John Raftery and friends

Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature 66* and Clear.
Met the guys at the marina and went looking for bait. I had looked and thrown for bait for over an hour this morning and only had 32 baits so I went one more place to look for bait. I was worth the trip, I made 1 cast and caught about 80 baits. We filled our tanks and went around the corner and set out our spread. We were working a flat hoping to catch fish pulling up onto it to eat the bait that was nearby. We made pass after pass on the flat and on every pass we would take a hit or two. The Stripers were not real aggressive, I don't know if it was the clouds moving in, the barometer dropping or what but our action was limited to a strike about every 20 minutes or so. We were on some nice Stripers, the largest one [32inches] John is holding all the way on the right side of the picture, hard to tell its true size by the picture. The guy holding the Striper with the grey shirt up front is Steve. He enjoys going fishing but has no passion to reel in the fish, he loves watching his friends have fun. Steve is a gracious host, every time he fishes with me all the talk on the boat is about how good all the meals are that he prepares for his guests when they stay at his lake home. He also is very intelligent and articulate, I am going to start taking a dictionary on board when he goes out with me to look up the meanings of some of the words he uses in his conversations. [No I am not writing about him because he gave me a big tip, John who is an Attorney was also getting lost with some of the conversations] We had to cut the day short because some of the guys had to get back to Md. by 4 to go to a game so we came off the water at noon. Although the day was short we had a lot of fun, we caught some nice fish and all of us came away with a little more knowledge thanks to Steve.

Jack and Alli

Party Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 66* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 6am then went and caught bait. Set up over 30 feet of water with a spread of planner boards and downlines. Hadn't got but a few baits out when a downline rod bent over and Jack jumped on the rod. Good Start to the day. I continued to put my spread out and worked areas from 6 feet to 35 feet deep, taking hits on everything. There was breeze today so I concentrated on areas that were primarily out of the wind which made boat control easier. We had spells where the Stripers were aggressive and then lulls in the action for 30 to 40 minutes or so. Today we had about 20 solid hookups with Alli keeping 10 fish to take home. Most hits today came on boards because of the cloud cover. When the sun got bright the Stripers would pull out to the edges of the flats and when the clouds would cover the sun they tended to move up onto the flats to feed. If you are in areas of the lake where you get pictures like the one on my Lowrance and put the right baits in the faces of the fish there is a good chance you can put a few nice fish in the boat.

Dwayne and Herbert

Sunny, Cold morning turning to beautiful afternoon, Water Temperature 64* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 6 and used my Lowrance to guide me through the fog to where I caught bait. Since there was a major Bass tournament today I was concerned of safety where I wanted to start fishing so I set up on the side out of the main thoroughfare hoping not to get run over. Within 5 minutes a friend of mine was beside me and a fool in a Bass boat just missed the front of his boat by inches. I have no clue how much money these guys were fishing for but to drive 70 mph in the fog must be worth risking their lives. Back to fishing. I worked the area for awhile till the fog lifted then moved across the lake with my spread of 10 boards and 7 downlines. We caught a couple fish but a friend called saying he caught 2 fish in a different pattern so we got the lines in and made a move. We went to where Brian had been fishing, set out a spread and made the pull but the fish had already moved. I duplicated the pattern and caught a few fish but I did not like my bait so we threw our bait away and caught some more baits. I again set out our spread with the fresh baits and proceeded to pop a few very nice fish. Herman is pictured holding a nice Bass and the largest fish that he has ever caught in the lake. When you see a screen looking like the one on my Lowrance, you better get ready, obviously Dwayne was when he popped a couple nice Stripers.

Jim Stryker and Charlie

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 65* and Slightly Stained.
Picked the guys up at High Point just before 6am and went to catch bait. Made about 20 throws and filled the tank with some beautiful baits. Made about a 10 mile run to an area I thought may be holding fish and put out a spread of planner boards. We had only gotten 5 out when the first fish hit and Charlie jumped on the rod and landed the fish. I finished putting out my spread and pulled a very large bay consisting of numerous humps and points but after an hour we had only put one other Striper in the boat so I decided to make a move to where we saw fish earlier. I set out a spread of 10 boards, a bobber, a freeline and 6 downlines and pulled the area for 2 hours. We boated a couple fish and lost a couple more but I was still not happy with our catch so we got the baits in, went and caught more bait and headed back to where we started the day and pulled that area for a couple hours, catching 1 on a downline but nothing else. We again got all the baits in and made one final move. I located some fish over 32 feet of water so we put downlines on them but they would not hit. It was getting late so I kept the trolling motor on 5 and baited every rod I had. We had a spread of boards 100 yards wide and downlines at different depths. Next thing we knew boards started going off, then the downlines with the boards and within a 300 yard area everything we had got clobbered. We ended up having a great day, Jim did not want to keep too many fish so we called it a day.
It appears that some of the lake has turned over, traditionally about a week after fall turnover the Stripers go crazy feeding up for the fall. Its about time!

Benji, Lisa, John, Chip and John

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 70* and Clear.
Chip Wells of American Heating and Cooling gave his employees and a couple friends a day on the lake, I took out these 5 happy anglers and John took out 4 others. We got on the lake before dawn, caught bait and went fishing. Chip has been fishing the lake for Stripers and was primarily interested in learning "how to" fish for Stripers so that he and his friends could enjoy some of the catches that he has been viewing on my journal in the past. After catching bait we ran over some 28 foot flats that were loaded with clouds of bait and scattered Stripers suspended a couple feet off the bottom. We turned the boat around and put out downlines and boards rigged with some beautiful baits and pulled a mile stretch without getting a strike. I had been talking to Chadduck who was fishing further uplake and they were also seeing plenty of fish but were not taking hits either. The cold front that went through last night had pulled the bait off the banks and were positioned over and nearby the channels. We made a move and set up over an area where we could pull flats and humps ranging from 35 feet up to 5 feet deep. I set out 8 planner boards, a bobber, freeline and 6 downlines covering the whole water column searching to see what the fish wanted to bite. The first strike came on a board, Lisa reeled it in but it was a catfish. Our second strike came on a bobber over 13 feet of water, Benji jumped on the rod and wrestled the Striper to the boat. We worked the flat with no other hits so we continued to pull different water until we hit a 20 to 26 foot flat where we started taking hits on downlines. When I hit that flat we were all shocked when one of our downlines got hit so hard that if the line hadn't broke it would have broke the rod. Next thing we knew the downlines started going off and and we started putting fish in the boat. We fished the area for a couple hours until we ran out of bait, all our hits coming on downlines. Obviously the front had pulled the Stripers to the depths and they would not bite unless the baits were right in their faces.
The lake is about 20 inches low and fishing was poor in September. I postponed and rescheduled all my September trips due to the poor fishing and was happy to see that the cooler weather and shorter days have encouraged the Stripers to fatten up for the winter months ahead.