RyanG

It generally fishes pretty well. There is a really healthy population of large fish in that lake. I plan on spending a lot of time up near the dam this winter. I am determined to learn this lake. Haha. Its also just such a pretty lake, I love fishing up there. Thanks for the tips!

I took the day off work and hit tenkiller this morning. I don't wanna swing off topic on your report but I did wanna mention that the football jig put some fish in the boat today. Several nice smallmouth (about 2 pounds), two big fat spots and a largemouth of about 3 and half pounds. There was a topwater bite early too, had 3 smallies on a plopper and lost several others. Funny how i can't catch a sniff from a fish on beaver with either of those baits but tenkiller fish love it....I'll figure these guys out sometime. Lol. Thanks for the report!

Most of my fishing is done between december and may on beaver. The opportunities to travel to other lakes these past two years have also heavily influenced my time spent on beaver. I wish I could say I had any information about the fishing lately but about the only thing I could tell anyone how to do is burn a lot of gas for about 4 or 5 10-12 inch fish. lol. Been a tough summer for me. Waiting on that cold water to turn things around. Love winter fishing.

Shoot, I've been going about an hour south to the top of the ozark pool of the Arkansas river. Fishing has been excellent when the water is moving. Even pretty good when it's not, just gotta slow down.

Pretty sure Walmart stepped away from flw. Not positive but wouldnt be at all surprised if that's why they aren't coming back. Although it wouldn't be such a struggle every year if they would try coming just a bit earlier in the year. But oh well. 4 of the 6 events next year are in Florida and Kentucky. I'd say they favor the southeast just a bit. Lol.

Mike congratulations on the new job! Definitely jealous that you'll be so close to Rayburn, that place is a true bass factory! Good luck with the move and hope the transition in to the new job is a smooth and successful one! If you ever end up back in town and get that itch to hit the ol beav again, you'll always have a place in my boat! Maybe then I can learn a little something about this place. Lol. Congrats again man!

Haven't been on beaver since April. Just really hard to motivate my self to even think about battling the boat traffic. Work has kept me occupied during the week so weekend fishing it is. Fished the Arkansas river all last weekend. That was a lot of fun. Caught fish all day for two days. Several 4 pound class fish and a bunch of 2-3 pounders. I may try to hit beaver sometime after the holiday traffic subsides, maybe take a day off next week to fish. I'll be sure to report what I find which could very well be nothing lol

I've always looked to the bank in muddy water for bass. I'm not sure on the open water species such as striper and whites but generally I've found that the mud brings those bass shallow and tight to cover. I wanna get out again soon, I had a buddy that had 22 pounds a week ago flipping plastics shallow so I'm anxious to see if this holds up with the muddy water.

I usually am really easy going actually, and it is really hard to tell if you are genuinely just teasing or actually just had an issue with us fishing there. So if I took it too seriously I apologize. However, the general attitude a lot of bass fisherman have about fishing near the ramp because local tournies release fish there is unquestionably sour. And I just don't understand the need to bash someone for potentially catching fish released there. It was all in fun and I'm sure we all enjoy just catching some easy fish from time to time. But it's also a pattern I thought might be duplicated else where with similar structure in the water and that's what I wanted to share. While im almost certain most of our fish were fresh fish moving up with the water I don't know for certain. But there were not holes in their mouths indication cull rings or anything like that. And you still gotta make em eat. I don't agree with fishing retreads with money on the line necessarily but this was all in good fun. I never claimed to be a pro and who knows how we would have done had we fished else where. Could've gone either way. Anyways, just thought I'd clear the air some. Good luck on LOZ.

Nah man, we fished it. Had about two hours to fun fish and that's exactly what we did. I understand a lot of bass guys seem to have this ego to maintain so just fun catching and sharing with the community guys isn't good enough for them. Hey that's fine, whatever gets you off. Laugh away, it's good for ya. The funny thing is, I watched the release boat take the fish out away from prairie creek...and not only that but ten pros only weighed in like 15 fish altogether. Mostly smallies and spots. And funny I didn't catch a single spot or smallie. I had fun with a buddy after working the expo and I shared it. That's the point of the post. Sorry if it really bothered you...actually, I'm not at all. Go get em hammer

Nah, I was thinking the same thing. FLW has a live release boat that they use to disperse the fish. But these seemed like "fresh" fish. No cull equipment holes or anything. I caught a few last weekend that without a doubt had been caught recently as well.

Worked at the flw expo and watched the weigh in. Buddy and I dumped his boat in PC around 530 and fished the pocket within the bouys and the pocket right next to the ramp. The water is up in the bushes and so are the largemouth. The weights for the top 10 pros today were pretty terrible, granted, so were the conditions. But 3 casts in and I got a nice 3 pounder on a jig and went on to catch close to 16 pounds on a white buzz bait in the flooded brush. A good one about 4 on a soinnerbait added to it. Caught around 20 fish right next to the ramp. Figured though that the backs of creeks with flooded brush would have similar results. Made for an excellent evening though. Those largies are already moving up with the water though so go get em guys.

