Newbie Fishing At Beaver Lake

[wc1063]

Forgot to mention that I just bought two line-counter reels, I was thinking about using lead core lines on them, so I guess it'd be kind of like fly rod with sinking line that F & F is using.

Now all I need to do is get me a couple of rod holder on the boat, find me some shad, and locate where the fish are, I'll be in business(Give me a few years, I should be able to figure this one out!)

Thanks for the advice again!!

[Feathers and Fins]

Save the years, get a good graph if you do not already have one I use Lowrance HDS 5 on the bow and a HDS 7 on the driver seat. A single HDS will work fine. If you get one of those two set your colorline at 53 and your sensitivity at 64 ping speed at 19. You will see bait and fish with no problem plus the cedar trees with bass in them.

You have two line counter reels so you are pretty much set for rod and reel for striper. Spool them with 20lbs test, as I said before use a weight ( I prefer 4oz egg sinkers) put it on the main { pretty much Carolina rig } with a 4 to 6 foot leader and a 1/0 circle hook on the end ( if Academy restocked after my shopping spree lol ).

Remember your transducer is 12’’ to 18’’ below the boat plus gunwale height so if you see fish at 40 feet add the distance to tip of rod normally 2 feet for a set on the line counter at 42 to be in the fish but keep it at least 1’above them I prefer 2 to 5 feet.

Now as to catching Shad you have two options. BTW your net size is perfect. Go to the back of the coves EARLY and you should be able to get them with no problem REMEMBER to let your net sink to within 1 foot of the bottom before closing it. Option 2 is go to a local creek and get bait. Shad a round take is best always. A simple bait tank to cut a trash can in half , put a 500gph pump in it and have the nozzle pointed to circulate water NOT STRAIGHT DOWN. Also get some Shad Keeper and add it. Remember when getting them out of the tank to wet your hands and be gentle with them they are surprisingly fragile. Chubs and Golden Shiner are far more tolerant to handling and abuse of casting.

Good luck

[wc1063]

Now when you say EARLY, how early are we talking about, before sunrise?

I actually haven't fished the lake in the morning, I usually go out in the afternoon and fish till dark. I do notice that the bait fish are easier to find around sunset since they surface more around that time, I guess it's the same around sunrise.

I do have a HDS unit on my boat, but since I only had the boat for less than a month, I'm still trying to figure out how to work the electronics. The unit I have does have the structure scan on it, but I don't know how it would help to dial in the fish yet. I guess by knowing what is on the sides of your boat, and not directly underneath, help you to chart a better course.

Like I said, I'm new at fishing and do appreciate any comments or suggestions!

BTW, save a few years would be great!!!!

[Feathers and Fins]

Dawn early no need to get out there before that.

Here is an article I wrote for a friends Bait shop some years back maybe it will help. Ask away any questions you have about it.

I started targeting striped bass in 1989 right out of high school on Lakes Pyramid, Silverwood, Skinner, Colorado River and the Aqueduct system of California. My early years were full of failure more than success and the success was by accident.

I became determined to learn as much as I could about the fish that gave me fits trying to figure out, doing so I used the same methodical approach I did and still do to this day for hunting. The first step was throwing away all the how to books and books more written to catch the fisherman’s money than anything else.

First thing you have to understand about stripers is they are an Oceanic Fish by nature and like with most ocean fish they travel a lot. So throw out everything about freshwater fishing and think SALT WATER. For me this was simple as I grew up fishing the Ocean from the long range fleet of San Diego to the ½ day boats of the Los Angeles ports. Under the tutorage of some of the finest sport boat captains around. Stripers have voracious appetites and to quench that appetite they will travel long distances. In fact there was a Striper tagged on the Lower Illinois River below Ten Killer Lake Oklahoma, and recovered a few days later in Louisiana. So be ready to move and even follow a school.

