Thursday, August 30, 2007

Al, Zach and Maddie Matarazzo with Jonathan Reigle


August 30, 2007 : Party Sunny and warm, Water Temp 84* and clear.
Picked Al up at his dock at 5 and went and caught 100 Herring then went and caught 30 Gizzards. Set up on a few groups of Stripers but just like the 3 previous days the fish were not hungry in the early AM hours. Went and picked up the rest of the crew and went fishing for a couple of hours. Set up on a school in 25 ' , worked them for 10 minutes and realized they were not going to hit so we left them and found some more . Put downlines on them and got two of them in the boat before the school spooked. Hit a couple of more areas before finding a flat with numerous groups of Stripers stacked on the breaks. We worked these fish for an hour before my clients had to go in for lunch. Clients kept 4 fish for a lunch and released the other fish caught today.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Bruce Riddle


August 29th, 2007 : Partly sunny and warm, Water Temp 84* and Clear.
Picked client up at 5 am this morning and went and caught about 150 Herring and a few Gizzards. Set up on a 25' flat and pulled it with 8 planner boards, 8 downlines and a bobber, rigged with assorted baits. We worked a stretch for an hour and a half, seeing fish but only getting a few hits. I was talking to John on the radio and he was seeing the same thing as I was , just single fish and nothing looking like it wanted to feed. Since the fish on Monday did not feed till 9 I decided to go catch some more bait so we did and loaded up the tank. I looked on some deeper flats and found a school and set out the same spread as we had out before. The fish were in the right formation to feed and I knew it wouldn't be long before they did so we hung in there and after 10 minutes the lake turned on. We had numerous hook ups and I called John over to join in . The screen was lit up and fish were actually breaking all around us. John came over and we all were hooked up at once and the action lasted for at least an hour.I decided to move , we had 35 baits left and I wanted to see if I could find another school in the same pattern and drove a mile and a half and found a larger school. We put downlines on them and they got hit as soon as we engaged the reel. I put the largest bait I had in the tank on and it lasted about 20 seconds before it hooked up. Bruce fought it for 20 seconds, pulling drag all the while. The fish got off, as some of the Hogs do , but we knew we were in some quality fish. We fished this school till we ran out of bait. Bruce is pictured with the first Striper of the day, releasing all the fish he caught. Today we had well over 100 strikes and I lost count how many Stripers we actually caught. John and his crew had a good day trolling , keeping a few for the freezer and releasing the rest.

Glen, Allen and Anna Harris with John Chadduck


August 29th, 2007: Here is a picture of John and his clients today with a nice stringer of fish. See above entry for details.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Deno and Kerri Barcia with Mike Tainsh, Al Vacla and Robert Gande


August 20th, 2007 : Rain, lightning and cool, Water Temp 83* and Clear.
Picked clients up at 5:30 with a major thunder storm rocking the skies west of us and it started to pour . Went to where I have been catching bait but the weather front had made it move. Looked for about an hour for bait and finally caught it over 30 feet of water balled up. I was very concerned about the day, not just being a nasty day for my regular clients but with the barometer crashing and moving the bait I thought it may have influenced the Stripers as well. Decided to start off with Planner boards this morning and ran a 15' flat with Gizzards and Herring. Worked it for 25 minutes with Kerri taking only one fish so we went looking for downline fish. Looked on several 25 to 35' flats , saw plenty of fish but all were spread out horizontally, nothing bunched up. Kept looking till we found lots of Stripers , put Herring in their faces and they would not eat. Went and found another school with similar results. The crew got cold and we went and got coffee to warm us up , went out and caught some more bait and looked some more. Couldn't find what we wanted so we decided to go back to where we fished this morning and got almost there when Dino spotted a couple of breaking fish. I turned around and we set up on them and the fish cooperated. It was a long day today, clients had 90 strikes, caught 17 Stripers and a few Kitties. Tomorrow they are forcasting a possible tornado in the area.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Eric Fonda, Larinda Robinson and Steve Walker


August 18th, 2007 : Sunny, Windy and pleasant, Water temp 86* and Clear.
Picked clients up at High Point at 5:30 am and went and caught 200 herring. Pulled boards and downlines 0n a 30' flat this morning. A front blew in at daylight and the wind was howling so I had to go to just downlines. The Stripers were schooled up in a 100 yard area and stayed there for 2 hours. We had 175 hits by 7:50 and went and caught 200 more Herring. The wind let up enough to start hitting the main lake so we fished 3 other flats from 30 to 40 feet deep and caught fish everywhere. We fished till we ran out of bait again and called it quits. Today we had well over 350 strikes, clients boating 31 Stripers and 8 Catfish.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Bobby Level and Clint Cochrell


August 17th, 2007.

Partly cloudy, Water temp 88* and clear.

