Fish Hound

Lance, 7-5 fow and 3-5 ft down seems more like a March/April spawn bite. At that depth I might just try to do some slip bobber from the bank. I can get to Sidewalk hole in about 15 minutes from my house, even less to Blue Springs boat ramp. Would a south facing bank that get's direct sun be best choice? Thanks

Fishinwrench, are you saying after 30+ years of marriage there are STILL things I can do that she will hate? I thought after the 20 or 30 from last week I had finally finished that up.

fishinwrench, for my next boat I have been considering a pontoon for fishing as now have some grandkids to take so want the extra room. Are there any "off the shelf" that are already set up like you would do? If I got my hands on a pleasure one could you give some do's and dont's of getting one set up for fishing? Thanks

Nice fish Lance! Minnows again?

Mike, you and Lance are getting some nice ones! In your picture are you both holding a white and a black crappie?

Very nice fish Lance. I tried some jigs (no minnows) around the Blue Springs and didn't get anything over 10". Maybe it is the minnows or more than likely fishing skill. Merry Christmas to all!

Dan, how big of a tank do you have for shad? I there a rule for gallon size times number of shad. My little boat doesn't even have a live well so looking at options for a bait tank. Thanks

Mike, there are pockets of pretty good birds. It's not like the Dakota's but there are area's that seem to hold birds every year. We were around the Sterling and Lyons area and one section of CRP must of had 15-20 roosters x 2 on hens and 5 big covey's of quail. That was the best field and probably because it had the river on one side where the quail were and uncut milo on another.

Dan, If (when) I finally catch one that nice I'm going to post multiple times on purpose. Haven't been able to get the boat out for a month now for various reasons (opening of pheasant season in Kansas, travel for holiday's, etc.) but did finally buy a cast net. It's just a five footer so hopefully not too small but I thought a good starter size to learn with. Will get some dry land practice in and will give it a go on catching some shad. Goal is to catch a striper before the end of year. Thanks

Dan, great picture! I bet Dad's smile was just as big. If you can divulge it were you using brooders? Thanks

Stump, I put in at Sidewalk ramp on Saturday and trolled all the way to Point 12. Saw a lot of shad balls and fish but only thing that would take my lures were crappie. Made a swing in the flats out past point 12 and saw some top water activity so shut down the motor and reeled everything in and grabbed my pole that had a spook tied on. Nothing so went to a swim bait and nothing on it. The activity died down so was getting ready to troll back up river and put on a lure I hadn't used in years a Smoo. I threw it out and reeled in to watch the action on it and caught maybe a 3 lb. hybrid. I kept tossing it with various retrieve speeds but nothing else. Tolled back to Sidewalk with it on but other than a couple more undersize crappie no other takers. This was late afternoon and the topwater activity was only when there was some thicker cloud cover. The picture below is from the internet but is the color I had. This has a very tight and fast wiggle , more than I remember. I would love to see some stripers move up into War Eagle as the water cools. Thanks

Slabster, I am fairly new to fishing Beaver for about 3 years now and like to catch just about all species. I am master of none but I had my most luck on crappies as most people do during spring spawn. I did OK trolling flats off of river channels this summer. I have found some bluffs that have timber that will hold crappies most of the year. I need to expand out and get more up into the mid lake area as mostly fish around War Eagle cove and point 12. It is great in the spring run but during summer seems like they all move north to clearer, cooler water. I have never tried spider rigging as haven't invested in the longer poles and holders but from what I have seen/heard is a very productive way. A big white or hybrid that comes along can really get the excitement level up with all those lines out. Lance that posts on here is probably the most knowledgeable on crappie. I think the core of engineers or fish and game have sunk some brush piles and attractors but I have not been able to find coordinates for them. They probably get hit pretty hard if locations are out there. Good luck

Thanks Lance, I may give that a try this weekend if I can get out. I did OK on jigs this spring in the Blue Springs area and up into Brush Creek so may try it in there. I know you fish this area so if you see a small white fiberglass Livingston runabout with trolling motor on front it's probably me.

