Well, the water is cooling and the stripers are coming up closer to the surface on Beaver Lake. The good thing about it most the bait will still stay up here on our end of the lake for most of September before migrating back south, closer to Rogers.
I have been putting on another motor so did not get out myself this past week, but all my buddies are doing pretty good and catching some big fish still from the dam to Point 5 from the surface down to 20 feet. Big shad are still the best bait and top water plugs like the big spook, and redfins, are catching some during the cool part of the mornings.
We’ve got our first trip out tomorrow since getting the motor on so looks like we will be having some fun also. Still open for the weekend and with these cooler nights it’s looking like the cold water bite is on and going to be starting a little early this year.
Speaking of cold water, and moving on closer to Holiday Island and the Beaver tailwaters, here’s a picture of another buddy, I guess a woman can be a buddy if she is also a guide. Lisa Mullins of Custom Adventures Guide Service, who fishes mostly for trout and walleye in the river on light tackle, caught this nice striper while on a walleye trip this week with a jig tied on 6-pound line. Now that has to be fun and a little scary with the fear of losing on that might of line, but I heard she hollered a pretty good yeah when she got him in the boat.
We have had more reports of stripers in the river since they had the flood gates open so much in the spring when we had all that rain. This one even had a complete intact 12-inch trout in his belly and was still hungry.
Here at the Island the crappie and bass are also moving up shallow with the cooler water. Look for crappie in the creek arms closer to the shoreline brush from 4 – 8 ft. deep, and I wouldn’t waste much time fishing the bluffs since most the bass being caught are now relating more toward the flats and creek arms in water as shallow as 2 ft. deep. A square bill crankbait is still the best bait to throw so you don’t snag the bottom so much.
Well, that’s it for this week. Looks like winter might get here a little early this year so get out and enjoy while you can and take a kid with you when you can. Johnson Guide Service. www.fishofexcellence.com. (479) 253-2258.