Feathers and Fins

Now owuld that lake be near say farmington lol.... Actually the full moon and amount of gills ive been seeing has my eyes firmly targeted on Beaver for Saturday night and the Walleye that will be chasing them and the shad like no tomorrow. It should be a banner Late afternoon and early evening. If i were you I would be using Keitech 4'' swim baits on 1/4oz in White, Blugill and Sparkle Shad. Scale your line down to 10lb test and maybe even as light as 6lb.

I try and find things that will not be moved, Large tree's Rocks houses ( Be sure its a solid foundation home) I one time used a mobile home not knowing it was one and when i went back a few months later it was gone! Also make user whatever you use is below the Corps line incase someone builds a house and clears the lot. Randy the 1234 of it is I am naturally curious ( I know my mother hated the million "WHY" ""HOW COME"") I must have asked a million times. Then I look for anything possible to solve the problem so i get numerous equations and instead of disgarding any of them I use every last one of them to put togeather a solution. Thats why the Google Earth Map, Topo Map combined with Adobe to color shade an area then I go on to the on the water use and keep marking out the map. All things I think about get put on the map no matter how trivial they seem. But I think my best advice to myself is ignore what all the tv shows tell you or the professionals. They seem to get locked into a mold of " this is how you have to do it" I dont like Molds I like to think outside the box and find the "Why;s and How comes" Dont worry we will get out togeather soon and you can pick my warped twisted mind apart lol. To me there is no such thing as ELITE! I use to hear this all the time about venomous reptile keepers as being the elite ones! Horse hockey they were not anymore than those on pro fishing circuits are! The only differance is they put in the time and effort to needed to be better than others at what they do! The true Elite ones are not always the best winners or the most educated but the ones who can go outside the box and produce results and truthfully most of those guys and girls are the most humble people I have ever met and do it not for fame or fortune but the pleasure and relaxation they get from doing it.

If you look at most of the Giant Stripers caught in freshwater they are caught in or near waters that get trout stockings, There are exceptions but to those there is a super supply of food in the water. I have been on the rock to know the gizzard shad population is unreal and the lake could benifit from Stripers in it, but doubt they will stock it because the beast would find there way up the white and arond roaring river and what they can and do, do to trout is unreal. I actually watched stripers waiting on the trout stocking truck and the craziest I ever saw was one of them actually try shooting up the trucks dump stream to get trout.

