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oldfella, I'm not familiar with the upper lake. I know we were about 10 minutes flat out up the War Eagle arm but that's about all I can say. Lots of floating debris...big logs so watch out. I think water was more clear right around HC Marina. Lots of boats fishing in sight of ramp.

Buddy from Ft. Smith wanted to try out his new boat so I said sure. Put in at Hickory Creek. Disappointed in the water color,still muddy with about 3" visability. Nice day with a stiff breeze. Water temp most coves 58-59. Spent 6+ hrs up War Eagle, scratched out a dozen 12-14" crappies. About as many shorts, 4 12" spots and 3 little whites. 30+ fish but lots of zero hours with all fish coming from 2 50 yard stretches. Bobby Garland shad, 1/16 oz shad head jigs. nothing deeper than 12 fow. New Nitro ran great.

M, if you can charge overnight for a good 8 hours, then save the $$ and go with 5 amp/bank. If you need to get from dead to go faster, then 10 amp is worth the extra cost. If you're pretty handy, look into the stealth system. great system but I don't know of a dealer who will install. Owner will talk you through install but its on you. Great system. Very little overnight charging needed in many cases.

Gosh, don't stop any fish pictures. Keeps me motivated. After my 3rd skunk earlier, my wife asked if I had really been fishin'. Good discussion is never bad either.

I'm certainly not one that anybody follows but I do ok. I think you can give general areas without killing a spot. I do like to hear where there may be better water conditions. I don't think saying "toward Hickory Creek" is giving away too much or saying "my fish all came on a bandit 300 about 100' back" or "brooders around Copper Mine" will ruin our fishery. If all info sharing becomes a private message thing then what's the point of the forum. I'm still a newer guy and don't mean to overstep but I learned to fish Beaver from the info Scott posted (plus hours on the water). The last 6 months or so, the tone seems to be turning kinda mean-sprited. High,muddy water will do that. For my 2 cent report, I've been getting some smaller stripers, 4/5 lbs on Redfins (smaller ones) fishing points around dusk into the last light, in water under 10'. JMO

Personally I don't find much difference in catch rates between green or clear line. I use both but to ID line weight. Clear =10# or 12#, green = 14# or 17#. I don't think the line color would be the deciding factor on using Fluro or Mono. JMO

Good for you Stump. I haven't cracked 25# yet....but soon! Good to see green water.

Well the water was too thin to plow but still brown. Color changed from place to place but still never got better than about 4" of visability. I figured they would only find something with some thump. Didn't try the Ned. Probably should have. Next time.

Gave it a solid 4 hours on this beautiful day. Whiffed again. Fished from MN to rt.12 bridge with stops at Joe"s Creek and Beaver Shores. Did not try any trolling today but threw everything else. Saw scattered gulls feeding but just one or two at a time. Marked few fish and no bait balls. WT 47-51. Great to be out.

Nice days work Dan. I was out yesterday between PC and the bridge with a big zero. Hey that's fairly clear water in the pic. Are you upstream of M.N.? I'm tired of fishing in a mud puddle but don't know if I should go up or down.

Totally based only on personal experience, if the line has not been exposed to UV rays, I think mono if good for years but will have some serious memory. Can't speak for Fluro or braid. I've had some Fireline on spare spools for years and when put into action its fine.

Well I got out on this beautiful February day and totally wiffed! Fished around Deer & Bear islands watching a pretty empty screen. Brown water everywhere 47-48 degrees. Visibility about 2" so didn't even think about a jerk bait. Gave up after 3 hours but really enjoyed the time on the water. Every boat I saw was going upstream. Anybody do any good?

All right, all right! Thank you COR, I can get to my slip with dry shoes. The fish should now be afraid....very afraid. Good luck this weekend everyone. The lake looks strange with stripes of dirty water between dirtier water. We'll see.

