Matt, Bob, Robert and Jay

Sunny, Windy and Cold, Water temperature 47*.
I got out early this morning, hung lights, caught bait and was ready to go before the crack of dawn. I knew the wind was going to blow and lately it has been an early morning bite so I was anxious to get as many fish in the boat before the bite was over and before we got blown off the lake. After putting my third board out we hooked up and landed a nice Striper. I almost got my spread of 11 boards, a bobber and 2 free lines out when 3 fish hooked up. We got 2 of the 3 in and were off to a good start. The wind was none existent, there were no boats around to disturb us and the guys were pumped. We continued to work a similar pattern until about 9 when the wind started to get up and the fishing slowed down. We had 8 or 9 fish in the box and the guys wanted more. After about an hour without a hit I decided to hit another area hoping to catch more fish but it was slow there also, bites were down to one every half hour or so. The wind was getting up by now and I knew anywhere I went I would have issues controlling the boat so I decided to stay in the area. The fishing was slow for the rest of the trip but we managed to boat 13 nice Stripers today. We all had fun today and the guys were able to take some nice fish home for the table.
It looks like the weather may warm a little this week and if the wind cooperates fishing should improve drastically.

Brian and Eric Nickols

Sunny and Cold, Water temperatures 45* and Clear.
Brian wanted to take his son out today to fish but was more concerned with "learning the ropes" about fishing for Stripers on the lake. He met me before daylight to catch bait then we went fishing. We set up on a fairly shallow flat pulling boards and freelines. I was not too stoked about fishing today with the fronts that have been blowing through daily and it being a poor day to fish if you believe in solunar tables. We started off with Eric jumping on the first rod and landing a nice fish. We pulled another 200 yards without a strike so I turned the boat around, crossed the lake and hit a similar area and caught another fish. I thought I had established a little pattern so I stayed in the general area for a while with little success. We hit some other areas but fishing was SLOW, We only took 6 hits today. The guys did well in landing 5 out of the 6 fish.
I would like to thank a very considerate boater who was driving a White with Green stripe Bullet Bass boat today. I had a large spread out of about 100 yards wide taking up most of the creek that I was fishing. He came around the corner about 60 mph and avoided my spread by running nearby the bank. Later on when he came back out of the creek he ran the other side of the creek that I was fishing on, again very courteous. It is nice to see a considerate boater out on the lake, they are few and far between but I would like to personally thank this guy for thinking of other fisherman. What a good world this would be if more boaters handled themselves like this man did!

Patrick

Sunny and Beautiful, Water Temperature 41* to 47* and Clear.
It was such a beautiful day today I had to get out so I took a friend Patrick out later this morning, caught bait and fished for a while. We tried numerous different patterns, we ran downlines over 30 foot flats, 45 foot flats and 20 foot flat plus we pulled boards over all of those areas also. We caught fish on both boards and downlines today. Patrick is holding a couple of the fish he caught today, the fatter fish on the right was caught on a downline and the fish on the left on a board over 34 feet of water.

Jim and Tim

Sunny and Cold, Water temperature 44* and Clear.
Picked the guys up early this morning, caught 80 pieces of bait and went fishing. Due to the cold front blowing through yesterday I thought the Stripers may be deep so I set up over a deep flat with downlines where I was seeing a few fish set at 38 feet deep. We starting taking hits immediately but the fish were not taking the baits to eat them, they were simply killing the baits. I knew they were decent fish because I could see them on the Lowrance and after a dozen hits we had 3 fish hook up at once. The largest of the three was about 8 pounds. We worked deep flats for about 2 hours then I decided to go check some other places out. I looked while on the big motor for about an hour or so. I found a bunch of fish up on a hump in 22 feet of water with depths of 45 feet surrounding it so we put a couple downlines out only to catch punks. We got the baits in and looked a little more without seeing what I wanted to see. The wind was getting up pretty good so I decided to put out a spread of boards to see if the fish would eat over shallower water. We had only pulled about 200 yards when 3 boards over 20 feet of water hooked up. The guys reeled all of the Stripers and I turned around and hit it twice more without taking a hit. I then decided to hit another flat nearby and as we were over 48 feet of water we hooked up with the largest fish of the day, on a board, go figure! By now the wind was howling and the guys were getting uncomfortable. I hit one more area with downlines , caught a keeper and the guys were ready to call it a day. Today we landed 12 Stripers, had probably 30 hits and kept a few to take home for dinner tonight.
We are having front after front passing through keeping the Stripers pretty confused. Also the aftershocks we had yesterday didn't help thing much today. We have another front passing through tonight and yet another front passing through on Friday night. Hope the weather calms down soon.

Tony

Cloudy and rain, Water temperature 42* up and 47* mid lake.
Well now that hunting season is over I have to go back to work so I called Tony yesterday and invited him to go out with me for a couple hours to locate bait and fish again. I mainly wanted to drive around the lake checking out the water temps and color of the lake so we cruised for awhile, located some bait and kept about 80 baits to fish with this morning. My wife wanted two fish for dinner and Tony said he would like a fish diner so we decided to keep a couple today. I located some fish on our first set up and within 30 minutes we had caught enough for dinner and were already throwing fish back. We left that area so I could take clients out on it later in the week and hit 2 other areas this morning before deciding to get off the water before the hard rains hit. I am glad to be back out on the water again.

Kathy, Bonnie and Todd

Sunny and Pleasant, Water temperature 50* and stained.
I got out early to catch bait then picked my crew up and went fishing. I concentrated on areas this morning where we had success yesterday. I started off deploying boards on the bank side of the boat when the closest board to the bank started skipping across the surface. Before I could get another bait in the water a second board got hit. I started thinking to myself that my worrying last night of the fish turning off due to a cold front blowing through was in vain. Todd had called many times wondering if we should reschedule the trip due to the weather and after him changing his mind several times at 7 o'clock last night he decided to go today. It actually was a beautiful morning with the sun out and little wind but that did not last very long. It took me a little while to figure out what the fish were doing but once we did we worked on them. I figured out a pattern they were using and every spot that we hit that fit the pattern we caught fish. Kathy had been the luckiest today reeling in the largest fish until Todd hooked up with his big fish. He had fought a nice fish prior to catching this one but messed around with it until it got tangled in another line and broke off as I was ready to put the net in the water. He was having trouble with this other fish and I was teasing him about loosing the big fish of the day but he came through for us and we landed the nice Striper. This family really enjoys fishing and have been clients of mine for many years. Although we have had plenty of great trips in the past this trip will stand out in their mind and as Todd put it what a wonderful Christmas present.

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope all my friends and family will
take time to remember our loved ones who are ill or who can not be with us this Christmas.

PS...A long time Striper fisherman of Lake Anna, Allen Worsky, aka...TRASH CAN... is in the hospital recovering from surgery. We will keep him in our prayers.

Scott and Mark

Cloudy and warm, Water Temperature 51* and Stained.
I got out early to catch bait this morning but after a couple hours of throwing I only had 2 baits that I wanted to use so I picked the guys up at 7 and went back out to catch bait. Finally caught a beautiful tankful of bait around 8, located some fish and set up on them. The fog was thick this morning and didn't clear off till around 10 o'clock. Fishing was slow so I relocated to an entirely different area and set out a spread of boards. Once the sun came out of the clouds we started taking hits. For the next couple of hours it appeared when the sun was out the fish would hit and when it was cloudy we didn't. Hopefully the sun shines tomorrow and everyone catches fish. Although it is December 22nd it felt like October with light winds and air temps into the 60's.