fishofexcellence

I found something that might be helpfull, go to bass pros webb site, up top click on to outdoor libary, Map of beaver is in here, but didnt have TR a few months ago. You can zoom in to get countour lines & also print out for records. Hope it helps.

Thanks for the info. tried to get bait in their the other day, but water was to clear for me. Found good shad hanging around Hickory same area where the black bass were caughgt around the brush.Sounds like we might give praire another chance for those stripers.

Was up in warr eagle yesterday too trying for stripers 1-7pm, no luck should of gone out am. Water temp was up to 61, sure got their fast. Whats the temp running up in Praire? Heard the stripers moved out,but sure would enjoy towing there than driving 1.5 hrs to get up warr eagle from here at Holiday Island. Speaking of Holiday Island weve been getting some good whites up to 17". If their not in the back of learherwood creek or butler by beaver town they like to hang out on the sunken islands from Holiday Island up river. not to Houseman yet but on the way. Throwing jigs, roostertails, & thinfins are working great in the back of the creeks. Trolling wally divers & Hot n Tots are making all 4 rods go down a lot on the main channel with a walley being caught every once in a while. Whites are showing up on graph like a pile of brush on the bottom in 14 to 18ft water. Temps running about 58- 59 in the back of the creeks 47-51 in the river, depending on how much water their letting out of dam. How deep were those stripers in Praire? I was getting about 47 their a few days ago, but temps have shot up fast every where els should be warmer their now. Seems to be the only place wher ive seen the birds.

Best water temp to get the whites up rivers & creeks is 53- 63. Anybody know the temps between sweetwater & 86 bridge. Should be getting pretty close by Fri with these warm days coming.

Cant say Im the best, but I Do try as hard as any, with 8 good bait rods, 2 umbrella rods, & casting rods. If party is more than 4 I use eathier Johnny Glantze ( www.big1sstriperguide.com ) or Gean Chapman (www.beaverguideservice.com ) as 2nd boat. Fishing out of Praire Creek or Hickory until end of april. Than the dam or Praire pretty wll puts us on fish spring thru summer. If you get a big one I can even mount it for you at a discount. 2007 graduate of Colorado Instatute of Taxidermy. Im out of Holiday Island & when on Beaver have just fished Stripers since 94. I also do a lower rate trip for Walley,Whites, Crappie, & Trout up the Beaver Tail Waters out of Holiday Island. The wallye are moving up river now for a good March & April spawn. www.fishofexcellence.com ) My name is Robert & wish you a good day on the water whoever you choose. All the guides listed by others above are also very good with a lot of years behind them.

Males go up around 55, Females start moving up at around 58-60. Eggs hatch 58-64. Kings and Roaring River gets good about two weeks before they are good up river from Holiday Island. Best temps usually are end of March thru April. Nothing beats a 1/4 oz White Rooster Tail.

Went down Wed below the dam to just play a little off bank. Me & the only other angler there both caught & released a walley under 18". If the males are up this far than the females shold be around Holiday Island, Beaver Town & maybe even Houseman. Walleye are on the move. Just need some good weather so we can get to moving too.

We go in Tue for chest x-rays, catskan, & talk on how to fight this. Please say a prayer to help Kathy Johnson thru this. She is only 57 & down to 85 lbs, so it looks like a hard fight. Hoping prayers will help. Thanks Robert.

Anybody have any water temps for Praire,Horseshoe, Hickory, or Dam Area ? Hoping to get the boat back in the water as soon as I can get off mountain. Looks like we have some good days coming next week.

Boy it is a lot harder finding shad than it used to be. Im here at Holiday Island. Havnt had much luck the last couple years. Best place to look is up the James River, putting in at bridge at Cape Fare. If you want to stay in AR, a place that I havnt been in a few years, but usud to be good is north of Grean Forest at Enon bridge, in the Yokum Creek area. Heard they have a new launch. Maybe someone will post with more info for you on this area. As you know it can sure get rough in the winter. Your stripers are full of small shad now. I seem to do just ads well this tkime of year with broad shiners from Barnets in Garfield, Hook line & Sinker in Rogers or right from the Warr Eagle farm south of Huntsville. Hope I was of some help, but by looking at your post on Beaver, you seem to be pulling more fish than most the guides. Great vids. Last shad I netted was at the sidewalk hole up warr eagle, If your fishing the Prairee area and not getting shad, might have better luck in Monta A, or Hickory creek in the winter. Good luck and keep posting.

