Vinsott

Went out and fished the flats near the 12 bridge from 11 to 2pm. Caught a catfish about 1.5 lbs on a Ned rig. Drifted over to the point of the island nearest the bridge and attempted my first drop shot fishing. Caught 4 bass all small. One of them looked like a mean mouth bass. I caught a couple in Table Rock so I guess they are in Beaver also. On the catch of the last bass about 12" a really nice looking one surfaced with the hooked bass trying to get the bait out of its mouth. Looked to be at least 3lbs. Didn't even turn the depthfinder on to see if that had any effect. Got a quick rain and the bite stopped. With the Ned rig the plastic stays on forever. With these KVD drop shot worms they shredded and fell off after one or two fish. Is that normal? I inherited and old tackle box from my passed father in law in 2000 and its filled with all types of plastic that all seem to be in good shape. I am going to see on my next trip out if the new technology worms really work any better then some of these old ones. I have a feeling the new stuff would probably be a bag of goo after 15-20 years which is how old most of these worms are.

I usually would only eat the amberjack smoked. They always seemed to be so loaded with worms. Snook, triple tail, grouper are my favorites.

Thanks for the info.

Catfish was pretty good. I would eat it again, but not as good as crappie and walleye.

Went to my slip around 10pm and fished till around 1am right off of the dock. Tried lures, jigs, minnows and worms. Caught one crappie about 6" and two channel cats. One about 2lbs and the other around 3lbs. I kept one to see how they are for eating. The meat looks pretty good, just have never been a big catfish fan. Never had one out of Beaver. I will post after I eat it tonight. A few boats were out, but not near as many as Friday night.

Took my new, used pontoon to the 12 bridge with the wife to try my first attempt at night fishing under lights now that I'm settled in from our move to the area. We tied on in about 115ft of water at sunset and hung out a green tube and a white floating light. Had some small minnows around the lights but really never saw any shad show up. Was hoping to catch some whites for fun and food but nada. Caught 2 crappie. One about 8" and the other close to 14". We used store bought minnows and tried with jigs and hooks with different weight set ups. Not much activity at all except for some boats. A couple of others were fishing the bridge also and didn't seem to be doing any better. We gave up about 1am. I just don't think they were there. The boat came with a cheap lowrance that I tried to tweak, but all saw was surface down to about 10' returns and nothing else all the way to the bottom. The 2 crappie were caught at about 15-20ft. Any suggestions would be great. Earlier before dark my wife caught her first walleye on a ned rig, drifting the flats near the bridge. It was only 16" but she was thrilled. I've gone out a total of three times so far. The other two during the day and have not got skunked yet, but not anything of any size or any numbers of fish, but that is the fun of learning a new lake. I have ordered a hds7 gen 2 from Cabela's but have not even received a confirmation Email?????? Credit card shows pending? Hopefully when I get this unit on the toon I can see a bit better under the water.

Everything looks cleaner, and the pictures show up much nicer on my computer. I like it.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Do you think the white light is better then the green. I had both in the water but couldn't tell if one was better then the other because no fish to speak of. The white had a lot of bugs around it. I did fish in and out of the lights beam. The electronics on the boat are bottom dollar and couldn't really tell if I was just seeing bait. Most of the fish showed from the surface to about 12ft. Never marked any below that. I was also fishing near one of the fish attractor location signs. It looked like a good spot, but I guess not that night.

Did catch some shad with no takers on them either. Probably just not in a very good spot.

Tried my first night fishing outing on Table Rock last night. Positioned across from Cricket Creek marina with a green, and a white light. Took until about 11pm to get shad around the light. Was in 32ft of water and 82 surface water temp. Only caught 3 crappie the whole night, one short. By the time we left about 3am the shad were thick. I tried minnows on jigs, bare hooked, shad. I tried from a few feet down all the way to the bottom. Was a boring uneventful night. I was hoping to get some whites but nothing. Any secret to this night light fishing? There were a couple of young owls that greeted us when we arrived at dusk with some cute screeches. But by midnight the constant screeching for Mommy was driving me crazy. By 3am I didn't like the owls anymore. There were some guys that came in when we gave up that had 4 super bright lights on the front with a generator running them. Is that for Bowfishing?

