Dam Area

[wily]

we just got back from a long weekend --

i spent a couple hours on thursday evening and friday morning up indian creek mostly in Ford Hollow. i fished with a jig exclusively. i caught a handful of dinks both days...just running the banks and pitching the jig to likely spots. i caught a couple out of cedar trees right off, so I'd throw it into every cedar i ran across...not knowing that was a pattern to use.

water is up of course, and about 73 degrees. it had a good color to it, but with so much cover it made it hard for us.

a handful of striper boats were out friday in hybrid hollow and the next cove down. i heard they were catching them on crankbaits about 60 foot deep.

[BlueWave]

I was trying to get to the Lake last weekend but could not get away. I will be fishing all of next week. I heard the same report that there was a lot of Stripers being caught in Indian creek, but I heard on shad. 2 weeks ago when I was down we caught plenty of shorts on the main lake points around Lost Bridge on jigs and crankbaits. In the evening took a few on buzz baits. Really hoping for top water action next week!!!

[Samkam1]

We're going down next week as well 22nd-26th. Thinking about fishing the rocky branch area. We should exchange #'s and keep each other posted on where the fish are.

SK

[BlueWave]

SK,

Missed your post before I headed out. Hope you did better than I did.

Monday (10/20) I ran into the Stripers bustin' top around point 3 and did my best 3 stooges imitation trying to get into them. My first red fin wanted to sink and the next one i tied on did not track right out of the box, so I spent 15 minutes just trying to get a decent bait out in the water. I had one blow up on it and even though I know better was too quick on the set and jerked it out of the water. The school went back down before I could hook any of them.

I did catch one ~20 lbs fishing a deep jig and trailer at mid-day. That turned out to be my only striper of the week. I fished the lower end each morning and there were plenty of fish 40'-60' deep around Honey Creek and Point 1 island. I also went up Indian creek a couple of times but could not find many fish. I did not see any fish on top after Monday morning.

Bass fishing was good in the evenings prior to the front in shallow cover on the points. I caught a nice 3 lb small mouth on shallow running crankbait. This shut down after the front Thursday.

I did pick up 2 nice largemouth on big jig 30' deep on Friday while striper fishing.

I was planning to head up to Rocky Branch area Friday but that wind was tough!!

Only saw one other fisherman (other than guide boats) all week.

I hope to get back down in a couple of weeks. Look fwd to hearing how you did.

[Samkam1]

Man what a tough week of fishing...I think the dissolved O2 content (or lack thereof) has them pretty laxidasical down at the 40-50 ft range. We were in fish all day every day we were there...found a lot around point 7 and in the mouths of Van Hollow and Rambo...had to work for them really hard though. We ended up with 3 stripers and a couple white bass. The fish we got were on flat lines with small weights or the planer boards. The bass were biting fairly well..caught a number of kentuckies and a couple smallmouth. Sunday we wrapped up and headed back into Big Clifty and started fishing about mid-way in the creek. Saw a lot of fish..the wind came up about 10am and found 2 hungry ones in about 10 minutes. Our main trolling motor had died the day before so we had to buy a backup form wal-mart and in that wind it wouldnt do the trick so we couldnt work them the way we wanted to. Brand new minn-kota and the foot control goes bad...what a pain!

The 2-4 inch shad are everywhere...should be great for the next couple years for those stripers.

We worked the top a lot all week and only had 1 blowup on a spook...they are definately starting to come up though with this cooler weather and wind adding some O2 to the water. The next few weeks should be great.

We had a great time...was a bit cold and windy at times but all in all a fun trip. The water and trees are beautiful and we are ready to get back down there!!! Headed to Kansas this weekend for opening of pheasant season...then bow hunting here at home the week before deer gun season starts...we are hoping we can get a few deer in the freezer and then we will be back down to chase the big dogs. They will be in Rambo and Van the whole month of November I am thinking.

SK

[skeeterp]

Man what a tough week of fishing...I think the dissolved O2 content (or lack thereof) has them pretty laxidasical down at the 40-50 ft range. We were in fish all day every day we were there...found a lot around point 7 and in the mouths of Van Hollow and Rambo...had to work for them really hard though. We ended up with 3 stripers and a couple white bass. The fish we got were on flat lines with small weights or the planer boards. The bass were biting fairly well..caught a number of kentuckies and a couple smallmouth. Sunday we wrapped up and headed back into Big Clifty and started fishing about mid-way in the creek. Saw a lot of fish..the wind came up about 10am and found 2 hungry ones in about 10 minutes. Our main trolling motor had died the day before so we had to buy a backup form wal-mart and in that wind it wouldnt do the trick so we couldnt work them the way we wanted to. Brand new minn-kota and the foot control goes bad...what a pain!

The 2-4 inch shad are everywhere...should be great for the next couple years for those stripers.

We worked the top a lot all week and only had 1 blowup on a spook...they are definately starting to come up though with this cooler weather and wind adding some O2 to the water. The next few weeks should be great.

We had a great time...was a bit cold and windy at times but all in all a fun trip. The water and trees are beautiful and we are ready to get back down there!!! Headed to Kansas this weekend for opening of pheasant season...then bow hunting here at home the week before deer gun season starts...we are hoping we can get a few deer in the freezer and then we will be back down to chase the big dogs. They will be in Rambo and Van the whole month of November I am thinking.

SK

NitroNick and I fished a tournament Saturday. We started on the bluff outside of Ford's Creek. There were Stripers blowing up out there, Nitro hooked one on spook, fought him for a few minutes and broke off, when we rounded the point and got inside of Fords, they were coming up pretty good, we hooked up 3 more times on chugbug but they all came unbuttoned. They schooled up for about an hour right in the mouth of Fords and on out towards the middle, another boat was in the middle chasing them.

[BlueWave]

It is great to see some reports on Beaver. Keeps me stoked until I can get back down. This is my first fall/winter fishing the lake. Do you guys think the Stripers will still be on top over Thanksgiving?

Dave