Joe, Vicky and Happ

June 30th, 2009: Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 83* and Clear.

Got on the water early to catch bait, picked up my clients at the dock at 5:15. Looked for fish for about 20 minutes and found a few, told them how to deploy the lines, put the baits in the Stripers faces and everything went down. We caught 11 in about 5 minutes, then the fish moved on. I got back on the big motor and located a different bunch of Stripers, put the baits out and called a friend to the fish and we all caught fish. Left these fish and hit another area, finished up our limit and got off the water before it got too hot. Today we found fish in about 32 feet of water on flats.

David and Neal DeAngelis with Joe DiGiovanni

June 27th, 2009: Sunny and Warm, Water temperature 83* and Clear.

I got out real early and caught bait and went back to High Point to pick up the guys. I was a little concerned about the day due to it not only being the weekend with boat traffic but also we had terrible storms blow through, we had 3 1/2 inchs of rain last night. I started off looking around the marina's for schools of Stripers without seeing anything so I moved on. Saw a few fish so we set up on them just to practice deploying the lines. After a few minutes we moved on looking for fish. I went up into a creek and saw a few more, set up on them with no luck. We got our baits up and proceeded out of the creek and at the mouth I found our first little school. The guys were ready and we put the baits in the fishes faces and the action started. Before long every line was going down with the guys trying to keep up with the action. We caught a dozen before the school moved, not a bad start of the day. We looked for that school on the big motor with no success and found another very small school, set up on them and caught another dozen. We then worked our way uplake looking but for an hour we found nothing. It was 8:30 and the schools had already dissipated. After looking without success I set up in an area where the Stripers pass through and popped a few more singles and that is where Neal caught these two nice Bass, on downlines, 36 feet deep! We hit a few more areas but the fishing was over, boat traffic was up, the wind was blowing , the skies blue and the Stripers lethargic. We were just about out of baits anyway. Today we had over 200 hits, the guys caught about 40 Stripers, a couple of Bass and Catfish, not too bad for a weekend.

Mike, Ace and Billy

June 26th, 2009: Sunny and warm, Water Temperature 83* and Clear.

Picked the guys up at 3:15 and went and caught bait. Started off checking 40' flats at daybreak but did not see what I wanted to so I moved a little shallower and found some fish over 32 ', taught the guys how to put the lines out and took a few hits. They caught a few Stripers and were ready to proceed to working larger schools. Ran to a 34 ' flat, saw some fish and set up on them catching a half dozen then made another move. Found a nice school over 30" and caught 5 or 6 more before the school vaporized. Made a final move to a 40' flat, found a school and finished the morning up there, we came off the water after using up all our baits. The guys did exceptional well this morning, although Ace did have to teach Mike how to catch keeper fish. We all had fun, the guys took home 16 Stripers and released 24 others to fight again another day.

David Penn with friends John and Bob

June 23rd, 2009: Sunny and Warm, Water Temp 80* and clear.

David wanted to experience catching bait so he met me at 3:15 and we caught bait. Picked Bob and John up at 5:30 and went looking for some fish. Took about 15 minutes for me to locate some Stripers so I thought it would be a good time to teach the crew how to put the lines out. For the first 20 minutes I thought they each had 2 left hands, but after I pulled them off the fish and reviewed what just happened they fully understood what to do so I located some more fish and we set up on them with 10 downlines. They got it right this time and for the next hour they Spanked the Stripers. The guys worked as a team and we had constant action till we counted the fish in the livewell and realized we had 16 fish, our limit. It was a great morning, we all had a lot of fun and got off the water before traffic got heavy.

David Turnbull and Family

June 22nd, 2009: Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 80* and Clear.

