The Unlucky Gang

Cloudy, Rain, Sun in the afternoon and 60's, Water Temperature 54* and getting muddy.
Last night we had almost 3 inches of rain so I knew bait would be tough this morning. I threw for a few hours and picked the guys up at 6:30. I set out my whole spread right off the bat, 12 boards, a bobber, freeline and a downline. To make a very long story short I pulled from 6:40 till 1 o'clock working various contours, flats and humps. The fish were not banging the baits but we had 15 hook-ups [the board skipping across the water] but could only put a few fish in the boat. I relocated to a new area after 1, caught some fresh bait and pulled another mile for a couple hours with similar results, hook-ups and no fish. The guys were not doing anything wrong after the first couple fish, it was just that kind of day. The bobber would hook up , the rod would double, we would reel it halfway in and the fish would simply get off. The downline would double over into the water , no fish. We got two fish to with in 8 feet of the boat just to watch them swim away. All hooks were new and sharp, simply no excuses. Later on in the day I actually was afraid to get a hook-up because I did not want anyone including myself to get frustrated again. We all tried our best and ended up with a couple of fish. Glad this day is behind us, looking forward to getting back out and catching Stripers. The guys are holding their fish and also the ones they lost.

Jimmy Richards

Here is a BIG Blue Turd roller that was taken from Lake Anna on Sunday morning before daylight by Jimmy. The fish weighed 34 pounds and was caught on a Herring. This is the largest Catfish that I am aware of to be taken from the lake. Jimmy was fishing with Tony Smith.

Eric Salser with Brian

A friend of mine Brian took Eric out for a morning trip and here are some of the results. Eric is holding a nice fish he caught today, and by Brian's remarks Eric may be hooked pretty well himself of Striper Fishing.

Eric Ciccone

Jim,
Eric had a monster on the line and brought her in for a photo...every cast that I make to that "secret spot" will be in anticipation of seeing her again.
Jim...can we submit to the game dept for a citation?
Rob...and Eric

Rob sent this as a email to me the other day. By the looks on Eric's face he does not need a piece of paper to remember this nice fish, the moment will always be etched into his heart.

Billy, Matt, Ben, Big D,, Don

Sunny, Bluebird skies, cold, Water Temperature dropped to 54*.
I got out at o dark 30 this morning and threw for bait for 3 hours and picked the guys up at 6:30. Set up over a 25 foot flat that rose up to 7 feet pulling boards. I had everything set when we hit the hump and 4 lines hooked up. We wrestled those fish in, made a circle and hit again taking a couple hits. I circled again but before I could get close to the good area a jerk in a bass boat went out of his way to run over the area. He had to go 200 yards out of his way and ran over a foot of water, I was hoping he would hit bottom, he was completely clueless. I told the guys right then we should get out of there but about anywhere you go on a Saturday you have to deal with the nuts. Anyway we hit the area a couple more times and could only catch a couple punks so I moved a couple thousand yards away and pulled similar areas with little success. I was not expecting much of a bite today with the cold front blowing through, this morning when I picked up my clients my whole boat was a sheet of ice. The bluebird skies had shut the shallow fish off so I looked for deeper fish with no success. I guess we were lucky to catch some nice fish today in these conditions. Today we only had 16 hook ups and boated 11 fish.

Brian, Larry, Howard and Eric [Spartan Homes]

I got out on the water early to catch bait , picked the guys up at 6:30 and set out a spread of 15 lines rigged with some beautiful baits. I pulled over a couple flats where I thought we should get hits but did not get even a swirl. As I was moving from one flat to another I came over a point in 22 feet of water and the board that was up on the bank went off. Eric jumped on the rod and battled the fish to within 10 feet of the boat and it got off! Someone else hooked up also , we landed that fish then I saw Eric's hook, it had been straightened out. We ran a couple other flats with little success, we would hook up, the boards would skip across the water but the fish would not come in the boat well. We were only boating half our fish. I got a call from Anthony who was out and he said the fish were doing the same thing to them, but worse. We fished the area till about 9 and I decided to catch more bait in case the bite were to get better later on in the day. After 1 1/2 hours of throwing I set up to pull a 2 mile stretch of water. We went 2 hours without a hit. It had become very cloudy and we could not get bit without the sun being out. The couple times the sun would peek out we would start taking hits again. We kept seeing Stripers in 20 feet of water but they were just not in the mood to eat today. The wind did not help much either, it is hard to fish in 20 mph winds. We hung in there till the wind blew us off the water, I left the guys cleaning fish back at the dock.

A Happy Client

Hey Jim,

I just wanted to send a little note to thank you for showing us how to catch stripers last year (April 25). We became addicted and I don’t think Bob or myself has fished for bass since we took that trip with you!! My girlfriend got 6 of the Waterbugz planerboards for me last year, and I bought a bait tank, wireless trolling motor, new rod/reel combinations, rod holders, etc. so that we could try to catch stripers on our own. We remember you telling us “don’t think you can come out here tomorrow and catch fish”…of course, you were right! We struggled BIG TIME. We were happy when we caught 3 keepers in one morning!! Got to start somewhere right? Well, after struggling last year, we were pretty confident we had it figured out for this spring. So the 3 of us (Brad, Bob and Tim) went fishing Saturday 3/20. We woke up at 3:30am and caught bait and debated where to fish. Well, 5 minutes after putting out the first bait we had a keeper in the boat. We ended up catching our limit by 1:00pm and needless to say we were very happy.

