Word from the water is that the fishing at Beaver Lake is better this spring than it has been in years. If it has fins and a mouth, there’s a good chance it’ll put a bend in your fishing pole.
Some are the CPR species. That is, catch, photograph and release. Others, such as crappie and walleye, are the catch, keep and eat kind. This spring, they’re all biting.
It’s mid-February when I start hitting the lake on a regular basis in the name of science. That is, to research the lure preferences of the black bass at Beaver Lake. I caught the black bass bug long ago from the old-timers who used to hang out at the marina where I used to work at Table Rock Lake. Bass fishing is an affliction I’ve loved ever since.
The pleasant surprise this spring at Beaver Lake is that the bass are eager to bite, but white bass and walleye are attacking the usual menu of bass lures. Trips this spring have produced a mixed catch and a fine opportunity to stock the freezer with filets.
It goes against my nature to keep a smallmouth bass, my favorite fish. Even if it’s a keeper 15 inches or longer it goes back in the lake, though there’s nothing wrong with keeping it. Same goes for legal largemouth bass. That’s because largemouths have the potential to grow way bigger than 15 inches.
It’s open season on keeping spotted bass now that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has lifted the length limit on spots at Beaver Lake. Kentuckies, some folks call them. You can keep spotted bass of any size, and I have. Game and Fish tells us they are over-abundant in the lake, so spotted bass get released into into the Fry Daddy for an evening fish fry treat.
We fishermen can keep six spotted bass per day. Hopefully Game and Fish will get rid of the daily limit so we can keep all we care to clean. That’s the way it is with plentiful white bass. There’s no limit on white bass at Beaver Lake.
The joy this year has been the walleye. I’m after black bass, but have lucked into a keeper walleye on nearly every fishing trip. These have joined the spotted bass as stars at the dinner table. Walleye have to be 18-inches or longer to keep at Beaver Lake, and the daily limit is four. A couple have been close, measuring 18.001 inches. Oh happy day.
When the black bass and the walleye aren’t biting, the white bass are, but not where you might think. Most springtime white bass fishing is where the War Eagle or White rivers meet Beaver Lake, where white bass spawn. This spring we’ve caught lots of white bass in the middle part of the lake when they ought to be upstream spawning. Again, we caught ’em while fishing for black bass.
Crappie have been another surprise. You hear that most crappie are caught on the south end of the lake. We rarely see people fishing for them on the north end where I live. My problem with crappie is, if I don’t catch one in 15 minutes, I put away the crappie gear and start bass fishing.
One April morning we left the bass stuff at home and took only the crappie rod and some crappie jigs out in the boat. It took a few hours, but we managed to catch a nice mess of crappie for the Fry Daddy, including a couple of 13-inchers. Crappie have to be 10 inches long to keep at Beaver Lake. The daily limit is 15.
Fishermen might sing along with Frank Sinatra. It’s been a very good year.
Flip Putthoff can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAFlip