bferg

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!

This is why they have been bringing down the lake level over the last few weeks! Gotta make some room.

thanks everyone... good information. Check back here later today for the link to my Swimbait Box Kickstarter campaign.

Watching some videos lately... always dangerous... I am thinking about getting a few big swimbaits (dangerous for the pocketbook I know). I was wondering if anyone had any experience with throwing large swimmers at the rock and any advice on where I should look if I wanted to add a few to the arsenal... Any thoughts on styles (soft body, line through, hard body)? What about rod/line set up recommendations? I found some older threads on here that talked about the R2S S-Waver 200. But I have not seen any recent discussions.

I saw this happen 2x when I was a kid at LOZ- pre-wake boat days. Both times the driver was turned around watching a skier/tuber/whatever and ran right into the bank. Idiots been around since long before Masterrafts.

Can’t catch ‘em at home! Way to get out there! I love seeing your night fishing reports. Just curious: what times do you usually fish? Is there a ideal time of night?

As always- nice job! But it’s painful seeing your reports while stuck in my office! #retirementgoals

Got out before work for a little bit this AM. The topwater striper action is on. WT is 62-63. I know there are some guys here who really target striper on the reg- I just chase them when they will eat something on top water and that time is now. Get there early because once the sun hits the water the deal is done.

Rim Shoals isn't far up the river from there- if I have the right spot in mind anyway.

Very cool! Love the video! Congrats!

I won't pretend to know why... but if you look at this historical chart http://beaver.uslakes.info/Level/ you can see how much higher the water was at the start of this year vs. historical. You can also see a pretty consistent pattern of a lot of water coming in in April/May... my guess: they need to make a little room or else they could have a mess on their hands.

Good call Mr. Babler... apologies- I normally try to take my pictures in such a way as to keep the locations a little more difficult to find! (Because I only have 2 spots to fish!). But there isn’t much of a need to fire up the motor at big M.

Made it over to the rock yesterday morning. First time in a long time I wasn’t first to the ramp! I’m slipping up! On the water at 6:40. Dense fog- it was soupy! Expected a ton of boats due to the big bass deal and there was more than average traffic but not too bad. We did some catching but honestly expected better. Our best pattern was flukes and spooks in buck brush on the main lake point or the front 1/3 of Creek arms. Caught most of our fish in less than 5 feet of water- a couple came in 15 feet or so in pockets and secondary points. Absolutey no love for the Rk! That was a let down. At about 9:45 the fog burned off, the sun was high, and the wind was non-existent. So was the bite! WT was 52ish when we launched and 54ish when we put it on the trailer at noon. Even though we didn’t catch as many as I wanted anytime you get a little toad of a smallie and a large mouth pushing 4lbs to absolutey destroy a spook in 1 foot of water you can’t really complain!

Nice Quill! Love it when Walter shows up! I suggest you go again tomorrow because I am headed over to Big M Friday and given my recent luck I will kill any bite that might be going on. Have a stink on me lately that I can’t get off.

Sad... I don't know the details on this BUT... wear a life jacket. It is a cheap and highly successful insurance policy. A few summers ago there were quite a few drownings at Beaver... I almost never wore a life jacket in the boat before then. Heard one of the rescue guys on the news say he had never had to recover a body that was wearing a life jacket. Went out an bought one that weekend and wear it all the time now. It isn't just a cold-water deal either: if you fall out of the boat and hit your head on something and are incapacitated for some time you can and will drown- even if the water is 90 degrees.

That's a sick ride right there...

Sorry Quill- that’s what happens when I get on someone’s spot- leave a stink that takes some time to wear off!

Awesome fish man!! And great report. Saw a similar set up near Big M today but didn’t get to that spot until about 9:30 and couldn’t get anything to bite- sun was high and lake was slick. Now I wish we would have been there earlier.

Got on the water this AM at 7:00 and fished until 11. It was 26 degrees when we launched. Water temp was 45 degrees pretty much everywhere we went- expected it to be a little warmer. Had 3 fish by about 9:00 and then nothing. Sun was out and the lake was slick- you don’t see a tin boat guy asking for more wind often but coulda used it today. Saw bait and fish in the mouth of a spawning cove but we were not there until 9:30 and couldn’t get them to bite anything- tried all the usual suspects with no love. Our fish came on soft plastics and a jig on the bottom on 15-22 feet of water on main lake chunk rock bank. Beautiful morning... love this time of year!

I have been very disappointed since BPS took over the Cabelas store here in Rogers- they have converted it to a BPS. I have seen a decline in the helpfulness of the staff. The assortment is terrible (no excuse for running out of Keitech swimbaits and RK's here!). But my biggest issue is the checkout situation. The last 2 times I have been in there the checkout has taken FOREVER- both times only 2 lanes open. One of these times was the last Saturday of the fishing sale. How do you only have 2 lanes open on a huge sale day? And the end of the day: I waited in line for forever and left without a few things I wanted. Each of my last 2 trips to BPS have resulted in an order to Tackle Warehouse. If you don't have what I want and can't get me in an out quickly then why should I come at all?

They are the white ones... I would be curious if anyone had issues with breaking.