Felt great to get back out (10am). Merc was a little slow to start but ran fine. WT 47. Terrible water color. Must be the wind but I think its muddier than last week. Had a great start with 2 spots in the first 50 yards on a wart. In about 10-12 fow mixed rocks. Nothing for the next 2 hours. But I got the kinks worked out, rods reset and had a drop dead great day.

OK! The water level is around 1125 or so. I'm getting on the water. I think with hip boots I can get to my slip. Haven't been out since December. Anybody catching anything? Our board has been pretty quiet.

Only my 3rd Spring on Beaver. Hard to imagine it will clear up to much with the high water lapping up the dirt with the big winds we've been having. My cove has been a mudhole since Christmas storm. Really getting cabin fever. Trip to BP yesterday did not help. Wanted to try new Throttle reel...out of stock. Had a new rod in-mind...out of stock. GRRRRR!

There was also some discussion on the success ratio of the stocked fish: how many live past the first year. There was not much satisfactory data on that subject. That led to a discussion that less but larger fish for stocking could be more beneficial. I was surprised to hear that the size of stripers when stocked was only about 2"! While they exhibit fast growth, even green sunfish are chowing on these little guys. The cost factor of growing larger fingerlings is an issue. I know that up north, muskies & walleyes are a stocked fish in many waters. Over years of study, a concept of" half as many, twice as big" on both walleye and muskie fingerlings has been deemed more successful in the number fish making it past that 1st year. A problem is that once they reach a certain size in the rearing ponds, they start to eat each other. I'm all for intelligent "tweeking, rather than a big change. Let's not screw it up. Interesting thoughts.

The info was supposedly gathered by stomach content studies. They showed a few hybrid belly pics just packed with crawfish.

At the striper club meeting last night, John from the Ar. Fish & Game told us that starting this year there would be no more Hybrid bass stocked in Beaver. The stocked Striper count would increase as not to reduce the total stocking number. There were several reasons but the most interesting to me were new studies that showed hybrids are less open water roaming than whites or stripers and do have an impact on more typical shallow forage, mainly crawfish. Mixed reaction at the meeting. Interesting info. There was also talk of walleyes becoming self- sustaining in high water years and perhaps a reduction in walleye stocking. This idea didn't seem to popular. Striper studies showed a very good growth rate and decent population.

Jim McMahon was never the same after a cheap shot by a Packer. Bears could have had a 3-4 year run. Oh well. Scary to watch old games with the defense using their arms like battering rams. Of course they only weighed 180, not 250. I enjoyed the Super Bowl. Outcome was in doubt till late. That's all you can ask for. Now its time to go fishing'!

Interested too in your take on Garmin. They seem to be the rising star right now. Still learning my HB SI but console placement seems the right move. Wow! That is a huge savings at BP. Take the time to let their guys show you the bells & whistles of the unit. Time well spent but real world use on the water is best. I still have not seen many of the type screen shots J-Doc posts. My shallow learning curve will be addressed this spring for sure. Good luck!

As you get older they just start to grow. I have the first rod my dad ever gave me in the 50's on a display rack., and at 65 years have less than one a year since then. Still adds up to about 45 set-ups. If I just fished bass there would be far fewer. Coming from the North, I have Musky rods and Canada rods. Here I had to buy Striper set-ups. It adds up. Usually about 12 in the boat depending on the days quarry. About this time of year I eyeball which one has seen its day and select it for the BP exchange. Going to try the new Quantum Throttle for drop shotting and a Browning 6'10" ML. I quit smoking this year so I can justify a reward with the saved $$$.

I agree Wrench, takes all kinds. I find his humor annoying but the total lack of personality from some of the others is annoying too. I like KVD, Ike, and Hackney. All different but less annoying than Watson. I'm sure it is partly an act because if it isn't he'd never keep a sponsor. He sure schooled everyone today. To the Victor!!!

Outstanding!! A terrific fishing report! Thanks!! Sounds like upstream is the place to go. May try to sneak under the 12 bridge next week. Stripers on crappie minnows, who knew?

Thank you for your effort. Staying mighty warm for late January.