kjackson

Since I was out Wednesday, I wanted to see if the walleyes I caught then fell into the "blind pig" category. Hit the water about 6:30 and fished the two spots I found 'eyes before. Nada. Even the white bass seemed gone from the area--at least there were fewer topwater displays. I did mark fish on the sand bar and the woody areas that had been good to me, but nothing was biting except a couple of small spots. I moved again, looking for RPS's woody spot and picked up one walleye that barely hit the 18-inch mark. Had no other bites in the area and lost a couple of spinners. After watching a couple of pontoon boats nearly skewer themselves on submerged trees, I headed toward Eagle Rock to explore. Caught a couple of biggish bluegills--one on a spinner and one on a Smash Shad. . I did catch another walleye as well--but it lacked a good eight inches to measure. Glad to see the little bugger. I also caught my share of small spots--maybe 10 total. Water temps were 81, and visibility upriver was poor. There also was a bunch of stuff floating with the rise in water. I saw quite a few floating logs, trees and whatnot. Also, in a couple of spots, I found barely submerged trees that are guaranteed to eat lower units if you come in hot, which one pontoon boat was trying to do (to see if I was catching fish I guess) but pulled away at nearly the last minute.

I'm not going to say a thing against Flicker Shads as I do like them and use them. When you get them dialed in, they work very well, as F&F will attest. However, there is another option that has been working a little better for me. It is the Storm Smash Shad. I've had really good luck with it this year, and all species of fish (that I'm interested in catching) seem to like it. One thing that might be of benefit: some of the colors are UV-enhanced, and that may make a difference with some fish. Another selling point--Bass Pro has 'em for $.30 more than the Flicker Shad, so they are comparably priced. I did see some somewhere this spring for less than $3. If you find them on sale, don't be afraid to buy. They will work and can run side by side with the Flicker Shad.

Folbes work very well. When a fish hits, you grab the rod and lift upwards. I also like the positive lock on the base. I also have Fish-Ons, and they are not quite as user friendly. Having said that, both will withstand anything you're likely to find in these lakes.

After looking at the weather this morning, I changed my plan to spend the day on Beaver and headed for Holiday Island to fish a few hours before the storms hit. Launched a little before 6:30 and headed upriver to the community hole to pull crankbaits. I scraped up one walleye at the upper end that barely measured on a break in 15 FOW. Played around the area for a while with no other bites, but I did see a lot of something breaking on the surface, but they were mostly singles. Ran upstream and took RPS's hint about finding 'eyes on wood, and pulled out the bottom bouncer for a pass. Hit another walleye ...a little nicer than the first. This is my first Arkansas walleye taken on a spinner. It came from relatively shallow water as well--about 15 FOW again. Since I was backtrolling relatively slowly, I put out a slow-death rig with smile blade and popped a small white bass almost instantly. Since the day was getting warmer, and I could see clouds in the distance, I made a few more passes in that spot, and had one more bite plus a couple of small bites from panfish or baby spots. The slow-death rig got hammered a couple of times as well but again, I'm thinking it was small fish. Returned to the community hole and pulled spinners but kept getting short bites, which I'm guessing were spots or panfish. I did hook something that ran like a big fish but ended up in a snag. Don't know what that was. No nightcrawlers were hurt on this trip-- I fished with Berkley Gulp! Spinner Crawlers and was very pleased with 'em. For the 10 or so bites I had, I used three worms. Left the lake about 11:30, and considering the storm, that was a good thing. Water temp was 80.5 with about three foot visibility. There was quite a bit of floating debris and some new trees stuck in a couple of places where you might be tempted to run on plane. Be careful.

I so did not want to see this...

Thanks. I've been pulling silver-based spinners (the little bit I've done) thinking a shad color might be better. I've not done well, but then I've mostly fished crankbaits in Beaver.

Meant to ask--are you finding a color preference? If so what is it/are they?

