Bass Ivy

Thanks! I was just thinking about trying that area. If I can get on them I think I can catch a few. Ive been a couple times around pc and 12 bridge but I really wasnt looking for stripers. Had the kids and the wife out there once caught some perch with the kids. I kept marking some fish on the east end of the bridge on the inside of the last pillar. I got right up over them and use a white war eagle spoon and caught a few crappie and whites. I was just curious what i was seeing on the finder more than anything. Then my son and I went one evening and stayed out there until about 11.00 pm. We got into some crappie in Coose mostly short fish though.

Nice bunch of birds. Looks like it would be fun.

I just seen your comment compairing the goose to the smoked shoe. LOL When I posted my comment about cooking the shoe with goose I had not even read your post yet. LOL! Sorry for copying your shoe remark. It was totally an accident. Ive also heard that same thing said about eating a big Blue Catfish. It would be fun to hunt geese though. Ill bet F&F's Goose Sausage is alright. That is what they do to the meat from an old boar hog is make sausage out it. Otherwise you wouldnt be able to get past the smell.

Ok thanks!

When I hear the shootin I will know the source. Ive always heard that when you cook a goose the best way to do it to throw an old shoe in there with it when you cook it and then after the goose is done you throw the goose away and eat the old shoe. Ive always been told that is how you make a goose taste better. LOL!!!

Ok will do! Yeh I thought about going out today and just scout around, but thought it was going to pour down rain any second and it didnt do anything. Thanks for the tips it helps out alot!

I havent been out in about 6 months. I blew my motor on my boat. Anyhow Ive got a different motor on it now and Im ready to. I was just wandering where would be a good place to start lookin for stripers? I read F&F's post from a few days back said he got into them around Rocky Branch. Would they pretty much be anywhere from the dam to around point 8? Any help would be appreciated. If anyone could point me to some spots to check out I will sure give it a shot.

I havent been on the lake in awhile. Blew up the ole 200 Mariner back in the early spring. Im back going now, but I havent been out yet. I was just wandering what kind of areas were you guys locating the fish?

I know this question was asked awhile back, but I thought I would respond just for future reference. He said he was camping by the Dam. The best place I feel like in that area is the area right North of the Dam where all that Rip Rap lines the lake shores. That day use camp ground on the right just before you go across the Dam is a known spot for Big Blues. Right off the end of the point in the campground is good too. Ive known of people catching multiple Blues in a few hours in that area over 30 pounds on Rod and Reel. Crawdads is good bait. Also if you get a few worms and go down around the rip rap before dark use a #8 cricket hook, with the long shank. Rigged up under a bobber you can catch a bunch of small perch or Bluegills. They will work great on Blues in Beaver. You can cut one in half and use the head. Or just take a pair of scissors and trim some fins on the Bluegill. It will make him swim erratically and it causes him to loose some body fluids wich will bring in the cats. In my opinion bait that you get right out of the water you are fishing in will always outfish anything else. Especially for Bigger Blues and Channels. Fresh Bait is the best. Try to keep your bait alive until you are ready to use it. Also all the catfish I catch out of Beaver especially this time of year is in less than 10 feet of water. If you are setting on the bank try casting down the bank instead of straight out in front of your position. One of the biggest Blues Ive ever encoutered was in that area. I caught it on a jug line, it did manage to escape right as we were trying to get it in the boat. Here is a picture of a nice one that we caught in a different area. But the one by the dam was a tad bigger than this one I think.

Cannonball BBQ Hwy 62 and 72 Junction. On 62 East out of Rogers Go through Avoca Right before the the hwy 72 Junction It will be on your left.

That is what you call tearing them up! LOL

Yeh Im going to head out here in a bit. Ill be my myself today so I wont be able to use my big spread with the live bait. That is what I would like to do. I had planned on my dad going tomorrow, but the weather may foul that up. But he is going to go he has pretty much said he was going too. Hes supposed to retire in like two weeks so he will be able to go on days like today. Thanks for the support Daryk. My dad and I still hunt together and my son plays golf with my dad, but im not into the golf. but he hasnt went fishin with me since. I made him pretty mad at me years ago. He doesnt care to much for flying down the lake. He says its not to fun when you are going so fast you cant even breathe. LOL The water was really rough that day too he didnt like it. I told him Ive grown up alot since then.