Got out early and caught bait, picked up the family at the State Park Cabin docks. Looked for about 5 minutes for a school of Stripers, found what I wanted to see and set up on the fish. Two and a half hours later we had gone through 250 baits, with that many strikes. We were catching fish so fast I could not keep up with how many we actually caught. Everyone on the boat did a great job of handling the action, Dave especially did well taking fish off and helping in the boat. His helping did not slow him down any, he reeled in as many as anyone. Dave also caught this nice Bass. The Bass came out of 40 feet of water and hit a downline at 30 feet. We were off the water by 9 which was great, it is suppose to get windy and hot. Dave has fish for dinner every night this week on their vacation.

Mark McClellan, Fred Maguire and Randy Krout

June 20th, 2009: Cloudy and warm, Water Temperature 80* and Clear

Caught bait and picked the guys up at 5:30 at High Point Marina. I needed a little more bait so I went up and caught about 75 more and went looking for fish. Danny called me and said he was on a little school and needed help keeping up with them so I went to him and looked around him only seeing a few fish. He caught a couple while I was looking so I decided to set down and put some lines out. Didn't see any for 10 minutes then stumbled onto a couple and all our lines went down. A minute later, they were gone. We boated 6 or 7 when they hooked up and put 5 in the cooler. Went looking for more schools but all I saw was scattered fish. Set up in a couple places, had a few hits and left. On a couple of set up we would catch 8 or 10 fish, then move on. We finally hit a group of fish and limited out at 10 am, a good thing because the boat traffic was getting bad and was just going to get worse. Today's trip was a present from Randy's wife Linda.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

Paul, Tom and George Fn Barboza

June 19th, 2009: Partly Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 80*.

Caught bait this morning and picked the guys up at 5:30. Looked around a little and set up on a few fish with downlines over 30 feet of water. Took a couple hits and put 5 quick fish in the boat. George started grumbling at this rate we will be in by 8:30. Well, this is fishing and not always catching, although it appears to easy sometimes the Stripers don't always cooperate. We went looking for some schools but only saw pods of 5 to 20 fish, sometimes I would set up on them and catch a couple, other times I opted to continue looking hoping to trip over larger schools. I burned 22 gallons of fuel today looking for the big schools and never found one. We fished till we ran out of bait at noon, caught 30 Stripers and a couple cats. The guys ended up taking home 15 Stripers for the weekend.

[Hussey called me last night and said he could not make it today and to please not put these guys on any nice fish]

Robert Bailey, Mark Scolaro and Alex Contreas

June 17th, 2009: Cloudy, Rain and Cool, Water Temperature 78*.

Got out early and caught bait, picked the guys up at 5:15 and went looking for fish. Looked downlake for a while and found nothing so we went back uplake and set up on some fish. Caught a few here and there then located a couple nice schools on my Lowrance, tried to get our baits in the water and got SLAMMED. Robert and Mark had been out with me previously and wanted to fish the downline bite and I warned them then that they needed at least 4 people to handle the action, 2 of their friends backed out at the last minute and left just the 3 of them to try to keep up with the action. At times it was so hectic I pulled them off the fish for them gain their composure and hit the schools again. The way the guys were running around the boat it probably looked like we had got into a hornets nest. I was concerned about Mark, he just had Heart surgery but whatever the doctor did to him must have been successful, he kept right up with Alex and Robert. I lost count of how many fish we caught but by 8:30 they had kept 16 fish for their limit and were off the water, which was a good thing because it was cold and nasty out there today.

PS... I had a friend who wanted to learn how to troll so I took him out and we trolled around for 3 hours catching less than a half a dozen Stripers, I caught 150 baits, found a couple schools and within 2 hours of running bait used up all my baits. We released all the fish.

Steve, Julie, Ron, Dan and Matt

June 16th, 2009: Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 82* and Clear.

Got out early to catch bait but had some issues and only had about 75 by daylight. Picked up my clients at 5:30 at the dock and went and caught more bait. Found some fish , put the baits in their faces and started catching fish. Hit a couple small schools and put some fish in the livewell. The stripers were fairly spread out today but when we found groups we caught them. Got low on bait and looked for and threw on bait with little success in catching it. We probably set up on 10 different areas today, never locating large schools. We finally hit an area around 1 o'clock when we had only 20 baits left in the tank but got lucky and caught 10 more fish. Today everyone had fun fishing but the most important event of the day was today was one of the last outings Steve and Julie will have with their son Matt before he goes off to Paris Island to join the Marine Corp.