I recently became a va-outdoors.com forum supporter and posted a report of my recent fishing trip, and made sure to thank you for showing us how to catch stripers. A few people responded by saying things like “Hemby is the man”, “Jim Hemby is the striper KING”, etc. Of course I know from experience that you are the “striper king”, that’s why I still look at your blog every morning when I get in to work.

You got us ADDICTED to striper fishing and we love when those planer boards go skipping across the water! (I attached a picture…that’s Bob figuring out which one to clean first).

Thanks again Jim.

Brad Trunnell

Trunnell Electric

15754 Crabbs Branch Way

Rockville, Md. 20855

301-258-8300

301-258-0270

brad@trunnellelectric.com

Cliff, Lenny, Emil and Paul #2

Sunny, Breezy and Warm, Water Temperature 57* and Stained.
Picked the guys up at 6:30 after catching bait this morning. Since I had these clowns out yesterday I had decided to try something completely different this morning. I set up on 15 foot flats pulling boards, free lines and a bobber. I set my spread out way before where I thought the fish may be feeding so that I would be ready just in case we took numerous hits all at once. I pulled up onto a 7 foot flat and every rod on the right side of the boat went off. The guys scrambled for a few minutes, I rebaited, turned and hit it again, and again, and again until the fish simply turned off. I hit a few other areas nearby but the fish seemed to be congregated right up on the 7 foot flat. After a couple hours of that I decided to go get some fresh bait and hit another similar area about 2 miles away from the first area we fished. Again I set up way before I hit the 7 foot flat. Once I pulled up onto the flat all Hell broke loose again , guys were running around the boat, breaking off fish, getting lines fouled with others, Stripers laying on the deck, then when I got over 10 feet deep the action would subside. Again I circled around and duplicated the same route and caught fish after fish. We had so many hits and fish on today we should have been off the water by mid morning but I think these guys had way too much fun last night. One time after screwing up 3 in a row I asked the guys if they had met another guide last night and did that guide pay them to aggravate me today! Seriously these guys are good fishing buddies, we all got along well and had a great couple days on the water. They all can give it as well as take it. Needless to say they will have plenty of fish to take back to Pa. tomorrow. Today's stringer weighed well in excess of 100 pounds.

Lenny, Paul, Cliff and Emil

Cloudy, Sunny, Rain, Sunny, Windy and Rain, Water Temperature 54*.
I caught bait early this morning and picked the guys up at the State Park where they were camping at 6:30. I was very concerned with the weather they were calling for today, I postponed these guys from yesterday to today in hopes of better weather but it was tough today. We set up pulling boards over shallow flats where fish should be but all we could do was get short strikes. I must have pulled a couple miles before we could get the fish to bite, even then we continued to get short hits. The weather was crazy, there must have been 3 fronts pass through today. The wind started out of the south, then the west and ended up blowing out of the north. To make things worse the water temp dropped 5* since Sunday. I continued to try different patterns till I figured out how we could put fish in the boat. Right when we were dialed in a Bass boater ran right over a flat on a point that I was heading for, he went out of his way to screw the fishing up. We pulled through there anyway with no luck, then hit another flat adjacent to it and hooked up several times. Although the fishing was tough today we hung in there and ended up with a good catch. I am taking the same crew out tomorrow, now they know the 'deal' we should have a better day.

Jake, Jesse, Larry, Tim and Barry

Sunny turning Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature 59*.
I got out 4 hours before daylight this morning to catch bait knowing it was a weekend and there may be a lot of people catching bait. The first bridge I hit had lights on it so I went to the next bridge and there was already someone on it. I put a light out on my boat and caught bait, even took some to a friend Timmy so he would have enough for the day. Picked my clients up at 6:30 and headed for the fishing grounds. All I was looking for today was to get away from boat traffic so I went where I could see no boats and set out my spread. We took a couple hits near a bank but the fish were not hooking up and after the first 5 or 6 hits I began to worry if the fish were going to eat after yesterdays boat traffic. Although I was not on the water yesterday I had a friend on the lake say it was a zoo out there, hopefully today would be better. I worked one bank for about a half a mile with little success so I switched sides of the lake and we started taking hits. By now the guys had a better feel for how to get the fish in the boat once they hooked up so we were now putting fish in the cooler. We were getting bites about every 10 minutes until the wind picked up, then the hits subsided to one every 20 minutes. I saw a point where the wind was blowing across it creating waves on one side of it and calm water on the other, I told the guys we would catch them there and we did. After a couple of passes we had limited out and called it a day. I knew it would be a tough day today being a weekend but we all worked as a team and in the end everyone was happy except Larry [The big guy]. He kept catching punks and "Girly" fish, Jake [the 10 year old] gave him grief all day.