Heck I thought the weather was supposed to be nice this weekend. Like in the high 50's. Man what a bummer. That is the reason I didnt get to go last Saturday was the weather. I may be out there later today. Break out that A rig and see what I can do with it. Ive got 3 inch baits to go on mine is that a little small? I figure they will work. Im ready to get out there right now, but the ole lady has other plans for this morning. When I get my dad to go I need to make it a good trip. I grew up fishing with my dad. When I was a kid when I knew we were going fishing the next morning I wouldnt even get a wink of sleep. We mostly fished War Eagle River from the bank. Ponds stuff like that I also grew up fishing for trout with my stepdad. Neither one of them wasnt much of fisherman when it came to the lake though. But in the early 90's I spent more time on Beaver Lake than I did at home literally. The longest I ever fished was 52 hours straight. Im not lying. Its the honest truth. Ive pull started a 115 evinrude and a 150 Johnson many a time because I ran the batteries dead. That was when I was 18 - 20 years old though. But anyway I had this Bass Cat Sabre in the 90's that would run in the low 70's and I kept her hammered all the time no matter what. Well my dad used to fish with me all the time until one day we ran from 12 Bridge all the way up War Eagle and back when we got done. It was on Memorial Day so you could imagine what the lake was like with boats going everywhere. Well I just pinned the ears back on that ole cat. And when we got out of the water my dad said he would never go with me again and he hasnt. He is retiriing in a few days and hes been having some heart problems. We dont know if its anything really serious yet. He actually mentioned going fishing with me again and I want to make sure I make it a good trip so he will continue to go. When he goes if we can get on some stripers he will enjoy it.

Those boats were so close to you I thought they were your buddies. LOL Man I thought that was you and would have gave you a yell, but I wasnt going to come in there on you it looked like you maybe had some found and was fishing them. When I was first coming up through there I thought it looked like a film crew around one of the pro anglers. LOL. I was just out there seeing if they were still around. I may just not know what one lookes like on my new finder yet. On my old one I knew what stripers looked like. Im looking for some big marks. I did see one ball of shad that something was working them pretty good had alot of streaking on there from the bigger fish moving up into the shad. It seemed like the bait was farther up in the cove than they were weekend before last

You can make an A Rig for about 2.50. I havent made any yet but Ive got a buddy that makes them. The ones I seen at Hook Line and Sinker were 15.00. Maybe I was looking at the wrong ones 10.00 is not bad, but I didnt see them. I bought 3 of them on ebay for 18.00 with shipping included in that price. That fancy little fish head that is on the higher priced A Rigs is my opinion is just for looks. It makes them sell better, and they cost alot more. They wont catch fish any better than the ones that just have a lead weight, or some are just wires twisted together. I did get me some 1/4 jig heads at hook line and sinker though. Must be alot of people using A Rigs because everywhere I go they are out of the white or Peal swimbaits alot of the time. LOL I think I seen you F&F at Prairie Creek yesterday throwing an A Rig. Across the lake from the swimming area. Was that you? there were two other boats by you if that was you. I was out there testing out my HDS-8 Gen 2. I never did see any stripers on the finder seen lots of shad though. I havent been out there in almost two weeks do you think the Stripers will still be in there this weekend. Im thinking by Saturday with the weather like this they could be in there hot and heavy. I may bring my dad out. He hasnt fished with me in over 15 years. If he goes I would like to make the best of it, and get on some stripers.

I know someone who sells wood. He lives North of Rogers toward Avoca. He will deliver it out there to you, if you want that option. Im not sure how much he gets for his wood, but anyway you can give him a call and he can help you out. 479-633-2059 the guys name is Roger.

I will try the clothes pin on my balloon lines. Im also going to change out the line and the hooks on those rods. Those are the same rods Ive been using all this time and still have not caught a fish on them. After using smaller line and smaller hooks and actually catching fish on those lines and still nothing on the old lines it seems obvious to me. Ive found out over the years that alot of times just a small change to your fishing rig will make a huge difference. I think Ive been on the stripers the whole time, but just didnt have the complete setup. I appreciate the tips I really do. F&F

I caught a trout on a jerk bait one time at Eagle Rock Bridge on Table Rock and I thought that was weird, but Trout in PC now that is weird, but Ill bet every time during winter and spring rains the trout wash out of Lake Atalanta and down into PC cove. And Ill bet there are some stripers in that have learned it for sure. I wish we could use trout for bait on Stripers. Stripers like them trout. Trout are like an ice cream sandwich to a striper.

It did come a pretty good rain the other night. I guess it could have got the water flowing over the spillway pretty good at Lake Atlanta and they went down the creek. Ill bet when they hit the lake and ran into them stripers Ill bet they were wishing they had stayed at home. LOL

I have not seen any stressed shad either. I like catching them big blues when the shad start dying. I dont think we are going to have that this year.

F&F I hope I can get my Lowrance unit to work like you are describing yours working. If you can see my lines with your side scan that is awesome. Man I cant wait to get mine up and runnin. Do they still catch a few stripers out of the white? I know back in 1990 is when a bunch of stripers got in there. I havent really heard about any being caught out of there is several years. But it could have happened and I just didnt hear about it. I seen a tv show on PBS one night and there were some people trolling for walleye around Holiday Island and they were tearing them up. It looked like it would be pretty fun. Walleye is some of the finest eating too. Im planning on sticking on the stripers for awhile. I will be bass fishing too. When the water warms up to about 55 degrees I will start catfishing too. Im going to start going to Grand Lake and Drifting for cats also. Im just about to try out your balloon fishing technique. I would like to hook something to the close pin with a snap swivel or something so when the clothes pin lets loose the balloon and the clothes pin will stay with your line, but slide freely up and down the line like my planer boards do after the fish hits them. the way I run my set up it would be very hard for me to turn around and pick up the balloon. Just and Idea might help in my situation.

