Friday, August 29, 2008

Joe and Alan Gray

August 29th, 2008: Drizzle and Cool, Water Temp 79* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 5 at the dock and went to find bait. 3 hours later we had 40 pieces so we went fishing. Ran into a HUGE school of Stripers, had to be many thousands of them, about 6 or 8 acres at least. Things were pretty simple then, put some baits in their faces and hold on! The depth finder was covered from top to bottom so I tried to set out downlines but before I could get 3 in the water they kept getting hit. I scrambled to keep bait in the water but for 20 minutes all I could do was to keep 3 to 6 lines out before they would hook up. After less than an hour of fishing we had hooked up with 19 Stripers and Alan said he had enough so we reeled them in. They kept 10 to take home. What a difference a day makes!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Enoch Hord with Jim And Jimmy


August 28th, 2008. Rain, Wind, more rain, Water Temp 80*.
Picked clients up at 5 and went to catch bait. Checked out a dozen places for bait that had been productive but the bait had moved. With rain pouring down we looked and threw until we caught 30 and went to go fish. By now it was almost 7 and the wind was blowing 20 to 25 mph which made pulling boards a little tough. After getting blown around the lake for a couple hours I went and caught more bait and stopped by the marina to get a cup of coffee and change into dryer clothes. Only option now was to find a place to fish where I could deal with the wind. We fished for 4 or 5 hours more, only catching these 4 Stripers.
East Winds+remnants of Hurricanes = Poor fishing

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Kaci Price, Dad and Paw Paw

August 26th, 2008: Cloudy and Cool, Water Temp 83*.
Picked up the crew at 5 and went and caught bait. Set up pulling 10 to 25 foot flats this morning with boards expecting the fish to be shallow feeding before the cold front blew through. Wrong! Pulled for 2 hours for 1 Striper so I hit another flat and popped a Striper and a Bass, but only singles. Went and caught a little more bait and hit some deeper 30 to 40 foot flats where Stripers were stacked up, nothing. Went to the back of a creek, saw a nice school in the channel at 20 feet , nothing. While I was back in the creek I wanted to hit a main point and a Hump so I pulled over them, popped single Stripers on both, no other hits. The air temperature had dropped 10 degrees as a cold front blew through, cold enough to put on jackets [in August!]. I only had one more thing up my sleeve, I made another run and put the boards extremely shallow, up on the banks, and guess what? Yea, we jambed them in 1 to 4 foot of water. Go figure? Brad is pictured holding a Bass he caught, Kaci caught all the nice fish letting Dad and Paw Paw reel in a few Catfish.






Friday, August 22, 2008

Brian Mohr's inlaws Marc, Del and Dori Mautte


August 22nd, 2008: Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 83* and Clear>
Brian and I got out at 5 and caught bait and picked the family up at 6. Set up on a flat pulling 9 boards, a bobber and a free line, and 4 downlines rigged with all sizes of bait. About 30 yards before I hit the flat fish started busting all over it and my boards were about to come right through the middle of the school. As you can imagine, almost everything went off at once and the action commenced. Within 8 minutes we had 8 Stripers on plus a Largemouth that Dori caught. I re-rigged and circled back around but I must have zigged where I should have zagged cause we did not get hit there again. I pulled over to another flat and caught a keeper then went and caught more bait. Brian had to come off the water early to go to work so I made 1 more pull and when I hit a hump that I was targeting 2 more fish hooked up. Plenty of action for a few hours on the water this morning. The guys are holding diner for tonight!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Clarke Norman with guests Bill and Tom


August 21st, 2008: Cloudy and warm, Water Temp 84* and Clear. Picked the guys up and went and caught bait. Bait collection took a couple of hours this morning and we got started fishing at 7:15. I hit an area where fish were and popped a keeper Striper that looked like a pencil, it was so skinny. We worked similar patterns getting a few hits but the fish just did not want to eat. I can't figure out if it was the clouds and a small front moving through or just missing the major feed or what but they would not eat this morning. The guys are pictured holding a few that we did catch.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Amandda Crowley's friends Gavin, James, Charles, and Boo


August 16th, 2008: Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 84* and clear.
Went out early to catch bait but again collection was tough and picked my clients up at their dock at 7. Set up on a similar flat like I fished the day before and put out a dozen freelines on boards and bobber. James hooked up on a downline and within 30 seconds 4 other rods hooked up. Talk about a Chinese fire drill, it looked like the Olympics on the boat for awhile with people dodging each other, chasing and reeling in fish , jumping over seats, avoiding tangling other rods, you name it, it happened. After the commotion settled I made a turn and hit it again and again and again, every pass getting hits, some by Stripers, some Catfish and 4 hits by an Osprey that keep hitting our baits when the Stripers would roll the baits up. We were out just for a morning trip and the guys had plenty of action until the fish and Bird killed all of our baits.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Ken Wilson with Jack and David


August 15th, 2008: Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 83* and Clear.
Met the guys at 5 and went to catch bait. Threw about 50 times and caught enough to get started and went fishing. Caught a couple on the first flat we fished then moved to another flat and worked it for 2 hours getting strikes about every 20 minutes or so. The guys wanted to release fish today and kept only the ones that would not survive, keeping enough for a great dinner.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Bob Graham, family and friends

Gordie holding his first fish of the day. Picture I wanted to show of him and another fish did not turn out well, but I am working on it!









August 13th, 2008: Partly Cloudy and Warm, Water Temp 83* and Clear.




Got on the water this morning before 4 to catch bait but had little success. Picked the crew up at 5 and went and threw for bait for 3 more hours till I had what I wanted. We fished hard this morning for our fish but they all were nice ones and we released them all [although 2 of the biggest ones did not survive]. Pictured holding fish are Bob, Connie and Gordie {G-MAN} Graham along with Tom McCaunhen.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Earl Mielke


August 12th, 2008: Sunny and Pleasant: Water Temps 77 * to 84* and Clear.
Got back from my motorcycle trip yesterday and decided to go out this morning with a friend to locate some fish for this weeks clients. Caught some bait and pulled Planner boards and downlines over many different depths of flats trying to determine what the Stripers wanted. We fished only for about 2 hours and I established a good pattern then just looked for a couple hours at fish over 40 foot flats. Earl is holding a couple of the fish we caught this morning that he took home for diner. Hopefully this pattern will hold up for awhile, we released some pretty nice fish that I want my clients to catch.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Joe and Jim


John took Joe and Jim out for a 1/2 day morning trip , ended up with 3 keepers.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Doug and Ian Leach


August 2nd, 2002:
Guide John Chadduck took Doug and Ian out for a morning trip and caught 8 Stripers today.