showmebass

I seem to accidentally catch quite a few every year while fishin for crappie, and they are all caught in creek channels.

I've caught 2 over 19" and 1 short one in the last week. Caught all 3 among schools of crappie on jigs. I call them "happy accidents".

Be prepared to stand on your head for the installation (assuming it's a transom-mounted unit). I've installed 2 of them over the years, and neither were fun at all.

I've had a Noco Genius 3 bank 30 amp charger (link below) for about 4 years now and it does a great job. Currently $240 on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GEN3-Waterproof-Battery-Charger/dp/B003JSO1X2/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1458007899&sr=8-8&keywords=noco+genius

Ignore the channel swings. They absolutely don't hold fish. Seriously though, what species do you typically target?

It's crazy to look at the lake level charts and see that Beaver is currently about 19 feet higher that it was 2 years ago at this time.

This. Is. Awesome. Thank you.

I'm a Lakemaster fan. True - Beaver Lake isn't a "high definition" lake, but I love the ease of setting up the depth highlights, shallow water alerts, and adjusting the lake elevation so that it changes the depths for the whole lake (especially considering the frequent rapid changes to water depths on Beaver).

Launched Friday morning at HB around 9:00, and fished til 2:00 or so. I caught probably 20 crappie total, and 10 keepers. 4 were 13"+. All came on jigs around docks and over brush piles in 25'+ FOW. Most of the fish were 10'-12' below the surface, but the larger girls were pretty high in the water column around docks. Not the limit I was hoping for, but the wind was horrible and I got a pretty late start, so it was a good day overall.

With the exception of maybe 7 or 8 fish, most of our bites occurred 15'+ below the surface, with some deeper than 20' or so. Nearly every fish we threw in the livewell just rolled over on its side due to their sudden depth change. I really need to get a fizzer to let the air out of their swim bladders.

The parents were in town visiting, so Dad and I hit the water early today in search of crappie. It was a great morning. I usually don't use minnows, but we did this morning and I was sure glad. We caught 2 limits by 10:30, and the larger fish (12+ inches) were mostly caught on minnows. Lots of fun.

The crappie are deep and they are hungry. I've been on a really good bite the last couple of weeks.

I also launched at HB Monday morning. Looks like my crappie milk run has finally come to life this year. I cleaned a dozen, but all of mine were 25' + deep.

Sorry J-Doc. This event occurred right before the advent of cell phone cameras.

You never know what you might find on LOZ at night. A few years ago, a buddy and me ran across some folks (all female, about 10 of them) swimming at night. None were sober, and none were fully clothed. I've never seen a water trampoline put to better use.

I was up at Lake of the Ozarks for a few days last week with some family. Fishing was just ok, though much better than Beaver right now. Anyway - my B-I-L and I were running to a spot around midnight when we almost ran into this. Probably came within 20 feet of it, right in the middle of the lake just floating around. We towed it to a nearby ramp, tied it off, and called the Water Patrol. Even with the 30 mph nighttime speed limit on LOZ, we didn't see it until we were right on top of it. Pucker factor was at a 10.

Fortunately the COE won't likely allow Beaver to become completely surrounded by houses and docks like LOZ is, although those docks sure do improve the fishin IMO.

Thanks for the update. I've been thinking about giving this a try. Were you using a floating light or one of those suspending LED wands?

It's worth if for the quality of fish they have up there. I think it's a little rougher than Grand in terms of boat traffic, but I believe Grand is a better "meat" lake. The quality of Grand's fish in size and quantity is pretty awesome.

Since Lake of the Ozarks is near where I grew up, the boat traffic doesn't bother me too much aside from a few non-courteous boaters I've had close encounters with on Beaver. Part of the problem is that the pleasure boaters are mostly concentrated north of the 12 bridge since they still can't get under it. Usually by this time of the year I take a break from the bass and focus on deep-water crappie. This year, the crappie bite is terrible for me,as they aren't in their normal haunts. As J-Doc said above, everything is extremely scattered.

For those that have been fishing Beaver for a long time, I'd be interested to hear your opinions on which years were the toughest, and what the causes might have been. I've been in the area since 2006, and for me this is by far my worst year so far. It's obvious that the prolonged extreme high water is the root cause of my struggles, but I'm guessing that this year's hatch probably had a higher-than-normal survival rate with the abundant cover, so I'll look at that as possible positive byproduct of this screwy year. Hoping things begin to normalize soon.....I'd be quite happy to see her get down to 1125ish or so by late August. Fingers crossed.

Good to hear about the firmed-up thermocline. Should help to make things at least somewhat predictable amid a screwed up lake this summer.

I'm beginning to wonder if the deep summertime crappie bite is going to "get right" this year. Usually a limit is almost guaranteed by this time, but they definitely aren't in any hurry to get to their normal haunts.

Not a Beaver Lake fish, but wow...I hope the young fella realizes what he's holding here.

For those who haven't seen this - Here's a link to an interactive zoomable Navionics lake map. It shows contour lines (that are mostly accurate), as well as docks and other landmarks. http://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en