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Did I miss the pics of the new boat? What did you get?

I like the Mitchell 308 also, it's a tuff reel, good price and you don't have to close the bail with your hand and all the other tips wimpier reels require to keep them going. I own some Shimanos that cost more and might cast better sometimes but just not as heavy duty as the 308s. I like reels that conform to me not to spend more money on something I have to conform to. Now if you are talking 6lb test you will find a shimano in my hand but if you see me with a spinning reel with 40lb braid it will be a Mitchell.

Between the Islands there is a cove with a big brush pile it is easy to find just note where you see the pontoon boats tied up every time you pass between the islands. I don't fish crappie much but seems the guys who come in with them either troll or stay close to big brush piles. Those pontoons that stay in one place for hours will lead you to the brush. During the summer months under the lights at the horseshoe bend Marina is a favorite place but always a few boats there to compete with.

I saw on the news last night the predicted rainfall over Benton County was .3 inches and the vast majority of the rain was going to be south of Beaver Lake. If that happens it will still increase runoff into Beaver, but I don't think it will be a washout this far North. But then again who believes weather men, could be 5in....lol The lake could use 2 or 3 feet more right now to get up for summer generation so hope we do get a couple of inches, it has been a dry spring.

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.2034224,-93.9731958,730m/data=!3m1!1e3 This link should help it is the area where Granny Hollow and Hickory Flat Hollow meet. I have no idea where the "sidewalk" was at but this is the area known as the sidewalk hole. There is a lot of old trees and brush piles with an easy to find channel in that area that make great cover for bass and crappie year around and in the spring and winter good place to find whites and strippers. Also the boat launch area is a good place for shore bond anglers to catfish from shore, and you will see campfires there all summer long. Hope this helps.

The Bass Cat was closer to 279 boats, I was there and not very many boats brought in more than 2 fish per day. Cold front had bass close to cover and there is very little of that on Norfolk. I saw one boat on a wind blown point with a big brush pile net about 20 fish up by the dam but could not find a bite anywhere else in that creek. Good luck that was my last trip to Norfork, I thought Beaver could be tough but that was just too tough a lake for me. I talked to a lot of anglers in the Bass Cat and even the ones who lived on the lake were only coming in with one fish, some had one fish in two days. A little pressure and that lake is tough. On the bright side the spots we caught were very fat healthy fish and over 15in, you don't find many spots like that on Beaver, they looked like Table Rock spots. They said the shad really died off and it was evident looking at the locator since we ran all over the lake and never found a good shad ball, I hope the shad are able to come back from this winter quickly.

I have a cheap black and white version that has shed light on a few spots for me. The problem with mine is it doesn't tell you what direction the camera is pointing and scale is really hard to judge. But I did have areas that I have looked at that were much different then I expected. One bluff wall I thought had rocks on it and thought the fish were hiding in the rocks, turned out to be full of holes and there were two or three bass per hole. Looking at deep ceder trees always yields something, but never got were I could see across a dock and that is what I bought it for, so I would would recommend a better one than the base black and white one I got.

If you see other boats in the river below Beaver town toward the dam, please don't run on plane. It is not 100 yards across and you should not run on plane that close to other boats. People will get very upset.

I betting this one will be won with a spinning reel, several good pros that live near that lake and betting on the home boys that know how to use small line and small lures. Spooning might bring up a few lunkers but I think the GA and FL guys will be lost in water below 50 degrees.

It is the best fishing of the year just because the south end of the lake is smaller more like a river then the North end so the fish are easier to find and the "deep" holes are 30 feet not 200 feet. You are just on the wrong side, look at Hickory Creek if you want a full service Marina on that end, great people and camp ground. There are always guides hanging out around the marina willing to share information. If you are up at the darn, I would look at the tailwaters of Table Rock like Fin and feathers said but a stray hybrid is the biggest fish you will find but whites and walleye make up for that. Around the deep end of Beaver beading smallmouth are your best bet, that deep water stays colder longer. I have found whites running to the Dam at times but nothing like the run down in the white river.

Wow that was a rainy spring. I remember that muddy water all the way to Rambo, with as cold as the water is now I hope it doesn't dirty up that bad again.

Keep the phone in a sealed bag in the glove box and wear a blue tooth, you can talk hands free and not risk your phone.

Bad thing is you can't control where your line breaks when you get snagged, it is just a fact of life that for a hundred reasons there will be line in the lake. I have lost a full spool because I forgot to close a bail on a spinning reel before running in. I think the lesson here is to pull you props and check them also check your lower unit for water on a regular basis. Set a time schedule and stick to it. I bought a 1/2in torque wrench just to replace my prop. Don't wait until something breaks to fix it, check and recheck. It is like waiting on a red light to check the oil in your truck, it is too late.

Water temp?

Should be another good spawn year, with the big shad die off the bass might loose a little weight but should be more of them down the road. Could have done without the snow, really tried of the white stuff.

But was it a Beaver fish or Table Rock fish? The reports I remember says the fish came from Beaver......

The State record Stripper is credited to Beaver even though it was caught in the tail waters due to the fact they thought it went through the flood gates, so did the state record stripper get caught in Beaver or Table Rock? Then were did it come from?

Age old argument weather Beaver tail waters are Beaver or Table Rock but I enjoy the reports from both ends of the "River" so won't complain about any fishing report since Iike both ends but probably tailwaters the best.

What tournament allows live bait?

What are you using on the bottom? I would probably use a grub or fluke but just wondering what is working as far as colors on Norfolk. I am coming over the last weekend of the month to check out the circus (basscat tourney). I think once the water warms they will clean up those freebies real quick and start chasing live shad again, but might stay on bottom when the craws come out since the craw fish are feasting on those dead shad also.

It is much easier to mark 3 boats with poles bent then move in between them.

Live bait and boards do work good when they are in the south end but so do jerk baits and top water. There is nothing like getting those big swirls up in 3 feet of water and throwing a jerk bait at them.During early season bass tournaments it is not unusual to catch more stripers than blacks, especially when you have a $20 jerk bait on 8lb test...lol Early morning and late afternoon pencil poppers are really great when the shad move to the back of coves. Getting on top of feeding fish in 20-30 feet and spoon feeding them can make a great day also, but the difference in mid lake early year fishing is you are chasing fish in 25-35 feet of water not 100-150 feet of water. Seems they would be easier to catch when the concentrate in the North end but I find they are much easier to catch when they run out of the river heading north. Right now they are filling up on dead shad in all the coves but they will run out of those as soon as the water temps get around 50 degrees. Don't forget your A-rig

Did anyone try a fluke? With all they dying shad seems like a nose down fluke bounced off the bottom might get a few. Then again it seems you have to almost put it in their mouth when there is so much easy to catch food around.

IMO the best Time for stripers is now until the water gets over 50 degrees when the stripers are in the south end of the lake and running shallow. It is impossible to predict a good week of weather for March but I would head down for a weekend and try south of Hwy 12 bridge any weekend next month.

I usually find the whites hit a spoon on the fall and the stripers hit on the rise, do you notice the same thing? I have had stripers hit when I was not doing anything with the spoon, while trying to do something else like light a cig or messing with tackle and almost take the rod away from me but for the most part I think the big boys like the ones that are getting away. Do you you notice the same thing?