Friday, March 28, 2008

Jeff and Brock Adams with Kelly and Logan Gletner

March 28th, 2008 : Sunny , Windy and Warm, Water temp 54* and Clear.
Got out early and hung a light for bait, picked the crew up early because they wanted to learn how to catch bait. Threw once on the light and had all the bait I needed and we went and set up on a deep flat protected from the winds by a high hill with trees. I set up 10 Planner boards and a bobber and just as I got the last board out the action began. Little Logan jumped up and grabbed the rod and for the next 5 minutes he wished he hadn't cause a 10 pound Striper wanted to whip his but and almost did! While he was fighting his fish another board went off and Brock grabbed the rod and fought it for a couple minutes, masterfully working his fish around the boat keeping his fish separated from Logans. The two boys had just put 18 pounds of Stripers in the boat and once they got their pictures taken, they announced they wanted to have a tournament against their Dads. For the next 3 hours we continued to get strikes about every 10 minutes or so. The Dads tried to keep up with the boys but fell a little behind after Jeff lost a few in a row. [The boys made up rules as they went along, not allowing the Dads to reel in other fish once they lost one]. We had to go and catch bait and then fished similar patterns with equal success. By the end of the "tournament" , the boys kicked some Dads Butt. Today we had 36 Strikes, boating 14 Stripers. Brock had the largest, a nice 12 pounder.



Wednesday, March 26, 2008

David Hinspater and Family


March 26th, 2008 : Sunny and Windy, Water Temps 53* to 55* and Clear.
Caught Herring early and threw for Gizzards for 3 hours with limited success and went fishing. Found a school near the bottom in 28 feet of water and worked them with downlines but the fish would not feed. Went and caught some Gizz and found some more deep fish and worked them for a few hours getting at least 30 strikes, mostly in the tails. We fished hard today to catch 8 Stripers and a couple of Catfish. Todays trip was a benefit for The United Way through Dominion Electric, thanks Dave for the great donation.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Earl Mielke


Friday, March 21st, 2008: Sunny and pleasant, Water Temp 51* uplake and stained, 55* midlake and clear. Picked up 2 other clients this morning and went to catch bait. As Doug was stepping onto the boat he said "Picked the wrong morning to go fishing with the full moon shinning bright last night didn't I" . I confirmed his fears and told him that usually the fish feed hard during a night as bright as it was but not to worry, the Stripers would feed just as well this afternoon. Then he muttered " well, we have to come off the water at 11am this morning because my son had other plans for the afternoon". That being said put the pressure on me and set the tone for a interesting day. We caught bait and set up way uplake in 5 feet of water and deployed 10 planner boards and a bobber and worked our way back downlake hoping the fish in the stained water did not feed as much last night. We kept getting hits but the fish were hitting the Herring in the tails not being interested in eating them, just killing the baits. 11 o'clock came fast and I took the guys back to the marina . They took home a Striper, a couple of Bass and a couple of nice Crappie. While I was running back to the marina I called a friend who lives on the lake and invited him to fish this afternoon since I already had bait and I thought the fish would feed. I picked him up about noon and headed for deep water. I had a friend who was also fishing today who had been working shallow water with freelines that had not put a fish in the boat , He and I not doing well shallow forced me to try deep. I found lots of schools of bait deep with a few fish nearby so we set out downlines and worked the areas. The move payed off , the Stripers feeding better and better as the afternoon progressed. We ended up having about 40 strikes this afternoon, keeping a few Stripers to take home , and Earl releasing a couple Hogs to be caught again. Sorry Doug and Dillon had to leave early this morning!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Tim McClung with Brian and Mark







Saturday, March 15th, 2008 : Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 56* and clear.
Caught Herring early and picked the guys at the dock at 7am. Ran uplake and set up on points in the mouths of creeks and had a couple of hits and caught a Striper . Within an hour boats started running over our lines on one point so we moved to another point and damn if 3 boats didn't run between us and the bank, one of them running aground stalling the motor! I new then we were in for a bad day so we got out lines in and went to the back of a creek where we thought there would be less traffic, Ha! After an hour of fishing there we moved again and again trying to get away from the boat traffic with no success. Needless to say our catch today was hindered by the traffic and shut the fish down. We struggled to catch fish today ! Can't wait to get back out on a weekday to catch some Big Stripers...
bsb, ftr+earls

