Management Ideas?

[Greasy B]

Norfork and Taney both get a huge nutient load from the their hatcheries. That alone can never be replicated on the Beaver tailwater unless a local town can divert it's waste water. Kind of gross to think about but sure enough true.

[txspecks04]

That is one that I had not considered; good point Greasy B.

[sfiser]

there is not a "catch and release" section on beaver. It has changed to the "artificial bait zone" and i believe you can keep 2 fish out of it now per person. The "catch and release" zone was removed a few years ago due to too many fish and no growth to the fish, hoping people would keep some of the smaller ones and the larger ones would be in the slot and would be let go and able to grow larger

[Bill Anderson]

It's a "Put and Take" fishery, that's for sure....but mostly "Take", according to what I see most people doing. I have been living in SW Missouri for three years now, and have caught a lot of fish below Beaver, mostly just stockers. But I can say I haven't kept/killed one yet. The lack of flow at low water was a bit of an oddity to me at first, but I solved that problem by fishing mostly wooly buggers and crawdad flies and stripping. I don't catch anything over 14 or 15 inches it seems, but I do catch fish and I really enjoy Beaver. It's only 47 miles from home, too. My 4 weight rod arsenal has come to be my go-to for fishing Beaver, unless the wind is really blowing. I do hope the State will put forth a concerted effort in improving the fishery. But I know there are some larger critters lurking there, and I hope eventually I can get a hook in one. I really enjoy reading this forum and keeping up with what's happening.

[Lucky Fly]

I live in Huntsville, Arkansas and consider Beaver my home water. I fish my 7'7" 3 weight all the time in the "new" special regulation zone and really enjoy catching the stockers. I rarely catch anything over 14". I would vote for improving the flow through minimum flow and creating habitat by placing boulders, etc. in the stream bed.

[laker67]

  On 9/18/2012 at 3:27 PM, Lucky Fly said:

I live in Huntsville, Arkansas and consider Beaver my home water. I fish my 7'7" 3 weight all the time in the "new" special regulation zone and really enjoy catching the stockers. I rarely catch anything over 14". I would vote for improving the flow through minimum flow and creating habitat by placing boulders, etc. in the stream bed.

I would vote for the minimum flow, but usually tailwater fish are not to structure orientated. I cant tell that the boulders at taney have made a nickles worth of difference.

[txspecks04]

I am enjoying seeing everyone's opinions on this stretch of water. Similar to what a few others have said, I have rarely seen a fish over 15 inches come out of this tailwater. Should we attribute this purely to poaching or even legal takes from the fishery or could it be that there is something about the habitat which stunts the growth of the fish as well? I understand that there are some bigger fish in there (some big browns lurking around I am sure), but I have never actually seen one of them.

On a side note, what size buggers and crawdad patterns do you typically throw Bill? I have tried some streamer fishing out there before and just never had much success with it; I usually just try to find some moving water and fish nymphs.