Also forgot, the reason I jumped in on Tanderson's thread was the "WALLEYE"

Thanks, that would be great. I'm not the best either but love going. I have fished Table Rock recently twice learning the "Ned" and caught fish on both outings. My wife travels every month and we were looking for a place with closer access to an airport. We looked in Tenn. and South Carolina also, but we figured until the kids are finished with college we will stay in Arkansas. I don't really like the Branson scene and we looked at a bunch of homes on Table Rock and the ones with docks or good fishing areas were too far out from stuff, (shopping, airport etc} I also was excited about stripers in Beaver. One day looking at homes at Beaver we went in Hook line and sinker and met Mr. Feathers and Fins briefly but it was too busy to chat. I'm getting somewhat concerned about how hard it seems to catch fish on Beaver unless you are very experienced on the lake. On Table Rock with the help of the guys on this site pointed me in the right direction and were very helpful. I also ordered handmade finesse jig heads from a member that are great. The Rogers area is very busy compared to our very small country town, but my wife is ready for our next adventure and a lake it is. Anyone need any cattle? or goats? Table Rock is an option but really set on Beaver.

Farm just went into contract. Might be to Beaver sooner than I thought. Anyone want to take me fishing when I move?

That would take all of the fish out of the lake for that exchange.

Gotcha. But after tasting a walleye I see why so many are die hards. I come from Florida salt water land and never was too excited about eating freshwater fish until I ate a walleye. Better then crappie to me, not so soft.

We have our farm for sale and are planning on moving to Beaver. I'm gonna have to go fishing with you when we move.

Assumption here. 4 keepers per person per trip two times a week for 8 months? That would be 512 keeper walleye, 1024 filets of walleye in 8 months. Wow!!

We had a very nice day compared to our first outing. Fished almost exclusively with the ned. Daves jig heads are nice. Only lost one to the bottom compared to about seven the first time without the weed guard. Thank you for the gravel picture. We didn't see any banks that clean where we were but did find some spots. Between the two of us we caught about 30 fish most small in size. Mostly Kentuckies, a white bass, one mean mouth, keeper crappie and a keeper smallie. Let the keepers go. I am amazed at how much better the small mouth fought compared to all the other fish. Thank you everyone for your input and advice. I came home feeling relaxed and happy which is what it is supposed to be all about.

Sorry, I meant cricket creek.

Probably posting this too late, but will give it a shot. Going to be in the Long creek arm of the lake in the morning with my new ozark finesse heads and zinkerz and would love to catch some bass.Trying to put my neighbor on some fish. Any of the fingers and coves any better then others. Not too familiar with spots, only fished the lake once last week. And don't seem to be experienced enough to tell where gravel bottoms are, or look like. Anything would be helpful. Thanks

gotcha, and yes I really enjoy the challenge on the lighter line but not if I will lose a lot more fish due to structure and snags. I used to fish for snook in strong current around bridges with 6# when every one used 15-30. would lose fish but it was great to get a 34" fish with finesse and patience.

Thanks. You mean Dtrs sells them somewhere? And do you think 4lb line is too light for Table Rock?

Does anyone know where to get the shroom type head with weed guards? All the stores I have looked have way too big of a hook and usually too heavy of lead. I used to fish all saltwater down in Florida and didn't know if the lake bass were any good to eat? I tried the smallies from the buffalo down the street from me and like them, but throw them back mostly. I didn't really like the goggle eye's I tried from the Buffalo. And the rainbow trout from the White River to me are Okay at best. I did catch a nice walleye from Beaver Lake a couple years ago night fishing and thought is was fantastic. I have caught crappie from greers ferry a few times and they seemed to be real mushy soft. Like a saltwater sea trout. Do all crappie have that texture? The white bass from greers were a bit stronger but the texture was better.

My neighbor has just put his boat at Cricket Creek and we went for our maiden voyage today. Never fished on Table Rock but have been practicing the Ned on the Buffalo River for the past month. First time posting but have been studying on Ozark Anglers for a couple of months. My neighbor doesn't crave fishing like I do so we didn't get to the boat until 11am. Long story short caught a crappie, a couple dink smallies, and a few small kentuckies. The lost about 6 Neds to the Timber and the trolling motor battery died so we quit around 3:30. Saw lots of boat traffic. I was using 6lb mono with 1/15 to 1/8 heads but they didn't have weed guards. Should I even be fishing these near all this timber? We tried some secondary points, bluffs, and pockets. We went south of Cricket and North, just not sure which side would be better for the Ned. I have caught my biggest smallie on the Buffalo (18.25") with the Ned not too long ago, and definitely have confidence in it. The trout below my name I caught yesterday from the bank of the White River at Cotter with a Zigjig, which I also learned on here. It was a blast on 4lb line. It was 25", photo taken by wife who missed most of my head in the picture which I now think was on purpose, and then released. I was really excited this morning and kind of let down this afternoon especially after watching all those Winkerdoodles videos. I guess I need to get weedless jig heads or try not to fish around timber but is that possible on this lake? Just whining I guess.