jay bird

Went up Kings on Sunday with the family and tried our luck trolling shad raps. I had a three year old and a 5 year old in the boat so casting was not an option. We ended up with about 40 whites some small bass and crappie that put us at about 50 fish. Took home about 35 whites and threw all the rest back. We where about one mile above deer bluff. Put in at 1:30 and was off the water around 5:30 or 6:00. Here is some pictures of a couple of the nicer ones we caught. All in all a great day.

49 to 52 for me

Did OK today for a quick trip out of Eagle Rock. Found fish on main lake points that had some good transition to chunk rock. We used chompers for some OK keepers, but did not hear of anything over three pounds caught today.

I picked up a 17 inch large mouth the other day trolling for white bass and always have something bite crappie, etc hit when I am Trolling. If you want to just look at the lake I think that trolling would work out just great. Just be careful with that hand, not worth messing it up over fishing, but after 8 weeks (Unless it was a tendon laceration or transfer) you should be OK for light stuff. Just be careful thoes Mayo Docs hate when you mess up there work. I did some Clinical work up that way and I think that half of my Therapy class is still living in that area, love the area, hate the winters.

I have never used bait for Stripers on Beaver, but this limits most of my fishing to top water. I use Red Fins, Pencile poppers, and Zara Spooks with fair success. I usally put in at Lost Bridge south or around the Dam at either the Dam site launch or Indian. Each of these may be a little closer than Ventris and as far as I know Ventirs does not have a Dock. Good Luck there are some guys here that Slay the fish with bait so they would be a great resource.

I do like the guy that goes up there with low numbers and tells you honestly he made a mistake, but gives his rationale for why he did what he did, or fished where he fished and moves on. We have all had days where we fish a certain area or a certain way and get back to the dock and hear other people slayed them doing this or that. I think that making no excuses is great, but as with any competitive sport you are always going to have the what if's. It is the ones that make no excuses that stand out, and usally end up close to the top by the end of the year.

Is that the right water temp above that states 68? Not calling you a Liar , just seems a little warm for this time of year.

I have had some very limited success for Stripers with a fly rod. Nothing over 6-7 pounds, but did see a nice hybrid caught on my boat that was pushing ten. Even the small ones took some time getting in and the couple of times that I have had luck I am sure you could of thrown a bare hook into the mess of busting Stripers and hooked up. I keep both floating line and sinking line handy, but tend to stay with the floating line just because it is a little easier to pick up and cast when you have worked your line out and they start busting behind you. Still looking for one on the fly rod over 15#, but not sure if I could ever land one over 20# unless I had a lot of luck, open water, and some one on the trolling motor that could chase it down, but I would love to try. I do know that my best Striper on a fly rod would have been just a fun little fish with my baitcaster set-up, but had my arm cramping up by the time I got it in with the fly rod.

This is a very amateur statement so please take with a grain of salt and anyone else please comment. In March I seem to catch more Smallies around the Big M area and in the Baxter area. Both theses areas are a little run away from where you will be staying, but not to bad. Up around the Dam is supposed to be a great Smallie area I just do not fish that part of the lake very often.

Good luck on your boat, I hope that the marina will be able to stay open. You will not find nicer people than the ones that run Starkey.

Is that a normal thing for an insurance company to not cover the fishing gear or was it not in your boat. I am not very knowledgeable about that kind of stuff, but I am sure like most people that have fishing boats I have thounsands of dollars of fising gear in my boat. May be a question that I need to ask my insurance guy. Does any one here know anything about that?

Talked to the guy that went looking at the docks down on TR and he described exactly what you are talking about. The dock that looked the worse he said was CP in Shell Knob, and is was going down uneven.

Blue Wave, I have a buddy that has been looking at houses around the lake and I think he is going back today. He is looking around the lost bridge areas, but may make his way around to other parts of the lake. Where is your dock? He may be able to tell you if it is OK. He did call Lost Bridge South Marine the other day and the guy said they had a mess and to call back in a couple of weeks. Not sure if he ment the Dock or everything else that is going on.

Talked to some guys today that looked at some docks on table rock and the big problem is the weight of the ice sinking the docks.

Great picture I need to get out with my 797 and play with it some more. I still do not get pictures like that, but I really think it is me not spending enough time with it. Need to just go out and not fish and use the SI.

What SI unit are you using for the picture above?

A couple of years ago there was a great white bass top water bass bite in the evening about a 1/2 mile up war eagle. Only got to go once and it was really fun, but all the people that we talked to said you should of been there a couple of days before they said it was unreal how many white bass they caught.

I was just wondering if any one had any experience with night fishing for striper. A couple of year ago in early April during a full moon we got into an amazing top water bite for Striper. Fish where everywhere on the lake and we got some nice fish into the boat. Last year with the high water did not try the night bite. Willy you said something about night fishing, but was not sure if you ment for striper of not.

We keep everyone posting we will have a ton of reports as fishing get going this Spring.

Sorry just saw that it was caught is Aug. Got mine in May, but still waiting for the Mount seems to be taking forever.

Great looking fish. I caught one about like that last year, it was a blast. Who did you have mount the fish, and could you post a picture of the mount? Also what time of year did you catch your fish? Looks like we are getting a good number of people on this post which is great, if we can all post fishing reports this Spring it should really help all of us that have the problem with work.

Here are the picture I hope they make sense.

I have never targeted Crappie on Beaver lake, but know that they do catch them. I think that there is a couple of guides that just go for Crappie on Beaver lake and may be worth checking out.

I would think that Hogscald would be a good place for a kayak. It it a no wake zone and really gerogous back there. It is at the end of Big Clifty arm, but I am really not sure how to get there by land. I will try to google earth it and see if I can show you where it is at.

When you go back there you will see a Dock on the left hand side, this is the last dock on the arm. I have caught whites from just before the dock to all the way in the back. For some reason they really like a white road runner with an orange head on it. Have tried different lures and this one seems to work the best. One of the first time up there we watched two old guys in an old jon boat that looked like it was about to sink load the boat with white bass. They had old poles with zebco reels and looked to be about 20# test line on. We caught some, but did not have a roadrunner in the boat. After watching these guys load the boat got some road runners and started doing better. One afternoon went back there and had about 12 in the boat and me and my neighbor ( who was in a different boat) decided to head back. I stopped at a windy point and he headed on to the ramp. I got into a great hybrid topwater bite and added two over 6# hybrids to the live well and got broke off by a really nice striper. All in all a great afternoon fishing trip.