Beaver Lake Striper Report-081314

[J-Doc]

Two anglers went out early in search of stripers.

Live bait

Water temp in mid 80's

Location - Beaver Lake

Sorry folks. I plan on going back there Saturday morning and taking my Ranger sales guy with me. So I'm keeping the "dets" out of this report. Sorry folks. I owe the man. After that, I'll post the general area.

Later in the day, I took my son out in the new rig (first person in the boat besides me) to Monte Ne for some play time. We tried crickets and floats for some perch but as I suspected, a ton of little cricket robbing theives but my boy did land a Kentucky. Then we trolled up a larger one. I say we......HE did. Then I gave him my dropshot rod in hopes of some bass fishing. I flipped a jig. I pulled a jig over the top of a sunken boat lift and watched a bass race up to look at it and follow it down. I thought for sure I had a good one. Nope....he lost interest. Needless to say, that jig has been put back on the bench. Changing color and presentation for next trip.

My best advice:

- The morning bite is best.

- The mid-late afternoon bite stinks.

- The later afternoon bite is brief and varies from day to day.

The striper below was 38llbs 2oz. and the only striper of the day. I caught a big flathead and a hybrid. No striper for me.

Oh and it was caught no where near any striper guides

(for the record)

I did witness something I've never seen before on Beaver Lake. Daisy-chaining stripers. Looked like a circling school of sharks. Fins and mouths out of the water, swirling in a large enough circle that I could see it as a boat wake from 200yds out. I thought it was a boat wake. It was a feeding frenzy with a large school. Later we saw a massive surface attack as if you had thrown fish food to giant phirana. Probably 100ft in diameter and so loud/visible that we heard and saw it from 450yds away.

The stripers are in various locations from Rocky Branch to the dam area.

But I do recommend highly Moulder Cove/Hollow. Especially early in the morning. And if you see a guide boat, be sure and toot your horn and go say hi. He won't mind at all.......

And if any lurking striper guides who simply cannot share open water with another boat within 200-300yds of your esteemed vessel (Moulder Cove if you want that location), we didn't see the big flashing neon sign hanging over the entire cove at Moulder that read "Stingy's Cove, Bait & Tackle, and Whine Cellar". So sorry we crashed your party so quietly at 300yds out, within adequate & legal sharing distance and drifting away from you as you turned into us under power by vessel as we drifted away from you Moulder is a very large cove with plenty of room to share. I personally take fishing courtesy very seriously and I respect other vessels/anglers and do not encroach their spot, area, or path of troll. I try not to anyway. Any regular posters in this forum would know me well enough to know I respect others (I hope). Moulder is a large area. Anything within 300yds is more than fair game. We turned away from you when we got too close. When you turn and come to us as we are drifting away from you at over 150-200yds away............dude that's your encroachment.......not ours (which is why you have a photo of our backsides and us sipping coffee quietly). If fishing as a guide is that stressfull and having a boat within 300yds of you affects your "game", go to the doc and get some Zanex man. You need to lighten up and live a little. Seriously....lifes too short to be wound up that tight. Loosen your drag a little.

[YAKFM]

Nice fish!

[Quillback]

Yes nice fish, your photo skills are to be commended as it's a good shot.

[J-Doc]

Thank you sir.

[Feathers and Fins]

Hanging my head in shame he out fished me, he caught 2 fish and I only caught one... and NO THERE WAS NO BANANA under his seat as he did catch two fish

[nathanhooper]

I am happy to see this report. Yes, very nice fish and photo. I wish you luck Doc, I too am taking out a guy who deserves to be put on a good fish. Not sure where I will head too personally, but maybe someone needs to have some fun in a hollow somewhere near LB.

So we need more details on the friendly encounter. lol.

Would describing the method used to retrieve the specimen above be giving out too much info? Were the sharks near where you drudged that dude up?

I know exactly what you mean about the massive feeding frenzy. I have to wonder if its the same school I saw this last weekend. I have never seen or heard such a massive one as that. Very memorable. You guys think it was a white bass blitz or did it seem like bigger fish?

[Feathers and Fins]

No more details on the encounter from my part I wont stoop to the same level unless forced to and then in defense only so its dropped as far as I am concerned.

As to the question if they were whites or hybrids, absolutely NOT these were big class fish 20lb pounds and working over a school of large shad pretty good, We have a video but not the best and will post it after docs trip as it shows the area way to obviously.

Method was simple, brooder minnows 2ft below a split shot on 12lb floro 30ft deep max.

[nathanhooper]

Sounds like a pretty distasting encounter. Hope I don't have one.

As to method, were you letting out a lot of line behind the boat or fishing below it? I have tried both of the methods. And I have tried the ones you have told me about before. But it seems like when the lines get too far out they want to get tangled. Of course, I always seem to pick the windiest days to try it.

But the two times I have caught them on live bait both times its when I dropped the bait right beneath the boat.

[Feathers and Fins]

Docs was rigged 3oz eggsinker 4 ft of leader 2/0 circle hook 30 ft down... Mine was rigged 1/8thoz split shot above the 2/0 circle hook 30ft down. movement was drifting to just barely moving with the trolling motor only enough to have some forward movement. It was pretty much glass calm so I wanted to go as slow as possible. We were marking the fish and when we did I killed the motor which was just set as low as I can go.

[nathanhooper]

Well that's how I caught mine. The first one was a surprise, the second one I saw the fish and dropped the bait down. Both times I was just crawling and the water was relatively calm. The other times I tried I put the bait out further, but there was more wind. Oh well, I think I am starting to get the picture.