Picked clients up and went and caught bait. Set up in the mouth of a creek this morning and got a few hits on downlines and caught a nice Striper on a Gizzard on a bobber. We had a large storm blow through last night and it seemed to disorient the bait and the fish. I checked numerous other places and did not see what I wanted to see so I moved to a deeper flat and located plenty of fish. We had 200 hits in about a hour and a half but the fish were hitting short. We ended up fishing ledges and putting Herring in their faces at 35' and caught a few more. Over 300 strikes today, caught only a dozen Stripers and 6 Cats.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Earl Mielke with guests Roland, Thierry, Yannick, Christian Schweizer and Mike Siber


August 16th, 2007. Sunny and warm, Water Temp 88* and Clear.
Got out before daylight and went and caught 200 herring. Before I could leave to go pick up my clients the water erupted around me with Stripers as far as I could see. I got a free line and tossed it out with a Herring on it at as soon as it hit the water a fish blew up on it. I reeled it in and tossed another Herring out and got Jammed again and repeated the same scenario 4 more times before I just had to leave to pick up my clients. Got them in the boat and raced back to the fish, told my clients how to set out downlines and never slowed down until 8:15 when I completely ran out of bait. Went and caught 200 more Herring and looked at a few more places but the buzzards were eyeing me so I left and went someplace completely different away from the other boats. It took about 5 minutes for me to find a school and we put the baits in their faces and they responded by attacking our baits. By 11am we had had another 100 hits and Earl said he had to make a choice, whether to stay and keep fishing or go home to save his marriage. You see he is having a party for 35 people this afternoon at 5 and his wife needed him home to help get ready. His guests from Switzerland said in their country the women prepare for the parties while the men enjoy life and I aggreed with them but Earl decided to get his Butt home [not only for his marriage but to take a nap before the party]. Plenty of action today and plenty of Stripers to take home for the grill.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Chance and Herb Younker, Devin and Cody Baker, Ricky Hashmall and Chris Githens


August 10th, 2007, Partly Cloudy and Hot, Water Temp 90*.
Picked clients up and went and caught 150 Herring. Set up this morning on 4 or 5 different locations with fish but the fish were lethargic. We went through the baits and went and caught more. Found a school and set up on them with downlines and caught a few but lost them after 15 minutes. Found them again and proceeded to where them out.{ The guys} Went through 100 baits in less than 30 minutes and went and caught 150 more. Came back and found a school and burnt 125 more baits up on the Stripers. The fish this morning when it was cloudy would not hit the baits to feed, just to kill the baits. Once the sun came out it was like turning a light switch on and the Stripers fed. We caught about 20 Stripers today along with 10 Catfish.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Danny, Danny and Shane Cannaday, Andy Trauger, Mike Martin


August 9th, 2007 : Sunny and HOT , Water Temp 93*.
Picked clients up at 5:30 and went and caught 200 Herring. Set up on a 25' ridge and only got bit a couple of times and moved to a 40' flat and hit a nice school. Put downlines in their faces and caught a couple but not like we should. Worked the school for 30 minutes and then followed them to a channel bend and continued to get short strikes. Ran out of bait and went and caught 100 more Herring, set up on a large school and worked them for another hour. Ran out of bait again and went and caught 150 more Herring and set up on a 40' flat, had another 100 hits before we decided to call it quits. It is too hot to fish, maybe we will get some rain and a break soon.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Danny George with friends Phil, Dave and Lee


August 6th, 2007 : Sunny and very Hot, Water Temp 87* .
Caught bait this morning and set up on a 25' flat, worked it for a few minutes and moved on. Found a school of Stripers in 40' that was at least 500 yards long, must have been thousands and thousands of fish in this school. I knew it was this long cause I called a friend into it and he stopped that far away and said his depth finder was black from 18' down to the bottom. We put downlines rigged with Herring in their faces thinking all all lines would go down but the fish were super lethargic and would not eat well. We caught a bunch of Stripers out of the school but if it were June I know we would of boated 100 of them. Anyway...we had over 200 strikes today and everyone had fun despite the Hot weather and overall lack of interest from the Stripers.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Bob Bondira, Ron Kobus and Sherry Konzman


August 1, 2007 : Sunny ant Hot, Water Temp 87* and Clear. Picked clients up at High Point and went and caught Herring. Searched 35' flats and set up on one but only caught Cats and the Stripers were hitting short. Searched for an hour more only seeing broke up fish when John called saying he located a nice school and was catching fish. He didn't have to twist my arm too far and shortly we were on the 40' channel bend with 8 downlines down and going off. We worked the school for only a short time before we lost them so I picked up and looked for them . After looking all around in the area I located them again on a ledge and set up on them again. This time we had no mercy and put 24 in the Boat. By 11am the fish simply turned off and were not interested in eating and we were completely out of bait so we called it a day. Pictured are my clients with some of the Stripers we caught today. Also Bob is showing a nice Bass we caught on a deep ledge. Thanks go out to John for putting us on the fish.

John Chadduck with Ray Reaves


August 1, 2007.
Here is John with his client Ray. See above entry for details.