Beaver Lake anglers prep for prime fishing in April

ROGERS (AP) — A parade of fins is on the march during spring. An eager audience awaits relaxing in lawn chairs on shore or seated in boats.

Anglers can't see the conga lines of walleye and white bass migrating from Beaver Lake up the White and War Eagle rivers. They know it's show time when fish bite lures like it's their last meal.

Walleye lead the parade, which typically starts in mid-March. They're the first to swim upriver to spawn, giving birth to the fish of tomorrow. Schools of white bass follow during April, with females laying millions of eggs on the gravel shoals of the War Eagle and White rivers.

Now is the time to be out there, said Kevin Hopkins, area fisheries biologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

"The peak of the walleye spawn might be over, but there's still fish in the rivers," he said.

Likewise, white bass are spawning in the tributaries, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported .

Cold fronts that have been numerous for a couple of weeks can affect the catching. When temperatures plummet, white bass may retreat downstream back to the main lake. They'll swim upstream again when the weather settles and the water begins to warm.

Anglers awaited the parade of fish on a warm Friday, March 23 at the Arkansas 45 access over the White River at Goshen. The area is known as Twin Bridges for the bridge over the White River and a nearby span over Richland Creek.

Twin Bridges is fishing central in early spring. Anglers launch boats at the ramp under the Arkansas 45 bridge or fish from shore. The Friday crowd was there when Alan Bland of Rogers and a fishing friend launched a canoe on a quest for walleye.

The pair welcomed a passel of small male white bass into their boat. That was a clue that the larger female white bass hadn't come upriver yet.

Word from the fishing grapevine was that the walleye bite was good. The highlight of the morning was a 20-inch walleye Bland proudly displayed for a photo. A chartreuse Flicker Shad crank bait fooled the walleye.

That fish would make anybody's morning, but it hasn't always been that way. Walleye were a rare catch 10 years ago. The fish were native to the White River before Beaver Lake was built in 1965. They mostly vanished when the reservoir filled.