Stump bumper

Might be a good time to pick up some molds.

I would be more likley to put my boat up for July and August then any other month. I am a native but spent 16 years in the North east, NY and Vermont and I just don't get cold here. They have a New Year tournament on Beaver every year and that has always been my best tournament of the year usually running cranks in 2 to 3 feet of water and very active small mouths. My boat sleeps in the garage though, I have a friend who fishes all year and keeps his bass boat in outdoor storage and never had problems but he left his second boat an inboard/outboard ski boat in his slip last winter and the block froze and cracked last winter. But if you want some good winter action, hope to see you over here on Beaver this winter for the stripper, lots of 20 pound fish with some 30-40 lb once in a while with no more than a bass rod and a jerkbait. Welcome to the area and glad to have another fisherman around and thanks for not bringing a wake boat.

Off topic but if you like jerk baits try Jane's Net craft. You have to use your own hooks and split rings but for $3 apiece they are good quailty and action and I would say they are the same as LC pointers. They don't cast as far as the McStick but I have caught more fish using them and can buy 5 for the price of 1 LC pointer. http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/crankbait-bodies/341521.aspx

Yes there is a thread on this; it is out of praire creek 6:30pm -10pm sponsered by Outdoor World, $20 per person. They pay 3 places plus big Bass.

That was impressive, full moon made me want to get out also. What time did they start bitting was it at dark bite or after midnight thing? Tuesday night jackpots have been 2-3 lbs so I am guessing that the fish are not bitting until later.

The problem with flourocarbon and me is that a crimp in the line will cause it to break and I can't keep from crimping the line. I have switch to braid with a flourocarbon leader, 15lb P-pline, and have had a lot less headaches. The trick is to learn a simple little surgeans knot then I use a uni on the hook to flouro and Have neaver lost a fish. Just don't cross their eyes or you will beak a jaw on the fish. I have seen a lot of bass on TR with a borken bottom jaw and that is probally the cause.JMO On other rods I use a copolmar like Pline flouroclear or CXX in either 8lb or 10. The CXX in 8 is as tough as the flouroclear in 12 but the cxx only comes in moss green, and with cranks and spinnerbaits is ok.

Glad to hear it, and you gained some vaulable knowledge in the process. It is good to have friends like that instead of those who play vedio games all day. Mechanics have good intentions but sometimes don't understand that a lot of use have more time on our hands than money. Glad you are back on the water,now find some bass and post it up. I've been up in the tail waters and catching some big whites but need a good black bass report.

What you get at the store as the "orignal" is a Rapala copy made in China and does not have the same plastic or rattles that were in the original made in OK back in the 80s that is why evryone is crazy about finding the old ones and repaiting them. I think it is a lot of a confidence thing, and a lot of marketing by local bass pros who come in with twice the lbs of fish and when asked what they caught them on it is an old hard to find lure customed painted by a friend. Then when you invest $20-$40 it has to be better than the lure you paid $4.95, then your buddy see's the lure and and has to have a $40 lure and it goes from there. If someone is leading a tournament series and everyone knows what they are throwing that is the first thing to elimante as what they are actully catching fish on.

That sounds like a surgeans knot to me, maybe a J knot.

I have some clip on wieghts that attach to the front lower fin that hold the fish in an upright postion and have never had them fail. It takes longer than fizzing, but I have never been comfortable with a fizzing needle.

Just past Beaver toward the island right at dark there were balls all over the top. I got a good 18in LM chasing them on a little cleo spoon pulled right on top. Must have been 20 or 30 balls cutting major v's everywhere but no good explosions of whites or major feeding. Would have been an excellant place to throw a cast net though. If you can find the water down to 41 degrees they will just lay on top and start dying but with the sun and 100 degrees out side that would be south of hwy 62 bridge and the rules get tight down there.

I came in to HI at about 9pm last night and there was a mink waiting at the fish cleaning table. He ran out to the dock jumping around like a puppy glad to see his owners. I release all my fish so I didn't have anything for him. I was just wondering if this little guy is a regular pet at the Marinia or a fluke. It was a really hot day and nothing was in a hurry to get out out of the way, we had a large beaver eating furns right next to the boat up the river and a 12 point buck standing in the road on the way out so this little guy might just have been too hot to fish for himself. Water temp up river never went below 47 so the shad didn't get stuned yesterday, but I did catch 4 eyes only 1 keeper and 8 short bass but it was a nice cool place to spend the afternoon. The keeper eye came from bluesprings.

No offense to experts and they are worth every penny, but I have been in the postion serveral times were if I didn't fix it myself I would have to throw it away so I fixed it, that goes for trucks, boats and cars. And yes, people who know very little about fishing beat me all the time, usually from the back of my own boat. With an older boat you really have to look at return on investment and how long you want to keep the boat. After putting $4,000 in that boat you are not going to increase the value any more than what it was worth right before it broke. So with a blown engine what is the worth vs what can you get for after repairs? The only way I know to offset that is to remove labor cost, the other choice is to look into trading where the dealer could absord the labor cost. Just thoughts; If you plan to keep the boat forever then cost really doesn't matter.

