Schoolteachers catch bigger fish than their better half sometimes. Ethan Dyer and Kyle Cole from Claremore, Okla., drove over for an afternoon of striper fishing Saturday. I fished up here near the dam Friday and we caught a nice walleye, some green bass and white bass, but no stripers.
Had a buddy got on the stripers good up river, so Saturday we went back south for a little more action. Water temp up here by the dam Friday was running in the upper 50s and Saturday from Point 12 to as far as we could get the boat up the War Eagle we were getting 67° to 68° and that’s egg laying time for the stripers.
First we got on feeding fish that just because grabbed our shad and ran like a freight train. Then they went to slapping. Slapping is when they chase your bait to the top and you see a big striper splashing right on him.
They were not eating but trying to keep our bait from eating their eggs. The spawn is truly here now and will be going on for a few weeks from one end of the lake to the other as the water temperature warms.
I think here near the dam where the water is much deeper it should be happening here also in a week or two with the forecast we have down the road. As for here at Holiday Island we got out one day and could find no water over by 48° from here to Houseman Access. So I guess we chose a day after they generated all night.
We did find some white bass in the creek arms and I have been receiving good reports of some big crappie up to 19 inches long in the Kings and Roaring River arms on the Missouri side of Table Rock.
If you’re an Arkansas or Missouri resident, with your state fish license for $10 you can add a WRL which allows you to fish the lake across the border.
Fish are wanting warm water now. Find it and you should find fish. Till next week, keep that line wet and the rod should bend.