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John N. Felsher's Striper Fishing Adventures
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Like the escort warships protecting an aircraft carrier in a battle group,
several tiny orange “ships” spread out into a vee behind our boat.
With three rods holding lines on each side of the boat, Joe Farkas
rigged these orange planer boards to cut through the water at various
angles and distances from the boat. Dangling about 20 to 30 feet beneath
each board, a five-inch live shad tempted striped bass in this cove.
Since 1980, Farkas of Joe’s Striper Guide Service guided for stripers
on Beaver Lake near Eureka Springs, Ark. Formed by the damming of the
White River, the 28,220-acre lake wanders 70 miles through the Ozark
Mountains of northwest Arkansas. The lake averages about 60 feet deep,
but some holes plunge to more than 220 feet deep.
“Threadfin shad are the main forage species for striped bass in Beaver
Lake,” Joe said. “I catch my own shad with a cast net and like to drift baits
at different depths to cover everything from almost on the surface to about
30 feet deep. I free-line some lines below balloons and attach some to
planer boards. With some, I rig small weights to get baits down deeper until
I find out where the fish want to be.”
Besides guiding the lines to the side of the boat, planer boards also
served as strike indicators. Sometimes, a planer board acting erratically or
bobbing beneath the surface indicated a subtle strike. Sometimes, fish
ripped the line off the reels in mighty runs. When a big striper gulped a
shad, the line detached from the planer board, which floated to the surface.
David Sikes, outdoors editor for the Corpus Christi, Texas, Caller Times
struck first, fighting a silver and black-lined beast to the boat. David, Brent
Frazee, outdoors editor for the Kansas City Star and I took turns manning
the rods and fighting fish as Joe operated the trolling motor to pull baits
over the honey hole. In about four hours, we caught and released about
eight fish with some approaching 20 pounds.
“Stripers don’t reproduce naturally in Beaver Lake, but the lake has
been stocked with about 200,000 stripers a year since 1967,” Farkas said.
“The average striped bass runs about 15 pounds, but it’s not uncommon to
catch 20- to 30-pound fish. It’s a real trophy fishery. At any time, we can
catch a 30-pound or bigger fish. The biggest I’ve ever caught weighed 48
pounds. The lake record is 57 pounds.”
In extremely clear water, fish can see baits at great distances.
Sometimes, fish rise from more than 100 feet deep to grab baits. In one
cove, several fish herded baitfish to the surface.
“From fall through spring, I release a lot of fish,” Farkas said. “In the
summer, we are forced to keep the fish. We pull the fish up from such
depths that they’ll probably die. We pull some fish up from 100 feet down.
Here, people can catch up to three stripers per day with no minimum size
limit.”
With large stripers occasionally popping baitfish on the surface, we tried
tossing topwater baits as we trolled, but the fish didn’t respond. However,
we picked up enough strikes with the live bait to make the morning
interesting as we used the trolling motor to zigzag through the school.
“Stripers can move in on baitfish anywhere in the lake,” Farkas said.
“They chase the baits to the surface. We throw a lot of topwater baits and
baits that run just below the surface. We use a lot of Zara Spooks, Rapala
Skitter Pops and Redfins. The lake has seasonal patterns, but we can
catch fish all year long. During colder weather, we catch them closer to the
surface.”
Stripers naturally live in salt water, but enter freshwater rivers to spawn
like salmon. Along the Atlantic Ocean coast, stripers swim up rivers in the
spring when water temperatures hit about 55 to 60 degrees. To remain
vibrant, the semi-buoyant eggs must roll and tumble in light to moderate
current. Using stock from the Santee-Cooper Lakes of South Carolina,
where stripers do reproduce naturally in fresh water, many state agencies
stocked the bass into landlocked systems to provide more sport for
recreational anglers and to control shad populations.
To book trips, call Farkas at (479) 640-2386 or send an e-mail to
striperjoe@arkansas.net. On line, see www.joesstriperguide.com.
several tiny orange “ships” spread out into a vee behind our boat.