Just starting, should stay up until water temp drops below 47. Seems like lake went thru a little slump, glad to here good fish are being caught again. Having a little action up here between the Dam & 5 with the birds. We got the gulls up here with less bait, fishing around them will drive you crazy. You mark bait 10-20 ft deep, but 80% of the time no fish. Whats up with the Loons ? Their with the Gulls. Instead of Stripers pushing the bait up its Loons. Were a few fish caught in the area, but Fri was slow. Sat most boats were gone. Hearing a lot of good reports from Ventras to up River. Guess im heading back that way. Any body have any water temp reports on 12 bridge area & up Rivers. We were 57 up here on Sat.

Its about time to drop the weights. in the past when stripers came up I ran 4 planers & 2 ballons. ballons like to catch wind without weight. When you freeline for stripers how far apart do you stager lines ? How far is longest one out ? are you stuck with just turning twords long line or can you turn both ways & can you turn tight to stay on fish. I know trial & error will teach me, but I hate cutting all that line when I cross up. On another note the MS-222 WORKED GREAT on my shad. First time netting I brought back 80 5-6" shad, In 2 -30 gal tanks only lost 2 in first week. 8 days ago I netted 115 shad. Thought I over did it, but havnt lost a one. Really calms them down when netting to relieve stress with 1 teaspoon per 30 gals. Still use your salt & water treatment. Than I put in 300 gal tank with a 1200 gph pump at home without the MS. If you dont have a yard tank start deluting out with water changes after hauling. Theirs another product like this, but I never found. You can do a google searh by just typing in MS-222 or I got mine from www.argent-labs.com ( 425) 885-3777. Not cheap, but saves a lot of netting. My hot tubs on hold until spring since my 300 gal tank is insulated it will work best thru winter. Any input on this would still be helpfull. Already have 3500 pump. Its about 500 gals. Will be doing bio filtration since charcoal is so high.

Hey Samkam. Was planing on camping at Rock Branch to look at water from 5 to Prairee. Rates go down Sunday, might not get down till then. Maybe we will see ya. My names on side of boat. These crazy fish seem to want to stay in summer patern on this end of lake. Didnt pull no Stripers with 5" shad yesterday. Got 2 17' smallmouth & had a 12' spot choke on a bait 1/2 his size. We were from dam to 5, It did look like bait balls are moving closer to the top. GOOD LUCK. If your using shiners would like to know how you do. Thanks for posting, been looking for someone to talk to all week.

Hooked on fishing, not on drugs does this every year . Take out 7th graders that have kept grades up to do this in morning, than come in for lunch & take out 8th graders. BOATS ARE NEEDED ! PAY-OUT is better than money. They feed you lunch & you get to pass this great Striper fishing down to the next generation. Believe will be going out of Hickory Creek, (479-751-7366 ) For more info or to volunteer call Mike Bailey at 479-366-8664. This is the best time to be up river. Sharing with a kid is great.

ALL OVER, GETS GOOD AT 58 & lower. Were running about 62 up here by dam to point 5 now. Hear its cooler up river, but not that much action yet, anywhere. Up River can be good in the winter. Best dock to call is Hickory Creek at 479-751-7366 to get report, water clarity, & temp. Its getting close up there now. I would like to see one more cold front to get temps down a little more. If its muddy up there, get below mudline or above . Allways clears out north of 12 bridge. GREAT VIDIO, Best I can tell on graph & gps you guys were near power lines up warr eagle. At 46.7. Looks like Dec.

Ive been keeping records for years, Some times even drawing little maps. Came across this the other day & it works great. On Bass Pros home page, very top, above all the links to buy stuff. Go into ( Outdoor Site Libary ) Scroll down to ( Lake Maps ) click on. Than click on to your Lake. Great contour map you can zoom in to a area. Print right there. Mark spot with highlighter. Lots of room below for notes . From here you can even scan into your computer to share or just keep. I also find its better than looking at my maps before going out to fish.

