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Beaver Lake Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The first White River lake: striper mornings, spotted bass depths and Ozark clarity near Bentonville.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Flow
4 cfs
Air / High
77 / 79 F
Wind
SSE 7 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 07048600, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Beaver Lake sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The main inflow is running 4 cfs, falling. Today brings clear skies, wind SSE around 7 mph, steady pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 79. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:52 AM-11:52 AM and 10:20 PM-12:20 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Striped bassExcellent

Use electronics to find shad schools in open water, and watch for birds working over bait.

Largemouth bassGood

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Catfish (blue, channel)Good

Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

CrappieFair

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Tomorrow: Similar at 81 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Arkansas requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $10.50 for residents. What a Arkansas licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with AGFC before you keep anything. The season dates for Arkansas, read off the agency, are on the Arkansas seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from White River near Fayetteville, AR (inflow).

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 07048600.

718304 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp77 F
High / Low79 / 49 F
WindSSE 7-9 mph
Pressure1019.9 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:30 / 18:29
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (gauge)65 F USGS
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Beaver Lake this week

The best day on Beaver Lake this week looks like Monday Oct 26, at 5 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Monday, Oct 26 β€” excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:52 AM-11:52 AM and 10:20 PM-12:20 AM
Minor period
4:14 AM-5:14 AM
Sun
07:30 to 18:29
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 7 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Beaver Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Striped bass illustration

Striped bass

Best: spring and fall inland; on the coast, during the seasonal migrations

The largest of the temperate basses, a sea-run fish of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that now also lives in reservoirs across much of the country after hatchery stocking. Inland, it follows schools of shad and herring through open water. Use electronics to find shad schools in open water, and watch for birds working over bait.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Year-round, best at dusk and after dark

Three big catfish share most of the country's rivers and reservoirs: the channel catfish, the most widespread; the blue catfish, the largest; and the flathead, which hunts live fish. All feed mostly on or near the bottom. Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

When to come: the Beaver Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
Striped bass
Catfish (blue, channel)
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Beaver Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Striped bass led the card at excellent. High of 79 F, wind to 4 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Striped bass led the card at excellent. High of 77 F, wind to 5 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 75 F, wind to 7 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Arkansas requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Striper: 20-inch minimum, 3/day. Black bass 15-inch/6 combined. Confirm with AGFC.

Access

Prairie Creek, Hickory Creek, Horseshoe Bend, Dam Site ramps; marinas at Rogers and the islands.

About this water

28,370 acres on the White River, Benton/Carroll counties, AR. Corps, impounded 1966.

Fishing Beaver Lake: the full guide

Top of the chain

Beaver starts the White River chain: 28,000 clear acres where stripers roam open water (the dawn topwater in June is special), spotted bass stack on 30-ft points, and War Eagle and the other creek arms load with spring crappie and whites. Northwest Arkansas' boom has filled the ramps: weekday dawns still feel like the old Ozarks.

The striper loop

Beaver's stripers run a yearly circuit: White River arm in winter, mid-lake points in spring, the deep channel from Point 5 to the dam all summer at 25-45 ft on downlined shad. Guides run it hard, but a gray-light topwater in June is democratic magic anyone can cast.

Finesse first

This is the Ozarks' clearest big lake: 8 lb line, shaky heads, drop shots and long casts define the spotted-bass game on bluff ends and gravel. Float-n-fly wins winter, the Ned rig wins whenever: power fishing gets brief spring windows in the dirty creeks and little else.

Common questions

Where do Beaver's stripers hold in summer?

Suspended 25-45 ft over the old channel between Point 5 and the dam: graph the bait, set downlines, watch the rod tips. Winter moves the schools (and the birds) up the White River arm.

The table-rock of the Ozark whites

Beaver's clear-water program mirrors its downstream siblings with its own accents: suspended spotted bass over 100-ft timber (video-game fishing on forward sonar), a spring walleye run up the White River arm that locals guard, and striper trolling the mid-lake bait balls. The White River trout tailwater below the dam adds the bonus round: four fisheries in one Ozark address.

Is fishing good at Beaver Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Table Rock Lake36 miLake Taneycomo50 miMulberry River51 miGrand Lake o the Cherokees55 miIllinois River55 miBull Shoals Lake57 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 07048600 β€” White River near Fayetteville, AR (inflow)
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 18:00 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 36.2354, -93.9428 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.