Beaver Report 2-17-13

[Feathers and Fins]

Started out at 9:00am from Prarie Creek.

Shad are thick in the marina and easily found follow the birds, they are only 1 to 3 inches at most but do have a few fish on them. I followed a few birds to the 12 bridge area and found more shad in the same size but was able to find a few of the 4 to 6 inch size shad that translated into 3 stripers in the 20lb class.

I wasnt looking for stripers today it was a Walleye and Crappie day for some food. I hit Montne area and nothing decent so I ran to Rocky Branch. There had been reports of crappie and walleye in the area so I started trolling flicker shad and was not disappointed, Ended up with 15 walleye from 15 to 25 inches and some of the best smallmouth fishing i have had in a long time they ran from 15inches to 19 inches . All the fish came out of 12 to 15 fow on long points.

Only snapped a couple pictures boat control in todays wind was a pain in the rear end. If the weather will stay steady for a couple weeks we could see a great bite develope for multiple species. No crappie today but there is always next time.

This is the 19'' smallie

[chris3179]

Guess I won't be working tomorrow. I guess I'm heading up to rocky branch. Do you think te bite will still be good?

Also hoave you tried the big flicker shad? If so what are your thoughts.

[Guest]

F&F, thats very impressive.

Especially at Beaver right now.

The smallmouth are really making a comback.

The water temps upriver dropped from 49 down to 46 degrees.

Whats your rod/reel/line setup for the flicker shads and keitechs?

It appears to be a 4000 size shimano reel

[J-Doc]

Sure was good to finally meet you! I had a feeling that was you next to me. Lol!

Now that you know what the brown bomber looks like, stop by and say hi next time I see you. I enjoyed our chat at the ramp.

I definately want to learn a few things about striper fishing and how to cast one of those pesky cast nets. I hear there's a trick to it. Thanks for the tip on that small school of Kentucky bass. Saved our trip! We would have zero'd and no one likes a skunk!

[Feathers and Fins]

Chris, I have all sizes of flicker shad, yesterday the fish were in a specific depth so I was using the #6 yesterday. The bigger ones dive to deep and hit the bottom much harder in the shallows. The depth chart Berkley put out is a generalization but not the rule.

I use a 7'6'' St Croix PS76MLF with a Shimano Stradic 4000 spooled with Seaguar 10lb Fluorocarbon with that set up trolling at 2.1 mph the #6 ticks the bottom in 16fow 100ft back, same set-up the #9 ticks bottm in 23fow. The one thing I like about the Flicker shad over other brands is ai can sweep a point in a hard turn with the boat and they dont loose contact with the bottom which really increases strikes and the hooks are extremely sharp.

I sure would not take off work today to try it with winds howling like this, yesterday was bad enough, today is far worse.

Doc, we will deffinately hook up and get you on some stipers and I do enjoy teaching people to throw a castnet. You liked them fat little kentucks lol.

[Quillback]

That's a nice , fat smallie for a Beaver fish!

[Feathers and Fins]

19'' long and a girth of 17''. most of the ones i caught yesterday were all nice like that im betting tourney guys would love to catch a limit of those if I had to guess based off length x girth my best 5 were

19 x 17 6.00

18.75 x 16.25 5.60

16.50 x 15.00 4.00

16. 50 x 15.00 4.00

16.25 x 14.75 3.81

which should be right around 23.41 some check my math its been a while since i did Bass

[chris3179]

Chris, I have all sizes of flicker shad, yesterday the fish were in a specific depth so I was using the #6 yesterday. The bigger ones dive to deep and hit the bottom much harder in the shallows. The depth chart Berkley put out is a generalization but not the rule.

I use a 7'6'' St Croix PS76MLF with a Shimano Stradic 4000 spooled with Seaguar 10lb Fluorocarbon with that set up trolling at 2.1 mph the #6 ticks the bottom in 16fow 100ft back, same set-up the #9 ticks bottm in 23fow. The one thing I like about the Flicker shad over other brands is ai can sweep a point in a hard turn with the boat and they dont loose contact with the bottom which really increases strikes and the hooks are extremely sharp.

I sure would not take off work today to try it with winds howling like this, yesterday was bad enough, today is far worse.

Doc, we will deffinately hook up and get you on some stipers and I do enjoy teaching people to throw a castnet. You liked them fat little kentucks lol.

btw congrats on the catch yesterday and thanks for the info. i know i am crazy, but i am going to give it a go. i won't be able to get back out for about 12 days, so here we go!

[npierceuark]

Those are some chunks! I was out with Jdoc on sunday and the one kentucky he pulled up right before dark had a nice healthy belly on it. I must have just missed you F&F. Even the smaller kentuckys were thick, nice to see those big water fish compared to the thin swimmers I'm used to catching up the white arm.

[Ron Burgundy]

Nice batch of fish F&F!