Carl and Lee

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 55* and Stained.
Got out early to catch bait, picked the guys up and went fishing. We put out a spread of 12 planner boards , a bobber and a downline to pull an area consisting mostly of flats. With the warmer days we had been having I expected to find fish up on the bank but the first half of dozen hits we took were out in deeper water. We had good action for a couple hours then the fish turned off for about an hour. I hit some clay banks and some rip rap to see if the fish went to the banks buts started catching the fish on points instead. Fishing was steady until boats started driving by, when the lake would settle down the fish would hit again. Lee caught all the nice fish, Carl caught the kitty on the end of the pole [Just kidding, Carl caught his share of Stripers]

Ralph Purcell with Bobby and Denny

Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temps 47 to 51 degrees and Clear.
Caught bait early , picked my clients up at 5:50 and headed out. I noticed numerous Striper fisherman preparing to take off and I did not want to fish around anyone else so I took my time running down the lake before I set up in a deserted area. I set out a spread of a dozen boards, a bobber and a couple of downlines and pulled numerous humps and flats. Right when we hit our first hump in 3 feet of water the boards started taking hits. Within 2 minutes everything we had out had been destroyed. I made a circle and as I approached the same area we started hooking up again, this time a little deeper over about 20 feet of water . I was working up a sweat trying to keep enough baits in the water and was behind the 8 ball for about 2 hours. As we fished we released some fish and I knew it would not be long before this school turned off. We started taking short hits so I moved on to nearby flats and the action resumed. The lake went flat with lack of wind and so did the action so I made a move to a deeper flat and tried some downlines but we only had a couple hits in the span of a half an hour so I moved uplake to another series of flats and ridges to finish out the morning. This morning we took about 50 hits, boated 23 and kept 16 for the dinner table. Ralph is pictured holding one of the fish he caught this morning.

Kevin and Steve

Sunny and Warm, no wind, no boats Water Temperature 45* mid and 50 Down.
Got out very early and caught baits, picked up the guys at High Point at 5:50 and hit the water. Made a short run and set out a spread of a dozen planner boards, a bobber and a downline and pulled 15 to 25 foot flats. We had no sooner got all the lines out when Kevin jumped up and grabbed the first rod to go off. Both he and Steve smiled and they never quit smiling for the next 2 hours. Just as Kevin boated his fish Steve grabbed a bent over rod.. The action was controllable because with only two clients on board I could not take them to a large group of fish, we had to work an area where we would hopefully only have one or two fish hooked up at a time. The plan was working great, we had good action early and as the sun got high in the sky the fish moved deeper. It had been about 10 minutes without a fish when we heard a board skipping across the water, we all looked up and the board literally skipped about 30 feet. Kevin flew across the boat and grabbed the rod and the fight was on. He kept saying he could not gain on the fish, I checked the drag twice and it was perfect, we knew we had a good fish on. While he was wrestling his in the downline got jammed and Steve hopped on it. We worked the area for just a little while longer and made a move. We set up over a deeper flat, I was uncomfortable with the bright sun and no wind, the lake was as smooth as glass. I knew we had to fish deeper so we converted to downlines. Again it did not take long and the rods were bowing over with the guys riding the rods. The smiles were back on their faces as if with disbelief of what was happening. I had told Kevin last night to bring plenty of people to handle the action but his brother backed out at the last minute. We came off the water, took some pictures and they were still smiling. These two guys have been fishing together since they were 6 years old, and I could tell they enjoyed time on the water together. I wanted to make today a special trip for them and we all left happy.

Mark Mautte

Sunny and warm, Water temperature 44 mid and 50 degrees downlake.
After 5 days of wind it was nice enough to fish again so I called some friends and we went out for a while. We left the marina about 5:50 and headed downlake. I was debating where to go, it being a warm weekend I knew boat traffic would be an issue and especially this time of year with all the Bass Tournaments on the lake. I decided to pull over into a cove and fish for about an hour to let all the Bassers fly down the lake before I moved to where I knew there were fish. We put out about 10 baits and caught some nice fish. At 7:15 you could hear the boats roaring down the lake, it sounded like a bunch of hornets being released one at a time. After a couple dozen boats went by we decided to try to make a move, by now we had caught 10 fish. We headed for a flat downlake but as we drove we noticed every point having a Bass boat on it. I mentioned to one of the guys that with this much noise on the water the board bite would shut down but we tried it anyway. We put out a spread of a dozen boards and proceeded to pull a flat with no other boats around. We got about 200 yards, took a couple hits then a Bass boat pulled up with his big motor right in front of us. All I could do was circle around him, but he had already spooked the fish. After a short while he started his motor up, made a circle around us and off he went. I looked at my crew and told them to get the baits in, we had to go. We set up 4 or 5 more times with similar results. The fishing was over before it got started today, simply too much boat traffic. It was still good to get out with friends and my grandson, we ended catching 15 Stripers, plenty for Brian's fish fry and Jim's dinner. Can't wait to get out during the week with less boat traffic, should be able to double our catches.

A crappie Day

DP and I went out this morning on the lake and got blown off early Striper Fishing so he took some minnows and caught these nice Crappie.

2009 March Clients

Here are some of last March's Happy Clients.
Want to be in a picture this year?
I still have openings!