This is why you take a kid fishing. Smiles and memories. Larry Askew and 8 year-old Gage Jamison from Overland Park, Kansas, will both enjoy eating the walleye Gage caught on Beaver Lake Monday, but would not hold. Think that’s why they’re smiling.
We did catch some nice stripers on another fishing trip Friday, but I thought a smiling kid with a fish he’s proud of will make others smile, also. Sure made me smile a few times. I let him drive the boat home. Good memories can last a lifetime.
So that rain brought Beaver Lake up a foot on Sunday and they have been letting that water out pretty fast. Everybody keeps asking me how that will affect the fishing. Looks to me like we have a lot more room on Table Rock to take it than on Beaver, and if they move it on through the chain of lakes I don’t see much of a problem.
Stripers are what I fish for the most on Beaver, and since they are now in their summer mode below the thermocline, it won’t affect much since they’re not relating to the shoreline, they’re in open water moving closer to the dam which is over 200 feet deep. It usually stays pretty and clean from Rocky Branch to the dam.
It’s a whole different story up river from Rogers to Springdale, but should be fine and normal when they move back that way in the fall.
As for both lakes with the shoreline up in the trees, that leaves a lot more brush to cover for your bass and crappie, but they can still be caught if you just leave that line in the water. Catfish should be easier to catch now as they move up into the creek arms to spawn. Just find a clear spot to sit on the bank and throw you a worm out on the bottom. If you’re in a boat netting some shad and just letting the wind blow you over the flats, go for the big ones.
Walleye also relate more to the flats and river bends than the shoreline so I don’t see this high water affecting them much. Bug minnows, jigs and worms can catch them now. Some say they do better on minnows in the cooler months and worms in the warmer months.
Well, that’s it for this week. There’s still a lot of clean water out there to enjoy, so go enjoy and take a kid with you for more smiles. Johnson Guide Service (479) 253-2258 www.fishofexcellence.com