One thing I learned about fishing years ago is catching fish is 80% Mental 10%luck and 10% of 100% of people catch 80% of the fish and 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. Ok you Math wizards figure that out lol. Anyway I always do a lot of research on a lake prior to fishing it and that research includes the fish in it. Use to be you had to go to the Library and scan through years of fishing reports in the old newspaper articles, but now we have the internet. When I was tournament fishing the old paper reports would give me years worth of fishing logs in a few hours and then with a cross check of the weather for that week from the same paper you had a log worth millions of dollars. Hence the mental part of the game was being fulfilled. Then you just simply looked at the fishing days you had and compared it to the log you just made and you had a picture of what should be working. Next is understanding the lake itself, that is not hard to do with the vast array of maps available to people you could place the log you made with the structure on the map and eliminate 50% of unproductive water. Now you find the water temps for the target species which eliminates another 20% of the lake. Finally find the bait-fish and 10% more is removed to the 80% fish mark. Having confidence you have eliminated 80% will give you a mental edge to 100% so now you should be able to catch the fish. When I moved to NWA this was the Formula I used as I have time tested it for years and it has never let me down. Taking apart Beaver Lakes Stripers and Bass wasn’t too hard using this formula. Recently I have been using it on the Walleye of the lake and having some success. But onto the core of what I’m writing about (Walleye)! I fished for them before on vacation to more northern lakes and when I finally moved up here I made it goal to target them eventually. For the last year I have been doing my mental game researching and creating my cross-check guide. First is the research on the fish itself. Interestingly the best article I read on the fish was from this forum and Phills article on them being at one time native to this region ( I always thought they were a introduced species ) Finding out they were a native was a bonus. Beaver is challenge as most walleye fishing I had done is on much shallower lakes or ones with large areas of shallow water. Beaver as we all know tends to be deep and has more sudden drop offs than it anything. But she does have her flats and even better the structure of Beaver’s bottom is more like looking over the landscape of our country from years past. Think about it she has old farms and home steads and what lake has an amphitheater? You want to talk about a neat lake not only from the surface but from below, we have it in Beaver. But with all that structure and habitat come a major challenge to locating her walleye on consistent bases. So I dissected the lake. First thing is to get a map of the lake and then take a picture of each section of that map in 6’’ grids so you can blow them up on a normal writing paper size. To do that I use Adobe Photshop. I then using Adobe color each depth contour a different color, this highlights key structure in a way you can imagine. Then next is to go out to the lake and use the down imager on the boat to mark key features (these can be as subtle as a rock on a flat that comes up merely 1’! Mark that on your map along with all other structure, use a range finder and mark three fixed points on shore so you know the exact distance to it from each point (gps is great but these are defined maps). When you get home with it mark those on the adobe photshoped picture, finally print it out and laminate it. This wealth of knowledge will show you so much you never thought about or forgot about. The last thing I do is simply put it in a three ring binder to carry with me when I fish. Of course you must know the habitats and feed of the targets species. We all know Walleye do not like light and We know how active they are around the full moon. I have talked about Stripers and the relationship to Shad they have, Walleye have that same relationship but more with bluegill I have learned over the years. So when I started chasing them on Beaver only about 2 months ago I put the maps into action and the knowledge of the Walleyes likes of low light and the food source they want. I went looking for coves during the day that had large amounts of small bluegill and ones that had shad on it. I found 3 spots on the lake that fit these criteria. Then I started looking for the Flats! Flats my friends are major feeding zones for all fish, I will never forget the first time I went for walleye the guide I was with told me we would be fishing flats but to trust him fish go to flats. I had to laugh as being from Florida and Flats fishing is a big past time down there I knew how productive they could be. So Taking all the knowledge I have learned or decoded I started targeting Beavers Walleye, You all have seen the pics I have posted. Days with heavy overcast or early and late low light hitting the Flats is productive and something anyone can do. It takes a lot of time and effort to take apart a lake then to learn about the targeted species and even more to put it all together when you are dealing with a fish who doesn’t like light! There of course is other ways to fish for walleye and many lures and baits but I just wanted to touch on Flats fishing for them. Beaver has flats and in the right conditions they will pay off.

Wasnt me lol.. I have not heard anythign about it.. There have been two new records this year but both were on the east coast.

Randy you should make them listen to some of the old Burns and Allen and Lone Ranger then make them do a report on it. I had a Teacher that introduced us to those old shows and We as a Class loved it. You had to mentally picture what was happening and when Mrs Klug made us do our report the instruction was to describe whate we saw in our heads. Man I miss those old shows where you could let your mind draw the movie in it.

Excellant glad you got in them. I was stuck in Kansas all day actually working, yes i do have a job other than catching fish and keeping you guys on the bite lmao. As the week goes on with this weather I would bet it keeps getting better and better.

9:15 TCM. One of my favorite books and movies, Spencer Tracy really made you beleive.

Great days are to be cherrished great days with family and friends are unforgetably. Loved the pics.

If I was going out tomorrow I would launch at Rocky Branch and work the area on the back side of the big island between it and the little island, Use Live Brooder minows on flat lines behind the boat early and then drop them down to 25, 30, 35 and 40ft durring the peak sunlight of the day. Late afternoon start working the points and coves on the backside of the Big Island.

Al have you ever painted Pelicans? The second picture is awesome to say the least.

Here is a question for debate. It seems I see and hear of more and more people catching bigger and bigger bass up the white river. Being a Cali Boy and seeing the Monsters come from there we knew they were feeding on trout courtousy of the DFG. So my question is do you suppose the Bass up the White have finally reached a size to prey on them which is leading to larger Bass?

I like pretty reels and functional reels. Abel,, Sage, Orvis are all proven time tested reels. Then I like the drool factor of pretty http://www.abelreels.com/finishes.html Then I tell my wife I love her lots and buy her pretty sparkly jewelry so she doesnt notice the pretty reels and ask how much it cost.