Lovely. Glad to see the spinner bite start up.

Nathan-- I ran across it, saw it, turned back and shot the image. Then I left because I "knew" the walleyes I was after would be in their spot, which they weren't. I didn't explore beyond that. If it's thermocline related, then there is a lot of something hanging just above it. It's interesting... I have to test drive a new flasher/attractor that incorporates lights, so I'm thinking an extra-early morning run with downriggers out might be useful. Of course, if the stuff is only bait or plankton, then all it will do is glop my gear up. But if there are fish near the stuff, besides the dink smallmouth that seem to be all over this end of the lake, it might prove worthwhile.

The Mag Lip 3.5 is an interesting bait as is the entire Mag Lip family. It's a newer version of the Flatfish by Yakima Bait. Not to get into a commercial too much, but the ML series dives deep. The 3.5 will hit the bottom in 15FOW with 85 feet of 10-lb. and I bet it will go even deeper with more line, but I've not tested that yet. Also, the series has a "skip-beat" action: every little bit it will dart off to one side or the other. That should be a fish killer (and is on salmon and steelhead) but I've not had great luck with it here. One other point: the hardware and hooks on these baits are tough. That cat I caught yesterday did its roll-in-the-net-slime-everything-in-sight-and-flop-a-lot thing in the boat, yet the hooks were perfectly fine. I'm thinking that the reason I've not done well with the bait is either that I've been using the wrong colors or I've been fishing it too deep. Dunno, y'know. I will try fishing it on a shorter line now, and I'm trying other colors--what I have now are mostly salmon-steelhead colors. Having said that, I am anxiously awaiting the intro of the Mag Lip 3.0. I fished with some at Niagara last month, and I think they will be killer here. The numeric designator is the length of the lure in inches. The 3.0 is three inches long.

Very good; thanks for the report. I'll have to head that way on my next trip.

Thanks, Nathan. I tried every which way to get the image to flip and stay flipped. I was the only boat in that part of the lake, so I'm guessing that sonar interference ain't the answer. Algae? Maybe zooplankton as it is just after sunrise, and the stuff could be up in the water column. I've seen shrimp spawn do this in the salt, so I was wondering if this might be mysis shrimp or a bug hatch. I do know I don't know...and was hoping someone did.

Sorry-- I've been trying to edit the image as it came in upside down. When I flipped the image in Preview so that it was upside down, it came in upside down again. I'll post it regardless.. Like I said, it came through that way, and I couldn't change it to the right way. Maybe someone can help... Having said that--that mass brackets the 60-foot mark, and it appears pretty solid. I've seen stuff like that in the ocean, but not in freshwater.

Pardon the phone flash in the middle of the image, but you can get the general idea...what is this mass? Shad? Plankton? USOs (as opposed to UFOs)? This was what I saw just at sunrise this morning in front of the dam. The readout on the screen is correct: the water is 185 feet deep here. It's enough to make a person mount downriggers just to see...

Launched at Dam Site a bit later than intended-- just before sunrise. The weather report called for wind, but supposedly, it was to be in the mid-teens. It was fine at 6:00 but didn't stay that low for very long. My thought was that with a southerly/westerly wind, it would push up into a couple of areas where I've caught walleyes recently. The wind was there, but the fish weren't. I tried trolling super shallow, and that may be where the fish were, but you can't run over their heads in five feet of water and expect to catch the buggers--at least, that's my excuse. Next time I may try running a board in the shallows with something like a shallow Shad Rap or a minnow bait. But with as much wood as there was in this particular area, I'm thinking it might be more work than it's worth. When my areas didn't pan out, I headed west to see if I could find some better areas to try pulling crankbaits. But the further west I went, the more the wind blew, and the rougher the water got. Did run across a nice channel cat that took the Mag Lip 3.5. However, shortly after I netted the catfish, the foot-high waves became a little taller, and when the footers became two-footers and started throwing spray over the bow, I decided to implement Plan B. I headed into Indian Creek to see if I could find a few bass to play with. I did catch bass--one nice LMB and a bunch of dink smallies. I also caught what I think is a longear sunfish on a different Ned rig. Then I decided to challenge J-Doc's smallest fish ever with a green sunfish. I'm thinking striper bait... Water temps were 75 to 77 and clarity was 12+ in the main lake and maybe 4 feet or so on windblown banks. Striper boats were fishing in the main channel and around the island.