My best advice is to buy a repair manual and take as a learning experince and get dirty if you have friends that are good at repairs and buy some beer that helps too (don't bring out beer until repairs are complete). The best place I have found for parts is King's Marine they have the lowest mark up and I can get parts there for same price as iboats without the shipping and if they don't have it, they will get it in one day. (479) 636-5242. Good luck

You may have to go a little further, I have noticed they have cut down on generation on Sat and Sun.

I fished South of Beaver Friday during the generation with my wife throwing 4in blue worms and some small cranks in 51 degree water. I had a pontoon boat following me throwing shad raps and they landed two keeper eyes that were released. One 19in the other 22. My wife ended up with 12 Kys all short, I had 7 kys all short and two trout 15 and 17 in that put on a show. Not a bad time for a 3 hour trip but would have been a skunk for a tournament.

That is cool, I have not seen any good top water in a while. Glad to hear that it is still going on, I will have to get up early before the weekend and try to catch that action.

I had a friend post the following question to Berkley through their web site. Posted At: Thursday, July 29, 2010 3:33 PM Posted To: Berkley Conversation: [united States] joining fireline crystal to a florocarbon leader Subject: [united States] joining fireline crystal to a florocarbon leader What is the best knot to use joining fireline crystal to florocarbon leaders. This was the reply: From: Berkley <berkley@purefishing.com> To: (deleted) Sent: Tue, August 3, 2010 3:00:40 PM Subject: RE: [united States] joining fireline crystal to a florocarbon leader Mr. Davis, Thank you for your inquiry. We suggest a Palomar knot. Thank you, Berkley Customer Service KD Thinking that the above person did not read his question he called Berkley's 1-800 number and asked the same question and recieved the same answer after repeating the same question 3 times the lady on the service line gave the same answer. I just thought this was funny, but if anyone can join two lines together using a palomar knot, please let me know so I can change my mind about the people at Berkly Customer Service.

I just found out that they are running Tuesday Night jack pots out of Praire Creek. They are sponsered by Outdoor World in Rogers and they have the winners and weights posted at the door. Last weeks winners were under 2 lbs so if you are on a keeper per hour or a 3 fish spot you might want to get down there by 6:30 tonight. Entry is $20 per person Pays 3 places plus big bass 12-17 boats seems to be the norm. My boat is waiting on parts tonight but I will be there next week, good luck to anyone fishing tonight. If anyone is fishing this jack pot already, please give some feed back.

Numbers are getting good on Beaver but there are more 16-17 inch fish than anything. My wife caught a 24 in on a drop shot a while back. I am suprised how many have taken over the boat docks, I can't find a bass up under docks that used to pay off but know if I get a bite up under a deep dock it is a walleye. I took refuge in an empty big boat dock up near Rock Branch a while back during a litttle pop up thunderstorm and I keep seeing fish move under me two at a time about a foot off the bottom. So I put on a 4in swimbait and jiged it straight down and ended up catching 6 walleye all 16-17 inches in the hour it took that storm to pass. I catch more eyes on worms up near the rock cliffs now it is hot than I do KYs but they are all shorts but seem to feed in the warmer water more than the bass do, and for a cold water fish I find that strange. I only know 1 guide fishing for eyes on Beaver and there are no tournaments so with so little presure and intrest, I think Beaver is a sleeper that will be taking off as a walleye lake in the next few years.

I am not sure what guide was launching out of Holiday Island this morning, it was a deep V with a couple of down riggers on the back. I was fishing from HI to Big M and back and never saw the boat until we got back to HI, but he was cleaning a good limit of Walleyes with the largest being 10lbs. He said it was the biggest he had caught this year. I hope someone else got more details than I did.

Bill, The first point I noticed there was one good keeper in this report, it was a LM on a transition on a bluff end. That is the fish I would pattern and would start looking for more points like that one and fish the same depth the 1st one came from maybe changing colors of jigs/trailers. From this report and my personal experince on the same area the same days I will have to say the docks are holding some dinks but no keeper fish. On the 3 keepers on spoon and fluke near 86 bridge I don't know the depth or type of point, cover weather fisherman was targeting shad balls spoted on his depth finder. Was the spoon a vertical presentation or casted and "pumped" back type of retrive? Was it a wighted fluke or non weighted or cariolina rig?

I have seen a lot south of Beaver when they arn't generating, last Sunday around 6pm there were shad balls all over the top and they were so big I thought they were whites. I almost went home for the cast net to do some striper fishing. If they are generating you still spot some good size shad around Beaver. The back of owl creek has some good shad around dark also, but not the really big shad I saw around Beaver.

A frayed rope behind a large top water lure turns those gar into fun.

I was south of Eagle Rock Sunday with very few fish and all short also, after checking generation schedule for Beaver there was no generation at all Sunday. Maybe that had something to do with the bite also. The moon was full and that could have put the bite off until later since I left at 9:30pm when I saw the lightning.