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They will run out of dirty water and try to stay in the 50 degree water but the small males will stay on the shad in the shallows longer than the bigger fish. I am hoping to see a return to Prairie Creek also. But I would not look for them on the weekend, the boat traffic runs them out early.

Looks like a plan

Good call, this time of the year it is not good to play around in storms.

I will also try to get out before dark, look forward to seeing a mud line.

Nothing bad about a top 10 finish. If you go to the bottom of this page you will see a picture you don't see very often. http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/tournaments/2017-bass-pro-shops-central-open-1

I will be trolling in the wind tomorrow...that hasn't done me much good though.

I knew I should have been out there yesterday.

I don't know how legal it is in a tournament but when you get stuck on Beaver and have a little wind drag a jig. I have noticed all those fish setting on bottom are bass 90 % of the time. This time of the year a ned rig or for sorting out for bigger fish bigger jig dragged slowly across the bottom where you see fish sitting on bottom. I don't bother to cast and reel, too much work I just let the wind and boat do the work. I must have caught 30 bass the other day in 20-30 feet while watching boats beat the shore. I offered several times to give up the school to a passing boat but nobody wanted deep fish. My belief is the crawfish are deep and easy to get when they come out of the rocks, the trick here is you have to drag rocks not sand.

Has anyone ever used a trawl net to gather shad? I have seen where you can attach a 8lb weight to one and get it down to 30 feet. I can't find anyone on the net that post anything but they tried it once and gave up. Looks like it would work on paper but I don't want to order one unless I know they work. Everyone says a cast net is much easier but everyone knows there are days you can only find shad on the graph. I did check and it is legal in Arkansas during daylight hours.

Looks like next weekend will be really nice. Anyone know of any bass tournaments next weekend so I can plan around them.

Funny, I see JDoc find them off every side and he still doesn't catch them.

It is like your television at home you can invest as much as a new truck or just a couple hundred but the same show is going to be on. I always go for last years model on sale and save a couple hundred. I have down scan only on the front and an old black and white gps on the back. When I need side scan I fish within a 100 yards of JDoc and watch his 50 inch screen. Seems to me that Lowrance people get used to the controls one way and Hummingbird people get used to theirs. I have an old Lowrance on the back and newer Hummingbird on the front and plan on upgrading to Hummingbird on the back just for the color gps. I will not spend more than $500 on a unit and from what I have seen Hummingbird gives a better map for that price. But with the Lowrance you don't have to buy the card because they come pre loaded. If you are going to invest in side scan then make sure you get a 9inch or larger screen, I have seen side scan on a 5inch screen and it is a waste of money, the detail means nothing if you can't see it. UNless you want to record your trip on a card and take it home throw it up on the TV and see all the fish you missed. As far as fitting in, from what I have seen about 80% of Beaver fishermen seem to have Lowrance units and spend between $1,500 to $2,500 on them, then turn them off while they beat the shore line because they never take the time to learn how to use them. I will never understand why they invest so much when they don't believe what they see. Good luck

You have to get up early to find them in the back of the coves and keep your eyes open and net ready. If you see one flip in range, throw, if you see one run under the boat throw in front of it. Sometimes you get none sometimes a net full. This process can be 10-15 minutes or two hours, then there is the day they come up to you in 100 feet of water and start feeding on top. I have been going out around noon and not finding anything. Watching birds can lead you to shad if you sneak up on them before someone runs their boat across them on plane. I have never had luck throwing at those that black out the screen on the depth finder in 50 feet of water, they are usually smaller than the holes in the net. Good luck and don't get discouraged it is rewarding first time you get a net full of 6-8 inch gizzards when you took the shot for the 20th time with no hope left. It helps if you go out with someone better than you, like Dan and trade off when one of you gets lucky, Dan is a shad master. Also a 5 foot net that you can throw is better than a 8 foot net that you can't get a spread on, so practice makes sometimes works. Myself I get a perfect spread until I see those big gizzards running fast and then my 6 foot net spreads about a foot. When it warms up they will be spawning and easier to get for awhile, right now they are hanging deep after sunrise. Good luck and don't throw at turtles, they are harder to get out of the net than you would think, don't ask......

