kjackson

Hit the Dam Site launch shortly after 5 am this morning to find a boat pulling out. The two guys in it said that fishing had been dead for them, and considering the front moving in, they were leaving. One of them showed me weather radar on his phone, and it was plain that my plan to hit the lake for the early bite wasn't going to work. As I started putting stuff back into my truck, the wind freshened and it started to rain. Headed back home to do some much-needed reorganization of tackle. By the time I got back to Eureka, the jungle rains started. While I've spent most of my life in the Pacific Northwest where we take rain as common as the sunrise, I'm not a big fan of lightning, and there was enough of that to make me glad I was in the man cave instead of hunkered in a boat dock somewhere on Beaver. I poked my head out about 10:30 to see sun and blue sky. Twenty minutes later I was back at the launch. The day improved from there. I played around on some flats and put two 18-19-inch walleyes in the boat-- the first I've landed in Arkansas. Landed half a dozen small smallies as well. Left the walleyes to see if I could find some whites, but failed to run across any before I left about 3 pm. Water temp was between 75 and 77 degrees, and water clarity was 13 to 14 feet. Caught the walleyes trolling out-of-production shad baits at 15 feet in 20 FOW. Caught the smallies on #7 Flicker Shads (Pro color in red).

Good report. Thanks.

I wanna be you when I grow up! That's a great day.

Bring her over, and I'll show her my workshop/tackle area. She will never bug you again...ever.

Thanks. Will report back.

Part of the recovered stuff was probably mine. Not that I know which dock you're referring to, but still... Hope to do Indian Creek Monday as it's close to home. How far back did you find the whites?

Excellent...

Thanks for the info. As for the length, I am with you there. Today I was playing with a new rod and a Ned Rig in the pond. The rod was a factory 7'1" that did not cast like a shorter one would. The right six-footer will cast as far if not farther than a longer rod if everything is in balance.

Sounds sweet. I keep thinking I'll get back into rod building. Can you post an image of the handle? What did you use for spacers inside the tube?

Love it. That big guy is a huge crappie...

Sounds like a good time. With the crappie going gangbusters, I may have to see if I can find some my way. I can't help but think of the "thousands" of salt cedars removed from the Devil's Eyebrow area that were reported to be used in Indian Creek piles. With a little work, I might even be able to rig my boat to do a spider-rig variation from the stern.

eBay has a few listed. They seem to sell for less than $10--- perhaps a lot less.

Nice, good report. I'm envious, especially the "no wind" part. One of these days, a windless day will coincide with a planned fishing trip. All that I'll need then is for the fish to cooperate.

Sweet!

Tarpon? Fishing Boca? That, like Alaska, is something every fisherman should do. Can't wait for your report...

I should have talked to you first! However, it was one of those last-minute things. I didn't get to the island, but I've graphed the saddle a couple of times and didn't see much. A lot of what I'm doing now is simply looking at new water and putting in my time. Fish or no fish, it's still better than staring at the computer; besides, I learn something new every day, and that is worth it.

Either would work for me, but my big July event is ICAST. This year it is in Orlando, and we're driving down. Plan to spend a few days in the sis-in-law's condo in Naples writing up my show assignments. But I have no travel plans besides that, and vacation is something other people do. So I'm good except for those two weeks.

I'm in but can't do anything from the middle of July until August. So maybe I'm out.

After the beatdown on the upper lake Monday, I decided to do some exploring on the north end. I planned a short trip and wanted to check out some of the longer, main-lake points for walleyes, whites and whatnot. After spending the morning looking for something walleye-like and only catching smallmouth, I opted to admit defeat and chase bass at noon. I should have started with that premise. I threw cranks, a Ned-rig version and a Spook Jr. There was no love for the Spook despite some big fish breaking off one of the long points. However, the wind was also doing its thing. It wasn't as strong as Monday...but it wasn't prime topwater conditions. I opted to head for one of the smallmouth areas and see if I could fish fast with a crankbait and topwater. My idea was to alternate between the two and see if I could find someone home. I replaced the Spook Jr. with a Yo-Zuri popper I got as a sample. The popper was magic-- even though it was early afternoon, the bite was on. I missed fish and caught fish and had stretches where I had a strike on every cast. Granted most of the strikes were from junior-varsity bass, I did land one nice smallie--about three pounds or so and possibly the largest smallie I've caught on a topwater. It also was fun watching the little wolf packs following the popper back to the boat--an indication that a different color or different popper or a Redfin might have worked better. The interesting thing for me was that I didn't touch a spotted bass at all. After my experience in the Cliftys, I expected to see at least some, but all the bass I caught were smallies. Observations: Water temp was 65 to 67 even in the main lake. Clarity was quite good--eight to nine feet, which made the big smallie's hit even better as I saw it come up from below to hit. That was cool. I didn't find good walleye trolling areas where I was (near Starkey), so I'm thinking I need to change areas or just bass fish until I find the buggers. I did mark a lot of fish very deep--like 50 feet or more. There was a lot of bait deep as well...or at least there was something in large clusters deep. If the wind hadn't been blowing so hard, I would have put the camera down to see.

