Afternoon of Fishing

February 25th, 2008 : Cloudy and Cool, Water Temps 45* to 50* and Clear.

Decided to go fishing this morning so I filled the bait tank at 9am and headed to the lake. Caught bait around 11 o'clock and called a friend and told him to meet me at the marina and lets fish for a few hours. He would be awhile so I set up where I caught the bait and pulled 2 small coves off the main lake with a few planner boards rigged with Herring. I never got more than 5 boards out without getting hit, catching 5 Stripers in about a half hour. I pulled out of the coves and ran some nearby flats just to see if the fish were relating just to the coves or were feeding everywhere in that part of the lake. After an hour and no more hits I knew the coves were the key. Picked up my friend and checked a few more coves out with similar success and decided to try something different. Found a few fish on a deep flat in 45 feet of water and put downlines on them and caught a few keepers . I decided after 30 minutes to try yet another pattern and ran a 20 foot flat with planner boards and a few downlines and we nailed them there also. This afternoon we had over 30 good strikes. I lost count of how many fish we caught but I did keep 7 good eaters to take home . The fish we caught ranged from 4 to 10 pounds, all males.

B SB, FSC, 1D

David Rice and Steve Birrell

February 17th, 2008 : Cloudy and cool, Water Temps 45* to 50* and Clear.

Caught bait early this morning and picked clients up at High Point at 6:30am. Checked a deep flat out but did not see what I wanted to on my depth finder so I set up on a 20 foot flat pulling boards and a bobber. We worked about 200 yards until we heard the reel screaming on the bobber rod and Steve picked it up. After 25 yards of drag got stripped off the reel the culprit surfaced, a loon. We could tell that it was wrapped up around its leg by the way it was moving so we wanted to get it untied and after a 30 minute battle we finally released it tired but unharmed. I checked all the lines and rebaited after the fiasco and resumed fishing. Early this morning the fish were lethargic and only wanted to kill the baits but as the morning progressed they started eating the baits allowing the guys to catch some Stripers. We had 34 strikes on that 20' flat in 3 hours before the action slowed. I then looked for more fish and set up on some deep fish and put downlines on them . We had a couple strikes and then Steve hooked a nice Striper and while he was fighting it a rod bent over which I thought was hung up. As I helped Steve land his fish I asked Dave to grab the other rod and free it up. I asked him twice was it hung or was it a fish and he thought it must be hung by it not budging but after 30 seconds it started to move off and I knew we had a Hog on. Dave fought the fish for a couple of minutes before the line went slack and we all looked at each other in disbelief. The hook simply pulled out, nothing broke, just pulled out [a new sharp hook] ! We hung in there and I saw a fish come off the bottom moving for a bait and I alerted the guys to get ready and next thing we knew we had 4 fish on and in the boat to limit out for the day. Pictured is Dave with a nice bass he caught and Steves first Striper of the morning. Today we had 45 strikes, boating 17 Stripers and a Bass , all by midday. We really nailed them today!
B SB,F 3D,1D

Steve Gross , Wayne Rutledge and Bob Elliot

February 9, 2008 : Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temps 46* to 51* and clear.

Caught bait early this morning and picked clients up at High Point at 7am. Headed downlake and checked a few areas on the way and set out 9 Planner Boards, a bobber and a downline over a 15 to 2o foot flat. A buzzard followed me from the marina and set down also about 100 yards behind me and once I started putting out my spread he fired his motor up and went around us and set back down 50 yards in front of us. I guess he thought if he got in front of us he could catch all the fish. Anyway, after we moved away from where he spooked the fish two of the boards that were running the shallowest got hit and Bob and Steve grabed the rods. It took a little teamwork to get both the fish in the boat, both got tangled with other lines but we managed to untangle them and net the fish. Happened to be the two largest fish of the day. We pulled the area for 2 hours getting several hits and boating a bunch of fish. At 9:30 we moved and set up on some fish in 50' of water near the bottom . We put downlines in their faces and put a few more in the boat. By 10am the wind was getting up and we decided to move uplake and set up on a 24' flat with downlines and caught a couple before I moved even further uplake and set up on some 25 to 30 foot flats. I put out 7 boards, a bobber and 6 downlines and we worked the area for a couple of hours boating a few more. Today we had 23 Strikes, boating 12 Stripers and clients releasing all but a few to take home for diner. The 3 largest fish were all around 10 pounds.

Kevin , Jeff and Bob Smith

Feb. 2nd, 2008 : Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 44* to 49* and Clear. Picked clients up at 7am and set up on a 15 to 20 foot flat. Rigged 8 Planner boards , a bobber and a downline and got hit immediatly . Kevin jumped on the rod and wrestled in a 33" Striper for the first fish of the day. We pulled about 200 yards and turned around to make another run over the same area and a friend [Striperholic] called me and said he had already limited out and come help him with a school of fish. Well it was only 7:30 and for him to already have caught his limit and we having caught the big fish and getting 2 more hits without hooking up I made the decision to run to the numbers. We got the rods in and within 5 minutes we set down beside Striperholic. He was on a 50 foot flat and had seen fish close to the bottom so I instructed the guys how to put downlines out and baited up 8 rods. No sooner did we get baited up did the fish start hitting. It was a little chaotic for awhile until the guys got it together but we caught a few there before the school moved. By 9am the fish had turned off and we looked for more schools finding only scattered fish in 40 to 50 foot depths. I fished them and pulled boards over some more flats but the Bluebird skies and boat traffic turned the fish off. We ended up having 23 strikes boating 14 Stripers and the crew taking a couple home for dinner. I kept overhearing all of them saying throughout the day " If only Matt were here ......."