David and John Shulte with Mark Edwards

March 31st, 2009: Sunny and Pleasant, Water temp 53* and Clear.

Picked the guys up at High Point at at 6:15 and went fishing. Set up pulling boards and free lines over 20 foot flat keying on humps and points. The air temp dropped last night down to 29* and after 2 days of howling winds I was a bit concerned how tough fishing would be today. We worked about 3oo yards and hooked up with our first fish, got it in the boat and had a couple more hits on the same flat, putting a smaller fish in the boat. Worked around to hit a couple more points , got bumped but no hook-ups. Came back to where we caught the Stripers before and again kept getting short hits, with little success. My concerns about the day were trying to come true and I knew then it would be a challenging day. We worked hard till 1:30 , still short hits, I kept seeing fish in the channel, not a good thing for Stripers. With a couple hours left I made a 180* change, got on my big motor, found some deep fish and put out 4 down lines right in the fishes faces. Within 5 minutes of having them down we had 3 hits, all killing the baits, not hooking up. Then a real good fish hit the back rod, John in all his excitement grabbed the rod and set the hook like there was a Marlin on the other end of the line, fought the fish for a couple seconds and lost it. Still things were going poor. Another fish hit , Mark picked up the rod and put a nice one in the boat, made us all feel better. I vowed to John he had to catch a big fish or I would rag on him, it was getting late, they were ready to go, I drug my feet emptying the livewell, at the very last moment before I was to reel the rods in , Mark hears a fish stripping line from the reel behind him , jumps up, goes to grab it, remembers his buddy John had to redeem himself, called John over to catch the fish. John took the rod and played the fish like a champ, I netted the fish and it was the largest of the day. Long tough day of fishing today, the guys were happy with the outcome and so was I. That last fish will keep a smile on Johns face all the way home.

Jeff Lawson [JLAWx] and Jack Verner [Scarry]

March 28th, 2009: Cloudy and 50's, Water Temp 51*.

Got out on the water at 4:30, hung a light and caught herring. Went to pick the guys up at 6:30 at Hunters and the parking lot was full of Bass Boats. Ran up the lake to the 522 Bridge looking for a place to fish but every point had a boat on it so we scrapped that side of the lake and went elsewhere. We put out a spread of 12 boards, a couple freelines and a bobber and got hit before we could get them all out. Jeff gave this trip to his buddy Jack for his birthday so Jack jumped on the first fish. It was more than Jack expected and after a good battle the Striper won and got off. Jeff and I teased Jack that it had to be a citation to whip him so bad. He vowed to redeem himself , the next 3 Stripers we had on he lost also. Now Jack was pi..ed and the next one he put in the boat. Naturally the first fish Jeff hooked up to he got in and acted like there was nothing to it. This was the beginning of a battle and for the rest of the day the guys went at it. At the end Jack got the last laugh, the 2 largest Stripers they are holding up were boated by him, they are also the largest fish he has ever caught. We fished hard today and it payed off with a great stringer.

Jack Muerdler with friends Jim, Rob and Mike

March 27th, 2009: Cloudy and Pleasant.
Yesterday I came down with a stomach virus and was unable to fish today so I called John Chadduck to fill in for me and take Jack and his friends out. They fished uplake pulling Herring on Planner boards and had 35 hits and got 8 to the boat, not a bad day considering every day a different front blows through.

Brian is Back

March 24th, 2009: Sunny and 50, Water temp 51* and clear. I had off yesterday to be with my grandson so I decided to go out this afternoon , catch some bait, check out some different areas that I have not been fishing lately and invite a friend to go along. Bait was tough, only caught 20 which was just enough for one pull. Set up our spread of a dozen planner boards, bobber and downline and our first fish came out of 3 feet of water. Went about 100 more yards and another fish hit in about 6 feet of water. Thought we might be on to something, went 200 more yards and started hooking up with even nicer fish. My whole bank side hooked up, we dealt with them and before we got them baited back up the outside boards started getting jammed. I pulled away from there , all the while throwing the fish back that were not hurt. We hit yet another shallow area and Brian hooked up with this nice Striper and the pole next to his hooked up also, Brian got his fish in, the other fish pulled and pulled drag before simply getting off. I was glad of that, I wanted to save the fish for my clients later this week. Needless to say it didn't take long with this kind of action to run out of baits, all the fishing took place within about an hour. Four of the fish were hurt so I kept them for the dinner table, a good opportunity for me since most of my clients keep their fish.

Gary Bridges and family

March 22nd, 2009: Sunny and 60*, Water Temp 53* and Clear.

Today we set up over 20 foot flats working humps and points pulling baits on Planner boards. Didn't get far and we started hooking up with Stripers. We had good action for about an hour then fishing got tough. We hit creeks, main lake points, flats, worked the banks, fished the mouths of creeks, just could not get the fish to hit the baits. The water warmed nicely today and I expect if we don't get any severe cold weather move in the fishing will get a lot better.

