J-Doc

Sorry for the late reply. I think I know the one you are talking about. It's further south and around the corner. My buddy used it once. It's hard to find because you have to go through a small housing area. Try GOOGLE Maps and you should be able to find it. It's open to the public too. I have fished a Jon boat out of Van Winkle many times with onl a paddle. Not very safe when the skiers rip up the cove. They love skiing in Van Winkle so be carefull. The best Jon boat lakes are Lake Leatherwood and Bob Kidd south of Fayetteville.

Try fishing the main lake points and big flats next to river channels. Also try fishing smaller baits. D22 will go deep but the profile has been seen by too many fish. I'm finding really small baits produce numbers and slightly larger baits will produce bigger fish. I think Beaver has seen everything plus the kitchen sink thrown in it and the bass are not falling for conventional baits as much. Not saying they won't work but slow finesse presentations will work when nothing else will. We caught 10-12 bass Sat. morning when the fog was so thick you couldn't see 50yards ahead of you. All on a flat and with smaller baits like rooster tails. Only 2-3 were keepers but I learned where the fish were and what they were doing.

With all of the generation at the dam and rainfall, where's the mudline? About the 112 bridge?

I absolutely love braid now that I finally tried it on quality gear. The first time I tried it, it was too course and I just didn't like it. Now, I feel like I can't feel a thing without braid. I can't tell you if it's a Mt. Dew can or a Miller can but I can tell you if it's an alum. can! I can even hear my jig rattles. I personally prefer Suffix braid over Spiderwire. Suffix has a smaller diameter darn near sewing thread and it's tough. REAL tough. I think I've lost one jig on it and that's because it was tangled in some rocks and the line was cut by the rock I think. Yeah, the Bill Dance "THERE HE IS!" hookset can even break a rod if you're not carefull so ease up on the hookset and the fish will thank you! As for the knot, try a "Stren Knot". I think that's what it's called. It starts off like a palomar but when you take the loop back through the eye for your palomar, wrap the loop around about 3-4 times and then tie it like a clinch knot. You'll now have 3 tag ends. It's a very tough knot. If you don't wet the line, it will never tie right so it can take a bit of time and patience to learn it. I've snapped my line before breaking that knot....it's gorrilla tough.

Skeet Reese uses them exclusively. Does that mean you should? No. His are given to him free of charge, you pay for yours. For that price range, there are lots of rods in that category. I have St. Croix Avid series rods (not this years model) and I love them. Does that mean they are the best? No. Each rod brand has various characteristics that the average angler cannot distinguish. It all boils down to taste, preference, and confidance. If you like the appearance of a rod, the feel of it ovearll, the sensitivity is crucial, and the customer service and warranty is also just as important. St. Croix has superb customer service from what I've read on other boards. Here are some good brands that were recommended to me by custom rod builders: - All Star - St. Croix - Falcon (my buddy has broke three of these so if your tough on them, these aren't for you) - Castaway (?) Extra light, lighter than GLoomis A local dealer here loves his Castaway rods. He's sold all his GLoomis rods and uses Castaway exclusively. Since he has dealer privledges, he talks to Castaway often. He has (no joke) about 25 rods on each side of his boat in his rod lockers. I've seen it! He is an excellent angler and wins most of the tournaments he's in. If they're good enough for him, should be good enough for anyone. As for the Carrot? I think it's a passing fad myself. So for the price range, you can get something that has been around for a long time and has established R&D and customer service history to go with it. That will add more confidance to your purchase.

So is the water still high below the dam? Good enough for an 18ft flat bottom? The lake is so hot right now and with all of the ski boats, I'm ready to try something a little different and enjoy some beautiful Ozark scenery.

The water on Beaver is very hot on the surface. Temps varied from 89 degrees to 86. I found my instincts were correct that the clearer the water, the cooler the temp and also the Cliffty area has cooler water temps due to the rocks. We found some semi-active bass in the Cliffty area but couldn’t get them to commit to a bite. I used a deep diving crankbait and had 3 and sometimes up to 5 bass follow it but never bite. I tried changing colors, retrieve speed, etc. but they would either not follow or not bite. Tried a swimbait and that did not do the job either. Got some to follow but that was it. Most of the fish wer in at a min. of 20ft and most were suspended around bait in 40-50ft of water. You have to totally trust your electronics to fish deep water in the middle of a cove like that and my boat partner insisted on throwing a frog in the shallow because that’s where he’s comfortable. Shallow water. Brother, in 88-degree water, you won’t find but one fish in all of 50 miles of shoreline that will be there and that will actually bite. So, that’s my report. I have the sunburn to prove it! (haha)

I went out three times this weekend. One trip with my 7yr. old son for perch, another trip Sat. afternoon for some late afternoon/night fishing, and a quick trip to the lake Sunday to test a new sonar unit. Two trips I launched from Rocky Branch. The dock is back and the water is clearer than it has been. i think you can see 6ft in that area pretty easy with temps in the mid 80's. With all the boats this weekend, there were random rolling waves all over the lake so that made fishing points interesting. Sunday, I launched from P. Creek and the water was even warmer there at 87 degrees! GEEZ! I feel like I fishing at SWEPCO! Hardly a fish on the graph and you couldn't even find any on points. Water is too warm and with all the boat traffic churning the water, I bet they are either tucked way back in a deep pocket or non existant in that area. My gut tells me towards the dam is better. Out near Cliffty and Lost Bridge.

