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Last night I set the alarm for 3:35AM, certain we would hammer them in Topwater this AM. Got to the ramp at 5:05 and was the 3rd truck there. Went to a couple of long run outs looking for a topwater next bite and there was just zero Topwater activity. Didn’t even mark much on the graph deep so we went to plan B quickly. I was surprised and disappointed. With the clouds I thought it could have been a repeat of the epic day Mr Babler had yesterday... sadly it was not. But we got a little revenge with the drop shot. Found a school of fish in 20ft around some bushes and had a blast catching them. I caught 9, buddy had 4 (he was slow to move to a drop shot). Lots of LM a couple of spots, and one Walleye. All the LM were 1.7-2 pounders. At about 8:00 we had to run down the lake to get away from lightening when the storm came through. Marked a ton of fish around BigM in 30-40 feet but they must have had full bellies because they wanted nothing to do with us. The storm fizzled out so we went back to the same spot where we were catching them earlier but the wind had died and that put a damper on the bite. We caught a couple after the storm but not as many. Had to be off the water by 10:00 which sucked because we were on them. Still working on reading my electronics and learning to fish deeper- today was a good learning experience. Tight lines! This post has been promoted to an article

Awesome Bill- I was sitting in my office this AM thinking about what a perfect Topwater morning it should be... I’m headed to Big M tomorrow- hopefully I can get out there early before the Eagle Rock deal takes off. Gotta get on my spot first because I don’t have enough backup plans! Your information is always so helpful- as a guy who gets over there about once a month I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the detail you put in your reports. When I get to the lake I feel like I at least have an idea of where to start! Thank you.

RPS- good luck to you and thanks for all the posts!

We put in at Lost Bridge at 5:30. Saw some very scattered Topwater by the state park. But they would NOT eat a topwater lure. Got one spot to eat it and that was it. Didn’t see/hear any stripers in that area though. We did end up with a few smallies, including a double on the first cast of the day. Also had one keeper eye. Most all our fish were on jerkbaits. Weird deal- they wouldn’t eat the Topwater or the keitech (threw both the 2.8 and 3.3) but ate the jerk. Off the water by 8:30. The shad these fish were spitting up were pretty small...

What he said... Also, I still think there are fish in front of the bushes. Ned rig, wacky rig, or neko a stick bait on bushes in main lake points and front 1/3 of the pockets/creek arms. Not sure you can catch giants that way but you will catch fish. Try a few banks that look a little different (Different slopes/chunk rock vs. gravel etc) and figure out what works. Should be able to get on some fish that way...

Watching Montgomery and Rose pitch/skip those jigs under docks was amazing. Like watching a professional golfer land it within 3 feet of the cup every time. Just an amazing skill disparity between those guys and an average dude like me. Add onto that they they made about 4 casts in the time it takes me to make one (and I think I fish pretty hard). Just like in any sport: the gap between pros and avg joes is huge.

Bo: I drive past Beaver to fish at Big M on the reg because the fishing is just better there than almost anywhere at Beaver. That being said, I rarely get to the lower end of the lake and hearing you Table Rock old timers talk about how it was back in the day makes me wish I could have experienced it.

It is impressive because of how hard they grind. Just do the math on how many fish you have to catch per hour on that. Its like 1 fish every 5 minutes.

I do like this format some- it is cool to see these guys just go fish and try to catch a bunch. And instant weighing and release IS without a doubt the future of the sport. I do with MLF would mix in a couple of "5 Biggest" formats into the season. If you are crowning a true AOY then why not have them fish a couple of different scoring formats? I think it would make it more interesting. Kinda like Nascar having short track, restrictor plates, and a couple of road courses. If a guy can win a tournament like this AND do well in a 5 biggest format then that is worthy of AOY title. The whole "bringing fish back to the crowds" deal is a joke. If you look closely at most of the FLW and even Elite weigh-in crowds: There just are not that many people there. Obviously, the classic and maybe the Texas Bass Fest deal are exceptions- but most of these things don't draw huge numbers. I bet there were not 1,000 people at the last FLW weigh in I went to the last time they were on Beaver. Now with live-streaming you have an opportunity to catch a much bigger audience DURING the actual event which is a game changer.

I respect that these guys are out there earning a living and I would never go crowd in on a guy. But they are using a public resource. I don't get that many days on the water and have to make the most of them. If I was on a spot first there is NO WAY I would yield to them. There is plenty of lake out there for everyone.

Great fish man... solid report.

We were tossing the Neko right in front of the bushes then bringing it out to about 10-15 feet. I would say most of our hook-ups came out about 10 feet from the bushes but not sure where the fish were actually positioned vs. where they would finally commit to the bite.

