NORTHWEST TERRITORY : Beaver’s tailwater trout tales seem to be whoppers
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008
Rumors of the trout being bigger than ever and biting great in the Beaver Lake tailwaters prompted a get-together with Aaron Jolliff of Rogers last week for my first fishing trip to the tailwaters since the floods of March and April. “What I want to know is where those good fishing reports are coming from, because I haven’t been hearing much about the fishing at all,” Jolliff said when I met him at his Hook, Line & Sinker tackle store in Rogers early Thursday. As it turned out, the fishing action wouldn’t tell us much either, even while working a variety of lures from top to bottom while drifting several miles from Beaver Dam to Spider Creek. The first thing we noticed from the launch ramp closest to the dam was a water level high enough to flood the trees along the bank and a sign near the end of the ramp. A paddler loading a canoe at the ramp said one of the two generators at the dam had recently been turned on to create a rise of about 2 feet. The generation, however, was difficult to detect because it was barely producing any current, and it wasn’t doing much for the clarity of the water, which was a pea-green color with visibility of about 2 feet below the surface. Cruising toward the dam after launching, we could see the obvious damage done by opening the dam’s spill-1 way gates a record 9 / 2 feet in April. In addition to downed trees, erosion had scalped the bank to bare dirt and rock to a height of 30 feet or more above the water’s surface. Based on reports of the trout being caught on crank baits, Jolliff started out with a suspending minnowlike lure while I went with a silver-and-blue lipless model that had recently proved effective below Bull Shoals Dam.
Neither of the lures drew a strike between the dam and the beginning of the artificial-luresonly area of the tailwaters, where we switched to white jigs with single barbless hooks.
Dragging the jigs deep and slow behind the drifting johnboat produced a hit from a fish that fought hard and long. It was a rainbow within the slot limit of 13-16 inches, but it was a dandy of 1 14 / 2 inches with plenty of girth.
“There’s no doubt about them being fat,” Jolliff said.
Leaving the artificials-only area, Jolliff switched to a jerk bait.
“Might as well see what a $ 15 lure will do,” he said, displaying a Jackal Squirrel in a Tennessee shad color.
Eventually, the lure produced a 15-inch rainbow that was even fatter than the first.
“Can’t complain about the average size,” Jolliff said.
The Jackal also would produce another rainbow and a couple of missed hits, leading Jolliff to observe, “There’s no question in my mind that if you stayed with a jerk bait, you could catch a few fish and have a chance at a big one.” Of particular interest during the float was seeing how the Parker Bottoms bank-fishing facility had fared during the spillway releases, but we wouldn’t learn much. All we could see of the two stone jetties was the first few feet of them at the bank. The rest was hidden beneath the green depths.
Of the small part visible at the bank, we saw that a retaining wall had been partially toppled, and an entire line of trees had been laid over just below the structure.
At the Bertrand Access, we saw a man and woman bank fishing and inquired about their success. “Zero and zero,” the man said.
We also asked a few fishermen in canoes about their luck and received negative replies from all except one, who said he had caught five trout the previous day while trolling a Rat-L-Trap.
As we neared Spider Creek, a layer of mist coming downstream on the surface of the water alerted us to the approaching rise of a second generator being turned on at the dam. Again, the rise was barely noticeable.
Such rises often coincide with a bump in trout-fishing action, but that didn’t happen.
Pulling out all the stops, Jolliff switched to dragging Power Eggs along the bottom, resulting in the catch of two small rainbows in an hour’s time.
“We got ’em going now, Buddy !” Jolliff joked.
We were floating past Spider Creek when a rumble of thunder drew our eyes to darkening skies to the northwest.
Jolliff pulled out his new, hightech cell phone and called up a radar image showing an orange-andred storm cell headed our way.
We immediately headed back to the dam and got to the launch ramp just as the all-too-familiar rain started falling.
Needless to say, the rumors of great fishing appear to be somewhat exaggerated.
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