Tackle is something I heard all the dang time that made me mad as I was a single father at the time and money was limited, I honestly could not afford the 200 dollar reel and 150 dollar rods. So I went back to my roots of Saltwater fishing, a simple Penn jigmaster 500 and a Saber rod designed for 20 lbs test is what I had. I figured if I could beat up large Yellow Tail and Seabass on it I should be able to beat up on stripers with it. Later in life I found the joy of going light line. A friend convinced me that It was possible to catch 40 and 50 lbs carp on 4lbs test line. I called him a low down dirty dog liar for even getting me to listen to the story. Well lets just say ketchup on a hat with a side dish of crow isn’t half bad!

That lesson he taught me got me to thinking about something. Stripers on super light line? Stripers typically when hooked like to take the fight to just below the surface for some strange reason! So I said let’s give it a try and since then I’ve been hooked. 12lbs is about the heaviest I use unless deep dropping live bait to a specific depth.

So I learned you just need a good rod and reel and you do not need to go heavy on line so striper fishing just got a lot cheaper on a single dads budget and a whole lot of fun. Then came figuring out the dang fish. Putting my Saltwater mentality to them it quickly became evident I was trying to treat them like a Largemouth or Catfish looking for them in cover and even to shallow. I went on the Seabass mentality of Flats! So I started looking for main lake points with large flats as part of them and all of the sudden I was catching fish and this time on purpose. But I wasn’t happy there I wanted the big ones , so I took a trip out to Martha’s Vineyard and the Home of striper fishing the Chesapeake Bay and talked to the captains out there and listened to them. Humps, stripers like humps! Yellowtail like humps dam I know how to catch yellowtail on humps. So I again was back to the Salt Roots and targeting stripers on Main Lake humps and catching them often and large.

Then it was over like someone flipped a switch. Where di all the stripers go? I was confused until I remembered a very important fact about stripers. They are Anadromous just like Salmon and what do stripers do to breed? They go up river dumbass talk about kicking myself in the butt for not having though about that sooner. So I went up river as far as I could there they were on my olf flasher graph in the eddies and any currant breaks.

So Striper Fishing for Dummies and I Was Chief Dummy.

1. Striper rods do not have to be expensive or flashy, they do however have to be able to have line capacity.

2. Good Graphs are extremely helpful versus the flasher units I started with.

3. Live bait beats a full house of lures

4. Don’t think freshwater think saltwater

5. Don’t be afraid to admit they moved. And move with them.

6. Early isn’t always better stripers like to eat when they are hungry which is all the time.

So How should someone who has never fished for them start off?

Fishing is suppose to be fun and catching your own live bait can sometimes be funner than catching your targeted species. Stripers Love Shad, Think of Shad as a Snicker Bar and they can’t pass it up. Next is a trick a friend of mine taught me on Cumberland, “SUCKERS” No I’m not calling you suckers but Sucker Punching as he puts it! Big 8 to 12 inch suckers are like putting down a Ice cream in front of them and BIG STRIPERS at that. I have personally caught 40lbs fish frequently on them and unlike shad they do not take a lot of effort to keep alive. Third is Shiners, Shiners and Shad 4 to 6 inch are perfect size for lots of stripers but for the monsters go with Suckers or Gizzard Shad.

Catching your own bait seems to be something a lot of people are scared of because they do not know where to get it. If you can’t get it in a lake get it from a creek. Those small creeks are perfect places to find bait that has little chance of escaping a good cast netter.

Now for Lures: If I had to only have 1 lure in my tackle box it would without be a Bucktail Jig hands down. I have caught everything from largemouth bass to Cobia to Tarpon to Sailfish the list could go on and on and on! ½ Ounce to 6 ounces tipped and untipped it is just deadly. You can ofcourse spend hours on the umbrella or you can locate the stripers and send a bucktail down and jig it a few times.

The other lure I would have hands down is a Cotton Cordel Pencil Popper. When a striper is on a surface feed that is a deadly lure. It cast long distance and makes a lot of noise. On the subject of stripers on the surface: Those days when you see them boiling for the love of God do not run your boat full speed into the boils it will shut them down. Instead shut down 100 yard and preferably 150 yards from them and DRIFT into them do not run your trolling motor at them. Then cast in the boils and hang on. If the fish come past your boat them drop the trolling motor and follow them just far enough back you can still hit the center of the boils.

