Blll

Such a drop dead gorgeous afternoon, had to get out. 4pm-7pm. Rt 12 area. wt 84. Something was feeding in Bear cove for about 5 minutes. Big wakes and splashes. Threw a rouge but no action. Trolled the islands and got a Beaver Lake mix. 1 spot, 1 walleye, 1 baby striper, 1 white bass and as I was reeling in to go in, a 30" gar hit the Flcker shad at the boat. Good fight, several jumps and an easy release. Very few pleasure craft out, several fisherman. Beautiful evening to be out. Nice not to sweat.

Beautiful job. If you're not busy this winter........

Being an OG (old guy) I'm not a huge fan of change. But I'm sure Phil isn't changing just because he has nothing better to do but rather has a vision for an improved site. Hats off to you Phil for everything & anything you do! Maybe I'll learn how to post pics from my droid phone.

Mike, water temp dropped any?

Nice mix of fish. I like a combo myself. Is that Tony C's very spicy? How fast were you trolling? Sounds like a Flathead cat to me on your big bite.

Big "atta boy" for getting your kids to love fishing. Quality time is just as good on shore as in a boat, maybe better. Too many things to worry about in a boat with young ones fishing. I don't know where you fish but I know there are many catfish caught from shore near the Rt. 12 bridge on Beaver Lake. Most weekends finds several groups, bonfires and chatter. Just saying'.

Sunday night was my son's last night to fish before heading back to Iowa. several previous nights saw a few fish but nothing interesting. Sunday night started out the same with a crawler harness trolled around the Rt.12 islands. Lots of traffic as expected and a bouncy ride. A couple short bites was it. We had been coming in around 9:30 pm the previous few times out but decided to stay out a little longer because the temp and breeze were so comfortable. The Hummingbird was lit-up with fish in the top 10 of water. We had switched to Flicker Shads and for the next hour were very busy with stripers even a couple double headers. Trouble was they were 10" long! Because of the dark we were holding the rods while we trolled. They really hit hard but gave up quickly in the hot surface water. Final count was 15 stripers, a 2" channel and the last fish was a 40" gar that really gave him a fight. So action is to be had but not much size. On the way in noticed a few fishing under the bridge as the water has dropped just over a foot recently.

Well I've said any posting is better than none so here goes. Fished 6pm-9pm. Pulled crawler rigs around Bear Island. 1st fish was a 2# spot so I had hope. wound up with 6 fish, 3 spots, walleye, channel cat and striper. I don't think the 5 last fish combined weighted 2#. For what its worth, real crawler out fished gulp crawler 5 to 1. 20' -30'. Had the whole lake to ourselves. Beautiful night, wt dropped to 86 from Saturday 91. Marked tons of fish. Beat watching tv.

Thanks for reminding us there are fish out there! Great shots.

Browning Superlight. 6'8" ML Bass Pro. $99.99 Outstanding!

Outstanding!!

Faster trolling speed than I've been doing lately. Do you think the speed triggered them to hit or did you need that speed to get deep?

I've only been on this forum for 18 months or so. I fish Beaver Lake but do read/post on other forums. I've noticed two things that have changes drastically since I started. 1) There are many fewer posts about fishing outings on the Beaver forum. I'm thinking that is because the fishing has been very tough this year and no one wants to post about poor outings. That's too bad because even unsuccessful trips can be informative. Several frequent posters have "gone quiet" completely. Hope they are alive & well and will share again when ready. I'm still a novice on Beaver but almost any success I've had was from what I learned on this forum and I've tried to post about my trips good or bad. Change #2) The TR forum has become frequently mean spirited. Opinions are great and good humored banter about the worship of the Ned Rig or mocking of the weekend jersey fashions have transformed into verbal combat about fish release vs fish kill and the threat of withholding info because you might catch a fish with my fabled knowledge and god-forbid eat it. Lets be-hatin' the poachers, bad boaters, and complain about the weather. JMO

Hello & welcome. What areas do you normally fish on Beaver? I've learned some about the mid-lake patterns in my 2nd season but upper and lower is still a mystery. Again, welcome. Saw a misshape under the rt. 12 bridge yesterday. A boat was creeping under the bridge with inches of clearance and a wake came on him and put his windshield into the girders. I've got about 12" of clearance and won't chance it especially at night. Cuts the lake in half for those of us that don't trailer.