Paul, George and George

March 20th, 2009: Sunny, Windy, Cold, Water temp 49* and Clear. Hung lights 2 hours before daylight to get Herring , caught bait, picked up the guys and went fishing. Set up on shallow flats uplake and pulled them for 2 hours with little success. Made a move mid lake hitting points and hooked up immediately. By now the wind was howling about 15mph steady with higher gusts. Struggled to get baits in the water and control the boat at the same time for the rest of the day. Boat traffic sucked today also, a lot of boats getting ready for tournaments and clueless other "boaters". We moved a couple of times just trying to find a place to fish where the wind wouldn't back the boat up but there was no such place. We all worked hard today to catch the few Stripers that we boated. Best note of the day, our regular fishing buddy with this group, George F.....Barboza is BACK and well.

Andy and Drew Kiyfes

March 19th, 2009: Cloudy and cool. Water Temp 50* and Clear. Got on the water at least 2 hours before daylight and caught Herring. Picked clients up at 6:30 and went and set up on main lake flats. I just got my baits in the water and a jerk in a jon boat pulled right in front of us on a point and cut us off. That was not the way I wanted the day to start. I avoided the boat and kept fishing. Within a minute we hooked up and had steady action for an hour until Andy decided to bring in all the lines on one side of the boat, so we moved. We were having a front blow through today, it started off nice but the wind, clouds and cold moved in and slowed fishing . We just buckled down and worked hard, only getting bit once every half hour or so. We moved one last time and before I could get 4 baits in the water we had two hook up. Right before we came in Dean caught the big Striper of the day. Today the guys caught 18 fish out of 23 hook-ups, not too bad for a cold front!

Dale Norman with his crew, Justin, Micky, Marty and Rusty

March 18th, 2009: Partly Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 49* and Clear. Got out early and caught bait, picked the guys up and caught a little more bait, set out a spread of a dozen planner boards and a Bobber pulling shallow flats. The Bobber went off first and Justin hauled it in to get us started. With in the first hour all the guys had boated a Striper and were working on more. I was unable to turn and rework the area we caught fish in because 2 boats saw us catching fish there and moved right in, so we worked other areas without much luck. We picked up and tried downlines on a deep flat where I found a nice school of fish but only put 1 in the boat there. Went mid lake and pulled a 20 foot flat with no luck and move yet again to a shallower midlake flat. We hooked up 2 at a time there but again boats moved in on us quickly and spoiled the action. Today we caught Dale trying to go swimming, 10 keeper Stripers and 5 punks. Hopefully the water warmed a little today and will turn the fish on.

A little of what we do

Potential clients are constantly asking what planner boards are and what they do. Here is a picture of us running 6 Water Bugz boards off of the left side of the boat covering about a 50 yard area, multiply that time both sides of the boat we cover almost a 100 yard section at a time. Also pictured is a bait tank full of "Happy Baits". You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Eric Stewart with friends Brion, Michael and John

March 15th, 2009: Cloudy, Cold and Rain, Water Temp 48* and Clear.

Will it ever stop raining and turn warm again? The last 3 days on the water have been tough, not only the weather but the fishing as well. Bring back the sun so we can get on with Spring fishing. Got out early to catch bait, waited for a couple hours for bait to come to the lights and had limited success. Picked the guys up and went and caught bait, set out my spread of boards and started pulling from all the way up lake working my way down. We pulled a mile before we had the first hit, it only bit the back of a small bait. We kept working downlake and ended up at Hunters Landing, only to get 7 strikes and a couple fish. We got the baits in and relocated, put the spread back out and started taking hits. Same scenerio, hits but few hook-ups. We saw fish on the locater , turned around and put a few in the boat. Today we had about 25 strikes, caught 8 keeper Stripers, a couple throw backs and a Bass.

Bart Franks and Crew

March 14th, 2009: Cloudy, Cold and Rain, Water Temp 48* and Clear. Caught bait and picked the guys up, went and put out my spread of boards. Didn't take long to get hooked up, got that fish in the boat and hooked up with a couple others. Then the boats came, and came, and came. I circled back to where the fish were, got a hit or 2 but it was over, obviously the boat traffic turned the fish off. We worked the area for a while longer then made 2 more moves, Bart loosing a large fish at the boat on one area, then the next area we had 4 hits within 5 minutes, then nothing for the rest of the day. Hopefully tomorrow is better , can't wait for it to warm back up!

Wayne, Bob and Yitzy

March 13th, 2009: Cloudy, Snow and Cold, Water Temp 48* and Clear.