Indian Summer (probably not a correct term anymore) can be a disaster for young plants, fish and animals. I have seen this before with 70s in Feb then below zero and 22 inches of snow in late March. It kills the fruit, the fish spawn too early and the fry die. I was really wanting a good cold Feb and a good shad kill, but I hope we don't have a really hard freeze after this one. Glad you got into some walleye, I am afraid the stripers may have headed back home to the North and gone deep really early. I saw the guide boats coming out of the river Saturday and nobody looked happy. We can only wait and see.

J-Doc there were lots of people doing the same with the kids and wives. It was not an afternoon to fish for sure. I was trying to find bait in the afternoon but all the coves were were full of anything that would float. I followed the birds and saw them diving down near the water intake between points 11 and 12. I was headed that way with a cast net in hand when two bass boats running side by side with wives aboard came right through the birds, then turned around and started chasing the birds. I just stowed my gear and headed for the dock. Summer should did get here fast, if you can't get cold weather in February when can you get it? Looks like night fishing or up before sunrise is the only fishing there is right now, didn't expect that until May. I will be on the road working until April and by that time the wake boats will rule, guess I will get out the night lights when I get back.

When I get two rods out, I get a fish on both at the same time and tangle them up, I don't know how you get a fish in past 7 other lines.

You are tougher man than I facing that weather today.

I have always like jerk baits in the winter and for some reason Table Rock shad has been my big fish go to color. I tried that this Sunday with zero fish. It must have been a color thing, I was working bluffs that held fish in the same wind. I knew I should have gone more natural, but hard to put down old habits even with a 50 jerk bait assortment at my finger tips.

I think this is a late response to the fact they did not lower the lakes the past three winters resulting in flooding down stream. The number one reason these lakes were made was for flood control and they have failed to have room for spring rains. What would be funny if they pulled down the winter right before a drought summer, then we could see 20 feet lower than now, that would mean no power generation in the summer. There could be standard maintenance that occurs when the water level drops, but I think if it was a plan, they would have released that info.

I was out Sunday also and couldn't find stripers anywhere near PC. There were no big shad balls moving into the creeks. I did pull some large swimbaits and got big spots every time. So I picked up a ned rig and hit some gravel banks and had 10 big smallmouth quick. The only big shad concentrations and big fish I found were around 50- 70 feet down, not a winter pattern at all. I was amazed at how Beaver was fishing just like Table Rock in the wind Sunday and how many keeper smallies were between PC and point 10. It is also funny that a 12inch spot can get hooked on a 8inch swimbait. I am sure the stripper were hot somewhere else in the lake that day, probably earlier in the day before the wind came up. I also didn't hook one Largemouth, they must have been hanging deeper with the shad.

I followed those birds today, about a 100 of them on one spot. They were just riding the wind out and chasing white caps. Lazy birds, useless in 15mph wind.

I was in the horsehoe bend area all after noon and could not find any shad at all, so no stripers. Glad you were able to find them. I did bring up some spots off the bottom in about 20 feet of water dragging a ned rig with the light wind. All the fish I caught were really lethargic for water temps near 50, felt more like pulling in sticks. I had a 14 inch crappie that I thought was dead until I put him back and watched him swim back down. I should have run more and looked for the birds but I was just lazy and enjoying the sun.

No stripers on 6lb test this year? What is up with that? Great job on the crappie by the way.

Thanks for the info, there goes there goes the top water bite until after weigh in. At least it isn't a 100 and wake boats, I guess they are launching out of PC also. Last time I saw really good top water action I ran through it myself, then turned around and tried to sneak up on them, they never came back up. I just hope they give me room to run some boards. Winter fishermen are usually better educated than the fair weather guys.