Blll

Finally made the move to retire my 10 yr old Fortrex. Why did I wait so long! Minn Kota Ultrex is a dream. Usually fishing solo, I've had a few times where the wind gave me pause if I moved away from the bow. But now, Spot lock is the bomb! Plus using the fob from the stern is magic. Still low on the learning curve about all this thing will do. If you're on the fence about a new TM, don't wait.

Good bye spawning bed. Could mandate deeper water use only but who's to enforce it? Tough being a fish.

Good morning! We've lived here for 11 years and Beaver took some getting used to from fishing northern lakes with weeds. I've learned enough to rarely get skunked but by no means an expert. There seems to be plenty of fish, plenty of forage and good water quality. I just don't understand why the bass just don't seem to grow here. That survey I just looked at showed less than 15 bass over 3 lbs, out of almost 700 fish. About 2%. And zero 5-6 lbrs! That seems amazingly low for a southern lake, heck any lake. A 4# largemouth is not a monster fish! I understand the time of year and location of survey makes an impact on the #'s. You would think Table Rock is a similar body of water and yet I have the impression there are many more quality bass there, with much more pressure.. The striper argument confuses me as they should have little effect on Largemouth growth rate. I've fished with guys on several other Arkansas lakes, and we almost always have several 3# fish in a day. Crappies grow big, walleyes hold their own and stripers do well. When the FLW quit coming here I thought there might be an improvement in quality but my small small sampling doesn't reflect that. Maybe I'm just fishing where only the little guys are lol. Are you guys around the 2% mark on fish over 3#'s?

Got out for a few hours after being gone all summer. WT 64. Noon til 2pm. Caught 6 spots and a nice 17" smallie. All caught burning a spinnerbait along rocky banks. Tried to stay in the 5-10 foot range. gorgeous day, had to play the wind. Great to be back!

I have a weird goal. While traveling around Beaver Lake, where I'm blessed to have a slip, I've seen huge carp. Yep, carp. Where I came from near Chicago we fished for carp on purpose. Other than maybe stripers, I don't know of a freshwater fish that fights harder. No one targets them on Beaver at all. That is my weird goal for 2025. To establish a pattern and target these hard pullin' things. My PB carp is 25# but I've seen bigger here. They are here, why not catch em'. I know, weird.

I've been catching a few yellow bass too. Not really a good thing. They are very prolific and max out at about 10". No reason to release any IMO.

Bright, calm, wt 64-67. Did well on crappies around numerous PC docks. Tried some gravel coves with no crappie luck. Between the turtles and carp, it was like an "R" rated movie Beautiful day, quite a few boats enjoying Beaver Lake. 10 years retired here, what a blessing. Water dirty many places with lots of junk in the water. Some coves were so bad, a clean cast was hard to come by.

Beautiful morning with light breeze. Fished mid lake coves. WT:58-62. Fished for 3 hours and had 15 bass with 4 solid 16"+ spots. No dinks, all 13-14". Ned and 2.8 Keitech. All were caught on drop off , ledge rock banks, 10-15 fow. No smallies or lgmth. Saw several boats searching/targeting bedding fish. Free country I know but I just can't knowingly drag spawners off their bed. Each to his own. Pretty busy for a Wednesday.

Yep, yellow bass for sure. Cousin to White bass, much smaller, more prolific. Not a good thing.

Out at dawn, mid lake.Tried a couple points for top water bite, no love. Found fish around main lake cove mouths, shad balls blocked out the screen several times and actually bumped line. 8 spots up to 16" on drop shot under shad in 25-40 fow. two small stripers on swimbait. Some top water activity but seemed to be smaller spots. Light breeze, perfect temps, partly sunny. Just a great morning. wt60, warmer in coves. In at 11.

Well a buddy and I had our best 4 hours since June. Pulled crawler harnesses around the islands at just over 1 mph in 20-35 fow. Caught 9 walleyes, kept 4- 19". Also kept 6 white bass, released 6 spots, 4 catfish and an 8"bluegill. Beautiful weather. Great day for me. Blade color did not matter. In the slip at noon so he could go to work. Left them bitin'!

You're a lucky man!

As an old guy's observation, the lack of "making stuff" in the U.S. is surely a large part of the problem. We sent these jobs away and they won't be back. Both political parties to blame or credit. Sadly, much new technology creates a few new jobs but overall eliminates more. Good paying, 'blue collar' jobs are the ones being eliminated. I had occasion to watch an old movie,"Mr. Blandings Dream House. There must have been 15-20 carpenters working a 5.5 day week. Now the job could be done by 3 guys with nail guns. Progress? Sure but at what cost. Very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle. Was blessed enough to be able to buy a new Merc motor. Waited 11 months! I had a connection with Mercury and asked why don't they add another shift and build more. The answer was they can't get parts that are "outsourced" fast enough so even if the demand is there we can't put people to work. And WE made this mess. Glad I'm retired and apologize to my grandchildren for the country we've left them. Enough... I'm goin fishing.

Amazing the lengths they will go to to rob you. We have a 14 slip enclosed dock. Last 4th of July weekend thieves came in the night, swam under the individual garage doors, and hit 6 of the 14 slips. Luckily my insurance coved it but I make my own rods and they can't be properly valued and out of pocket the deductible. Locked dock, locked slip and now locked rod storage in the slip. police think they must have had a canoe to throw everything in. Only took high end rods & reels, no electronics. We added lakeside lighting .

Fishing mid lake around the islands and the clarity was about 5-6 ft.