Champ188

I wouldn't give up on them. They've caught more than a few for me. Just like any crank, they need to be digging bottom and bouncing off of rocks. Stick with your reds in spring on TR.

That Frittside is a terrible squarebill. Besides, you aren't supposed to throw flat-sided cranks when the water temp is above 35. Please gather up any and all you may have and ship them to me for proper disposal.

91 pounds, 11 ounces This isn't Table Rock or Toledo Bend or Rayburn --- you'll run yourself ragged and out of time trying to bed fish on Beaver with a 1.8-pound minimum. For every 2-pounder you find on a bed, you'll have to go past half a dozen 10-inch males guarding. Yes, bed fishing was the deal back in the days of the old FLW Walmart Open for the simple reason that 10 pounds a day was smashing them; 7-8 pounds a day would get you a nice check and maybe even a place in the 10-man finals. I covered those events and I remember that more than once, a fellow made it into the finals without weighing a single largemouth in the three qualifying rounds. One of those was a guy who was local back then named J.R. Beehler. Darn good fisherman. Someone's gonna have to find the post-spawn largemouth to win this one. I'd guess that'll be done in the White or War Eagle river arms, or a combination of the two. There just isn't a big number of 1-8+ bites in a day's time on Beaver unless one can find a school or two of post-spawn largemouth that are hungry. Spawn's been done for awhile up the river arms, so there has to be some schools of keeper LM wandering around. Crankbait could be a big player and watch out if Mark Davis gets on something like that.

You're gonna have a hard time getting much info on Beaver. It should've been named Bear Lake because that's what it is to try and figure out --- a big ol' bear. And when folks do manage to find a piece of the puzzle, they aren't apt to share it. As for your question, yes, fish that are already up shallow to spawn will definitely feed in the runoffs. Hard to beat a finesse jig for these.

Hey, ol' friend. You'll be fine about anywhere you want to go on TR. Kings River showed zero new inflow from the rain and the James only rose a couple of feet at Galena, which will come right back down quickly. What a gorgeous Cat. Was that Rick P's personal boat by chance?

Be You had to have felt right at home. Beck always said you were the best net man he'd ever had.

Disclaimer: Yes, I used to tournament fish. A lot. And loved it. A lot. Just got ruined on it when entries/payouts got so low that you had to WIN a Central Pro-Am event to cover the 4-day trip. Not kidding. Winning checks got down to around $1,000. Here we go again ... another major national tournament on the White River chain. Table Rock has already been hit with Redcrest and no telling what other banner derbies this year. This week, it's Beaver. Water levels are so low that shallow fish are there for the taking, and with a full moon coming May 1 (Friday, the second day of competition) it's going to be ridiculous how many fish are yanked off beds and tossed into livewells. Just another grand favor done to our fisheries by good ol' Johnny, who is trumpeted as a world champion of conservation/preservation. Yeah, as long as he profits from it. Bull Shoals-area residents need to be glad they don't have the hotel/restaurant/convention center setup to handle these events. That concludes this get-off-my-yard lake rant. We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

I'd be wise to take that advice and follow the food out deep myself, but apparently I'd rather stay up shallow and practice casting while the bite goes on out behind me. Probably why I put my boat up and just beat on the old Titleist these days from June until October.

Pete caught that one coz he was fishing, not scoping. 😮

Bill, you're like those guys on the Dr. Rick (Progressive Insurance) commercials ... I get you up shallow and you're whacking on them, and next thing I know, you've drifted back out into the abyss again. Guess we all tend to drift into our comfort zones, huh? 😁

Thanks again for the report. Didn't have as good a day as you but managed 19. Winding bite was hard to come by and it was a bit tough dragging that Ned in 30 mph wind. Thinking about going up the river tomorrow with a couple of 10-foot crappie poles. I honestly don't believe they've spawned yet.

Donna totally kicked my butt for two straight days of Central Pro-Am practice on Bull a few years back. I was determined to catch ledge fish on a jig and she was catching one after another in 2 feet of water on a Senko. Worse yet, I continued to fish deep in the tournament and barely weighed a small limit. We did kick butt the next day, though, in the team tournament ... a top 5 as I recall.

You don't know how it makes me smile to hear that you're out there fishing how you want to instead of how you have to. I mean, come on ... who dreamt there'd be a day when you posted a report here that they are on a floating worm? Or that you'd be fishing close enough to reach the bank with a 1-oz spoon. 😆 P.S. I've guided enough to just about worship you guys who did it full time for decades.

Glad to hear that coming from someone whose opinion I value. I've watched that guy poach fishing holes for years and seems like whenever there's a dispute over water, even if he's not directly involved, he's always in the neighborhood.

Darn good day, Jeff. Cherish those on Beaver, as they don't come along often. But you know that. Appreciate the report. Helped make up my mind where to go today.

Looking at it two days after April Fools, you had me going. I was trying to picture a $100K bass rig with a jersey jock driving up to some old hillbilly crappie fisherman and telling him he's gotta move coz I have that brushpile reserved. That glitter rocket would likely end up with a couple of lead-puncture wounds.

I hate wind. 🤣

Didn't know you even owned a crank bait. Bet you don't have any DD22's. 😂

That's a darn healthy largemouth.

So just be sure you've got it all set to go before you come for my piano ... Good to see you back, Mark. Hope you get some fishing in soon. It's getting good. And thanks for the enlightening info about show setup. Very interesting.

Saw lots of terns diving on shad between Big M and Big Creek the other day. No cormorants in that area. Hey Quillback, please find us some new holes up there. The ones you have now are fished out and that GPS tracker I hid in your boat wasn't cheap.

Meanmouth all the way. How classy to drop an F bomb that had to be scrambled out of the audio. I'm convinced that one reason these kids are soaking up scoping is that their brains aren't cluttered with needless vocabulary ... all you need to say is (1) Big one! GIANT!!! Big one!!!! MONSTER!!! (2) Stay on! Stay on! Stay on! Stay on! (Must be said while making three full and needless laps around the gunwale of the boat). (3) Dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude ...

OK, like Bill, this will be my last post on this topic. Just want to suggest one other line of thinking. Why won't MDC study the LM population in TR? I've spent a fair amount of time myself on TR over the last 25 years and have seen my LM catches steadily trend downward while little spots have been at darn near pest level. Yes, river spots tend to run smaller than lower-lake fish. And we are now seeing the results of strong spawns in recent years. However, spots under 12" rule the roost --- from shallow to deep water above Shell Knob in the White River arm. Granted, the Kings and James rivers can turn out good numbers and size of LM, primarily because the water is a bit dirtier, which LM like. Seems to me this is just another MDC decision made by out-of-touch officials who need to put money into proper research efforts before passing laws that will likely ruin a nationally renowned fishery. Do the creel surveys --- no one can tell you more than the anglers themselves. Reach out to the guides and invite them to coffee and discussion --- i.e., do something besides hand down rules that seem to be another concession to the meat eaters.

They're info poachers ... often tournament guys trying to find a way to beat the guys who can run their business off the front deck of a bass boat. Would I read this site if I was a visitor headed here? Of course I would! But I wouldn't show my appreciation by picking a fight with a guy who has spent more time on the water than most of us put together. That's the head-shaker for me.

There's one major difference in Beaver and Table Rock ... stripers. Say what you will but personally, I've never fished a striper lake that was worth squat for bass.