By Brad Wiegmann
Brad Wiegmann is a fishing guide on Arkansas’ Beaver Lake and provides this report on the conditions FLW anglers will face when they arrive for this week’s tournament. For more information on Brad and his guide service, go to www.bradwiegmann.com.
Just one word describes the upcoming FLW tournament event on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas, and that word is “rain.” For the second year in a row, the FLW pros will be greeted by high water and more rain, making the normally gin clear Beaver Lake downright muddy, especially in the southern end of the reservoir.
The weather forecast is for more rain to fall this week, which will inundate miles more untouchable shoreline. Any time anglers are faced with rising water levels and muddy water, their flippin’ and pitchin’ sticks come out and the power fishermen excel, and this year should be no exception. Expect the final top 10 anglers to have a flippin’ stick in hand in stained or muddy water, maybe even pitchin’ to the abundant laydowns, log jams and flooded buck brush. Anglers probing these shallow waters will be flipping or pitching a soft-plastic bait like a YUM Wooly Bug, YUM Sooie or tube, probably in green pumpkin, black neon or black/blue flake rigged on 17-pound test fluorocarbon. Another option is casting a Vibra-FLX spinnerbait in bluegill pattern or a black BOOYAH Pip-Zqueek buzzbait around buck brush and logjams.
FLW angler Kyle Mabrey is at the lake for practice and says that the water is seven or eight feet high but that the stained water isn’t affecting the lake like last year. “Last year the stained water was a little farther down the lake and I caught a lot of shallow fish,” Mabrey said. “Last year it was about 10 miles below the Highway 12 bridge and this year it’s about five miles above the bridge where you get the stained water. I was able to catch fish paralleling bluffs but this year it’s not happening. We haven’t had any sunny conditions to warm the water enough for the shad to spawn.
“It seems like last year with the water having more stain it was easier to catch 3-pounders. This year it seems like the fish are smaller. I found one place where the shad are spawning but I’ve only found one. The water should warm on Wednesday night and if the shad spawn begins in earnest, we could get on a good bite.”
Maybrey said that he’s seeing a lot of spawning fish and some still in prespawn mode.
For the anglers fishing the lower end of the lake, a topwater bait like a Spook or Spook Junior in Lake Fork Shad or Okie Shad, or an Xj4 Jimmy in pearl shad, will catch aggressive largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. Some anglers may also utilize a soft swimbait like the YUM Money Minnow around docks to catch these fish. The last lure that always produces on Beaver is a shakey head. This jig combined with a finesse worm should account for a number of keeper bass brought to the scale.
Just like last year, a few anglers will target campgrounds, roadbeds and other areas with easy access to the shoreline to catch a limit. The stained water in the upper end will put a number of anglers fishing in close quarters during this event. Look for the 427 miles of Beaver Lake to fish more like a small pond. The one angler lucky enough will find that spot within a spot to catch his winning stringer.