handle until I hear the splash. Do the reels you mentioned only have tension knobs and not brakes and tension knobs?

Lots of good reports coming in from Bull Shoals on big walleye catches on the A-rig and Fins and feathers said he had some in Beaver. I will try to get to Beaver tailwaters this weak when the weather clears and try to get a first hand report.

I saw you tightened the reel down, was that with the tension knob? I also had a nasty backlash first time I threw one, so I opened the reel and turned on ALL the brakes and set the tension knob where the rig fell with ease. Now I can throw with two hands and have had no backlashes (that two handed lob casting like throwing a surf rod sure helps the back). First backlash cost me $15 in a spool of power pro that took a pocket knife to clear. I am using a Citica 200D 5:1 reel that was a bigger reel that I was not using for anything else since I didn't like the size but glad I had one now, knew it would come in handy someday. I also read on another web site that the repair guys say your reels will last longer if you use the brakes more then the tension knob so now I am opening the side of the reel more than turning the knob.

RPS I don't think of the Arig like a lure that will come and go but more as a type of fishing like top water, C-rig, texas rig or drop shot. I don't throw a C-rig very often, live by a drop shot and I know people who won't drop shot. I think that the A-rig fever will drop off as people loose confidence due to throwing for short periods of time in the wrong place and wrong time then catching fish on something else. But just like a drop shot fished on a flipping stick you also have to have a proper set up and some people will wear themselves out with light rods. But I think this will stay around as long as the Texas rigged worm and fished as much with just as many variations. I know you like to chase the Walleyes and if were to back troll one during generation down past Beaver town this time of year with five flutter spoons or 3in swimbaits(it is Arkansas and legal) I think you would have a new friend.

I am thinking 5 flutter spoons something like these.They are too light to cast on their own but would look good on an A-rig. http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/proeye-spoons/310320.aspx

Got out to Swepco with Quilback yesterday and had a good day with some some strong active fish. Didn't have a water temp but the water was warm all the way to the darn. Fish seemed to be locked on beds and the water was so green and wind was blowing so hard we could not sight fish at all, so draging the bottom and hoping to run over a bed was the only way to fish. Most of what we caught were 12in males but there were enough 3-5lb females to keep our hopes up. Only saw two eagles all day and top water once. There were no fish in the discharge area, not even bluegills.

I wonder if there is going to be much of a run. Infishermen had an article about a big decline in white bass populations all across Kansas and Ok and Mo and I haven't seen the big schools in Beaver this year. No one seems to know why. I have found schools of little 6in whites and scattered big whites but seems to be more 15in blacks than whites and never thought I would say that, those things used to get on my nerves now I miss them.

Looks like a GREAT day, hope it holds through the cold front.

I have dropped a thermometer down 80feet in the summer when surface temps were low 90s and found 50 degree water and pulled up bass and walleyes on spoons at that depth and deeper. That lake is packed full of cold water springs and if the water below the darn can support trout all year it is coming from the bottom of the lake and averages around 50 degrees all year so I think if they had a chance the trout would find a way to make it.

It happened about 3 years ago they "accidentally" dumped a truck full of rainbows that was ment for Lake Atlanta but I think it is a member of Fish and Game that thinks like I do. Those are catchable size trout they put in lake Atlanta between 13-16 inches since they do not survive the summer they are stocked for easy table fair, but if they find deep water in Beaver they should live. They will also throw in some Breeders around 5-6 lbs sometimes. The F&G have a stocking table on the website with dates and sizes.

I have always thought putting them in Beaver would make more since then Lake Atlanta but only for the fish and they have to provide a fishery for kids and people that don't have boats and don't fish very often and nothing is easier to catch then hatchery raised fish. Guess they look at trout in Beaver as striper food, but that would not be bad IMO.

They stock lots of rainbows in lake Atlanta and want them caught out and cooked before summer since the lake gets too hot for the trout to survive. When you get a good rain, lake Atlanta overflows and runs into Prairie Creek and rainbows, crappie and bass wash in with the flood waters. I have caught a 6lb bass in the creek in the fields behind the Nursery that was being washed down. I did catch a Brown that was about 5lbs a couple years ago that turned out to be a mistake by a stocking truck that was headed for beaver tail waters and guess the driver had never been to Beaver before and dumped his load into Prairie Creek instead. Sometimes I see fish jump out of the lake after hatching insects and hope they are big browns still living from that mistake.

Cumon you've been out lately; give us an update.

There is a launch at twin bridges then the next one out would be War eagle Marinia. Even though it is a river, not much of a current unless there is a flood level rain. The next one downstream (North) would be point 12. Those areas are great places to find stripers and whites in early spring/late winter.

The sidewalk hole is down stream a ways from the mill, not far off route 412 and not far from the twin bridges but the twin bridges are on the White River. When the Rivers hit about 50 degrees the whites will run up to spawn and the run up and back are feeding frenzeys. I have always had better luck on the War Eagle. Before the 62lb Striper was caught in the tail waters of Beaver the Lake record was 58lbs that was caught from shore near War Eagle Marina (on White River) by an old man fishing from a lawn chair. Timed right you can catch 25lb Stripers in 2 feet of water on about anything you throw in their way, but a few days later they are gone, it is worth watching for and occurs much earlier than most people start thinking about hitting the lake. I hope this link in Google Maps helps. The area I am talking about is the Sandy point on the map right in the bend, there is a paved road leading there from Route 412. http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.202292,-93.969888&z=15&t=h&hl=en

Right down 412 from there you can get to the sidewalk hole and around the boat launch there would be a good wading area on War eagle and they get some good runs of whites also.

They should be putting those trees on the points they have marked on the map as fish attractors. They have signs posted on a few sites and I have noticed they have let those sites thin out a little, especially the one across from the RT12 launch it used to be a really nice brush pile a few years ago but it it hard to find the brush now. They were using man made type attractors but found people would move them in low water so they went back to using stumps and ceader trees and I know the FLW donates to the cause each year they are here so I am surprised they haven't replenished them better.

I really don't know how you can mess up a carb rebuild on these mew ones since you don't even replace the needles. I left the linkage and settings on the carbs alone per the manual and was surprised how easy it was, compared to the carbs I rebuilt on 70s and 80s engine. I had one mechanic desribe cleaning little holes with little wires like I hadn't been in my own carbs and didn't know there were no holes that small or that the floats are plastic and not even part of a rebuild kit. As far as a power pac wish it had one they are cheaper than replacing those cdi modules that replaced the power pac after about 2000, These new stators are supposed to be a lot better than the ones in the 90s but about two years ago I had a fire due to a ground wire working loose on the battery(don't use those butterfly nuts that come on the battery) and I had to rewire the entire engine and replace one of the cdi modules (used to be power pac but one for each cyl now). I hope you are right about the fuel problem that would just be turning some screws by someone with more experience than I have But I won't pay for a rebuild that cost way to much for as simple as it is on these new carbs but seems to be where every one wants to start due to profit involved. I am really thinking trigger or stator even though that is rare in a 2004 so is a fire. Thanks for the advice, and yes I did know not to rev on the hose. I don't usually put in gear on the hose at all but needed to check before going to the lake again.