Notropis

Beaver Lake typically starts turning over (mixing) in Mid October on the upper end (river arms) and doesn't complete the process on the lower end (dam) until late November or early December. Bradsnation is correct regarding the cause of the turn over. The surface layer of water becomes as cold or colder than the water below the thermocline, causing it to sink and displace the water below thus mixing the lake from top to bottom. Since Beaver is very deep and has very cold water close to the bottom, even in summer, it takes a while for the process to occur. The upper end starts the process earlier because it's a lot shallower (compared to the lower end) and has a smaller volume of water, enabling it to cool off much earlier than the lower section. Even though the turn over is still many weeks away, the cooling surface temperatures will have an effect on the cool water fish, particularly the striped bass, much sooner. When the surface temperatures get below 70, the stripers can leave the thermal refuge close to the dam and start moving back to the middle parts of the lake where there's typically more forage.

Not to get off subject but 10-4 Champ188, I'm more excited about this year's team than I have been in several years. Woo Pigs!

Slip bobbers would work fine but keeping the boat right over the top of the brush and simply dropping a baited bream hook (long shank) with a split shot about a foot above the hook works well. The bluegill don't seem to get spooked as long as you stay quiet. I've even dropped anchor next to the brush pile to keep from drifting.

"Lots of bluegill around those brush piles and they are biting. We should have brought crickets." One of the best kept secrets about Beaver Lake is the bluegill fishing in late Summer and early Fall. Forget about fishing the shoreline, you'll catch a lot of small longear sunfish and bluegill but rarely anything with any size. The adult bluegill stay around the brush piles in the deeper water 15-20 feet or more. Find a good brush pile and drop a cricket or worm close to the pile and most times you quickly get a bite. If you catch a lot of smaller bluegill, then move to a different brush pile until you get into the quality sized bluegill, they tend to congregate together. I've salvaged many a fishing trip in the dog days of summer by fishing for deep water bluegills. It's ideal if you have children, they get lots of action which keeps them happy and if you want to keep some of the bluegill, they make great eating.

Hard to say, Bfishn, the yearlings (which were 10-12 inches) were captured by netting in different areas of the lake. Since walleye tend to move around a lot, there was no way to determine in which part of the lake they were spawned. I don't believe we ever treated fingerlings that were stocked in the Kings River or the Beaver Tail Waters (location of brood stock collection). If you're referring to walleye going over the dam during floodgate release, I haven't seen evidence of any significant numbers of walleye doing that, at least not like the stripers and hybrids do sometimes. It might happen occasionally, fish do crazy things including taking the almost 200 foot plunge over the dam during high water release.

"So the last remaining question, do stripers impact the fishery negatively as a whole and do they in fact, hurt or stunt the bass size or population? I have observed and caught more large bass than I ever have by targeting stripers. Once I find stripers, I find larger bass. Are there myths or proof on how stripers impact highland impoundments? Seems other lakes with large fish of both species exist." J-Doc, The stocking of striped bass in Beaver Lake created a great fishery for anglers to enjoy. The lake has characteristics that make it very suitable for a healthy striped bass population. The fertile upper end helps maintain good levels of forage (shad) while good water quality on the lower end provides a thermal refuge for the striped bass in the summer. In all the years I studied the lake, I never observed any significant impact on the bass population by striped bass. We looked in a lot of striped bass stomachs and never found a bass or any other game fish, finding mostly shad and to a lesser extent crayfish. My biggest concern with the stripers was the possibility of excess competition with other predator species for available forage fish (shad). Fortunately, Beaver has a robust shad population and I didn't see any evidence of forage depletion caused by stripers. Very rarely did I see a drastic reduction in the shad population and when I did it was caused by a severe winter die off of shad or caused by a huge increase in the white bass population. Large year classes of white bass, by far, had the greatest impact on the shad population levels. The large reduction in shad levels cause by the white bass was the reason we promote harvest of them (no creel limit on whites in Beaver Lake). Another factor that makes Beaver suitable for stripers is that they can't reproduce successfully in the lake. This helps to keep their numbers at a proper level to insure good growth and the potential for trophy sized fish (which Beaver is known for). I'm not surprised you have better luck catching quality bass out in the open water areas, The fish that do the best in Beaver are the ones that learn to utilize the shad population. I don't think the bigger bass are out there because of the stripers, they are there for the same reason the stripers are, to feed on the shad. Myths about stripers, Ha Ha, I've heard some pretty good one's. Stripers eat all the game fish, stripers eat all the bass fingerlings, stripers eat all the crappie fingerlings etc. My favorite, striped bass eat their weight in fish every day. I had an angler confront me about stripers, claiming they ate their weight in fish every day. He was a pretty big guy weighing about 300 pounds so asked him if he could eat his weight in food in one day, got some pretty good chuckles from his buddies. As far as the stripers eating fingerling bass and crappie, the species that eat the most bass and crappie fingerlings are probably adult bass and crappie. Most predator fish are cannibalistic, even the fingerlings will eat other fingerlings of the same species if they get enough size advantage on them. Ask any hatchery manager what happens if you hold fingerling predator fish in a pond too long. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to ridicule the anglers that oppose the stocking of stripers. It's easy to understand their fears about a large predator causing potential problems with other species. As a fish manager, I shared those fears, until I saw evidence that they weren't happening in Beaver Lake. The thing I hate most about the striped bass controversy is the division it cause among anglers. We anglers are a passionate bunch concerning our love of fishing and unfortunately high passion sometimes create heated arguments. It's important to for us to realized that we all share a great love for angling and find a way to have some mutual respect for each other regardless of our differences.

