May 30, 2026 | Beaver Tailwater Fishing Report
- Ryan Burks
- May 30
- 3 min read
It's been an up and down week with the water fluctuations and we have seen some changes. Overall the fishing has still been great, but there are some tweaks you will need to make to stay successful out there. Read on below for some up to date info.
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Beaver Tailwater Levels & Conditions
Beaver Lake is currently at 1121.53 and on a very slow rise. It has bounced up and down a bit over the last week, but holding fairly steady around this level. With the generators still down, the Corps of Engineers has been doing a combination of releases from the top of the dam and through the conduit. Conduit releases are colder, but contain less dissolved oxygen. Flood gates at the top of the dam are warmer, but contain more dissolved oxygen. Right now, a combination of the two seems to be the best answer that they have to keep the lake levels in check and to try to keep the fish happy. Most of the week, there were releases totaling around 900 cfs. This water level was fishing great for me. It was a bit warmer than I would like to see, but the fish were still happy and eating and not overly stressed. On Thursday, the releases jumped up instantly to around 5,000 cfs from the conduit. They stopped this Thursday evening and returned to no releases at all Friday. It absolutely helped cool the river down, but made for difficult fishing yesterday. Any time you have had stable water levels and then see a massive rise and fall, the fishing can get tough for bit as the fish are readjusting to where the holding water is. After the initial mud-wave from the conduit release, the river has cleared up and the visibility is excellent.
I'm not sure of the cause, but there were hundreds of dead drum and warmwater fish in the upper end of the river yesterday. I'm assuming they were pulled through the dam during the big conduit release on Thursday, but can't say the cause with certainty. I did not see any more dead trout than I normally do though, so that is a positive.
What's Working
In the bigger flows we had early in the week, standard high water nymph rigs were getting the job done. I had luck with two fly rigs suspended about 6-10 feet below an indicator. In these rigs I'm running 3x tippet to my top fly, which is something big and bright like and egg, worm or larger Blowtorch. I'm trailing a size 16 Rootbeer or Ruby midge behind these and generally getting bit on the midge. On sunny days, I also had success with the Purple Haze Sowbug as a trailing fly.
Stripping streamers was also a good tactic this week. The flows of around 900 cfs that we were seeing was a great level. It was enough water to have fish willing to chase and eat streamers, but not so much that getting flies down was difficult. Small articulated buggers, Dungeons, and Peanut Envy's were getting the job done for me.
We also had a couple shots at fish on hoppers/ants, but some bad timing on hooksets meant that we didn't seal the deal. The hopper bite should be getting going good, and if we get those good flows it could be a lot of fun!
Check out the store portion of our website for flies, and if you need something you don't see there...don't hesitate to reach out! I can make it happen.
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