Well, if you can see this, you’re on top of fish. It seems about every guide on Beaver Lake has been up here at the dam this week pulling in the stripers. I am alone no more.
Big shad from 5 – 9 inches long are the best bait now, with some being caught on big brood minnows 4 – 6 inches long. Water temps have cooled down into the mid-70s now, so fish are getting more active and being caught from the surface down to 30 ft. deep. This is all good for the bait also, for staying alive on the hook.
Shad do best in the tank below 78° and getting below the hot surface water was very hard on them. As soon as they hit the lake, scales would start falling off. I am so glad that is now in the past.
This is the time for stripers, close for the cool water bite. It won’t be long ‘til the water cools enough that the bait will start moving south. Then it’s back towing to Rogers for the winter where they will hang out waiting for it to warm back up for their run up river to spawn March into April. Which means towing to Springdale.
So if you want to get on the cool water bite close to home, the time is here.
As for here at Holiday Island, walleye have been the talk all summer from here all the way upriver past Houseman Access. Seems like most took more of a liking to the cooler river this year and stayed close after their spawn back in the early spring.
Bass and crappie have also moved into shallow water, so look for crappie hanging closer to the shoreline brush with a jig or minnow or a combination of both, and the bass relating more to the flats, back of the coves and creek arms.
Well, I’m heading after bait for the weekend with days still open if you can’t get out on your own. The cooler water and days mean the afternoons into evening can also do good now, along with the mornings.
Sunrise and sunsets are good times to be out there, so while the stripers are close we’re fishing 5 hr. trips, 6:30 to 11:30 a.m. and also offering a 3 hr. special in the evenings 5 – 8 p.m. from now ‘til we turn the clocks back in November. Enjoy the fall and share with a young one if you can.