Alumacraft190, being from Wichita do you fish Cheney? I grew up in Hutchinson so my Dad and I fished Cheney and Kanopolis mostly. Cheney used to have some pretty good stripers but after that big heat wave fish kill a long time ago I don't know if any are still left and if the Fish and Game stocks them in there anymore. We used to be able to catch some pretty good walleye early in Feb and March off the dam and then again in May drifting night crawlers on the flats. When the cotton trees started putting out cotton in the air it was time to hit the flats. A job transfer brought me to NW Arkansas and Beaver is night and day different from those Kansas flatland lakes. This site has been a huge help for me and the members/posters here will give some excellent advice.

Lance, you seem to have the crappie on this lake figured out. For this time of year are live minnows the way to go? I have been trolling crank baits and getting a few but not the quality and size you are catching. I may be too deep as hitting flats in the War Eagle cove area but in 18-25 fow and running baits around 12 to 16. I saw a bunch of those gar a couple weeks ago in the second little cove on the north side past War eagle camp. I was kind of hoping one would get on as my trolling rigs were probably a lot heavier than what you were using.

I'll go with Warmouth. After getting online and googling goggle (goggling google?) it sort of resembles a goggle eye (except no red eye) but does look more like the pictures of warmouth I found online. From the fight this little guy put up if they got up to 9-10 inches that would be a lot of fun on an ultralight. So far this is the only fish I have caught in Beaver that I did not catch in Kansas and I don't think they have them there unless in extreme southeast maybe. On the same trip I did catch what I would call a green sunfish which looks just like the picture of the fish in Johnsfolly hand above. All of them are pretty fish. Thanks for the feedback.

I caught this back in August and not sure if it what is called. A Goggle Eye or Rock Bass? It looks like it belongs in the perch or sunfish family.

I fished from War Eagle marina and upstream on Sunday and came up with only 1 short crappie. Started out trolling cranks but after 30 minutes of nothing went to jigging some standing brush where the one shorty came from. I think I need to find some sunken brush piles on the locator or maybe even try to sink my own. This lakes seems to have plenty of crappie habitat. I have found some decent ones along bluffs just above some trees but that may have been a summer only pattern. From reading earlier posts it looks like Lance is the resident crappie expert/catcher. Did get a thermometer and wt was between 70 and 73 at different locations. Plenty of shad balls around as well.

Did the same as last Saturday and put in at sidewalk and pulled cranks over flats and channel edges. Ended up with 5 keeper crappie. The biggest was caught by my wife when I stopped over a big shad ball and tried jigging some spoons. Marked some fish under it but looked like they were right on the bottom. I didn't catch anything that way but she threw out a beetle spin while I was jigging and caught a 13.5 incher on a medium slow retrieve. My lowrance does not have the temp option on it so not sure of water temp. Beautiful day on the water and the bonus kicker was we saw a bald eagle. Question for the group, will whites/hybrids/stripers move back into War Eagle during the cooler fall or is that only a spring run thing? I did catch some out by point 12 last year around this time.Thanks

After seeing those shad I think I need to invest in a cast net, learn to throw it, and maybe do some drifting with them. Blue cats are pretty tasty (to me). I would prefer a walleye and/or crappie but a nice pan fried catfish sounds really good. Thanks

Dan, I'm fairly new to the area and been fishing Beaver for 3-4 years now. I found this site and have been reading posts and it has been a big help in trying to find the where and when part. I grew fishing the lakes in Kansas so this deeper clearer water has been a challenge. This past weekend I put in at the sidewalk hole ramp mainly because it is one close to where I live. I probably should have been more in the mid lake area though. I pulled some hot n tot's and shad raps on channel edges and flats and caught some undersize crappie, a nice channel cat, and small LM. I thought I found a bunch of white bass working the surface that maybe had corralled some shad in a small cove but when I got over there it was all gar, some were pretty large. There was another area where I saw shad near the surface and fish would roll up on them and they looked like blue cats from what I could see. I don't know if blue cats would come clear up to the top for a shad in the middle of the day from water that was 20' deep but that is what they looked like. Anyway I'll keep reading, posting , and hopefully sharing a better fish report as the lake cools. Maybe they will move back up to this end of the lake. Thanks