Ouch! Thanks for the report, but at least you caught fish...and a keeper 'eye is nothing to shake off.

It does work for walleyes--I tried it just after this article or a clone came out. It's surprising how vicious the strikes can be. Thanks for posting this as I'd forgotten about the technique. Now I'll have to play with it some...

Indeed, nice report. And a nice walleye...

It was clear on Wednesday. A few more people than necessary in the afternoon when I was taking out. I'm guessing it is summer time with tourists and assorted others...

I saw one blow up on a shad (I'm guessing) just off the mouth of one of the coves in Indian Creek. It looked like it was in the teens, but it wasn't interested in what I had. That was the only thing I saw inside. A guide boat was working the main channel off the first island, but he didn't stay there long. Saw a couple of boats I would say were after stripers head into Indian Creek when I was fishing up the lake a bit on Wednesday but I didn't see them inside. Didn't get out today as planned, so I have nothing more recent than midweek.

Here are pix of my two dinner guests: I guess I was in a hurry to get to the hot tub last night! One was taken on an out-of-production shad bait, and the other on a Rapala Tail Dancer, a lure that has been especially effective for me on everything but walleyes--until now. I was surprised that there wasn't enough meat on the cheeks to pop 'em out. Even though both 'eyes had plenty of abdominal fat, the cheeks were really thin. In Washington, fish this size would have been perfect. It may have had something to do with this being the post-spawn period. On a side note, I played a bit with a method that lets me troll in timber without getting hung up. However, it didn't catch any fish, but that may come with time, but then again, so might getting hung. We'll see. I do appreciate the comments about heading west, and that might well be tomorrow's game plan if I can finish a work project today. I also need to clean up my spoon collection and re-line a rod for striper top waters--not that the latter will really be needed I imagine.

Hit the ramp late, about 7:30. My game plan was to check out some new water and see if I could find walleyes and whites. I did land a pair of 18-19 inch 'eyes on trolled crankbaits. Both fish were quite dark, leading me to believe they've been holding shallow. One was on transition between boulder/cliff/gravel and the other close to a gravel/chunk rock transition. Both were in the 15-20 FOW range. Decided to head up Indian Creek to see if the rains had muddied it and try to find whites or walleyes up there. I did find a pair of nice spots back in a ways and some dinks and saw one striper get breakfast about 70 yards ahead of the boat. About halfway back in the water was showing the effects of the rain with visibility dropped to maybe six feet or so as opposed to the 14+ feet in the main lake. Temps were close to 75 when I pulled the plug about 2:30. There were quite a few boats on the lake and quite a few bank fishermen in the dam area.. I did see a couple of striper boats--one was a guide, I'm pretty sure, in the main channel, but they didn't stay around long and headed up lake. I think I'll head that way later in the week to check out new water and see if i can find something biting.

Interesting read... http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2014/jun/05/beaver-lake-angler-tallies-three-tourna/?features

Based on my observations of the weekly report and actual conditions...well, um. it's like this: the AGFC needs to get something in ink, and there is this backlog of info on what should be happening, and it's midweek, and the report should be going out, and well...happy hour is at four, and it's 3:25... Treat it as historical info, and you're fine.

In case you see me, I'm running a blue, 18-foot Starcraft mod-vee boat with a Yamaha tiller--probably the only one on the lake. I know there are crappie up the creek, but I can't speak to numbers. May make an early-morning tomorrow or the next day, depending upon weather and the W word.