Lost Bridge South Ramp is actually Fish Trap

Is it me or does it look like all AGFC does each week is xerox the last weeks report? I wish they would actully get more than just the couple reports they do on Beaver. Bailey's is a guide and isnt going to tell people where the fish are and Southtowns report is vague at best. No Offense to either one but I just feel the AGFC would get more poeple involved in fishing with far more accurate reports so people actually catch fish instead of running and gunning looking at many spots. If I was to write a generic report for Beaver for this weekends potential it would read like this. Stripers and Hybrids can be located on the islands in front of 12 bridge on long slowly tapering points from 30ft to surface with the best action in the evenings as the fish rise to chase bait. Look for Stripers around the island at Rocky Branch, Drift brooder minows 50 to 100 ft behind the boat or troll umbrella rigs in the area. Bass are using long points and flats across the main lake sections Keitech swim baits, Crank Baits that dive from 4 to 12 ft and A-rigs are producing good on these areas, Look for larger schooling bass along bluff lines above pole timber. Walleye action is picking up on flats at 20ft durring the day and progressing shallower as the sun fades, Also check current eddies in 15 to 25 ft of water durring the day. Best baits are live minnows and Jig and crawler set-ups. Check the islands in front of 12 bridge, the island in front of Starky and the Flats at point 3.

This is an example of some of the fish im getting off the long points... Pay No attention to whats in its mouth They are super secret baits lol That fish is 17'' long and 15.5'' on girth and I have been getting 10 to 15 a day that size no problem on that Keitech.

I found these American Avocet on Beaver the other day and had to get a few pictures Now these next are of a family of Cardinals living outside my back door, The parents will come sit on the table when im having my morning coffee and take seed from my hand. They have been here for two years nesting in the same spot and will let me get very close to them, I suppose its a truest they have built so I thought I would share that trust. All these pictures were taken from less than 5 ft from them. Momma sitting on the babies. They have great clutches each year and with a Lab Security Officer No Cats get near them. Dads been busy the last few days after they babies hatched out.

First check your area regulation before doing it. But where legal this is one of the best methods to catch stripers. Remember they are an oceanic fish and chumming has been used for years in turning on and even keeping a bite prolonged for hours even. First tip is to find the Bait and be sure it is where you can access it easily throughout the day. After doing that locate the stripers. This can be done one of several different ways, Catching one is always a good way but you can use your depth finder as well. I prefer to use my depth finder to locate them. Knowing the fish is a good way to do it and learning what their marks typically look like on a graph is a must and takes time. Something to remember is stripers will never be far from their favorite food source (shad) second thing is when they have located their prey they like to lock it up, by this I mean they will force it into the backs of creaks or cuts and hold it there. The bait knows where the stripers are and will go in shallow and ball up for safety. I have seen this behavior so many times over so many years I firmly believe it to be part of the stripers feeding technique. Stripers do not like light and will hold deep or in shade during the day so the shad go shallow and take advantage of this behavior IMO based on the years of chasing them. It is also well documented shad go to the shallows in the evenings as well for greater security. Knowing that you will start off by looking for stripers in shaded areas or deeper water on clear days but they also form a line! A line blocking the bait into the back of coves or cuts, you can actually see this line on your graphs at times. Other times you will see stripers attack the bait as it tries to exit the coves and cuts. This is obvious by the top water attack repeatedly coming up in the same location or same area but within the line I talked about earlier. Knowing about this behavior will help you find the bait and stripers, but primarily the bait. After this is done you will want to go past the guards and start looking for the large schools of stripers. Typically they will be in a little deeper water. If the baits hemmed up in say 2 to 8 ft the guarding stripers will be in 10 to 15 ft and the larger schools will be in 15 to 30 ft <example depths>. After you find the first pod mark it on your graph, then keep looking and mark at least 3 to 4 more pods. This will help you locate with accuracy the depth the schools are in. Go back and locate the first pod and mark it. Repeat this procedure with each pod at least 3 times and you will be able to chart if they are moving and which way or if they are just sitting. Now after you have made those determination look on your plotter and locate cuts in the bank, if you see a cut that has a fast drop off into deep water and the schools are near it you just found their ambush point for the evening bite. So now you have removed 80% of the guess work. You have located bait, located the main pods of stripers, and located the evening’s most likely spot for a major feed and the center point of the pods. Now is the time to go get the bait.. This is when it is smart to have two tanks, one to keep bait as healthy as possible. No more than 20 baits in this tanks. The other tank to max out with shad and lots of it! After you have filled both up go out to the center point of the pods or the biggest one and with your hand grab a handful of shad and squeeze. Don’t crush them but wound them so they swim erratically. Start throwing them over the school keep doing this until bait is sinking some will die and that’s ok because you want them to sink too. After you get the sinkers and wounded fish making a commotion on the top use your trolling motor to slowly motor over to the upwind section of the evening feeding cut. Basically you are leading the stripers to where you want them. Once there anchor up so you are about 30 to 40 ft off the cut as to not disturb them from using it. Start throwing heavier amounts of shad (chum) into the cut for a good 5 minutes. By now you may have seen some stripers slashing the bait. Or marked them on your graph. Now is the time to cut back on the chum to just a few shad every 20 seconds or so and also it’s the time to bait a live one. Cast the live shad out and hold on you will get bit. Also it is very important to keep feeding chum even if hooked up. You want to keep the stripers there. If you cannot find or get live bait another good option is to buy Anchovies or Sardines, They are difficult to find around here so you may want to order them online, I would suggest at minimum 10lb’s. When you get them home thaw out at least 4pnds and cut them into 1inch chunks. Stripers will eat chunked bait, you chum just like you would with live chad keeping a steady stream going but be cautious not to over chum or you will fill them up. There are times Stripers are not locking up bait, this can be a time of frustration at chumming will get them concentrated to where you are and hold them with you. Chunked bait is great at this time to keep them near you and keep you hooked up. If this is the case as well an old trick to remember if using live bait is, the bait will ball up under your boat for safety. About every 30 minutes I will fire up the big motor and shoot ahead about 60ft fast. This will send the bait scattering and can really excite the stripers as now the bait is scattered and easy prey. Have fun and give it a try “if legal on your favorite body of water”.

