nwaoutdoorsman

I've had reports of whites being caught from the mouth of the war eagle to a mile past the sidewalk hole. One guy reported catching a hundred a day schooling in the war eagle over the weekend. Another reported yesterday that the area around point 12 had 30-40 boats scattered around and they were all catching whites and stripers. I haven't heard any reports out of the white river, but I would assume from the mouth of the river to blue springs would be a good area to look for whites. After the weather breaks in a few days they should go the rest of the way up both rivers next week granted we don't get another cold front. As of right now the weather looks great for next week.

Thanks for the update.

Both are working depending on the situation. I'd use a 1/2oz football for deeper presentations and a 5/16 finesse for shallower cover or fishing around boat docks.

Fished Friday in the frigid cold temps. I think when we started out it was around 17 and warmed up to about 35, but that didn't keep the fish from biting. We caught 19 fish, our best 5 would have went 13-14lbs. We caught all our fish on a jerkbait. Fished from Rocky Branch to Starkey on bluff ends, and secondary and main lake points. I keep hearing reports of an A-rig bite, but haven't been able to get any takers on it yet. Also threw a wart some and no takers on it either. The jerkbait seems to be the most consistent along with a jig. Water temp was 45-47.

I have a SWBR956C 7'11'' Loomis swimbait rod for sale. Rod is in new condition and retails for $275. I'm asking $150 plus shipping or can be picked in Rogers. You can message me here. Thanks!!

I also should add that if you do take minnows to slowly add some warm water to your bucket to acclimate them. The water in the bait tanks is around 60-65 degrees and if you drop them in that 89 water over there they'll only last a couple minutes at best.

I thought we might see some beds, but I never saw any. It should be getting real close.

Great fish JEB!!! Sounds like they're still biting at that end of the lake. I love that wart bite!!

Fished the hot tub today. We did something a little different than I'm accustomed to doing. We took bass minnows and floated them about 4-6' under a cork. I've used live bait for a lot of things, but never bass. We didn't catch the monsters we had envisioned, but we caught a pile of 2lbers. And they were a lot of fun on light tackle. We did catch a few on artificials, mostly plastics 5-15' deep. But no doubt the live bait saved the day for us. Water temp at the discharge was 89 and 65 at the dam. If you haven't tried it, I highly reccommend giving it a shot. It would be a great place and technique to take a kid or someone new to fishing where they could catch a lot of fish and maybe catch a really big one. I've heard of several over 8 being caught over there so far this winter.

The ones I've seen lately have been a medium to dark olive with orange on the pinchers and orange splotches along the body. But Jeb is right, they will change colors at different times of the year. I fileted some walleye a couple weeks ago and they were full of them. I wanted to take some pics, but my hands were nasty and I didn't want that all over my phone, but I wish I had. As far as crawdads go they were some of the most brilliantly colored I've ever seen. John Hodge, HLS Outdoors

Yes, its a Bohannan Special. Or at least thats what I call it. The crawdads have been a beautiful olive color with orange on the pinchers and orange splotches along their back. I think a phantom green or brown would be a excellent match also.

I believe its because they are shallower from now until after the spawn than any other time of year making them easier to locate and pattern.

I use flourocarbon for everything with the exception of topwaters, I use 15lb mono for those. 15 for football jigs, spinnerbaits, C-rig, texas rig, etc, 10 for crankbaits, jerkbaits etc, 8 for spinning rods and 20 for an A-rig.

42-44 degrees is getting on down there. Mine held steady at 47 all day. Shad generally start dying at 45. Did you see any doing the death twitch? That'll really help turn that jerkbait bite on bigtime.

Had a good day on Beaver today. Fished from 9 to 3 and had 9 good LM in the 3-4lb range, a couple in the 2lb range, a 2.5lb SM and a keeper K. First fish of the day and new year for me was a double, a 2lber and a 4lber. Caught everything on a wart 5-7' deep on chunk rock main lake points in the Clifty area. Points were the key, fished some water in between and never got a hit. So, just skipped from point to point picking up a fish on about every other point. Had to cover alot of water. I believe I could have caught them anywhere at that end off the lake from Rocky Branch to the Dam. Also saw a lot of striper boats trolling in the mouth of Big Clifty. I've heard good reports of stripers from there in the last couple weeks. I took a few pics, but I was by myself so sorry for the poor quality. Its hard to do much by yourself.