Any Beaver Lake locals on here?

[ʇuǝɹq™]

As my time gets closer to retirement from the Air Force, the wife and I looking more and more to move to NWA. I've never been on Beaver, and heard it's super tough fishing. I would like to talk with someone about fishing Beaver, and other local fishing holes (if there are any).

[Pacific NW Ron]

My job took me to Mountain Home AR. area.  We spent nine years there.  We had a place on Norfork.  Loved Norfork and Bull Shoals lakes.  Good fishing for many different species.  And yes these lakes are hard to learn how to fish, and hard to decide what species to go after.  I loved the striper fishing once I learned how to catch them. 
Just another option for you to check out.
Thank you for your service to this great country.
Ron

[Lipripper]

I can see why that would be a hard lake to learn  It looks like a big and long river system lake with lots of coves and I'm thinking lots of ledges like Kentucky Lake. I t would be a challenges but if your retired you would have lots of time to figure it out.

[merc1997]

what would you like to know about lake sterile??  oops, i mean beaver lake.  stripers make the rest of the fishery very difficult.  yes, you can catch some on the upper end at times, and even on the lower end during the spring.  take a look at how most fare in the flw and b.a.s.s. tournies and will give you some insight.  during summer months, you have a lot of big boat traffic.

however, bull shoals has lots of bass in it and very little traffic.

the rogers, springdale, fayetteville metro-plex is strictly city living.  during morning and evening work traffic, there are three lanes both directions and traffic is at a standstill in the middle of the road.  if you like city living it would be great.  if not, i would look at surrounding smaller towns.

bo.

[ʇuǝɹq™]

Thanks for the input guys. I won't be fully retired. An Air Force retirement check is quite enough money to quit working forever, especially with this expensive fishing hobby. We have a lot of family that lives up there, and the traffic and city life isn't a big deal, but we're definitely looking at living outside of the metro-plex.

I knew beaver was tough from all those tourneys and local chatter. A lake like that can really hone your fishing ability though.

Are there many bass clubs or circuits up there that you know of?

[Mike Cork]

Find a place on the Table Rock side of Beaver and you'll rarely fish Beaver. Or change to striper fishing. My father loves it when he gets a hankering to catch a few 30 inchers.

[Charger_88]

I've lived here for 2 years and just bought my first Arkansas fishing license last week. There is only one benefit for retired military/veterans and it requires going through the Little Rock F&G office directly. You still pay full price for the annual resident plus add-ons, but it's good for three years. Make sure to buy the trout stamp as well as border states permit so you can fish all of the White River impoundments and Bull Shoals.

I've only been out on Beaver twice and I can tell you already, it's tough! I've been all over the Southern US and Midwest regions, and Beaver is definitely different, just like everyone says. On my second trip out, I did manage to locate some feeding bass around structure and man made cover adjacent to deeper water. Specifically, we fished the mouth of a small cove where the feeder creek merged with a larger creek and we found fish around the two boat docks that were floating over two points. The fish I was marking were around 20' under schools of baitfish, but they would come up to just below the surface to hit suspending jerk baits and spinners. These were pretty small bass, well under the legal length. There are big ones here, but I reckon it will take a long time of searching to find them.

When you can't find good current info on Beaver fishing conditions, look at Table Rock reports. Same river chain, and very similar composition. Beaver's baitfish and smaller game fish support the Striper population and everything else has to compete with the much larger predators. But, smallies and largemouth have similar competition in the Great Lakes and still manage to survive and keep game fishermen satisfied, so don't dispair! Beaver bass should behave similarly to Table Rock bass at the same time, so those other reports will have some relavency. Good luck!

[ʇuǝɹq™]

Charger_88, do you fish SWEPCO much? I've heard it's a decent little lake.

[BassHOGS]

Brent.....I lived on Beaver Lake up until I joined the Air Force.  The lake is really tough fishing on both ends really, down in the river or up near the dam.  I grew up fishing from Prairie Creek down to Blue Springs just south of the Hwy 412 bridge.  Lots of docks and brush to fish.  Now when I go home, I usually fish from Prairie Creek up to the dam. Fish a lot of crankbaits, T-rig worms, and jigs.  Started using shakey heads there too.

You asked about Swepco.............That is a neat lake to fish and has a hot water discharge that holds fish.  There are also some lakes up in Bella Vista as well to fish. 

Holler if you want more information.  FISH ON!!! 

Chad