Helix 5 at the wheel 2 months ago.Very pleased so far. Lotta stuff for under 5 beans. Big enough for me, would want bigger in the bow. Sharp screen and easy to use if you know HB. Side imaging works great only downside is the fish marks are pretty tiny. Works well in sunlight too.

Just a quick post. Tried to get a pre-storm bite but only lasted 30 minutes before the lightning started. Not for me, headed in with only 1-12" spot. What amazed me was the surface water temp was at 90 degrees! Lake was busy near rt.12 when I went out but cleared out quick except a wave runner towing a tube all through the storm. Crazy!

So cool! Jason Lucas instructions taught me how to bait-cast. Handles up, loosen spool to just wiggle side to side, thumb on spool edge not the line. Some how makes smoking that pipe look neat. Sure can't begrudge a few kept fish caught without electronics, braided line of plastics. Really great finding that video. Thanks for sharing.

So my out of town friend arrived and out we went around 5pm. Tried PC for a couple hours with the wakers but nothing but 24" gar and tiny gills. Tried trolling the area but marked few fish and no takers. By 8pm we reached Deer island and the next 60 minutes caught 3 18" Whites and 2 20" walleyes. They stopped hitting at 9pm and zeroed next 30 minutes. Not great but better than I expected. WT 87 = Trolled flicker shads 1.5 MPH= 20-30 fow. Marked quite a few fish. The whites never came up for a surface party but really inhaled the flickers, as did the eyes.

Hey guys, I've got a friend traveling through tomorrow and he wants to go fishing Thursday evening. I haven't been out for a couple weeks and not much being reported here lately. Anybody got any kind of an evening bite going on? PC, Ventris, islands???

1st 10 years I had my boat it was kept at a cabin in the U.P. of Michigan. For 3 weeks a year I would launch it maybe 3x a day in small lakes with gravel ramps. Never a soul around except the critters. 10 years right? I thought I was very adept at all things ramp wise. Well the first public ramp with people coming in & out, waiting in line, kids now in the car blocking my rear view, hands sweating, boat wakes pushing boat around. I was THAT GUY! Any way I have developed great patience for peoples ramp woes unless an obvious "don't give a s***t" attitude. Always offer help, not always taken. Life is short...Peace.

Howdy! Still pretty new myself. Lots of info here. Good to see another poster. a "no fish" report is better than "no report" Welcome.

Great to hear a fishing report! Fooled around near my slip yesterday but could only catch a few gills and 6" spots. no crappies. Last year could almost start the frying pan when I tried for crappies. This year is tuff!! Good luck, be careful, looks to be wet all day.

The bigger boats can't get under the Rt.12 bridge. Watched plenty of them become surprised and make a hard left turn this past week. I'll bet the upper end is much quieter than normal for a holiday week and will be for some time. I think it will take another 12" drop at least for the average cruiser to squeak under the bridge.

Discussion seems to have some mean spirited thoughts. I release all my bass and keep whites, crappies & some walleyes to eat. I've fished for 50 years and think I take pretty good care of my fish to be released. But think of the guy who catches 50-60 bass in a day as many threads boast of. If he releases them all, a 10% mortality rate would not be unusual. So he's killed just as many fish as the fella who fishes a couple times a year and keeps a legal limit to eat. Plus the guy catching 50 fish a trip probably fishes more often than the meat fisherman. We've all watched the pros on tv toss back a 10" fish with a head high toss. Do all those recover well? A great rule in the MLF shows are the gunnel high release or a penalty. Lets protect our great fishing but lets not be hatin' a few legal fish eaters. July 4th....Freedom... rights of others. Just sayin.

Just a Beaver Lake guy chiming in. In-Fisherman has champiened the concept of "Selective Harvest". From reading the Beaver Lake forums it seems pretty much a given the crappies and white bass, cats & some stripers should fill the nitch. Rarely see a picture of a bass not in releasable shape. Some discussion about keeping smaller spots but I don't trust that many can always tell the difference from a LM. Walleyes are becoming a kept species too. Personally I let any walleyes over 21" go back to make more. Bad juju is seeing the striper guide pics who kill anything legal that comes in the boat. Somewhere I hear Tim Allen with the baboon call and chest beat. JMO