A lot of good questions, I'll answer them the best I can. J-Doc, when I use the word "harvestable" I'm referring to the time it normally takes for each of the species to reach legally harvestable size in Beaver Lake. It's up to each angler to decide if they want to keep or release the fish that are legal to harvest. I recognize you were being a little "tongue in cheek" which I can appreciate. Regarding your catch and release question. There are a lot of anglers who advocate for catch and release only and In some situations it could be useful, depleted fish populations, new lakes that need protection for spawners for a few years etc. Most situations require a combination of harvest and protection to fine tune the fish populations. Some species are extremely productive and don't require protection while others may be limited by the conditions and habitat in a lake to minimal spawning success and recruitment (surviving there first year) thus requiring some type of protection. Your catch and release question on bass in Beaver Lake folds in to this information. The largemouth require a little protection since their good spawns only happen in high water years, The minimum length limit helps protect these strong year classes until the individual fish reach a more quality size. Protection of the spotted bass has not worked well, hence the regulation change to drop the length limit and promote harvest. The spots are prolific spawners regardless of water levels, although like the largemouth they do have elevated spawns during extreme high water years. Protecting them with the 12 minimum length caused very slow growth of the individual fish and increased competition for forage between all the bass species. The smallmouth, in my opinion, would not be significantly affected by regulation changes. Most people (about 97% according to creel surveys) release all smallmouth regardless of size. J-Doc, you're certainly not alone when you practice catch and release. The creel surveys on Beaver lake have confirmed that most bass anglers (an average of about 94%) don't keep any bass species. Because of the voluntary catch and release tendencies of bass anglers on Beaver, we had to actively promote the harvest of spotted bass in an attempt to get the anglers to help thin them out and hopefully improve their growth rates. Champ188, you make a good point, the shad population is usually good in Beaver but it's a lot more complicated than that. A lot of the slow growth is related to the first year of a fishes life. The species that stay close to the shoreline when young (largemouth bass for example) don't get the benefit of the shad spawn since the larvae shad leave the shoreline shortly after being spawned and congregate in deeper water to forage on zooplankton. The shoreline oriented fingerlings are dependent on the sunfish spawn for forage which during low water years is not very good. Consider the information I posted earlier regarding the difference in growth of fingerling bass when comparing high to low water years. A fingerling that gets good growth is far more likely to have continued good growth because of it's larger size and ability to eat larger sized forage fish earlier in it's life. MKJ86, High water usually results in better spawns but there are some exceptions. The lakes that have good cover for fingerlings regardless of the water levels are minimally effected by high water. An example of this would be a lake that has a lot of submerged aquatic vegetation providing good nursery habitat even during periods of low water. These types of lakes get some benefit from high water because of increased nutrients which promote better zooplankton blooms but the increase in fish production is not as dramatic as in lakes like Beaver where, as you mentioned, the increase in nursery habitat creates great conditions for the survival and recruitment of the year class. Low oxygen which can be affected by extreme high water temperature is typically not problem associated with deep lakes like Beaver Lake, at least regarding fry and fingerling survival. Low oxygen below the thermocline does have a dramatic effect on some adult species (see my posts regarding striped bass and walleye). Regarding your question about the lack of a walleye spawn. Actually, there is good evidence that Beaver Lake is getting a significant natural walleye spawn. This has been confirmed by a recent study involving marking the stocked fingerlings with a trace chemical (otc) and comparing the walleye yearlings with the trace chemical with ones that don't (native spawned walleye). Over 50% of the yearling walleyes were not marked, indicating a pretty good natural spawn. Hope this information helps! Sorry about the long, run on sentences. It's hard for me to keep them short sometimes. Cheers

