Boy, it’s been a busy week. Fished the last three afternoons here at Holiday Island with one striper trip on Beaver Lake thrown in. We still have walleye off the flats here at the Island that like hanging off the flats and in the trees between us and the town of Beaver, but the water’s a little warm for the fish we’re after so we’ve been going with the flow.
We found going up river in the afternoon and into the evening when the Corps is releasing water from the dam, or after shutting it down, that a lot of bait and fish will be pretty active – water starts dropping from 83° all the way down to 54°. If they have been running a lot of water, that temp might be around Beaver. If not, just keep going up river till you cool down.
We also found they have been moving less water on the weekends. So we did do our best on the weekday afternoons with good fishing all the way to sunset.
Here’s a pic of our best fish from Friday. We caught trout, walleye, bass and whites all feeding together. The best walleye was 24 inches, biggest trout was 19 inches.
On Beaver Lake Friday morning we got into the stripers around the Point 5 area with most fish caught between 18 and 28 ft. deep in 40 – 60 ft. water. Shad are still the best bait, but out of seven bait rods down, we’ve been running shad on five, then putting perch on two rods with our big fish being caught on a perch.
Top water baits can still catch them close to sunrise but big jigs or spoons will do best after the sun gets higher.
Best area for stripers now is from the dam area to the Rocky Branch area.
Well, that’s it for now, enjoy this nice weather and find the cool water or some shade.
Robert Johnson, fishofexcellence.com, (479) 253-2258