Alumacraft190

I would echo the others, I’ve fished with Don for years and years and he always puts fish in the boat. I would say if your goal is to learn a ton and ask questions and gain knowledge he may not be your guy but if you want a great day of fishing hes as good as there is.

Tanglewood lodge is near water and is in back of a cove where parking your boat on the beach is feasible and safe. Rocky branch marina is in the same cove. Also has a pool for the kids. Coppermine would be other recommendation

I do have to agree with Ron on the attitude part. Don’s always treated us very well, but I can easily understand why others may not have the same viewpoint. I guess I would say if you want your best chance at fish he’s your guy but if you also want to be educated and share some laughter then probably 50/50 with him. There are probably others who look to inform and engage better than him.

Ive been striper fishing Beaver annually for about 20 years now and have used Beaver Fever NUMEROUS times. Don Andreasen knows the lake and almost always will get you on fish without fail. I would say you can’t go wrong with Don, although I would encourage your friend to ensure he is with Don and not one of his guys.

Im afraid thats only half true Stump. A picture did get posted last week of a 40 lb fish but it was a bit of a random post. The background made it clear it wasnt a recent catch and the OP confirmed the catch was from Fall 2017 and not recent. No confirmation on location though. We can only hope the size like that is still around in abundance but I’m becoming less confident by the year in my trips.

I agree Stump, seems they want no part of the mud to say the least which puts them extreme north and extreme south. As much as I want to take credit for limiting that happened only because we had a guide on Friday. He took us further south than I have ever fished. Shad wise You hardly ever marked any and I was there in November when you couldnt go anywhere without marking shad.

Just got back today from a weekend trip striper fishing from Wichita. We debated coming now or pushing back 30 days due to the water condition but ultimately decided to come now. Friday we limited out with 9 stripes and a white. 2 16 lb fish on planer boards in the rocky branch area targeting flats. We marked a lot of fish but it dried up so we went south to fine cleaner water behind the mud. we had to go into the white river side to find clean water. Water temp at rocky branch 53, white river 58. Got into them in the river in shallower water <20 feet on channel bends late in the day. It definitely appeared to be pre-spawn, fish in the river were smaller males, biggest 12 lb while the two at rocky were both female. Yesterday was more of a struggle. We scouted PC and coose areas briefly and didnt mark many fish so we moved on. Lost one at rocky area and could only muster 1 hybrid and 1 stripe on our own. The wind never did lay down and we elected to come home early today rather than fight the cold front. They definitely seem to be on the move with both depth and location.

Thinking about coming in next weekend from Wichita. Curious how the striper have been and whether people feel the lake is stabilized from the flooding or if I’m better off pushing back 30 days and taking my chances it doesn’t flood again? Figure I’ll look this weekend at forecast and what you all think to decide. Also has anyone been having any luck netting bait or was the shad kill pretty significant? Thanks everybody for your insights, this rookie is kind of spooked after some rough weather outings last few years.

Dan your boys have caught more fish in 2 days than my group of 3 caught in 3! Count me in as jealous, nice job buddy.

Water temp at Hickory was 57, didnt go further south than that. With the low temps Saturday into Sunday I would imagine the temps at PC to be about same as I saw between HB and HC

Ill chime in with what hardly qualifies as a report given the results. Came in Thursday night and fished Fri Sat and this morning until 12:15. Friday was a windy day which kept us from hitting the islands around PC hard. Did mark a few fish around the islands but saw more activity into PC. Fri at sunset we got into the whites and one 8.5 lb striper on topwater, they were busting surface. Saturday was miserable, fished 645-2:30 when we had finally had enough. We fished mostly PC before the front rolled in and then moved around the bluff to the east toward coose and the water inlet with no success. Scouted between the islands out of the wind and it was a blank screen. Moved to the south bluff on deer island and marked some fish with less bait, we made 4-5 passes tight to the bluff and didnt pick anything up. By then we were pretty miserable with the weather and called it quits. Sunday we got a bit later start and put in at Horseshoe and went south. All I can say is bait bait bait and more bait. PC had a lot of bait, but nothing compared to what we saw down south. We did pick up 1 striper on a freeline, but too small to take credit for. All said tough 3 days of fishing. Even tougher weather. Ill be back though and get them next time. A special thanks to Dan for taking the time to hang out with a few out of staters, really enjoyed it despite the weather and less than ideal success.

Just my own .02 and I’m far from a master angler compared to most on this board. the freeline is excellent especially when worked in tandem with downlines. Reason being, my experience and reading is fish will tend to come up in the water column after its food but rarely does it go down. I have witnessed this many times on a graph where a bait at 15’ gets ate and you see the fish on the graph come up after your bait. I can’t say Ive seen it the other way, where the fish goes down. The strength of the free line then is it is fair game to fish at all depth especially in clear water although it isnt as high percentage as say a bait set to 20’ with an egg weight targeting fish consistently marked at 25 fow. This would be why I always fish 2 free lines and sometimes even a 3rd and 4th on planer boards in my setup of 6-10 rods.

Dan once they get going topwater you just let me know and if you can spare a spot in your boat for me I'll come watch you catch fish while I try to catch fish. Lol

Well shoot, since you can't predict weather the least you could do is send me the coordinates of where the big school of stripes will be!! I'll even handicap you to allow for a 50 foot radius, deal? Lol

Im with you stump. Your post made me go back and look, but ai was there November 6 and water temp was 69 at point 6. That trip had me so confused, i made reservations at 3 places as the trip approached chasing the water temp and where I expected fish to be as the trip got closer. Long story short i fished from coppermine to point 6 during those 4 days when I never thought I'd see north of prairie creek. For this year's trip I moved it back to go weekend before thanksgiving in hopes of keeping the main water to target horseshoe or south.