Any body know where I can get some bamboo down here around the Holiday Island Area? Here its the best for crappie holes. Hooks dont hang up so bad & last a longer than trees. Whats up with the slabs? seems like the last couple years have been really hard getting fish over 10".

40 ft does seem to be the magic number after sun gets up now , but should change after surface gets below 62. Got into my best fish last week, feeding hard at 1 pm. Going out tomarrow with wife to see whats up with this. She dosnt like getting up early anyway. Caught my fish on 5-6 inch shad. I am playing around with the blacksaltys, had 1 on,he got hit too, but didnt pull me a fish. Riped his nose all the way to jaw bone, No scrapes or marks, but still frisky. These stripers do like that smaller bait in the winter. One time years ago I was way up in Warr Eagle. Water temp just came up from 46 to 47. Everybody said Stripers moved out. Found Stripers in a small creek feeding in to warr eagle all the way back to 8 ft. Drug 5" threadfins right thru them, with no hits. Went to very back & netted sm 2" shad. tied 2 plainers with small tuna hooks so wouldnt weigh down to much. Came back thru and caught fish on both. Heres pic of graph last week after I got fish in the boat. Thats bait not trees.

Im down here at Holiday Island. Water was about 3 ft below Beaver town bridge yesterday. Holiday Island Launch was blocked by logs . Water seems to going back down now. Lookes like we got lucky. No fun fishing when you live close to 2 launch sites but have to go to missouri to put your boat in water to fish in Arkansas. Here is a pic of Beaver bridge last year if it comes through.

My first time I learned real fast the difference between fish trees & bait . Had the same problem . GPS helps with map of contour lines to show whats ahead of you, and how flats come out Mark your trees with a waypoint to stear away from.

I just got licence to sell to dealers. The only bait shop that I have now is THE LOOK SHOP in Eagle Rock MO , next to the pub on 86, Lou Whitaker, 1-417-271-3399. ( livebaits@yahoo.com ) Hes carering the bay size that run 2-3". do a google on black salty or Anderson minnow farm to get more info. They have a patent on them, bred for salt water fishing but say working well on fresh water stripers. The bay size should be just right when hitting smaller bait, just around the corner.

I could sure use some help on new yard tank im building. I will be pumping a 3500 gph pump into a 55 gal barrel cut down about 15" with filtration to drip back into tank. Am told its a lot better than spray bar. The hot tub is about 8 ft across, will have the old jets pluged. Just wondering how many and what size holes will have to drill to drip and not spray to hard. Also on a tank this size will a couple corners matter, and will it be okey not moving in a circular motion ? On another note has anyone ever tried MS-222 when netting to calm shad. Was told 2 1/2 grams or 1 teaspoon should do the job for a 30 gal tank. Has anyone here ever used this stuff ? Thanks for any input on any of these problems.

Any one have any info on drip filtration. I am running a 3500 gph pump thru a 55 gal barrel, cut down about 15", filtered than drip into a hot tub that will have all the jets pluged. The bottom of barrel is 24" across, just wondering how many holes and what size I have to drill in bottom with this much presure so does drip efect and not spray down hard. Also the Hot Tub is about 8 ft across, with a couple corners, is this okey with a tank this size ? I know a couple guys that hold shad in the big concreat tanks with corners. Any info would be helpfull. Thanks and take a kid fishing.

I only use mine for Stripers sometimes when fish are 30 ft or deeper and not live baiting. But for the the Walleye and smallmouth here on Table Rock & Beaver, not worth the trouble. I usally troll 4 rods with line counters. Back 2 about 120 ft, front 2 about 100 ft, make wide turns with deeper crankbaits closer to boat or all 4 lures about the same. I Do well in cooler water with cranks that run about 11 ft. When fish are deeper the 3 1/2" walleye runners and walleye divers will usally get you down to the 18 ft range. I like all my trolling lures colered like shad or chartruce. If you want to try downriggers stickbaits work well because they only go 2-4 ft below ball and run more in a straight running mode instead of its nose pointing down that a really deep crank with a big lip to get you down to 25 plus on its own will do. Maybe its just me but it dosnt seem natural for a bait to swim with its butt up so high. If you try downrigers, hope you have a kicker moter. Can really be a problem when your at stearing wheel and their in back of boat. Hope I was of some help. Good luck and take a kid fishing.