Friday, March 14, 2008

David Dick and Craig Coleman


March 14th, 2008 : Sunny and Beautiful, Water Temps 54* to 57* and Clear.
Picked clients up at the marina at 5 am this morning because they wanted to go with me to catch bait. Had plenty of bait by 6:15 and set up on a nearby flat and pulled a dozen baits across it. We had a couple of strikes and boated a fish but I just had to move. We went and set up on main lake points in the mouths of creeks and had some more hits but the Stripers just didn't want to feed there either so we worked our way up the creek and caught some fish on points. The boat traffic got bad around noon and we had to move. I ran up in a creek and hit a couple of points and got hits on every pass. David wanted to learn the lake so I decided to take him downlake and we worked some deep flats with downlines and caught Stripers there also. Today we had 42 strikes, boating 19 Stripers and the guys keeping a few for the freezer. Dave let a few nice ones go today , he is going to try to catch them tomorrow. The water really warmed up today and so did the fishing!
B SB/D, F JILLS,T,1D

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Brian Mohr, Mike McGee, Lee Burnette and Lenny Steele


March 12th, 2008 : Sunny and windy, Water Temp 50* and Clear.
Caught bait early this morning and picked clients up at 7am . Set up on a shallow flat that I had fished yesterday morning with success and pulled 10 planner boards and a bobber over it rigged with Herring. After working the flat for 45 minutes I decided to make a move because the fish just were not aggressive, they only hit the baits in the tail and we only put 1 keeper in the boat. [Yesterday morning in an hour pull we had 15 hits with multiple hook-ups.] We set up on and worked main lake points where fish were but the fish just did not want to eat. We hit about 15 points and in between with limited success and by now the wind was howling. I made another move to the back third of a major creek and put our spread out. The Stripers did the same thing until I hit a certain secondary point and every pass we made on it we would get hits and catch fish. Today we had 19 strikes boating 9 Stripers. We wouldn't have had that success if it were not for Lenny's alertness and Brians help with the rods.
BSB/FSP, JILLS

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Greg Whitlock and Jim Hemby


Thursday, March 6th, 2008:
Sunny and 50's, Water Temp 45* to 54* and clear.
Got out a couple of hours before daylight and set out two lights to lure Herring. After working both lights for an hour and a half I realized the bait wasn't coming to the lights so I got on my big motor and found a school to throw on and caught 75 . Picked Greg up at 6am and set up on a nearby flat pulling 8 Planner boards , a bobber and a downline. I didn't get the baits out before we had two hits, catching one and missing one. I played catch up for the next hour trying to keep baits in the water. I was out today checking different places that I have not fished yet this year looking for places to take my clients to get out of the wind this weekend. I knew the fish were here so I left them while they were still biting and moved on. We looked deep for awhile then set up on another 20 foot flat and pulled it for 1/2 hour without putting a keeper in the boat and decided to move on. We hit the backs of a couple creeks and put fish in the boat and kept moving. Fished some very deep flats with downlines also with little success. We could have probably caught well over 20 fish today but I left the areas for my clients. We kept 8 of the 12 Stripers we boated and had some fun . Greg works for Louisa Boat and Motors and needed a break from work today. I think he will sleep well tonight.
B SB,F SF,1D

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Sunday Morning Blues [Stripers]


Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 : Sunny and pleasant, Water Temperature 46* and clear.
Laid around the house this morning watching fishing shows till 9 0'clock wishing I was out on the water because there finally was No Wind! I knew 2 friends were out on the lake fishing this morning because both of them invited me to go last night so I called one of them up and he said fishing was slow. I waited about 10 minutes and called the other guy up and he also confirmed the fishing wasn't much but I just could not take it anymore, the outside temperature has risen from 20* up to 30* and I told him to pick me up on the dock at 10 am. We hit a flat with some boards and worked it for 300 yards and didn't get a strike so we decided to get on the big motor and look for some deep fish since the shallow bite was off. I kept seeing balls of Herring right on the channel edges and a couple of fish nearby and no fish anywhere else so we decided to set up over 30 feet of water working nearby the channel. We just set out 4 downlines to "feel" the water out and the front right rod bent over and popped right back up. I told Anthony to check it, it just got hit. He thought it hit bottom but reeled it in and put it right back out. The whole time I was watching this take place on the depthfinder and when he engaged the reel after putting it back out it bowed over again . The fish waited for him to put the bait back out, we watched the fish hit the bait and him fight the fish on the Lowrance. We set out a couple more rods and duplicated the same scenario time and time again watching the Stripers come off the bottom and take our offerings. I came off the water at 1 o'clock , boating some nice 10 pounders and satisfying my urge to get out of the house. Anthony is holding a couple of the fish we caught , we did not have a stringer to show the other fish.