I wil try heavier weight on the downlines.

Ive got an HDS-8 gen 2 with structure scan on the way. I cant wait to get it mounted up and start using it. It seemed like the stripers were scattered I seen them on the finder almost everywhere up in that area, but they were scattered out. Thats when my setup like I was running should help out. I could cover 50 yards on each side of the boat plus directly under the boat and behind. I do want to run 4 planers on each side though from now on. I probably couldn't do it in the no wake zone. LOL ! We actually had our wide planers pulled in tighter than normal because we were in between the bouys. One of my problems is our trolling motor. It turns real easy and its a foot control. Plus I need to adjust it so my foot is in a comfortable position when moving straight ahead. I need to see if I can stiffen it up where I can point it in one direction and it will keep pointed on its own. Man Its a fight in the wind. I was back fixing lines and my son was running the trolling motor when we hooked the 2nd fish I fought him and got him all the way in and netted him and never tangled a single line. That was the way I had my line layout planned to work. If the wind had not been so bad I could have gotten off the trolling motor for periods of time, but when it is blowing like it was I cant take a break off the trolling motor for even a few seconds. I knew yesterday that I needed to jump in the back and reel up the two down lines when my son was hooked up, but I couldnt get off that trolling motor. My son kept saying come net this fish come help me, and I just kept saying you are on your own buddy I cant get off this trolling motor. Ive been working on my setup for awhile. I first made planer boards last year, but they didnt work that great. These I have now are pretty good. I didnt have any egg sinkers big enough and they are a little pricey in my opinion. I have quiet a bit of sinker making stuff and jig making supplies. I have some bank sinker molds. I had 1 and 2 oz and bigger bank sinkers. I ordered me some sinker slides to use, but i didnt have them yesterday. I used a little trick I learned from my Father n Law. He uses cigarette butts as a sinker stop. Instead of using a swivel and a leader he just takes the filter from the cigarette and ties an overhand knot around the filter at Whatever length you want your leader normally. With the sinker above its provides a padded stop for the sinker its easy on your line too. He normally uses egg sinkers, but I used my bank sinkers. I think the bank sinkers with the sinker slides should work well because I can change weight on my line without cutting the line and retying the leader. They just have a big duolock snap on there unsnap it and hang whatever weight I want on there. And when im done fishing i can take the weights off the line completely.

F&F were you the guy that we actually talked to? While we were fishin? Or were you the guy in the cajun bass boat? I can tell you that I learned some stuff yesterday. One thing was to not run the two down lines behind the boat because everything get tangle in them. Im going to build me two more planer boards and run 8 instead of 6 and run 4 rods out the back On balloons. Another thing I learned is to not be screamin and fightin with my son while were out there because you never know who is watching and listening. LOL Hes right at the age he cops a tude every once in awhile. You know when you are out there and the wind is blowing relentlessly and your pulling 12 lines there are boats around and we are in there in a tight area. Trying to weave that wide spread between the no wake bouys, And hes over there worried about texting his girlfriend. LOL There were moments yesterday where we sounded like the father and son team on Ax Men. LOL !!! The S&S aqua logging guys. But We had a good day! I had a feeling that one of the guys on this forum was out there yesterday.

Well went out for awhile Sat evening Feb 4th. I hoped the stripers would still be in the Prairie Creek area where I had found some there last week. Well we rode around for awhile watching the finder, and by the time we got everything ready to go it was about 3:30 in the afternoon. Found some activity on the finder it looked pretty good so we set in. Ran six planer boards, four balloons, and two down rods. I listened to some of the advice that Feathers and Fins put on this forum, and wound up with our first Stripers. I guess My line size and my hook size had something to do with my problems, because I bought eight new rods had them spooled up with 20 pound suffix elite. I bought me some 1/0 and 2/0 circle hooks and used them instead of the 6 and 7/0 I was using. And I went up to 1oz and 2oz sinkers. Never caught a fish on my old rods in four trips, all the fish came off my new rods rigged this way. I guess smaller line and smaller hooks, helped. We had a big one, but my knot slipped, I guess, and he got away. Right at the boat. I learned something right there, and that wont happen again. Had another one take the planer board for a ride but missed him. I think If I would have gotten out there earlier I would have actually limited out. Now that weve got the monkey off our back as they say it can only get better from here. Biggest one was 14lbs 15oz. all three weighed 40 pounds combined not huge fish, but its a good mess for a couple of rookie striper fisherman. Want to thank F&F for the great info on this forum.