Beaver Lake FYI

[mawi97]

I think it is a good thing that they are taking that grass out. I am just like the next guy and like to fish grass but it was getting out of control. I stopped going last year after April because of the grass. Have any of you been there in June? It is awful when the grass gets to be in full bloom. And yes I know how to fish with other things other than a bobber and worm. (No offense). I think it will definitly make the place a lot better. Last April I had 61 fish in six hours. Not one was over 13". From what I hear Beaver used to be a great lake. If you want to catch bass at Beaver, take three packs of Senkos and have a blast. But don't go for numbers.

[18'stratos]

I have been fishing this lake for several years. I have seen the size of bass and population change. Back in the late 90's they removed all the grass carp and shad. At that time the bass were healthy and fat. I fished a lot of tourneys there and it was common to see a six pounder or better at weigh in. The grass then got thick so later a few years they put grass carp back in. That combined with spraying still doesn't keep the grass level down so the bass can feed. Those fish in Beaver are starving. I have had days where I have caught up to 83 bass in a 7 hour time. Never catching a keeper bass.
I hope that the bass make a come back in size. It also wouldn't hurt my feelings if they put shad back in the lake.
Also one more thing...the bullfrogs that used to be abundant there are almost non existant anymore. That was also a forage for the bass. I hope they get it balanced again. Out is my favorite lake to fish.

[DJD]

Was this lake a trophy management lake years ago? Did it start out as anything other than a new lake? I'm asking because it seems they always have an issue with Shad, Carp or Weeds. Does it get more attention because it's a pet project lake??

Just thinking back over the last 10-15 years I fished it and wondering why this lake goes bad more than other small lakes I hear of.

[spinnerbaitguy]

Was this lake a trophy management lake years ago? Did it start out as anything other than a new lake? I'm asking because it seems they always have an issue with Shad, Carp or Weeds. Does it get more attention because it's a pet project lake??

Just thinking back over the last 10-15 years I fished it and wondering why this lake goes bad more than other small lakes I hear of.

No Beaver wasn't a trophy management lake. I used to fish the weekend tournaments on a regular basis back in the late 80s and early 90s-dang has it been that long??? (Are those tournaments still being held? I'd love to be part of them again) I was there when several of the older, more well known local weekend tournament fishermen used to gripe about the weeds in the lake. The lake was owned by (I think) the fish and game club. I would assume, not being an Anderson county resident or game club member, they must have lobbied the state to become involved...spraying for weed control, then introducing massive amounts of grass carp per acre was the tactic employeed by the state. The lake then went from being an incredible fishery to the fisaco it has become. Before I go any further, I would like to say that in the early days of grass carp being used for weed control, it seemed that the philosophy was...if some are good, then more are better. The life expectancy of the carp in relation to over-stocking them allowed the carp to mow down every stalk of grass(no exaggeration) for several years. This set off a chain of events that went as follows...the predatation of smaller fish became easier, then as fish spawned, the fry had fewer and fewer places to hide and grow as a result of ever diminishing weed cover. This made subsequent spawns less and less productive and effective because as soon as fry became available without places to hide, they were dinner for larger fish. This in turn essentially wiped out majorities of year classes of fish. The lake was left with a few big fish and a few surviving smaller fish which managed to escape predators. After the bigger fish began to die out or be caught, the small fish were the rule, which brings us to today.
Let me shift gears here for a minute. Many years ago, my step father and I got permission to fish a pond in central Ky. which was full of 9-12 inch bass. There hadn't been keepers(12 inch) caught from the pond for several years. The pond owner, realizing the problem said "We need to get some of those little guys out of there...take all the small bass you catch or don't fish here." This was in the early days of catch and release so while it was contrary to the accepted belief system, we complied with the owner and took quite a few bass over the next 2 months....but probably less than 100. The pond also had a big population of over sized bluegill(10 inchers) which became our focus. We fished the pond a few times that first year and 2nd year, but didn't go back for a couple of years after that. The next trip back(which would have been the 4th or maybe 5th year), we didn't catch as many bass but the 9-12 inchers we caught the first year had seemingly been replaced by numerous 15-17 inch bass along with a 5+ pounder caught by my step father in the summer of that 4th year. The bluegill had gotten noticeably smaller in number and size...obviously as the bigger bass population had increased in size.
The point here is- I think some harvest WOULD be in order, even if that means keeping 1 or 2 undersized bass per boat or per fisherman for a year or possibly 2. The main thing, in my opinion is this- the lake used to have good genetics and the terrain is obviously fertile enough to feed the lake. Those genetics are still alive in some of those fish whose ancestors were residents of Beaver. I think this idea may have some merit. I disagreed with the state's involvement and methods years ago...but this one has a track record with me personally. I've seen it work. I started fishing Beaver when I was in my late 20s. I am now in my early 50s(wow- again...it's painful to say it). I miss what it was but I believe it can become again. The fertility in that area has given way to some incredible fisheries..does anyone remember Taylorsville in it's early days? How about Guist Creek? The Ky River, Salt River, Elkhorn, shall I go on?
My political views are NOT in favor of governmental interference so I don't relish the government's presence in most cases but in this case, they do have the resources and they did enable this to take place years ago. I don't mean to sound like an old fogey- I just have hope for the future of the sport and it's going to require more than the hottest newest lure or technique. If Texas can do it, Kentucky can too. Maybe it will start with Beaver Lake.