They didnt bother me at all the last few days other then PC was a zoo, so i just launched at 12 bridge. Most the fish I have been getting they ignored. Long points way out from shore. Yesterday was hilarious. I had a Keitech dangling from the boat while I was muching some Pizza and a Browny came right up and grabbed it. Nothing monsterous just a little 14incher but still funny.... Only Major bad thing I saw was way to many boats following them around at speed causing major wakes and some Kayakers getting waked bad.

First i would ditch the 30lb floro and go down to 12lb there really is no need to go that heavy unless you are guiding and want to bully the fish in. Stripers are all over the lake right now, I was out this evening and nailed 3 at the islands in front of 12 bridge while bass fishing. I had friends calling me from Rocky Branch and Starky saying they were into them. This is a hard time of year to pinpoint the fish they are scattered and best thing is to move around till you locate them.

I use to, and wont do it again, it caused me to get to the point I stopped enoying fishing. Fishing means more to me then any money or fame or ego ever could. I Never want to get to the point I do not enjoy it again. I became someone I wasnt happy with because of the compitition, I stopped trying to help people and give advise and information for "FEAR" they would use it or pass it on to others who might beat me. It caused me to have a super ego because I was good at it which made me an A______ . It changed me from who I am and what I enjoy doing to someone I couldnt stand to be around! So for me I will stick to doing what I enjoy, and that is helping others get better at it, help others to see diffrent ways to fish and get others involved in the sport and hope they come to love it. This forum gives me a great way to reach out and try and help others and that is what I love about fishing. Seeing others succeed and have fun. No Offence but I have seen way to many good guys that get into a sport of one type or another on the competitive level and it turns them to something else. So no thanks

Bill the A-rig is a unique bait that truly shines in deeper water suspending fish. This is where all the hype (and fear) of it came from. It simulates a bait school and when presented to suspending fish is probably one of the best baits made for that application. Certainly it can be used for other areas but it shines brightest in that condition. The fish you are talking about are exhibiting what I like to refer to as an oceanic scenario where fish will school over the top of structure, very common in the ocean and probably why I did so well with the rig this year with my years of fishing those structures in the ocean. I have been seeing post spawn deep water structure fishing on Beaver for the last few weeks. The A-rig hasn’t been producing for me though, the fish seem to be targeting single small baits which is not surprising because most the bait I have seen lately is smaller minnows and the fish are chasing the singles down. But this is in water from 4 to 15 ft. I haven’t really looked at the deep water mounds yet but Might this afternoon after reading your report. Then again with the evening top-water bite I may just play with that lol.

I love the Keitechs, probably one of the best soft plastics I have ever fished! They fish fast or slow or even just sitting, I havent tried the larger swim baits yet, but think I might try trolling them on umbrellas and setting a few up on a bucktail swimmer.