Take heart fellow OA forum members, you're fishing in the most challenging conditions possible in Beaver Lake. High water levels, high water temps, a scattered fish population and massive forage fish production. The good news is the spawn of all fish species, this year, will be highly successful with excellent survival of fingerling fish and much better than average growth rates (because of all the cover and forage). I referred to extreme high water years as bad for fishing currently but great for future fishing. This year class of fish will make for some great fishing the next few years. Some things to look forward to from this year class of fish: The white bass population will be the first to make an impact on fishing. This year's spawn will create large schools of white bass in 2016 ranging from 8 to 11 inches, small but fun to catch with light tackle and pretty good eating. Some biggest schools of white bass I've seen came the year after a high water year. Both spotted and largemouth bass will have large spawns and good survival and growth. This year's largemouth spawn will have much better than average growth rate with some individual fish growing up to 8-10 inches long before winter (compare that to an average of 2-5 inches in normal years). The spotted bass will impact fishing earlier than the largemouth, since they a legally harvestable at any size. The largemouth will reach a harvestable size about three years from now and many of the individual fish from this year class will be larger than normal for that age due to the great start they got as a yearling. The smallmouth bass spawn will be the least affected since their primary nursery habitat is gravel and cobble, not the submerged vegetation the spotted and largemouth fingerlings will thrive in. Crappie spawn, survival and growth rates will also be elevated this year creating a strong harvestable year class in 2-3 years. All stocked species such as striped bass and walleye fingerlings will have similar strong survival and growth, creating good year classes. Striped bass from this year will be legally harvestable in 2 years while the walleye will be in 2.5- 3 years. The walleye that were spawned naturally in the lake will have enhanced conditions also, contributing to this year class. Game fish of all sizes will benefit from this year's large spawn of forage fish (shad, sunfish, minnows etc.) I can't guarantee all the things I mentioned above will happen but they are typical conditions that I've seen resulting from extreme high water years on Beaver Lake. We think it's safe to say we can all look forward to some really good fishing the next few years but unfortunately we have to get through this year! Cheers

Genetic spinal deformity, similar to scoliosis in humans. It typically happens to a very small percentage of fish. When weighing and measuring fish caught in population samples I would routinely see one of these in every few hundred fish.

Ralph was my supervisor when I started. He is a good man and I learned a lot from him. When he retired I took his position. Still see him occasionally. The biggest one I remember, on Beaver, was an eleven pounder we caught around the sidewalk hole. Electrofishing is interesting but it gets to be work after working till 3-4 in the morning several nights in a row. We learned a lot about the bass population with electrofishing sampling, it helped us to fine tune the length limits through the years. Tanderson15 Ha Ha, No need for water boarding, happy to share information, especially with this group! JohnF52 Bingo! that's my initials, hope I gave you useful information. PigSooner I don't doubt it, It's not like all they decide to move in one day, it's a gradual process that will happen over the next few weeks. I suspect a few of the walleye tough it out in the middle of the lake through the summer by staying close to the thermocline but it's not easy for them.

Game and Fish Commission, 1986-2014. Jon Stein took my job after I retired. Tanderson15 Yes, I learned a lot and enjoyed the job but it was tough and challenging. Beaver is a dynamic lake and it wasn't easy trying to figure it out.

From 28 years of managing the fish populations in Beaver Lake.

