Stripers in the North Fork White River?

[BilletHead]

2 hours ago, Ham said:

That’s were I caught mine from there. It wasn’t very large, but Fun. 

            Mine was from below Dawt mill, yes fun!

[Quillback]

11 hours ago, BilletHead said:

 

                I know a guy who targets the Stripers over there and he says the same thing they eat lots of crawdads. Stripers get no love. The trout people don't like them because they eat trout, now the smallmouth people won't like them because they eat what the smallmouths eat. 

The smallmouth in Beaver get back at the stripers by eating shad.  They are out there with the stripers, makes them hard to target.

[dblades]

I think most anytime you see surface feeding, there is another school sitting deep, feeding on easy meals. I've caught big bass under gar, bass under stripers etc. 

[Ham]

Dave and I caught Gafftop under blitzing Ladyfish. I wish they had been Big.

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, Ham said:

Dave and I caught Gafftop under blitzing Ladyfish. I wish they had been Big.

I hope that I can get one this fall on one of my business trips😉

[ZachPinnell]

On 6/5/2025 at 7:20 PM, snagged in outlet 3 said:

How was your  trip, @ZachPinnell?

Didn’t end up making it out there, unfortunately. Buddy had his work schedule mixed up.

[ZachPinnell]

On 6/5/2025 at 5:22 PM, rps said:

Makes sense. Stripers are in the river below Beaver dam. The Arkansas striper record came from there.

Edit: I love autocorrect. I almost posted an accident.

 

 

I floated Beaver about 10 days ago, whatever day they shut the gates off. Just below the dam, straight across from the dam — I saw a 30+ fish about 12ft deep. He turned toward my streamer & my heart rate spiked. Unfortunately he did not eat. Not sure if it was a striper or a brown. I’m inclined to say striper.

[ZachPinnell]

On 6/6/2025 at 1:08 PM, Gavin said:

Stipers are in there year round. The flat below Kelly Ford holds a bunch. Below McKee Bridge, Elephant Rocks below ROLF.. 6' deep with a slow current...probably stripers...But they don't bite often. Ask Brian Bade at Sunburst Ranch. He can tell you where they are.

 

That’s great to hear! Thanks for this. I am excited to catch one. I fished NFotWR late last summer thinking I was going for trout. I got a bite & that fish ran like no trout I’ve ever hooked. Unfortunately my fly line was wrapped around my reel, so I broke off. Did some research after & learned about the striper population. Personally I think the prospect of catching 20+in stripers in such a beautiful river is much more exciting than catching little rainbow trout.

[Ham]

On 6/8/2025 at 12:02 PM, ZachPinnell said:

Personally I think the prospect of catching 20+in stripers in such a beautiful river is much more exciting than catching little rainbow trout.

Back prior to the Big Flood that changed the river, the Rainbows were not very high in numbers, but they were legacy fish. My understanding was that they were not stocking Rainbows anymore and these were descended from the last stocked fish.  I caught Rainbows on light spinning and a Zig Jig interspersed with Smallmouth Bass and the Rainbows fought as well as the Smallmouth. I mostly caught 16-18 inch fish, but I had one Rainbow that I caught that I believe was 23 inches. By myself, with a lengthy fight, I chose to release the fish rather than take time getting a proper measurement. Phone was in a dry bag so I didn’t even get a pic. I laid it against my rod and measured back to that spot when I got home ant it was 23 inches.

Those were special Rainbows that I fished for once a year in the early Fall, but I have not been back since the flood. 

[Ham]

This was my NFOW StriperThis is a NFOW Rainbow. NOT a typical stocker.