Im not suprised, Yesterday Beaver just seemed to want to give up fish. Watch her get greedy today though lol, such as the lady she is.

Started out with a good friend launching at 12 bridge this morning at 9:00am. Our first stop was the first island out from the ramp. Water Temp 69.3 Wind light and variable at 5 to 7 mph Water Clarity 5ft visability Air temp 70's Baits, Live and Keitech swim imapct in 4 inch purple and pearl and white. We put out the live lines behind the boat and started out drifts in 20 ft of water and using the Keitech's tossed into shore in 6 ft. The strikes started cumming at about 10 to 15 ft on slow crawl retrieves or a twitch up and let it fall with many bites on the fall. We stayed in this area for around 2 hours hokking up on a very regular bases, Small mouth to 2pnd, Kentuckys to about 2.5lbs and Blacks up to 2.5 pnds. Nothing on the live lines, but there were plenty of Striper Boats in the area so im betting they are still in this area. Taking a short boat ride to the second Island we worked a long point I have found many walleye on in the past few weeks using the same baits. Water Temp 67.2 Wind light and variable at 5 to 7 mph Water Clarity 3ft visability Air temp 70's Baits, Live and Keitech swim imapct in 4 inch purple and pearl and white. Managed to get a few small blacks and Smallmouth up to about 1.75lbs working the point but it was much slower. We started out in 20ft casting in to 6ft and wasnt working to well so we took the boat in a little shallower. We were in 12 ft casting into 4ft and found most the fish in 5 to 7 ft and all the bites came directly after boucing the jig off a rock and then letting it fall. We left after about an hour here and proceeded to Rocky Branch. Arriving at the Big rock in front of the marina we dropped live baits down on it looking for some early cats and ended up with a pair of 3.5 lbs Blacks and the next cast a chunky 4lb smallmouth on the Keitech in solid white. Nothing else after that so we shot to the mouth of the marina and set up several drifts in 14ft of water. No dice on live or Keitech's Water Temp 66.7 Wind light and variable at 3 to 5 mph Water Clarity 5ft visability Air temp 70's Baits, Live and Keitech swim imapct in 4 inch purple and pearl and white. We left for the Big Island in front of Rocky Branch. We went straight for the Hazrd Bouy on the back side. Water Temp 66.7 Wind light and variable at 5 to 10 mph Water Clarity 3ft visability Air temp 70's Keitech swim imapct pearl and white. We popped 8 nice smallies off the area up to 2lbs, we were sitting in 18ft of water casting into 5 ft. You had to let the bait hit the bottom then crank up fat and let it fall back. ALL BITES came on the fall and were solid hits. The bite only lasted about 20 minutes then shut off. We proceeded to the back of the island into a small cove and were rewarded with a wide open hybrid bite. Water Temp 69.4 Wind light and variable at 3mph Water Clarity 10ft visability Air temp 70's Baits, Live and Keitech swim imapct in 4 inch purple and pearl and white.We must have caught 20 to 30 of them up to 5lbs all on Keitech in white. It was a blast in the clear water watching them take the bait. We also managed a couple nice Kentucky's up to 2.5 pnds. This bite was interupted by Stripers boiling off the East Point of the Island. Heading straight for the boils we put out the Live baits in 100ft of water. Water Temp 68.5 Wind light and variable at 3 to 5 mpH Water Clarity 10ft visability Air temp 70's Baits, Live and Keitech swim imapct in 4 inch purple and pearl and white. We drifted from 100 ft to 20 ft and threw the Keitechs toward shore again producing Smallmouth, Kentuckys and Hybrids. No Joy on the stripers but the hybrids and others were a blast. We stayed on this bite for around 3 hours until deciding to head back toward 12 bridge. Our final stop was back on the 2nd Island out from 12 bridge working the long point again. Water Temp 68.7 Wind light and variable at Water Clarity 3ft visability Air temp 70's Baits, Live and Keitech swim imapct in 4 inch purple and pearl and white. Again the hybrids and Smallmouth were here and finally biting good this time. All in all we landed a ton of fish. and had a blast running the lake and picking apart points and coves. Our lure presentation was litteraly casting 5 ft apart and slow working togeather to cover every bit of water we could and adjusting the retrieve in each area accordingly. We would start with one of us slow realing in and the other bouncing the bottom and then keep changing it up to find the trigger. This didnt take long and made for a great team effort in having an outstanding day.