Now my favorite of all ways to catch stripers! Bob Slamal use to own a tackle shop in Riverside California and got me addicted to stripers on a fly in deep water reservoirs. Simple as simple gets. Trolling a white fly behind the boat with sinking line and a good leader, it doesn’t get easier than that. Troll your boat on slow speed and use short strips on the pole and hold on sooner or later a striper will latch on and you are in for a fight.

The basics of any striper fisherman is simple. Hooks, Weights, Swivels , Castnet and a decent rod and reel. Stay simple and with basic gear don’t get sold on all the newest this or that. Live bait first if live bait isn’t an option Bucktails or Surface Lures.

I HOPE this helps people and gets them in the mindset that its easy to do! No mysteries and certainly no secrets they are just a fish.

[junkman]

Wow Mr. feathers, to me that was a good read. I have never caught a striper but have always dreamed of it after when young seeing about a 40lb er below Truman lake dam. You post was probably the best info I have seen on the subject. Thanks for posting and maybe now a dream can become a reality.

[Stump bumper]

Wow Mr. feathers, to me that was a good read. I have never caught a striper but have always dreamed of it after when young seeing about a 40lb er below Truman lake dam. You post was probably the best info I have seen on the subject. Thanks for posting and maybe now a dream can become a reality.

If you fish early spring March and April on Beaver it is hard to keep those Stippers off a hard jerkbait or swimbait especially during a bass tournement when you are throwing an expensive jerkbait you will hook a 30-40 beast on 8lb test every time.

[Quillback]

Yeah Stump Bumper that happened to me last winter one day fishing out of jeb's boat. Hooked a striper on an expensive jerkbait, using 8# test, fish got into the trees, goodbye jerkbait.

[wc1063]

That was a great article, thanks for sharing.

I guess I need to get my lazy butt up in the morning and give it a try. I think finding shad and keeping them alive is the most important thing since without them, you don't have any bait! I often see some big fish on the graph, I'd try jiggin spoon and bucktail at them, but no takers yet. I've got a little minnow bucket with air bubble, is that too small to hold shad?

Is back of Rambo Creek or Van Hollow a good place to catch them? I have not fish Rocky Branch before, can someone suggest some general areas to try? I think I remember the report said to try point 6 and in front of the marina.

Thank you for any suggestion!!

[Feathers and Fins]

For Shad you really do need a circular holding container, Cut a trash can in half take PCV pipe and threads and insert it 8 inches below the top, screw on two PCV nuts to hold it tight in place and then affix a 45 degree angle to the inside focus the stream so it causes current in the tank. NOT STRAIGHT DOWN. Attach a flexible tube to the outside to the Bilge. And you have your filling and aerating ready to go. The Bilge can be placed in the water to fill the tank or in the tank to keep water circulating.

When I use this method I also put a hole 1 inch above the nozzle same method only using 1inch pvc pipe so that if I wanted to I could keep the bilge in the lake while drifting or still fishing and as the tank got full it would just flow out the 1inch and back in the lake. Also be sure to have Shad Keeper with you, Academy has some back in stock.

As to where to get shad? Mudflats and creeks are your best bets or early before sunrise around boat docks that have lights on all night. The condos on the other side of 12 bridge from the ramp usually have shad under the docks.

Point 6 has some around it now but they are 2inch not the ones the stripers and LMB of size are keyed in on. Those shad are in the back of Rambo and in the back of Rocky Branch near the South Ramp on the mud flats or at least they were before this front.

I would try the following areas If I was able to go Saturday, Branson with family took out my striper time But im going to go play with trout in the AM so its a decent trade.

Anyway Start at Rocky Branch as noted. Be sure to keep your bottom depth at 50ft you should see the stripers in 42 to 35 and most will be around 37 feet. This front should have cooled it down enough to really get them on a surface chew so be ready for top water action early and late. Anyway here is a Map to try and help you

[wc1063]

Thank you for the advice and the map. I'll try to go out this weekend, but mean while, I guess I need to build a shad tank first.