Quillback

Timely topic... Just yesterday I was fishing Beaver in the Indian creek area, I have been tossing 1/8 ounce marabou road runners lately and having a lot of fun catching Kentuckys on an ultralight setup with 4# line. Last week I caught a 3 lb striper by accident that was quite a handful on that rig. Anyway, I thought that was a fluke, well yesterday I'm fishing the roadrunner around some scattered timber and WHAM! I see a big silver flash - fish looked to be 10#'s or so, I assume it was a striper, but not a hundred percent sure, anyway there's nothing I can do but hang on and start follwing it around with my foot on the trolling motor, like I said there's some standing timber and a couple of times the fish heads towards some trees but somehow I'm able to keep him away from them while at the same time manuevering the boat, but I just could not get him pointed towards open water where I might have been able to wear him out and boat him. Finally, inevitably, he gets hung on a tree, snap goes the line, and I was left with that deeply depressed feeling I get whenever I lose a big fish. Still bugs me this morning to think about it. When I fished for steelhead and salmon in Washington state I lost several big fish that I wish I could have at least seen, just to see how big they were. Those fish are all now long dead but they live on in my memory.

2 weeks ago there were lots of Kentucky bass in the Indian creek arm on the north side of the arm on the sunny, windy banks. The biggest one I caught was maybe a pound and a half, but they are lots of fun on a light oufit like you have. I was using a 1/8 ounce white marabou road runner. There's also quite a bit of timber in the water in that area at least for Beaver so you should feel right at home. I may be there Saturday myself, haven't made up my mind yet.

I wonder why they don't eat the catfish?

Trot line - Where the heck did that come from? The line part I understand, but "Trot"??

Wildeye - Were you able to keep your shad alive? Just curious how long they stayed alive and what you kep them in. I can net them over in OK, but keeping them alive long enough to make it back to fish them in Beaver is the challenge.

Yes, thanks! Even though I fish Beaver rather than Table Rock, it seems that what applies to Table Rock also will work on Beaver. So I appreciate the tips and advice.

I think I remember seeing your boat go by Jaybird. I was in a 17ft green Xpress, fishing the north bank. I started out by where Indian creek comes in and moved down the north bank as the day went on.

Nice sunny day, a little chilly but not bad. Tried for whites for a while, cast and trolled Shad Raps to no avail, talked to a fellow who had caught a few small males a week earlier but didn't have any when I talked to him, they just weren't in the area, so I decided to try for Crappie. Started slow rolling a 1/8 ounce White road runner around the banks and timber, no crappie but I did catch quite a few Spots and one small striper. I was using my ultralite jig rod with 4 lb. fluoro and with an outfit like that, a 1 lb. Spot is a challenge. The striper about won the battle, I hooked him in between two tree and if he had gone left or right he would have escaped with my jig, but he chose to stay between the trees and after some anxious moments I was able to boat him. For you turkey hunters, I saw a nice Tom strutting by the bank, could not get close enough for a good pic unfortunately, but I got some fish pics:

BTW if you get the Arkansas Democrat Gazette there is an article about this in the sports section in today's paper.

I'm not much of a Mizzou fan, but they were the only team left standing this weekend that I could root for, so I was sorry to see them lose, but it was a great game played against a very tough UConn team.

Yep the legislature wants that AGFC royalty money. There's some serious hanky-panky going on. This 2$ license fee thing is a way for them to threaten to shut off some of AGFC's funding unless AGFC hands over the royalty money to the pols so they can blow it on their latest spending schemes. This is not a good deal for Arkansas sportsmen.

Yeah they better pay that guy some more money, Kentucky now has an opening, but so far Anderson's name hasn't been mentioned in any of the "Who will be the next coach" rumors.

Yeah I may be out Sunday once it warms up a little, maybe give Indian creek a try. Hopefully some whites will be in the area.

Yep, nice fish! That striper is healthy looking.

Nice fish!

I was out there myself, got there at daylight. I couldn't catch any Walleye, but the pesky pink striped bug eaters kept whacking my Shad Raps. A couple of scenery shots, looking upstream and downstream about 1/2 mile below the 62 bridge. It was a fine morning!

I catch blues over on Grand Lake - they are the best eating catfish I have ever had.

If rps sees this he could fill you in on the takeouts, I don't know of any besides Houseman and Beaver, and Holiday Island. There wasn't that much traffic last Saturday, but it was a cold and rainy morning. 3 rigs at Houseman when I put in and maybe 8 when I left in the evening. I might be down there tomorrow morning, I wanted to hit Beaver Lake around Indian creek, but it may be kind of windy on the big lake.

#7 Firetiger Shad Rap.

I put out some broccoli plants a week and a half ago, they have made it through the cold and now the warm weather. I'll wait until April to put out tomatoes, beans and squash.

If it wasn't for work I would haul my boat down there. But if the weather cooperates this weekend I may give Indian Creek a shot.

I know Ellensberg well, bird hunted and did some fishing in the area. Several ponds in the area, some had some great fishing at times.

What lake did you get it at? Lived on Washington State for a few years myself, judging from the background you were over on the Dry Side.

I use Bandit 300's on Beaver. Firetiger has worked well for me, black works sometimes and the Walleye seem to like black also. My uncle uses them in Mississippi and swears by bubble gum. I have also heard folks say the mistake color works well. I also saw Wally Marshall crankbaits at Basspro and picked a couple up, gonna try them this summer, they look like they should work. Crappie.com has a lot of info about trolling cranks for crappie, look in the state forums for Arkansas and Mississippi.

I agree with you Brownieman, the whole tournament thing is getting carried away, I'm not knocking those that participate, but it's all starting to get a little overdone. And that thing with parking the boat with a Merc motor on it at the convention center, I guess they must be afraid that Merc is a better motor so they wanted it out of there.