Thanks for the compliment, Tanderson15. I've learned a lot about Beaver Lake through the years, always happy to pass it on. I wouldn't get too worried about the skinny walleye, the lake seems to have a lot of forage currently and sometimes walleye (particularly males) tend to be a little skinny at that length especially after the spawn. The AGFC Biologist, Jon Stein, looks at the walleye condition factors in the winter during his gill net samples and the relative weights were approaching 100% (very good condition) this past winter. There's a walleye topic from several weeks ago where he mentions the study, check it out! I'm sure he will keep an eye on the walleye's health and condition. Cheers

Don't let my information keep you from harvesting legal walleye, it's your right as an angler. Just keep in mind the value of the larger walleye (6 lbs and up). Most of them are females and are very important to the spawn. Sure, keep one if it's the trophy of a lifetime for you or your fishing buddy but consider releasing them if they aren't. Tanderson15 Good point! Regulations aren't successful if they aren't enforced. I believe the situation with the AGFC is just having two enforcement officers per county combined with multiple other responsibilities (hunting seasons, boat accidents, educational duties, etc.) that tend to overwhelm them. Because of that, they tend to do enforcement work on the lakes during high use times (weekends, mid-day etc.) to make the most impact during their limited available time. Fishermen tend to go out early and late, since that's the best time to fish and to avoid the crowd, so it makes sense that anglers don't see the enforcement officers as much as the pleasure craft folks do. Don't get me wrong, I believe the wildlife officers should spend more time on the lakes, especially in the spring when fishing activity is heaviest but I do understand their dilemma regarding manpower vs the amount of responsibilities they have. I hope that everyone that reads these discussions realize, the most effective deterrent to poaching is a responsible angler with a cell-phone, especially the smart phones with cameras. AGFC poaching violation hotline 1-800-482-9262.

Actually there is some evidence that Beaver is getting significant natural reproduction. The last several years, fingerling walleye have been marked with a chemical, before they were stocked, that can be detected in their otoliths (free floating bone used to age fish) later in their life. Follow up studies have shown a significant number of yearling walleye (over 50%) without the chemical, indicating good numbers of lake spawned walleyes. You may be confusing walleye spawning requirements with striped bass. The stripers do need a lot of flowing water for successful hatching of their eggs since their eggs are non-adhesive and need to stay suspended in the water for several days before hatching. Long stretches of flowing water keeps the eggs from settling to the bottom, where they don't survive. Walleye eggs are adhesive and stick to the gravel in current where they adults spawn. The water flowing over the gravel keeps the eggs oxygenated and allows them to develop and hatch. No long stretches of current are needed for walleye eggs to hatch and most of the spawning takes place in the first mile or so of gravel shoals (where current is present) of the tributaries above the lakes.

An interesting and familiar discussion going on with this topic, one I've heard many times in the past. Fishing success (for a particular species) is much better in a previous year than currently, prompting fear that overharvest has depleted the population leading to discussions about the possibility of poaching (keeping small fish) and lack of enforcement of existing regulations contributing to the problem. It's easy to understand how anglers believe over harvest has happened when catch rates go down and it's certainly possible in some situations but I don't believe that's what is happening with the walleye in Beaver. A lot of factors are involved here. Walleye are required to move around a lot because of their water quality requirements. Similar to the striped bass, they require cool and well oxygenated water, which gives them freedom to roam the entire lake in the fall, winter and early spring but summer water temperatures severely limit the areas that walleye can survive and thrive in. The summer stratification of the lake creates an anoxic layer of water below the thermocline in the upper areas of the lake forcing adult walleye to migrate down-lake closer to the dam where oxygen is adequate for fish survival below the thermocline (what biologist call the "thermal refuge"). Complicating things even further, the thermal refuge can change drastically in size from year to year. The refuge is much larger during low water years when compared to high water years. The large amounts of nutrients that enter the lake in high water cause greater areas of anoxic water and subsequently a smaller refuge while the limited nutrient input during low water years lessens the anoxic areas increasing the size of the refuge. Right now, rapidly changing water quality is causing a lot of movement in the adult walleye population as they begin to move down lake to find better water quality. When considering the thermal refuge factor, it's easy to see how there can be drastic changes in fish movement and angler success when comparing low to high water years. Of course, their are other factors regarding the dynamics of the walleye population in Beaver Lake. Forage levels, survival of spawned or stocked fingerlings during their critical first year, growth rates, and of course, enforcement effectiveness, all play their part. Angler attitudes toward keeping walleye is certainly a factor, after all, they are great eating and much more likely to be kept when legal than some of the other sport fish (ex bass). The 18 inch length and 4 fish creel regulation was implemented because of the popularity of harvesting walleye for table fare and I think it's doing a good job of protecting the younger walleye while allowing harvest of legal adults. One of the things I like about this forum is the passion and concern members have about the fish populations in Beaver Lake and it's easy to see how changing catch rates are a cause of concern for anglers, however, don't read too much into variations in fishing success between drastically different water level years, it's a trademark of Beaver Lake.