SEMPER FI

Paul, Jim and Jack

June 12th, 2009: Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 81* and Clear.

Caught bait and picked the guys up at 5:30 at High Point. Hit a few areas with some single fish showing up on the graph and had little success. Kept looking for schools and found a small, loose school and set up on them with 10 downlines and it got crazy quick. After reeling in a few Stripers we looked up and a buzzard who calls himself a guide had moved in on us and attempted to crowd us off the area. We had watched this guy 4 other times pull right into Striper fisherman and we guessed he really needed to catch a Striper to dog us like he did. A friend called on the radio and said he had just moved in on him uplake also and to watch out for him. We had just left uplake and found a place where no other boats were, hoping to be able to work on a school of fish by ourselves. Anyway we continued to catch fish and put numerous fish in the livewell. We made a short move and found another small school and caught 20 fish in less than 10 minutes. I called John in on it and just as soon as he set up other buzzards moved in on him so I relocated again and used up the remainder of the 200 baits that I had caught this morning. The guys had fun this morning, we had beautiful weather , good fishing and was off the water before 11, in time to beat the heat and miss out on the boat traffic. They took home 16 Stripers for the dinner table.

PS...There are hundreds of schools of Stripers on the lake and as many places to fish. Fisherman need to locate the schools of fish on their depthfinder , put your baits in the fishes face and have fun. There is some sense of gratification of finding your own fish and catching them versus finding a boat catching fish and being not only discourteous but un-sportsmanlike, after all there is 9600 acres to fish on Lake Anna.

Petersburg High School , W.Va., Teachers....BJ, Jerry, Joe, Brian, Josh and Steve

June 11th, 2009: Partly Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 83*.

Brian, Steve and I went out at 3:15 and caught bait for the day. Picked up the rest of the Teachers at their dock at 5:30 and went looking for fish. Had to get ice for the fish today so we headed downlake , saw numerous fish but went to the marina first for ice. Pulled out of there and looked for a minute, saw fish hugging the bottom then John called me in on some fish he found nearby the marina. We set up on those fish and caught about 8 there before moving on. We fished aggressively till about 9 and my bait was getting poor so we went looking for bait. After 3 hours of looking for bait and schools of fish I simply set up on a flat and pulled it. Caught a few and moved to a 35 foot flat and caught some more. Today the fish never schooled up like they had been on previous days, we just found numerous pods of Stripers and worked them. Fishing was slow for us today, I never counted but Brian thought we caught at least 40 Stripers. The guys kept some to eat and the rest were released unharmed. These were a great bunch of guys, they fished hard and enjoyed the start of their summer vacation.

Scott, Mark, John, Hunter, Carter, Scotty

June 10th, 2009: Partly Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 82* and Clear.

Got out early to catch bait but only had 30 by daylight. Picked the guys up and went and caught 200 baits. Started looking for fish around 6:45 and worked a couple areas with little success. Pulled up in a creek and found a school, put baits in their faces and started putting fish in the boat. Worked them for an hour and went looking again. We did the same drill about 8 times today, catching fish in most places. I had to go find bait 2 more times because we were taking so many hits. Today we had 340 strikes, caught 109 Stripers, 5 Catfish, kept 31 and released 78 to fight again another day.

Joel Billingsley with guests Jack, Geof, Dan and Dick

June 6th, 2009: Partly Sunny and pleasant, Water temperature 75* .

