hoglaw

AGFC puts out a fishing report every Wednesday I think. They have multiple sources that give Beaver reports normally. You can get it at agfc.com

I think this is one of Phil's case-in-point threads. New(ish) poster asks for reports, mentions dates he'll be on the water a few times, then never reports back. Did you catch them Dave? All kinds of walleye in the river above Beaver Lake right now but it's a grind to catch them, or at least it was for me.

So those redhorse will eat night crawlers? I've got some monster rough fish in my creek. Some are common carp, but some are darker and they're enormous. I'm not sure what they are. Would love to figure out how to catch them.

Yes, you can kayak on the river, but be careful as there's lots of boat traffic right now. It was packed yesterday. I doubt you'll find any striper in the river right now. You can catch white bass and maybe a few crappie. If you get lucky, a walleye or two. Lots of different lures will produce. There are plenty of fish in the river, but they are very scattered, or at least that's my take on it. Crankbaits, swimbaits, and in-line spinners should produce fish.

I launched at Twin and covered a LOT of water.

fishing it on braid with a floro leader should help quite a bit with detecting bites. My wife is prone to gut hook a fish every now and then with her favorite setup - a hula grub fished on a 6' G Loomis IM3 crankbait blank. The softer blank really helps her cast it. She gets more backlashes with the stiffer rods that I like. But with that softer rod, I'll see the weight on it every now and then and say "you've got a fish" before she notices it. With a braid set-up, you feel the bite a lot faster I think.

npierce came and met me yesterday. Picked him up at the ramp around 5. I got on the water around 2 and by the time I picked him up I had 3 'eyes, an 18.5, a 19.5, and a 22. We caught maybe 10 white bass between the two of us all day. It was slow on the whites. Also got one crappie, two short walleye, and a handfull of small to tiny largemouth. First time to get three keeper walleyes. Worked really hard for the 4th but couldn't make it happen.

sfiser, in a jet you're completely fine at this water level. I've been out there in the hot summer when you can see grass growing out of the water from the bridge looking upstream. I was new to my jet at the time so I just idled through there and got by with no problems. I need a good 10" at idle, but only 3" on plane. So you could easily run into the next long hole with your boat. There's some skinny water above that right before the waterford hole though. I haven't tried to run it, but I can tell you it was impossible that summer day when I was out there. May be do-able now. My boat is WAY too heavy to drag anywhere, and if I can drag it, I can run it.

Above twin is difficult in much other than a flat bottom in normal water conditions. Long shoal just above the bridge, then another one at the top of the next pool.

Guess I'm getting older. Went to bed early and woke up at 3:00 sharp and couldn't go back to sleep. Decided to just come to work since that's what I was already thinking about anyway. Maybe I can knock off this afternoon and try to fish. Looks like turbidity is down under 20, but the water still looks high at 1300 cfs. Is it chocolate milk in the Beavorama area?

That turbidity measurement must be an exponential function. Tremendous difference between 15 and 20.

Jeez I hope not. I'm ready for a wadable white bass run. I felt like I got hosed last year on high water. Every time I could make a trip, the river was jacked up. The few times conditions were perfect I couldn't go. I caught fewer white bass last year than I did on my one best day in 2013.

Did anyone try to get out this weekend? Watching the graphs, it looks like the water was rolling high and plenty stained. Turbidity has dropped a lot so it may still be muddy, but not chocolate milk. Still, the current is higher than I normally like. I"m trying to decide between fishing the Bevaorama area tomorrow or going down to Van Buren and crappie fishing the river down there. I'm leaning towards the Arkansas river at the moment.

Is the predator one of those square pontoonish things? They're nice but not very light or versatile. I think you'll get a lot more use out of a kayak.

it has just kinda drizzled all day in Fayetteville. Haven't looked at the totals, but this is not exactly a toad strangler so far.

There are probably 10 threads in this forum about that float. Not trying to be smart...just encouraging you to scroll back through old posts. You can learn more from reading those than you'll get from respones to this one.

wonder how it will look after tomorrow

Ham, what advantages does Nano have over 10 lb power pro other than bright colors?

I think "drop shot rig" was referring to his rod and reel setup. Seems pretty clear to me from the article that he caught the fish on the spinner.

The walleye run above greers is supposed to be good. I've always wanted to float the headwaters. I've fished the lake and tailwaters plenty of times, but never up there.

I believe the guy who used to let folks access there stopped doing it. You could always put in there the old fashioned way. Taking out there would suck though.

Ditto what chief said. That stretch gets floated a good deal, but nothing like above Noel. It shouldn't feel crowded. I always catch my big fish above Noel but have caught some nice ones there too.

I always get down in the dumps this time of year...seems like this winter has been the longest ever. We had some nice warm spots in late Jan/early Feb, and December was mild enough. But February has really been kicking my butt. I've managed a couple days at the hot lake but that's it. I look at the long term forecast every day just hoping to see signs of life. Looks like this time next week will be pretty nice. I'm ready for a good long stretch of sunny sixties and maybe a warm rain or two to kick off the spring runs. Maybe someone can show me how to catch walleye other than by accident this year.

I was 19 at the time and this was before the advent of digital cameras - or at least before I had one. I think there's a picture somewhere at my aunt and uncle's house. They lived up on top of the hill where Richland Creek and Mill Creek came together - 500 yards or so above the confluence with the White. I loved that area back then. It got absolutely no pressure. There was no boat ramp. Folks would still be out there in the spring for the white bass, but not nearly like it is today. The water was so much cleaner back then. I was in heaven as a new student at the UofA. I just had to go out there, climb down the hill, and unlock a canoe that was chained to a tree. We'd fish Richland on the way down, then go either up or down on the White. It was a rare day when we didn't catch one or more big bass. We rarely used anything other than white/silver spinnerbaits and white trick worms. We also caught more crappie and catfish than we knew what to do with. It was paradise for two kids in a canoe. Sometimes we'd float from Tuttle Road to my uncle's house on Richland, or from Wyman down on the White. A few years later the lake got really high and backed up the river for a long time. It just happened to coincide with the building of the new 45 bridge and the AFGC ramp, and I believe with something relating to effluent discharge. Also, someone cut the chain and stole that canoe. I still fish out there a lot during the spring, but it's nothing like what it used to be in terms of native fish or water quality. I hardly mess with it for bass anymore.

I caught one in 2000 from the white above beaver lake that was just over 7. Didn't realize it was a spot until I got the picture back and didn't really know the difference then. State record at the time was 7-15 I think. Used to catch a lot of big bass there and some monster spots but it's nowhere near what it was. Haven't caught one close to that fish anywhere since.