whiteley.matt

Braved the weather and got on the water at Baxter just after 7. Started off on the point around Baxter throwing topwater with not much success. Had several light hits on spooks but no real takers. After going over it a couple times with the spooks I went to the watermelon red flake ned rig. First cast with it produced a 17" smallie. Next cast was another one going 16". Both of these were stuffed full of crawfish. After that the wind really started whipping so had to put the ned rig down. Caught one more short smallie on a crankbait. After several hours of hopping around and picking up several more smallies on the ned rig we decided to head towards Campbells Point. We pull into Big Bay around noon and for the next 3 hours it was on. There were hundreds of schools of minnows, 1-1.5" in size, all over the place. We idled around a bit and found a couple good schools of fish in 80' of water suspended around 40'. They were hitting drop shots as fast as you could get it down to them. It was about a 50/50 split of Kentuckys and LM. They were anywhere from 10" to the biggest being a 4 lb LM. After drop shotting for about an hour or so the surface bite turned on full force. For a good two hours it was almost every cast. We were throwing spooks as well as a Bass Pro Speed Shad swim bait just under the surface. All of the action was out in the main channel in 60 - 80 feet of water. On the day I think we ended with 10 keepers with the best 5 going around 14 lbs. No giants but a lot of fish and a lot of fun. There were some really good fish coming to the surface and we had several that hit, but, couldn't get a hook in them. Wanted to get some pics but with the weather I had the phone stowed away and then once the fishing got crazy I couldn't put the rod down. We plan on heading back out one day next week to see if the action stays hot.

Thanks for the info guys. Ended up only going out Sunday morning solo, nobody else wanted to wake up.. lol Found some smallies busting on a point in front of the house. Missed more of those than I caught, then ran up north clifty. Found a nice cove with a lot of laydowns and flipped a watermelon tube. Caught a ton of bass in the 12-16 inch range. Most of which came on the initial fall in 2ft of water or less. Was not expecting them to be up that shallow. It was a good time though. Ended up with close to 30 fish total, with only 3 or 4 that would have been keepers. Will be heading back down in a few weeks. I am going to have to go down to the Prairie Creek area. We have never been down there, but, it sounds like some really good fishing. On a side note, the info everyone has put on here is great!!! My cousin and her husband just finished a house down on Beaver in Lost Bridge, so, now I am wanting to learn to fish the lake. I generally fish Table Rock, Stockton, and Grand and use this forum quite a bit, so I jumped on the Beaver lake link and the info is excellent!!! In the future I will try to post a quick report anytime I'm out and about. (Im sure I will have more questions in the future as well) Thanks Again for all the information!!!

Headed down to the Lost Bridge area this weekend. I haven't been on Beaver since late last summer. Have been fishing Table Rock this spring, and it is very good as far as numbers go. this weekend the nieces and nephew will want to fish. On Table Rock the ned rig and just finesse stuff in general have been crazy good. Any chance that any of this is working on Beaver right now? Or should we try for some whites? Doesn't really matter, would just like to get the kids hooked into some fish. We generally fish in the Big Clifty and North Clifty areas...

I am headed up there tomorrow and putting in at Mutton. Did you head north or south?