Caught bait this morning and picked the guys up at their dock at 5:30 am. Gave them some instruction on putting the baits out and went to look for fish. Saw a few and set up on them to show the guys what they were in for and went looking for schools. Since it was the weekend the lake was quite crowded especially with Striper fisherman, but everyone was spread out well. I found a small school , put out the baits and started taking hits. We caught a few and moved time and time again, catching 8 or 10 Stripers and looking elsewhere. The fish were scattered pretty well today probably due to the weather lately but we caught fish everywhere we went. About 10:15 I pulled up on the largest school of the day and told the guys if they could get the baits down fast we would limit out here, they did a great job and everything we had went off. Today we hit about 10 spots and I lost count of how many fish we caught, but we caught at least 50 and were off the water by 11. The guys did well today and took home some beautiful Stripers for the freezer.

Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region...Col. John Neuman with guests George, Tim, Tom, Ken, George, Roger, Steve, Thom, and Bill

June 5th, 2009: Cloudy, Cool, Steady Rain, Breezy, Water Temperature 76*.

Today Col Neumann put together a trip for himself and staff of JFHQ-NCR. Since there were 10 people going on the trip we used 2 boats, mine and guide John Chadduck's. John and I got on the water early and had lights hung by 3am and caught bait. We each caught 250 baits and headed for the marina to pick up our crews. When we got to the marina John's baits were labored, we changed his pump and went fishing. We both looked for schools of Stripers but knew it would be hard today with the storms blowing through and the 3 inches of rain that we received over the last 24 hours. We both looked for a half hour before setting up on single fish, just to have to move again and again. Around 8 I finally found a large school , we put out 10 downlines and did battle with that school for 30 minutes. I tried to call John into the school but his radio and phone were already soaked. After 30 minutes of battling the school I think we called it a draw, we put 10 Stripers in the boat and probably lost about 10. I fired up the big motor again and found another school that we played with for awhile. We left it and found a small school and were catching some of them when John rolled up and helped us out. He stayed in that area for the next 2 hours fishing while I looked for other schools, finally setting up on a reliable 22 foot flat to finish out the morning. Who knows how many fish we caught today, at the end of the morning I had 20 baits left in the tank and when I pulled up to John he had only 1 left. Didn't matter, we had all caught plenty of Stripers and limited out. Today the fish were spread out and we could only find a few schools to work.

Special thanks to Col Neumann for helping John out today and to Tom for hepling me out in my boat . SEMPER FI

Bob and Janet

June 4th, 2009: Cloudy and fog, Water temperature 78* and Clear.

Got on the water early this morning , hung lights and caught 230 baits. Picked Bob and Janet up at 5:30 and taught them how to put downlines out and explained to them that I could not take them to schooling fish due to there being only two of them and that they would not be able to handle the action. So I went looking for places where I would see a fish or 2, then set up on them, avoiding the larger schools of fish. Even where I didn't think there would be much action they could hardly keep up and much of the time it was chaotic. They were good fisherman, just too much action. We hit 7 or 8 different places this morning catching fish everywhere. I told Bob I was going to pay him back for only bring 2 people and I did, I put them on a small school, they could only get a line or two in the water before the rod would go off, they scrambled around the boat for about 15 minutes till I pulled them off the school. Today we were off the water by 11, had over 200 strikes, they boated 52 Stripers and 8 cats, had another dozen Stripers up to the boat but they came off when they tried to swing them into the boat, largest fish was 10 pounds.

Andy and Roxann

June 2nd, 2009: Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 78* and Clear

Caught bait early and picked my clients up at 5:30 at the dock. I instructed them on how to put the baits out and gave them a couple of pointers on how to use circle hooks. I set up in an area where I saw some fish, but not a large school because with only 2 people fishing it would be way to hectic for them to keep up with the action. We worked the area for about an hour, constantly catching Stripers but still never putting them on a school. After catching 20 fish I made a couple more moves and when Roxann caught the 32nd fish and said this fish will make a good dinner, we put it in the livewell and called it quits. We were off the water at 8:45, had a cooler full of fish and everyone had a great time. I had told Roxann that she needed to bring at least 4 fisherman to keep up with the action but someone backed out at the last moment. Since we had only 2 people fishing I could not take them to a decent school, there would have been no way they could have kept up. Fishing has to be Great to have to keep clients off of fish!