Friday the 13th.... East wind, major cold front, snow... we suffered but caught fish. The smart guy today was Steve Gross, he stayed at home in the heat and laughed at us all day. I caught bait early , picked the guys up around 7 and set up on a main lake flat pulling Gizz and Herring on Boards. I was a little worried about the day with the front and we found out right away how it was going to effect the day, we started off getting short strikes vrs hook-ups. We worked shallow from 8 foot flats all the way midlake working downlines in 40 feet of water. We caught fish everywhere, that was the problem, no particular pattern to work and get dialed in on to produce more fish. The guys hung in there very well today, and by the end of the day I figured out enough to end up catching 16 Stripers, the guys taking home 10, releasing the rest. I guess not too bad for the conditions, although I have gotten spoiled this year with consistent 20 to 25 fish days. Tomorrows another day!

Pete, Marcus, Mitch and Brian

March 11th, 2009: Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temp 49* and Clear. Today's trip was part of a raffle that was put on by myself for the benefit of Va-Outdoors [Fishing Va. website http://www.va-outdoors.com/ ]. For those of you who use the site the big guy on the right is your host on the site Brian, to his left is Mitch [BADTYLER], to his left is mauled up Marcus and last but not least is Fat Sneaky Pete. Enough for introductions, I picked the guys up at 7 and caught a little more bait. We set up on a main lake flat pulling boards. I thought something might be wrong today, I got my whole spread of 12 boards and a bobber out without getting hit, first time in a month! Anyway, we worked about 300 yards and hooked up on 2 Stripers, got them in the boat and I looked up and there was a boat on the point I was approaching, pulled in one side to avoid the boat [One of the guys hooking 3 other boards didn't help much either]. We worked the area for awhile catching a few Stripers here and there, but the fish were pretty lethargic and I could not establish a solid pattern. After awhile we moved and set up pulling points on the main lake catching a few fish but the wind got up and blew us off. We then moved to the back of a creek and set out our spread, catching one here and there, no pattern. The front finally moved in and we called it a day. Today the guys caught 19 Stripers, 6 of them punks. At the end of the day we found out why fishing was slow today, Mitch had sabotaged the trip bringing 2 Banana's and pulled them out when we were getting ready to leave. We have some interesting weather moving in tonight, we will see how it effects the Stripers on Friday.

Montgomery Walker

March 8th, 2008: Sunny and warm, Water Temp 47* and Clear. Got out early this morning and caught bait, picked Monty up at 7am , ran to a main lake flat, tried again to get my boards out but the fish kept hitting our baits. Traffic was bad, boats running all around us, I just kept putting baits out and Monty kept reeling in fish. We worked over to a little bay out of the main flow of traffic, got all my lines out and proceeded to spank the fish. Before Monty knew what hit him he had boated 25 Stripers , his shoulder was hurting, his thumb was scraped up and bleeding, and his mouth was tired of smiling. We came off the water by 11, releasing all the fish to fight again. He had 2 friends , Jack and Angie, that were suppose to come and didn't, bet they come next time!

Danny, Dan and Joe

March 5th, 2009: Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temp 42* and Clear. Got out early and caught bait, picked the guys up at 5:30 and tried to set up on a shallow flat. I mentioned try because I only got 3 baits out before they got clobbered and played catch-up for the next 30 minutes. It wasn't till 7 o'clock before I got my whole spread of a dozen planner boards and a bobber out , but we already had 11 fish in the boat by then. We continued to work the area, fish were out off the banks and fed very well the first few hours of the morning. The guys did well today and kept a bunch of fish to take home.

Searching for Stripers!

March 5th, 2009: Sunny and 50's, Water Temps 38* to 50* and Clear.
After 4 days of freezing weather I went out midday for a couple hours to check the lake out, basically to check on water temperatures. Put in a High Point at 11 , 42* , ran uplake as far as I could go, 38* , caught some bait and checked out Sturgeon, 45* , hit Dukes 46* , ran down to Dike 3, 52*. I wanted to check the lake out because I have not been able to get out with the bad weather and I wanted to find fish for tomorrows clients. I took a friend Brian and the first place we fished we put out 6 lines, 5 minutes after the baits were in the water 4 of the rods hooked up, we put all 4 fish in the boat, took a picture of 2 of them, released all the fish and took off. The water warmed quite well today , with the warm spell coming in by this weekend the lake ought to be on Fire!

Rusty, Tony and Brad

March 1st, 2009: Cloudy and Cold, Water Temp 42*. Got out early and caught bait, picked the guys up at 6:30 and set up on a long main lake point and flats pulling boards. Worked it for 25 minutes without a strike so I decided to make a move. A cold front was moving in fast and I knew I had to put some fish in the boat quick or it was going to be a long day. Put out another spread and started taking hits out in the middle of the lake . We caught a few and turned around to fish it again but my bank side boards started going off. I knew then the fish were on the bank to feed and now was the time to catch them, I bumped the trolling motor up a couple speeds and covered as much water a quickly as I could, all the while catching fish. Then someone turned the switch off and the bite was over, all we could catch was a catfish. It was good timing, we were cold and ready to come in, clients caught 16 Stripers, Rusty caught a 12 3/4 pound Striper and a Bass, and Tony caught a Kitty.[Brad caught everyones dinner!] We were off the water before noon today.