Tony Crain from Niotaze, Kansas, came this way this week with one thing in mind, and that was for his daughter Debi Crain, also from Niotaze, to feel what it’s like with a big hard fighting fish on the end of her line. She got a good taste of striper with this 37-inch fish that we didn’t weigh, but I estimate this one at 25 pounds. The water temp was running 79 – 80° and the bait and fish we marked were back running between 30 – 40 ft. deep.
We also moved back this way with most stripers being caught from Honey Creek, which is right below the water treatment plant near the dam down to the Point 5 area. Look for the flats and the long tapering points, and fish the edge of the flat where the deeper channel runs up against it. We graphed most of the bait and fish where the Water Dept. dropped from 50 feet deep up to around the 100-ft. range with 30 foot water not an arm’s throw away.
Flats on the main channel, the bigger coves and creeks are all good. A good GPS that shows the contour lines help a lot.
Has been over a week since I’ve been out here at Holiday Island, but I hear the walleye are still off the points, flats and humps from here to Houseman. Our deepest water here runs under 40 feet so, most of our warm water fish are down around 12 feet. Fish in the bass family, including white bass and the stripers on Beaver, are coming to the surface more, especially at sunrise and sunset when all is calm and quite.
Wow, I just realized I didn’t see one wakeboard boat this week. Calm and quiet. Pretty peaceful on the water now. Fish like that, so get a line wet and the skillet hot.
Robert Johnson, fishofexcellence.com, (479) 253-2258