March Fishing

Traditional March Catches

I still have a few weekdays

left in March!

Click on pictures to enlarge

Don, Blane, Chris, Brian and Dave

February 26th, 2009; Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 43* and Clear. Went out this morning early and caught bait, picked the guys up at High Point at 6:3o and went fishing. Set up pulling boards, had 12 strikes before we put the first fish in the boat. Hooked up on another and boated it, then all at once 5 boards on one side hooked up. There was so much excitement that one of the guys threw back a nice keeper fish, naturally he heard about it the rest of the day. Today was a fun day, we had over 40 strikes, the crew catching 16 Stripers and taking a few home for the dinner table. With so many strikes and not boating any huge Stripers I just don't think the big uns wanted to eat today. Wind is going to blow tomorrow and another cold front is moving in.

Vince and Walt

February 25th, 2009: Sunny and Cold, Water Temp 42* and Clear. Didn't get on the water today till after 9 am, Caught bait and went fishing. Set up over a 20' flat pulling a dozen planner boards, a bobber and a couple downlines. An hour later we hadn't been hit, we got them in and moved. Set up where we caught fish yesterday with the same spread, same results. Made another move to the mouth of a creek, put out the same spread, pulled a mile with Walt boating only one nice fish. Made yet another move working a bay with numerous humps in it and scored. On our first pass we put 4 in the boat, turned around and had been busted , another boat started to move in but he was nice enough to yield, we got another 6 or 8 hits before calling it a day. Vince is holding the largest fish of the day. We went 3 hours without a hit midday today, tomorrow I will be on the water at 4:30am.

Striper Al

February 24th, 2009: Sunny and Cold, Water Temp 42* and clear. Today was the first day of little wind, I couldn't stand it, called a friend at noon and told him to meet me at the lake. We caught some bait and put out a spread of a dozen boards and pulled a creek , not getting started till 4pm. We were distracted by a hen Turkey clucking up on the bank and a Gobbler dogging her gobbling every minute or so strutting his stuff. Didn't get far and fish started messing with our baits but were not very excited about eating them. The last week has been brutal with wind and cold nights [15 degrees this morning]. I noticed the temp gauge said 41* and was worried but we started hooking up finally. This fish is the first fish that we put in the boat. The second fish Al hooked did not want to cooperate and ended up fouling up 5 other lines. After we got them straight we caught more fish and came off the water before dark. Not bad for a couple hours of fishing. I will be on the water the next few days, hopefully if it warms some we will catch some of the big boys!

Walt Weeks and Vincent Sherman

February 10th, 2009: Cloudy and 60*, water Temps 42* to 48* and Clear. Caught bait , picked up the guys and had our spread of 12 Water Bugz planner boards, a bobber and a downline out by 6:40am. At 6:45 we were 75 yards from a hole where I knew some Large Stripers were feeding. As luck would have it, a boat came roaring in, had to cross between us and the point, ran a ground, had to raise its motor to get past the point, ran right in front and over top of where we wanted to fish! To make matters worse, he had at least a half a mile he could have gone behind us, but elected to cut in front of us instead. I told the guys he spooked everything for 500 yards around us and we should pick up and relocate now, but we were so amazed of what just happened we continued to fish. Well, my intuitions were right , didn't hook up for an hour. We kept fishing hitting different areas and at 10:30 decided to change up and try something else. Before we left we did have 3 fish on at a time, a Striper and 2 Bass, all hooked up over 40 feet of water. We moved and pulled a shallow flat for a couple hours with minimal success and decided to move again and work some 20 foot flats. This move paid off, we hooked up every 15 minutes or so, numerous times with doubles. Although we lost count of the Stripers, we caught well over 20 along with 4 Bass and 4 Catfish. The guys only kept 5 Stripers and released all the other fish. Vince is pictured holding a small Bass with interesting coloration and a larger Bass, both caught off the bottom in 40 foot of water.

Terry, Bud, Sue and Wade

February 9th, 2009: Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temps 42* to 47* and Clear. Caught bait early and was on the water with a spread of 12 boards and a bobber out by 6:30 am. Pulled an area that I had been catching Stripers in but did not get a strike! Went a couple hundred more yards and put a Striper in the boat. Turned and pulled out of that area and headed across the lake to the north side hoping the warm south winds this weekend had relocated the Stripers to the warmer water. Caught a fish on a downline over 50 feet of water and shortly thereafter popped a couple on boards over deep water. Finally found where the fish had moved, they were spread across a 300 yard 30 foot flat, hugging the bottom. We worked it with downlines and boards with little success. Lately when I see the Stripers like this they are not feeding. We picked up and moved, ran a spread of downlines over a deeper flat picking up 3 punks, didn't like that and moved again. This time I set up in the back of a creek and pulled all the way out, only to catch 1 Striper! Set up again on another deep flat and pulled a spread of 5 downlines, a bobber , and 10 planner boards, working them till we came in. We ended up catching 22 Stripers and 2 Bass. Terry and Wade are pictured holding the Bass. Clients kept 7 fish and all other fish were released alive and Happy.

Jim Stryker

February 6th, 2009: Sunny and cold, Water Temps 41* to 47* and Clear.

I was a little concerned about today, a major cold front came through a couple of days ago, hasn't been above freezing for 48 hours. I thought bait and fish may be a problem so I got out on the water very early this morning and caught bait. It was only 14* and my boat was like a skating rink. Tried to get my spread out but as usual the fish wouldn't let me and I struggled to keep up with netting fish and putting lines out. Our first pass over a 20' point that dropped into 40' on both sides was the best, after the sun showed it's self fish went deep and stayed deep. We hit numerous flats , humps and points with little success. We kept seeing Stripers schooled on the bottom between 35 and 40 feet deep. We put downlines in their faces and caught a few of them, but none of any size. We caught only 15 Stripers today, I guess not too bad for the conditions. Jim is holding one of the fish we caught this morning.

Striper Al

February 2nd, 2009: Sunny and warm, Water Temp 47* and Clear.

Caught bait early and was on the water at daybreak. I wanted to get my spread of boards out before we got hit but only had time to get 7 out before we started hooking up. I finally got 12 lines in the water 30 minutes later, every time I thought I would catch up Al hooked another fish. We had fun with those fish and decided to hit some similar areas and moved on. We found numerous schools of fish stacked from 22' to 35 ' over 40 foot flats. We lost count of fish today but a heck of a front blew in , the air temp dropped 20* and we headed for the barn. All but 4 fish were released today.

PS....Striper Al is one of my oldest clients,[ not in age ] many years ago we fished every Saturday of the year. He came back in town and just wanted to see if there were any Stripers left in the lake. There are, thanks to Va.Game and Inland fisheries!