JohnF52, The inflow of nutrient rich water (increasing zooplankton production) combined with rising water levels (increasing the amount of submerged shoreline cover) will greatly benefit the newly hatched larvae fish. Individual growth and percentage of survival of the fry will increase. A good start to this year's spawn! Hopefully the water levels will stay up through the summer and create a strong year class of multiple species.

"How long does it take green cedar trees to start attracting fish?" I've caught fish off sunken green cedar trees within a couple of days after they were put out. I'm sure it varies a bit according to how active the fish are.

"I am not sure of the date but somewhere around 2004 they started stocking Beaver with 14in walleyes, before that they never would stick. My first walleye on Beaver was a 8lb monster that was probably the breading stock they put in at that time. I remember they had the nursrey pond full of walleye for what seemed like years just to get ready for that first stocking." Not trying to be argumentative but all walleye stocked in the lake since the decision was made to re-establish them have been fingerling stockings. There were a couple of years the nursery pond was utilized by putting walleye fry (larva) in the pond and allowing them to grow to fingerling size before stocking in the lake. The nursery pond stockings didn't do well due to poor fry survival, probably because of the shallow nature of the pond and it's tendency to cool off rapidly after cold fronts and loose zooplankton blooms (food for the walleye larvae). Fingerling production was much better at the Charlie Craig hatchery and has contributed the "lion's share" of successful walleye fingerling stockings to the lake.

J-Doc, There is lots of documented data gathered from fish population samples on Beaver Lake. The problem is finding cause and effect in a dynamic system that can change drastically from year to year. Having studied the lake for 28 years, all I can offer is my best read on the lake gathered by comparing scientifically conducted fish population samples with water quality and historical water inflow and lake level information. There are so many variables that effect fish populations that it's virtually impossible to narrow it down to just one or two factors. Some of the key factors I've learned regarding the bass population: High water (especially a year that stays high through the summer) is the engine that drives bass production in Beaver Lake. Bass fingerlings, largemouth bass, in particular, don't do as well in low water years mainly because of a lack of nursery habitat. High water years always create the strongest year classes of bass and the fastest growing individual fish. The frequency and timing of the high water years is also extremely important. The best scenario is high water every 3-4 years. Too close together causes competition and sometimes suppression of fingerling production by the previous year's fish (intermediate bass). Slow individual fish growth is a historic problem for bass in Beaver Lake (especially spotted bass). I think the main problem is slow growth exhibited by bass in their first year, especially in low water years. It's not unusual in low water years for spotted bass and to a lesser extent, largemouth, to only grow 3-5 inches long in a year. Compare that to growth in sustained high water (8-10 inches and more) and you begin to see the problem. Small fingerling and yearling bass have to stay close to shore to keep from being eaten, while the bigger ones can roam out in deeper water and take advantage of the threadfin shad at a younger age. I believe that the fingerlings spawned in low water years are a major contributor to the number of small bass in Beaver Lake. Regarding studies on Beaver Lake concerning stripers and what they eat: Several stomach content analysis studies were done the 80's and early 90's on Beaver Lake in conjunction with striped bass tournaments and early gill net studies. The studies overwhelmingly demonstrated the stripers preference for shad (over 90%) with crayfish being their next highest preference. In the winter the threadfin shad were the most common forage found in their stomachs which is easy to understand since the threadfins are sluggish due to cold water temps and easy prey in the winter. I hope that gives you some information to go on. Beaver Lake is a very dynamic system and a decent bass lake but is more suited to the open water species of fish that can take better advantage of it's primary forage at an earlier age. Again, just my humble opinion.

Great discussion going on here. When anglers new to the area asked me for advice on fishing for bass, my standard reply was, forget about fishing the shoreline (except for a couple months out of the year). When I moved here in 86, my experience was fishing the shallow brush filled lakes of southern Arkansas. Fishing deep meant 8-10 feet in those shallow lakes. Needless to say I didn't do very well on Beaver until I learned how to fish more off-shore, deep structure, creek channels and points. Fishing got better immediately! The striped bass discussion always brings out, shall we say, "passionate discussions"! Most of the claims I've heard by the anti-striper bunch are based more on opinion than science. It's easy to understand their fears when you consider how efficient a predator the stripers are but most of the concerns I've heard through the years (they're eating the bass etc.) aren't happening. The biggest predator on young bass is other bass (typically the yearling bass from the previous year). The only legitimate concern I've heard is the stripers compete with other species for the available forage (mainly shad). Most years, Beaver lake has plenty of threadfin (the primary forage species) and gizzard shad so excessive competition is rarely a problem. Beaver lake is a mediocre to fair bass lake depending on the frequency of high water years. If striped bass weren't stocked in the lake it would still be a mediocre to fair bass lake. The lack of shoreline cover, especially during low water years, has a greater effect on the bass population (especially largemouth) than the stripers, in my humble opinion.