Launched late--nine-ish--at 12 bridge and started heading up toward Beaver Shores. Water was 65, and the wind was perhaps 15 or so. Marked a lot of fish up high but no biters. Trolled up to the big flat and marked fish in several locations but staying on them was a problem with the wind. Gave up on the flat and headed toward the windward bank for a quick scout. Hooked a couple of small bass, but the issue was staying off the beach in rolling two-footers. decided to head back under the bridge and get in the lee on the other side of the point. Trolled with blank results for a bit and then decided it was time to bass fish. Spent a couple of hours there with no spectacular results--a couple of smallish smallmouth, one decent largemouth and a few small ones. The fish were really active, but we didn't have bass gear with us, or at least what I might have used. The wind shifted a bit, and we thought we might find a lee back off Beaver Shores. The wind did shift but now was blowing into the shore on the big flat instead of along it. Trolled again as boat control was a problem what with breaking rollers pushing us around anytime we lost headway. There was a decent mudline forming, and the fish should have moved up there, but we couldn't find much in the way of biters. We did catch a fat 20-inch walleye and hooked a good largemouth (saw it jump a couple of times) --maybe three or four pounds--that came off at the boat. What was strange was that this last fish or another tried to slam the crankbait again at boat side after the other fish popped off. I almost hooked it on a muskie figure-eight move, but it didn't quite take. This second fish also looked a bit gray from what I saw, so I'm thinking it may have been a white that followed the largemouth up. Can't stress enough about how strong the wind was. Normally, in my boat, I cannot get trolling speed below 2.1 using my two-stroke. Fishing into the wind, I could slow to 0.4, which would have been fine if I could have controlled the boat. However, I had to maintain at least 1.8 mph to have control. Waves at times approached two feet in height and were breaking. We took a lot of spray over the side when idling; fortunately, it was warm... I'm thinking that if I could have found a decent spot, I should have anchored the boat, and then spent some time casting into the mudline. I also could have thrown out a drift sock and slowly cast to the mud, but I doubt I had one large enough to handle the wind yesterday. We loaded up at 5:00. It was an interesting day. When my buddy caught that 'eye, the dime dropped. I'm pretty confident that walleye fishing on Beaver is close enough to the walleye fishing I used to do in the Columbia system so that now all I have to do is find the spots I need to fish. For me, that is a big change.

Monday I'm heading out, but I was thinking the 12 bridge. May have to rethink that. I'd almost rather catch decent whites than crappies, but I could be forced to adapt. Thanks for the report!

Looking at one of the lake-run rainbows that run up the Roaring River in the spring, there definitely are trout in Table Rock. If I wanted to catch trout and was serious about it, I'd run down riggers just above the thermocline (or just below it) a flasher and fly. Or I'd troll close to the surface during the winter. Light leadcore and Roostertail Lites should do it. I caught three or four trout this spring (nothing over 15 inches) from Roaring River up. However, I've seen some pigs upstream while touristing about. If the stripers don't get them, there will be big trout in the lake.

Really? Maybe it's because I fish in the upper end...

Common enough in my experience as long as the water is cool enough.

The Maine bill on soft plastics did not pass. I've also caught fish that were in the process of passing plastic. The smallest was a yellow perch about eight inches long. I think the size and shape of the plastic does play a part, as this plastic was a thin worm about four inches long. Regardless, we shouldn't use the lake as a trash can.