I fished today, back of PC is stained. Rest of mid lake still have good visibility. Can see down several feet, not as clear but definitely not dirty either. Did have a buddy up the rivers today and they are trashed. Can't hardly run a boat up there with all the trash. Even with the cold front though the fish were biting fairly well.

I know it's hard to leave fish, especially the kind that can straighten hooks, but good on you for putting up because of the lightning. That's something I don't mess with. I was fishing an Everett I believe two years ago around this time of year and a nasty storm blew through. I waited it out under our dock in Coose but I saw many guys still fishing in the lightning and rain. Around time to weigh in sheriff deputies, and fire rescue took off out of PC. Some poor lad around the dam wasn't so lucky and got struck and died out there. Hit close to home because I was on the lake when that happened. Sorry for the story, didn't mean to take over! Just a valuable lesson some learn the hard way. Those fish will be there another day! Glad you were able to get your gear back too!

Mike they are all over the place down here as well. Water is staying around 60 until late in the day, then it'll clime up to mid 60s or so. It's about to get warmer this weekend though. There's fish still staging up, fish in the spawning flats, kinda all over the place. Lol.

Mike, I'm down here all week for a college tourney. So far it's been tough but id be glad to keep ya updated on what I can put together down here. I've always done much better below the dam, locked down and caught em well last time when the lake was super tough. I'll keep you updated though!

I fish the bank a lot and a couple of weeks ago, if I couldnt get them to take a jerkbait I would find more vertical banks and toss the A rig right against the bank and let it pendulum back towards the boat. I caught several 3 pound class largemouth and about a dozen spotted bass doing that. My buddy threw his parallel to the bank in much deeper water and caught some spots but also boated a 10 and 17 pound striper doing that. I like the bluff banks because I can almost always fish deeper water with out moving too far off the bank and also have the transitions to fish when they are holding there. Im definitely not dialed in like mike seems to be though! Just incredible!

I just ordered a Garmin echo map 73sv from cabelas today. Priced at 1000 normally marked down to 450 right now. Played with it at the store and looks awesome. Couldn't beat the price so hopefully it's as solid as it seems. Comes loaded with hd maps, side scan, down scan and of course 2d sonar. Not sure if it's panoptix compatible but either way, great deal on a 7 inch graph. Might give it a look

Congrats mike! Good to hear you guys did well. I was up on bull shoals and had around 15 pounds up there, was surprised they were biting so well but sure wasn't complaining! Haha

I fished mostly in the wind but that wasn't so much by choice, just most of the bluffs were mainlake and the wind was not taking prisoners. Lol. I did catch some fish out of the wind Sunday though. I'm not sure how much the wind was playing a part. And no shade, but some places had a small mud line due to the wind and waves so that may have helped. I didn't actually mark any fish, I don't have the best electronics but I did notice quite a bit of bait in the water along the bluffs that the wind was blowing into and I'm sure that's why those banks were more productive. With the warming trend the bite should pick up I would think. I didn't have to work the bait really slow at all either, only pausing a few seconds at a time. Hope this helps! I'm not the best at throwing a jerkbait but a weekend like that will build the confidence for sure

I almost picked up the ned rig but was just having too much fun with the jerkbait. It's not something I usually throw so it was a confidence building weekend for me. I have been catching a decent number of smallmouth mid lake in the last year or so now, they seem to be more prevalent. That or the tournament releases are putting larger numbers in the areas I fish more often. Interesting though. I did see the birds start diving on shad so tried to get over and find fish but couldn't find a thing. So back to the bank I went.

I heard the same thing, dropping the water to work on the dam. It's kinda cool seeing the lake like this but a lot of my go to spots are garbage now. Actually, maybe that's the up side to this. Lol.

Got out again on Sunday from noon until 4 and got another dozen on the same pattern. Slower bite but was pleasantly surprised to get a nice 18 inch walleye in the boat. Ran two different areas in mid lake from Saturday and both produced fish. With the warm weather again at the end of the week this coming weekend might be a real good weekend to catch some winter fatties. The striper however are still eluding me. Good luck guys and tight lines!

With temps in the 70s I was gonna fish somewhere, decided to hit beaver since I have been only once in the last two months or so. Put in at PC and water temp started at 47 and at the end of the day was 51. Ran all the way to Clifty, got 3 in the boat, two spots and a smallie but they were short. Ran back to mid lake, fished bluffs in the wind with a deep diving jerkbait, the rapala shadow rap I believe. Got 3 largemouth around 3 pounds and about 15 more spotted bass and another smallie. The spotted bass were absolute footballs, a couple came close to 2 1/2 pounds. All in all, it was a great day. Stay on the vertical stuff on the main lake and you can catch em. Good luck fellas!

I have had one of my best days throwing a crankbait in chocolate milk at 43 degrees. While I'm not the biggest fan of a muddy lake it does seem to push the bass up shallow and that's my comfort zone. Although all I really chase is bass so I'm not sure how it affects the other species as much.