It's an interesting phenomena related to the nutrient load (nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.) and water retention time (about 1.5 years) of Beaver Lake. Nutrients that enter the lake create algal and zooplankton blooms on the upper end (river arms and south half of the lake). As the water moves slowly down the lake, the nutrients are utilized by the phytoplankton and zooplankton until they are reduced to very low levels. That's why the lower lake, close to the dam has much clearer water (less algae). The algae and plankton are great for growth and survival for larval fish and fish species that feed on plankton (ex. threadfin shad), which is why the upper end of the lake is more productive and has a greater biomass of fish than the lower half. The down-side to the heavy algal blooms comes during the summer, when the lake is stratified. As the algae and plankton dies and sinks, bacteria decompose them, using up the dissolved oxygen creating anoxic conditions below the thermocline. Since there's a lot less of the algae and plankton on the lower end, close to the dam, the water below the thermocline has more dissolved oxygen, creating a thermal refuge for the stripers and walleye to survive the summer water temps. The minor die offs occur in late spring, early summer when some of the striped bass don't make the migration to the lower end of the lake in time and get trapped above the thermocline in the middle section of the lake. The size of the thermal refuge is inversely related to the amount of inflow to the lake, the more inflow, the smaller the refuge. High water years bring the most nutrients creating anoxic conditions below the thermocline over a greater percentage of the lake. If your interested in more information regarding this phenomena, do an internet search for Dr. Reed Green of the USGS. He did some great research on Beaver Lake on the thermal refuge and it's relation to water inflow of the lake.

Yes, I've seen lots of schools of shad on the lake, a good sign of adequate forage. I noticed the images were in the winter (water temp 45), a typical time for shad to group up, looking for water that's a few degrees warmer. The threadfin shad in particular will do this since there tolerance of cold water is very weak and they can be stressed to the point dying when the water temps gets in the low 40's and below. The availability of the shad as forage for the walleye may be an issue in the summer when the lake stratifies. Typically the upper 1/2 to 2/3 of the lake has little or no oxygen below the thermocline, causing the cool-water species (stripers and walleye) to migrate closer to the dam where adequate dissolved oxygen levels exist below the thermocline. The stripers in particular are forced to migrate and in some years there is a minor striped bass die off from a few of the straggler's that don't make the move to the lower lake in time. I remember one year when there was a minor die off ( a few hundred fish) of walleyes at the same time. I think the walleyes are a little more tolerant of warm water and can in some cases survive in the middle parts of the lake in the summer by staying just above or right at the thermocline but they are limited in their ability to chase shad in the warm waters above the thermocline. So far, the walleye seem to be doing very well in the lake and have good growth rates. I've caught yearling walleye this spring that were already 12 inches long. I think there's a pretty good chance the "skinny" walleye are post spawn males but it's always a good idea to keep an eye on condition factors of fish species that are abundant and protected from harvest by length limits. Sorry about the long-winded discussion, sometimes I get carried away talking about the lake!

"The ones I have caught have been really skinny." It's not unusual for walleye to be a little thin after the spawn is over, especially the males. If you continue to see a lot of walleye in poor condition, you should let Jon Stein (AGFC Fisheries biologist) know about it. Condition factors in fish can be good clues as to how well the fish population is doing. Beaver Lake has a lot of predator fish and sometimes too much competition for forage can become a problem. I'm not saying it's a problem currently but it could be in the future. Hopefully the fish you are seeing are some lean post spawn males. Nice stringer of fish, good day on the lake!

A lot of the black nose crappie were stocked out of the Centerton Hatchery especially in the small lakes in the area (Bob Kidd, Elmdale etc.) and a few in Beaver. They are genetically the same as other black crappie but have the distinguishing pigment mark on their head and nose which was useful for evaluation of crappie fingerling stocking.