With three rods holding lines on each side of the boat, Joe Farkas
rigged these orange planer boards to cut through the water at various
angles and distances from the boat. Dangling about 20 to 30 feet beneath
each board, a five-inch live shad tempted striped bass in this cove.
Since 1980, Farkas of Joe’s Striper Guide Service guided for stripers
on Beaver Lake near Eureka Springs, Ark. Formed by the damming of the
White River, the 28,220-acre lake wanders 70 miles through the Ozark
Mountains of northwest Arkansas. The lake averages about 60 feet deep,
but some holes plunge to more than 220 feet deep.
“Threadfin shad are the main forage species for striped bass in Beaver
Lake,” Joe said. “I catch my own shad with a cast net and like to drift baits
at different depths to cover everything from almost on the surface to about
30 feet deep. I free-line some lines below balloons and attach some to
planer boards. With some, I rig small weights to get baits down deeper until
I find out where the fish want to be.”
Besides guiding the lines to the side of the boat, planer boards also
served as strike indicators. Sometimes, a planer board acting erratically or
bobbing beneath the surface indicated a subtle strike. Sometimes, fish
ripped the line off the reels in mighty runs. When a big striper gulped a
shad, the line detached from the planer board, which floated to the surface.
David Sikes, outdoors editor for the Corpus Christi, Texas, Caller Times
struck first, fighting a silver and black-lined beast to the boat. David, Brent
Frazee, outdoors editor for the Kansas City Star and I took turns manning
the rods and fighting fish as Joe operated the trolling motor to pull baits
over the honey hole. In about four hours, we caught and released about
eight fish with some approaching 20 pounds.
“Stripers don’t reproduce naturally in Beaver Lake, but the lake has
been stocked with about 200,000 stripers a year since 1967,” Farkas said.
“The average striped bass runs about 15 pounds, but it’s not uncommon to
catch 20- to 30-pound fish. It’s a real trophy fishery. At any time, we can
catch a 30-pound or bigger fish. The biggest I’ve ever caught weighed 48
pounds. The lake record is 57 pounds.”
In extremely clear water, fish can see baits at great distances.
Sometimes, fish rise from more than 100 feet deep to grab baits. In one
cove, several fish herded baitfish to the surface.
“From fall through spring, I release a lot of fish,” Farkas said. “In the
summer, we are forced to keep the fish. We pull the fish up from such
depths that they’ll probably die. We pull some fish up from 100 feet down.
Here, people can catch up to three stripers per day with no minimum size
limit.”
With large stripers occasionally popping baitfish on the surface, we tried
tossing topwater baits as we trolled, but the fish didn’t respond. However,
we picked up enough strikes with the live bait to make the morning
interesting as we used the trolling motor to zigzag through the school.
“Stripers can move in on baitfish anywhere in the lake,” Farkas said.
“They chase the baits to the surface. We throw a lot of topwater baits and
baits that run just below the surface. We use a lot of Zara Spooks, Rapala
Skitter Pops and Redfins. The lake has seasonal patterns, but we can
catch fish all year long. During colder weather, we catch them closer to the
surface.”
Stripers naturally live in salt water, but enter freshwater rivers to spawn
like salmon. Along the Atlantic Ocean coast, stripers swim up rivers in the
spring when water temperatures hit about 55 to 60 degrees. To remain
vibrant, the semi-buoyant eggs must roll and tumble in light to moderate
current. Using stock from the Santee-Cooper Lakes of South Carolina,
where stripers do reproduce naturally in fresh water, many state agencies
stocked the bass into landlocked systems to provide more sport for
recreational anglers and to control shad populations.
To book trips, call Farkas at (479) 640-2386 or send an e-mail to
striperjoe@arkansas.net. On line, see www.joesstriperguide.com.
Large line-sided rod benders offer
excellent fights in Beaver Lake
excellent fights in Beaver Lake
John N. Felsher and Joe Farkas examine a large striped bass that
Felsher caught and released on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas.
Felsher caught and released on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas.
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