Walleye Stocking

[Quillback]

Benton County Record ran an article yesterday about a smallmouth stocking project the Centerton Hatchery had done recently, they stocked around 2,000 2" smallmouth in the Kings and War Eagle rivers. They stocked another 4,000 in Beaver, but I can't see 4,000 2" Smallies making much of a difference in a lake the size of Beaver.

But most importantly, for you wallie chasers, they stocked 187,000 fingerling walleye in Beaver this spring.

[Feathers and Fins]

It would be nice if they could stock that number each year to keep a decent age class in the lake. Beaver is starting to turn into a very nice Walleye lake and with a maintained program could in 5 years rival any lake in the country and possibly surpass many of them with Beavers abundance of forage fish.

[Quillback]

Yep I agree, nice to have a good walleye fishery close by. One of these days I might even fish for them.

[Feathers and Fins]

I found this on the AGFC Site about Beaver http://www.agfc.com/resources/Publications/FishQtrly/D1.pdf

Walleye Broodstock Project Completed

The collection of walleye broodstock for the propagation and stocking of walleye fingerlings has been completed. The project was started on the lower Kings River a little later than normal due to high water from 3 inches of rain on the upper watershed. We were able to go out one night before the floods and collect a few female walleye. After the rise in the river we went back out and noticed something we have never seen, white bass were in the river by the thousands and were spawning at the same time as the walleye. It has been a very unusual spring and water temperatures were 10-15 degrees above normal.

After four nights of hazardous and unproductive work on the Kings River, we switched to the White River Tailwaters below Beaver Dam. We were able to collect several large females during five nights of electrofishing .

Several of the females were spawned on the bank of the river, the rest were hauled to the Charlie Craig Hatchery to be spawned.

Tom, Heath, Joe, Clint, Harold and Chris from the Charlie Craig hatchery did their usual great job in helping to capture the broodstock and successfully spawned and hatched enough eggs to cover stocking requests from area lakes.

Beaver Lake Gill Netting

We conducted gill netting on Beaver Lake to sample striped bass, hybrid striped bass, white bass and walleye populations in February 2012. Otoliths were pulled from stripers, hybrids, white bass and walleye for age analysis.

White bass and walleye were the most dominate species in gill nets and 10.4 white bass were collected per gill net night. White bass fishing has been very good this spring and large numbers of 13-15" fish have been harvested. The high water years of 2008, 2009, and 2011 lead to these dominant year classes in Beaver Lake.

We were encouraged with the numbers of walleye observed in gill nets. We collected 215 walleye and lengths ranged from 9-25 inches. The 2008 year class was the most dominant and these fish ranged from 17-20 inches. We also collect good numbers of 1-year old walleye indicating a very good year class from 2011.

Walleye fishing will be very good in the next couple of years on Beaver Lake.

I hope it does I have found I really like targeting them. They are not much of a power fighter but make a good account for themselves and when it comes to table they sure are hard to beat. I am starting to really zero in on their habits and where to look for them. They have very defined things they want and dont like being far from shad so it makes it a little easier. The other thing is they are nocturnal so it gives me something to mess with in the summer after work or on weekends at night when its cooler and less traffic on the lake. Not that I needed an excuse to fish more but now I have a good one to go in the evenings and keep cooler.

[eyeman]

first time for me to fish beaver was today for wally's and caught 3 , plus 5 nice kentucky's

[Stump bumper]

I remember back in the 90's they could not get Walleye to hold in Beaver with little fingelings, then about 2003-2004 they raised a bunch of eyes up to 12-14 in in the Nursery Pond before releasing them and since then they have taken off.

What has happened that the smaller fish can grow in Beaver now?? None of the fish and game could understand why they wouldn't take back then.

My take on this it is the natural spawn from the adult fish and not stocking that get fish to hold in a lake, since there were thousands stocked before the adults were added that never held.

Stocking helps I am sure but not as much as people observing the limits and releasing spawning fish back into the lake.

[Feathers and Fins]

I agree Stump. I am glad to see a 4 at 18'' and think so long as people abide by the regs Beaver will become an outstanding fishery for them. I actually am in favor of even tigher regs after reading much on them. I would like to see a closed season durring the March and April with the exception of allowing for 1 fish over 30'' durring that time to allow for a person to get a potential record fish. I think Beaver has the potential to be a world record lake but even if not it could be a true trophy fishery.

Why not take advantage of its potential?

[Ron Burgundy]

I'm not sure Beaver has World Record potential because they do not stock rainbows in Beaver....Upper TR has rainbows, Bull Shoals has rainbows stocked and Im not sure about Greers Ferry if they still stock them in there like they use to but when the old world record was caught there they stocked rainbows.....Beaver is all ready a good lake for walleye's and should only get better.....I'm stoked about how good the lake has become because now I don't have to drive hour and a half to BS for a good day of walleye fishing.....Upper TR is ok but it's not a consistent as BS and now Beaver.

[Feathers and Fins]

Beaver has a great shad population and bluegill, I dont think a WR would be possible for another 10 to 12 years if at all but its possible. I do expect in the next 5 years to start seeing 8 to 12pnd fish comming in often. I would be happy with a lake that the average fish is 5 to 8pnds. If you do web searches on Beaver there is not much talked about. It could stay a sleep lake.

What I like is we all know how hard beaver is to bass fish and that might be what makes her a great walleye lake, she is big and doesnt give up her bounty easily you have to learn her moods to be productive and figure out which mood she is in. Other lakes can be called the "Jewel" of their area but Beaver wants to be given Jewels in the form of respect and understanding. I love her she is not easy and makes you earn her love.

[eyeman]

yeah, if there weren't so many pleasure boaters burning up gas ,churnning the water into an ocean next to you where you are fishing instead of staying to open water. but of course its public . not to mention crowded small launch ramps. sorry , had to vent.