[gocards40]

Do you guys think this will hurt the bluegill fishing at Beaver?

[DJD]

Man you have been around awhile!! lol Just kidding man! You made my point better than I did. I just don't understand why this lake is messed with so much. Seems like there are lakes that do better with less intervention or I just don't hear about them as much.

[Bineyj]

I think the goal is to make this lake a top notch bluegill/shellcracker lake. Thinking back from the meeting, they mentioned the abundance of grass when blooming/growing in May/June ***** oxygen and nutrients out of the water. This is in turn takes out food the fry feed on. I think something that no one has discussed was the age of the lake. When was it built?? 40-50 years ago??? I'm not sure, but some of the people at the meeting discussed the fact areas that used to be good hard bottom are now silted in. I think one or two even asked if the lake could be lowered then the silt dredged out. I recall KDFWR stating the cost would be huge for that to occur, plus the number of agencies to get on board.

Long story short, KDFWR is at least trying something, will it work, i have no idea. But at least they're attempting to be proactive and thinking outside the box. As we know, this lake isn't what it once was and may never be either. Here is another thought.....Pressure. I bet there are more people and better fishing equiptment than in years past.

John

[spinnerbaitguy]

Just wondering if the open tournaments are still held on weekends at the lake. I'm sure there are small club tournaments are held there once in a while but I'm referring to the ones held by whoever is running the dock now. It might be a good centralized place for some of the fishin.com folks to meet and do a little fishing...including bank fishermen!

[apb]

Was at Guist on Friday afternoon. Fish and game were there dropping off around 600 LM taken out of Beaver Lake. Mostly 10-12 inchers. Looks like they have started putting a dent in the bass population at Beaver Lake.

Andrew

[tracy]

The weekend tournaments fizzled out do to have 10-12 boats and no keepers being weighed. After a couple of years people just quit showing up they would hold a tournament and 1 or 2 boats would show up.

In my opinion the fish and wildlife aren't doing this to benefit the bass population. I believe its just an excuse to get rid of the weeds to make it better for the bluegill fisherman. If anybody watches the Big Pro tournaments on TV they see that the lakes that have grass usually has bigger fish.

They talk about getting rid of only the curly leaf grass but how do you spay for the curly leaf grass and not kill out the rest????

I agree with the guy earlier if there isn't any grass then the fry have nowhere to hide. I to fished the lake back when the carp took over and eat all the grass. The bass fishing went down the toilet.
After the carp died off the bass fishing exploded. Between 2000-2004 it was the best lake in the area. I could catch several 3lb-4lb fish every trip until they started taking the bigger fish from beaver, guist creek & herrington and putting them in cedar creek. Something else they don't want to own up too.

[Bineyj]

Tracy,

You're right about the bluegill lake. That is what they want, which is fine by me. I like to fish for both. My thought, you create a good bluegill lake, you will get a good bass lake. I think they stated that was why it used to be so good. KDFWR stated shad lakes tend to have a lower bass population per acre than a bluegill only lake. Guist was a concern too, at 5-6 bass per acre they stated it was well out of balance on the low side of the 15-16 they said they want to see.
I realize bass fisherman want all lakes to be managed for bass, but not all bass fish. I fish for both, but really have found bluegill/shellcracker fishing to be more fun around here. I have been very lucky to have a Papaw that up until recently owned a place in Okeechobee and took me to Canada, St. Clair, Alabama plus various places inbetween. After fishing these places, around here just don't even compare, so for me bluegill fill the void.

[tracy]

Not knocking pan fishermen. I just don't know why they try to hide their real agenda and just tell everyone what they really want to do and quit trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.

I agree that beaver lake has too many fish and guist does have enough. Im not against taking the smaller fish out to help out another lake. Just leave the bigger fish alone.
Like I stated earlier I've heard from several different people that know people that work for the fish and game that when cedar creek was built that they took alot of 2lb-4lb fish from beaver,guist & herrington to give cedar creek a jump start.