What about this weather? One day a south wind and 70°, next day temp drops 20 degrees and we have a north wind. Have had more people cancel or rebook for a later date due to the weather this year then all previous years combined
We did have one striper trip on Beaver but caught only smallmouth and spotted bass that could manage getting a 6-in. shad in their mouths fishing the Prairie Creek area, but no striper. Other guides a little further upriver were complaining, too. Just a bad day.
Johnny Glantz of big1sstriperguideservice was out a few more days than me, and they were the good days, so here’s a pic from a trip he had on March 27 with Jerry Chambers from Edmond, Okla., holding the biggest catch at 27 pounds before releasing. They limited out with nine stripers and caught and released them all for me. He got on these fish in the river channel on shad running 18 ft. deep this side of Point 12 fishing the edge of the mud line.
The mud line has now moved up to the Horseshoe Bend area with most stripers being caught from there to Prairie Creek. Water temp is just getting warmer from here on, and getting close to 60° now. These fish are still full of eggs with the spawn starting at 64° for stripers and the whites, so it should start of getting pretty good by next week.
Here at Holiday Island everybody’s catching a pretty good mix in the river of whites, walleye and spotted bass along with some good trout trolling flicker shad, crankbaits and casting jigs.
Crappie are moving back and forth from the shoreline and being caught from 4 – 8 ft. of water depending on if the sun and south winds are warming the shoreline or clouds and north winds are cooling it. Jigs, minnows and small flicker shad can find them for you.
It’s April, so most all our warm water fish are close to where they want to spawn. They just don’t like this unsettled weather, but they still have to eat.
Well, I’m late on this again so I better get it in. I have trips Friday and Saturday this week with warm front on my side so it should be a good weekend for catching.
Johnson Guide Service, www.fishofexcellence.com (479) 253-2258