Not sure how helpful this report is since it looks like @Bill Babler and @196champ did a little better than us. Friday and Saturday we fished from Big M to Eagle Rock What we couldn't do that Mr Babler and 196Champ seemed to have good luck with: topwater and swimbait baits. We tried main lake points for topwater early and late but saw almost no activity at all. Caught a few on the small swimbaits on main lake points but not many- the few we did catch there were beat up and looked like they had been in a war. After the sun got up we kinda abandoned the main lake points but we shouldn't have given up on it. We also caught a few- but very few- flipping in bushes. Weather seemed right (lots of wind) for a spinner bait around the bushes but we didn't get bit on that either. Again, maybe we didn't throw it enough or in the right spots. But: We caught fish constantly for 2 days throwing a Neko rig in front of the bushes. Our best banks seemed to be in pockets and secondary points up to halfway back in coves. If there was chunk rock even better. Consistent stream of 1-1.5 lb fish but never got into anything much bigger than that. Fun couple of days with steady catching. If you saw an isolated bush, rock, pocket in the bushes, or laydown you could call your shot. There WAS a fish on it. Most the fish we caught were in 2-10 feet of water but that is probably because once we got on that pattern we never really got off it. Mostly K's, a few LM and some bronze ninjas all mixed in. That was my first time really fishing the neko rig and we had a lot of fun with it. Either way- plenty of fish to catch and lots of ways to catch them.

I don't know if this is true or not but a buddy of mine swears the largest bass (both LM and Spots) in beaver run with the stripers. As a side note: my largest bass on Beaver (and PB) was almost 7 lbs- in the back of Prairie Creek in the middle of a school to Stripers.

Thanks for the report Bill... Headed over there this Friday/Saturday and will be in the Big M area. Is the topwater bite coming together much up the White?

I am going to be fishing Big M Friday and Saturday... might have to stream it live from the boat to see how they are catching them!

Dang man- that smallie is a toad!! But the top water striper deal is about as much fun as you can have with your pants on! It never ceases to amaze me how they can blow up a lure with 3 treble hooks and not get hooked! If that same lure comes within an inch of my pants or shorts I get hooked!

First of all- you sir- are my hero. Real man of genius! Secondly: Where the heck were you with this information 24 months ago when we were drawing our house? I got the garage bay but the drain and hot/cold water are brilliant!

I haven't tried it but I have seen a couple of videos like this lately: they suggest taking your long pliers through the gill plate to reach the gutted hook:

Nice job fellas- and thanks for such a great and detailed report! Gotta love a good smallie beat down!

I have been looking through the history here to try to get any advice on my jig setup.. Specifically line recommendations- I normally go really light on my line but this weekend I lost a few fish (and jigs) throwing some light line up into the trash. What do you guys throw your jigs on? Specifically in spring time when you are fishing more shallow?

Spent the weekend at a friend's house back in Big Clifty. I am not very familiar with this part of the lake as far as fishing goes but I have to say we had a great weekend fishing and the kids got in on the action as well. Such a beautiful area back there! Beaver is a fund place to fish in May- we caught Walleye, LM, Spots, Smallies, and Whites. Water is SUPER CLEAR- probably up to 20 feet of visibility. WT was 64ish... we had a few different bites: 1. Way in the back of the creeks and coves lots of fish on/around beds or up shallow. Had our best luck in these areas making long casts into the skinny water in back or flipping into flooded timber (had to be stuff that looked like it was there for a while- nothing "new" from the last few day of rain was holding fish yet. I caught most of my fish in these areas throwing a 5/16 oz Jewel Spider jig with a speed crawl or a rage tail menace. 2. Long tapering points with a swim bait- usual suspects: keitech 3.3 fat in anything shad like. (Side note- tested out the Jewel Gem head- REALLY like that swimbait head- locks those things on!). Caught one very nice Walter this way which sadly I didn't get a picture of. We were bank fishing in front of my buddy's house and my net was in my boat! I got one hand under his belly and he flopped and came unbuttoned. Was def 22+ inches though. Very nice fish. 3. Topwater- We didn't have a lot of topwater action- at least not much luck getting fish to BITE to top even though we did see some activity. But I chalk that up more to me not knowing this area very well and where to go. But- I did have one of my favorite fish catches ever on top water. My daughter and I were on the back of the boat throwing topwater early Sunday AM. 1/2 way through a retrieve with a spook my daughter almost took my eye out with a pop-r so I decided to take out the back seat so we had a little more room to move around. I put my rod down (spook still in the water) and reached down to remove the pedestal seat... suddenly my rod was heading for the lake! Grabbed it just in time- rod in on hand and seat in the other. The samllie you see below just crushed it! Actually thought it was a striper... handed the rod to my daughter who had a blast reeling it in! 4. Found a school of whites in the back of a cove in 20 feet of water. It took some work to get them to bite but we did get a few- keitech 3.3. Beaver is at its best this month- fun mixed bags... with the insane rain we got last night I am sure the water will come up some more and if it stabilizes at all flipping a jig is going to be a great time...

WEAR A LIFEJACKET!! If that boat hadn't been there how long could that guy have lasted out there?

I am a believer that color on the Keitech doesn't matter much. Find something shad like and you will be good. I like the blue pearl and electric shad colors but have caught them on white also. I use a plain ole' lead jig head often and get bit on that just fine. Sometimes I will use a white VCM swimbait jig head I keep 2.8, 3.3 and the 4 inchers all in the boat. I think length is a bigger deal than color. And I completely agree on the shorter shanked hooks! This time of year I like to throw them on long points... If I am fishing bottom SLOW ROLL as Quillback mentioned. At dusk and after sunset you can find some Walleyes that way.

Can't beat a buzz bait bite! Sounds fun!