Thanks for the report Hogfan! I hope to get back out on the water soon myself.

Here's a link I like to use to get a feel for what's going on with Beaver Lake. The local guide supplies a weekly report which can be usefull information. Arkansas Game & Fish Report Beaver Lake is a very strange fishing lake. There are some who really know where to go and what to do and then there are the weekend backlashers like myself that just enjoy being out fishing on the lake. It's a lot of work staying on fish and knowing where to go and what to use. I typically fish shallow water myself and I'm under the impression that deeper structure and offshore ledges near shallow water is where the fish are. How to catch them is a different story. I think a carolina rig, jig, and crankbait are the best tools. Good luck!

Thanks! That makes sense.

The temp is in the mid 70's. With the constant cold fronts and weird weather patterns, there might be some late spawners. We tried the big end of the lake Sat. morning. I expected a slow bite due to the cold front but I found schooling fish. Problem was, most were whites and some smaller strippers I think. I know I saw some largemouth jump clean out of the water though. We tried several things, (flukes, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, topwater, jigs, etc.) and couldn't get a bite. They were feeding heavily on something. My guess is shad. We tried a few more places and just couldn't find any. Seems like the secret to Beaver Lake is off-shore structure and deeper ledges around 30ft near deep water and shallow water. Seems like they like suspending on the bluffs or drop-offs and just staying there until the food isn't there. Everytime we fish shallow water, there just isn't many bass around like in other lakes. Even when it's stained and muddy.

I tried night fishing several times last year. I never caught a single fish in most trips. Some people have the ability and talent to do something just right.....some don't. I still like night fishing though. With the water warming up, the fish feel like their half-cooked. Nothing like getting slammed on a buzzbait at 3:00 in the morning. Gotta love it! Personally, I think night fishing is just about prime right now on Beaver Lake so I would imagine Table Rock is probably the same.

We fished around the Hwy. 412 area Tuesday night from 6:30-10:00 and never caught a fish. We had a few bites but they were very short reaction strikes. One quick "thug" and that was it. By the time your brain processed it was a bite it was too late to react. When you fish that long and only get 2-3 bites, it's hard to stay focused on the short bite. We fished flukes, spinnerbaits, jigs, and a few topwater assortments. There was absolutely no topwater action from bass. A few gar but little to no bass action. Never found much on the sonar in coves, points, channels, etc. We found a few coves that looked like a textbook case for a bass hangout. My bud likes to say, "MAN, that looks bassy right there!" We combed it pretty good and never got bites. So I guess the bass are down river in the main lake end already. Anybody got any thoughts? Thanks!

Anyone here ever fish Lake Ft. Smith? It recently re-opened after being closed for expansion. I hear the bite has been decent. There is not a lot of laydows or underwater structure that I'm aware of. Anyone have any tips? I was thinking of going down sometime soon for a night fishing trip and some camping. Thanks all!

It definitely resembles the spotted bass. The lake record is around 5lbs I think. I can’t remember the exact weight but I’ve looked it up. This one was about 4lbs and it was the strangest one I’ve seen until this spring when I caught the spotted bass in the bottom pic. The one in the top has the dark back, small mouth, etc. like a spotted bass normally does but the stripes were a new one on me. Ever since then, I’ve seen more and more with the stripes. I’ve caught smallmouth, largemouth, and now meanmouth (half smallie half spot), and now this new hybrid of spotted bass. I didn’t know about the spawning methods between whites and largemouth but that makes since. The whites always go far up the river end to spawn and the blacks stay shallow and the smallmouth stay around the big end of the lake in shallow water. Good info so thanks for sharing! Here is what I usually catch for spotted bass. Notice…..no stripes? Slender long body? Mouth is slightly larger than a white or smallmouth but not quite big enough to be a largemouth bass because the back of the mouth is not below the eye? That’s why I think these other two are some type of new cross-bred hybrid of sorts. Could be just a variation of the normal or typical spotted bass. When you look up bass identification pictures for the Arkansas Game & Fish, the stripped spotted bass is not an listed.

Greetings everyone! I've been fishing Beaver Lake for about 2 years now with this year being my second year of truely "fishing" where I have been fishing from a boat. My bud has Greg Bohannon's old Ranger so we go out as frequently as we can. I fish from an 18ft flat boat with a 55hp Yamaha (borrowed from father-in-law) but it gets the job done especially in the back of coves. I plan on getting a 19ft Xpress this fall or winter though. I haven't fished Beaver as much as I'd like this year but I have seen a lot of new cross-bred species. I'd never heard of meanmouth bass till this year and I've seen cross-breeds between white and black bass (goofy looking fish). Here's a 4lb white/black from last fall just to backup my discovery. Notice the small stripes and football shaped body? Here's another one from this spring near Lost Bridge. This one is lighter but has a small mouth and football shaped body. She weighed 2lbs 7oz. So, I'm a new member just saying hello to the forum. I look forward to sharing tips and info from my home lake!