jeb

Quillback and I hit Indian Creek yesterday morning. Took my boat so we could see what was going on down there with my Garmin FFS. I've had the FFS for a 2-3 months, and it has been helpful at times. But yesterday it was one of "playing video games" days. There were lots of active fish throughout the water column, and especially around the submerged trees. Could see them come running towards the lure, multiple fish at a time. Sometimes they'd bite, sometimes the wouldn't. Groups of them would follow the lure from 10' to 40' and back w/o biting. Proving again that finding fish is not the same as catching fish. We found a submerged cedar tree that was loaded with fish, but they would not come away from the tree very far. Caught some nice LM's off it, at least for this time of year. 2+ lbers. Spoons and swimbaits did the best for us. FFS really proved it's worth to me yesterday.

Great day on the lake. I tried spoons on the school of fish we found, but no takers. Really surprised me as they were hitting the swim baits on the fall. But I'm not sure the water is cold enough for a shad kill.

Correct. The new Ram is technically a Series Hybrid. A Prius is an example of a Parallel Hyrbid.

https://www.agfc.com/en/fishing/where-fish/fish-attractors/

Thanks Jeff. I pulled down their latest GPS map, but it does not differentiate between old planted structure and the new ones. I guess you just have to go graphing.

I doubt they'll drop it much, given the history of the last few years. I heard that 1/8 of the population of Arkansas gets its drinking water from Beaver, so they tend to like to keep it as full as they safely can heading into the dryer summer season. It's likely to be a very slow return to normal pool, IMO.

Up 6 feet, according to the COE site. Prairie Creek cove is a mess after that storm. Never seen so much debris floating around. Lake level is way up and it's muddy. They had to close Old Prairie Creek road that day. Be some tough fishing right now I'd wager.

Sounds like a great day! I got one on a top water the other day, too. Love it when they start biting on top.

Hitting some weeds? I've never seen weeds in TR or Beaver, but have never fished Bull Shoals. Does it have weed growth?

As far as the eye can see, the cove is frozen. Only ever seen this happen one other time in the 15 years I've been here. Not going to strap on the ice skates or anything, but it surprised me how quickly it happened. Tying on some spoons!

Thanks folks. I'll work these suggestions. I did have one done by HLS a few years ago. It was okay work, but I'm hoping to find better.

Good trip, thanks for dragging me along Jeff. I'm also hoping the cold weather = shad kill. I love the spoon bite time of year!

Thanks, but I'm not going to try and learn rod building on one of my most important rods. With a Daiwa Pixy Type R, 8# Sniper and a 5" weightless senko, this is the rod I catch 80+% of my bass on up in Wisconsin every summer. Want it done right.

I need to have a guide replaced on one of my Dobyn's rods. Dobyns are sending me the guide, so I need to find someone to put it on. I will probably take it to Hook, Line, Sinker in Rogers, but just wondering if there are any other suggestions for good rod repair folks in the Rogers area. Thanks

About time. Beaver is really full right now, and we're coming into a traditionally wet time of the year. They need to add capacity to the lake.

Wife and I went into Cablea's in Rogers today. Very sad. Had some gift cards to use, and need some reloading supplies. They have torn all the Cabela's signs off the building, save one, and replaced them with Bass Pro Outdoor World signs. Selection in the store is getting to be more and more BP brands. Prices are BP also. I buy a lot of primers, so keep an good eye on prices. BP in Springfield was always wildly high at $50 a thousand for small pistol. Cabela's normal price was $33, and they'd have them on sale often. And that's about the going national rate for them online. Guess what the price of the primers was today. $50. I'll be mail ordering primers from now on, it seems. Even with hazmat fees, they're way cheaper than BP. darn shame what they've done here. I wish no ill will toward JM or BP, but they sure are not going to see as much of my money as they have in the past.

Went into Cabela's for some reloading supplies yesterday. The Cave is closed. Big white tarp over the entrance. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, but we will not be darkening their door nearly as often now.

I saw that on the news last night. They said everyone swam to shore safely, and that the fire started in the engine. Not much more than that for details, though.

I sent an email to Cabela's saying I think closing the caves is bad move, if getting visitors into the store is their goal. They responded with a nice note, saying they'd pass my opinion on to their management. It'll probably die there in the round file, but it's worth a shot.

We found the same thing the other day. Talked to an associate about it, and it looks like they are taking another run at closing the Bargain Cave, at least here in Rogers. He said JM "did not like the Bargain Cave". Seems kind of odd, given he has a big outlet store next to the BP in Springfield. You'd think he'd understand the allure of the treasure hunt to bringing in shoppers. If it closes, it will certainly cut back dramatically on our visits to the store. It's unfortunate that we have the closest Cabela's to Springfield. They are messing with this store a lot to see how stuff flies. There are often BP staff from Springfield in the store, watching the lab rats.

16 year old Bentonville HS student drowned in the swim area at the PC park: http://5newsonline.com/2018/05/13/sheriffs-office-teenager-drowns-at-prairie-creek-marina/

Thanks. That makes sense, except for that dock laying there with 2 boats in it for that long. No insurance, I'd guess. You'd think the COE would get after them.

Yep, fishing was pretty good up in there. Thanks for the tips, Jeff. Great to run into you out there. We didn't catch any smallies or whites of any kind. Spots and LM's only. My recently repaired rotator cuff is finally feeling good enough to fish a few hours, so hopefully getting back into a lot more. Does anyone know the story of this flipped over dock in the cove just to the west of the dam? Docks next to it seemed fine. I've never seen anything like this on Beaver before.

Almost all impoundments are at their best fishing early in their lives, before a lot of the newly flooded cover rots away.

Yeah, it's still muddy here around the PC area.