rps

I always did well for stripers in the Platter Flats area. Find the gulls.

I assume the difference - many fish versus a few - is that you work the baits carefully to exploit a pattern you have recognized. Well done.

darbwa: Chief Grey Bear, a long time forum member, has recently begun guiding on the creeks/rivers in his area. PM him and let him fix you up.Other alternative is Russ @ Hog Heaven. On this board he is wacky worm.

Oddly, it was the left one I had to have repaired. I could throw the bait, but I couldn't walk the dog, hold the rod against a good fish, or use the net. When it reaches that point for you PM me and I'll send info on a good surgeon.

Oh my. A topwater bite and walleye information in one post and I can't get loose until Sunday. Thank you, Bill. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

The forum has had numerous how to posts on walleye in the last three years - I know because I wrote some of them. 1. Look up the long line trolling article I wrote for Lilleys Ozark Anglers site. 2. Search the forum for Lindy rig. You will find several posts, some with pictures. 3. search the forum for walleye harness and you will find numerous posts. 4. Visit walleye central - one of the few boards nearly as good as here - and read. 5. Search the forum for posts by Mike Worley, hunter91, tablerock, and powerdive.

kirbydog - I am your age and, like others have mentioned, some parts do not have the strength they once did or do not function as effortlessly as they once did. However, when I tore up my shoulder last fall, I elected to have surgery and rehab so I could return to fishing alone and netting my own fish. Too old will be the year that kind of decision goes the other way.

I feel your pain. I came over here in the 2002-2003 school year. I had fished many places, including a couple of trips here, before then. I found the learning curve difficult. 1. Discard any notion you have learned from fishing farm ponds or muddy, shallow lakes., 2. Begin to learn "break on a break" fishing. Look for a change on a change. 3. Use the archives on this forum to research jerk bait, grub, jig, and top water fishing. 4. Buy some original model wiggle warts. 5. There are 25 to 50 regulars on the Table Rock forum whose every word is worth money in the bank. Learn who they are and pay attention. NOTE: There are an equal number from Beaver, Bull Shoals, Stockton, etc. who are equally reliable, and sometimes, what they write applies to TR as well. Good Luck.

Oh yea.

Totally approve.

I was going to meet my friend Wayne at Eagle Rock marina between 6:15 and 6:30. I promised to show him some topwater fishing areas and techniques. I was in the boat before 6:00 but the fog meant it nearly 7:00 before I made it downriver to Eagle Rock. Fished in Owl Creek until the sun was on the water. I had 9 or 10 keeper fish on, but I only landed 3, The rest pulled or jumped off. Sure wasn't modeling well was I - late and can't land a fish. After the topwater bite shut down, we rigged nightcrawlers and trolled crank baits. Two large white bass, numerous bluegill, but no walleye.

My plans were to fish topwater early and then hunt down walleye. I made it to the lake at noon and realized that did not qualify as early. I started hunting walleye. Chuck Etheridge, one of my walleye mentors, took a 30 inch specimen yesterday here in the upper end on a crawler harness so I started with that. Two hours later I had one small bass to show for my efforts. I switched to trolling and picked up two huge white bass and a rainbow a little over three pounds. The rainbow was under the power lines at Fletchers in 77 degree water. Here it is May, and I have yet to take a keeper walleye.

Very well done! Spread the knowledge.

Good information here. I am taking a fellow teacher out Saturday for an early day trip. Small topwaters and split shots are the primary ways to arm, looks like.

You want a guaranteed 4+ fish? We all do. The people who catch the big fish seem to be beginners or those who learn to fish one bait really well. He fishes jigs, I fish top water, She fishes Ned rigs, and Howard ( we all know a Howard, right?) fishes ... crappie jigs. serious answer - this time of year, if you want a 4+, fish a top water early and late and a grub in between. When you get bored swim a plastic on a jig head.

If someone put a striper in the boat larger than Jeff's 64.5 pound beast, my hat is off to him or her. Anything larger than Jeff's is an ocean size monster.

Norman lures makes the Top Dollar. They are very inexpensive. Try them. They work.

In case my tone of voice was not clear, keep posting and explaining, but forgive us if we have a hard time keeping up.

The more often you post, the more I Iearn. I read what you write carefully. I find what you say always agrees with what I have learned through observation, accident, and example. Your methodical approach to soution - fish in the boat -is inarguable. Sometimes, however, we need an approach more similar to that from the old days of "Fishing Facts." => Location/Presentation/Reason explanaions. I find your conclusions soetimes leave me with a a "How did he get there?" feeling that would not exist in person. In other wotrds, do not stop posting and teaching what you know and learn. Just remember, it is hard for the rest of us to process/keep up/ learn without a 1/2/3/4 explanation.

I know some feeding on trout occurs, and the trout are farther down lake than many realize. When they generate from Beaver the cold goes right on by Holiday Island in the bottom of the main channel. In the winter trout wander down from Roaring River as well. The ones who feed heavy on the trout, though, are the stripers washed through Beaver dam. This last winter a Holiday Island resident caught a 31 pound striper in the Beaver tailwaters. The Arkansas state record was caught by Jeff Fletcher in the Beaver tailwaters. There are not many, but they feed hard on the stockers.

No, this was the dowager cat from the Dakotas, scouting the territory discovered by the lone males passing through. She wants to move the pride because she is tired of the terrible winters up there.

I use the book as a read aloud for my eighth grade Language Arts class.Every year, their skepticism and derision about an old book that has only an old man and a fish is very loud. And every year that changes.

Nice fish Hunter91! Size has improved on TR in the last five years for me as well, but with me it is tied to learning more about the lake.

Store bought harnesses are expensive and you will lose them if you use them. Make your own harnesses. There are you tube videos and long articles on the internet and check out walleye central - the second best board around. I store mine wound around a section of pool noodle.

In all seriousness, the big flat at the mouth will load with spots during the summer - the key is to find the humps and valleys on that flat. The section upstream of the S curve has excellent top water and jig locations.