Marc Ayscue of Ferguson Ent. with guests David Dahl [Navien], Brock, David and Mike

I got on the water at 5 to catch bait then picked the guys up at 6:30 and headed to the fishing grounds. I stopped on the way to catch a dozen Gizz then proceeded to an area where I thought I could fish without being bothered by other boats. I set out a spread of boards, freelines and a bobber pulling flats with humps and points nearby. We took a few hits on the Gizz but did not hook up. I thought the fish would feed today with it being cloudy but was concerned about the short hits. I was running equal amounts of both baits but most of our hits were coming on the Gizz. After boating a few fish we ran low on Gizzards so we went and caught more and set out the spread again. I was more confident now that we could catch fish with big fresh baits and it didn't take long before the guys faces lit up with smiles. A couple times today we would have a 30 minute period where we would not get hit but those times were always when boats would run nearby where we were fishing. We actually had a Bass boat run back and forth through where we were fishing 6 times, then he stopped and fished for 10 minutes then ran out of the area. We had over 50 hookups today, and caught plenty of Stripers. At one point I believe the guys were having a contest of who could miss more fish, but all of us knew Dave was the undisputed champ at that. We all had a lot of fun today, now some of these plumbers need to get back out to work and buy some water heaters!

Tony, Chip and Sleepy

Sunny, Cold and Windy, Water Temperature 55* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 5:30 and went looking for bait. Made 4 or 5 throws and caught a tankful. Set out a spread of about 25 baits pulling shallow flats at first light then moved out over 25 foot flats as the sun got brighter. We popped a couple fish on the bobber and a board but realized the fish were not shallow so we gradually worked deeper for fish. The wind got up and made the day uncomfortably cold, Brandon laid on the couch for quite a while because of the cold [hence the name sleepy]. I broke out the heater and warmed them up before we made a move. We caught more bait and fished uplake for a couple hours but only boated 1 fish. We discarded all the baits we had on and made one final move, I located some fish so we put out 10 lines and burnt our bait up. The cold front hurt us today, tomorrow it will be cloudy and maybe the fish will cooperate better. Brandon caught his first Striper today, and the largest of the trip.

John and Mike

Partly Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 56* and Clear.
Anthony picked the guys up at 5:30, went and caught bait and set up pulling boards uplake. Fish were somewhat lethargic today, they had numerous hookups and plenty of strikes but managed to boat 6 very nice Stripers. I believe one of the guys had a monkey on his back and Anthony got rid of it today because after boating the second fish they commented to Anthony that this was a great trip, the guided trips they had been on before had mostly been fishless. A front is moving through tonight and probably will mess fishing up for awhile.

Doug Harpster with Anthony

Sunny and pleasant, Water Temp 55* and Clear.
Anthony went out for a couple hours this morning to help Doug with his boat and to get him dialed in on bait. They ran boards and caught a couple fish by 9am and Doug took home a few for the holidays.

Jessie Reid, Tom, Bailey, Dave and Tom

Sunny and Beautiful, Water Temperature 56* and Slightly stained.
Anthony had some clients today that were dying to go out with " Striperholic". They were suppose to meet at the marina at 5:45 but when Anthony got to the marina at 5:15 they were already there and ready to go. Anthony told them to load up and off they went to catch bait. By daylight they had caught the bait and had a spread of boards covering a uplake creek. They caught a couple there and made a move to another location and caught a few more. Anthony decided to make a major move knowing he could put the guys on some nicer fish and the move really paid off. They ended up nailing the fish today, everyone had a ball and the wait to go out with Anthony was worth it. The Stripers have begun to feed up for the fall and I expect the next month will produce some nice catches.
Great catch guys!

Paul and George

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 56* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 5:30 and went to catch bait. Caught bait easily and set out my spread working 30 foot up to 2 foot over humps and points near creek mouths. We popped 2 fish quickly but the action was not as quick as I expected so we got all the baits in and made a move. Set up further downlake pulling 25 baits at a time and started catching Stripers. Action was pretty good till I ran out of baits around noon, then we went and caught more bait. The fish must have turned off because we made a pull for an hour without getting hit. I emptied the bait tank and wouldn't you know it, immediately we had four fish hook up. We boated 3 and had to call it a day. Today we caught 14 Stripers and a couple Cats although we had over 20 fish hooked up.

Ron Spurgon and guests

Sunny morning turning cloudy in the afternoon, Water Temperature 57*and clear.
Pick my clients up at 5 and went to catch bait. Caught bait and set up on a long shallow flat pulling boards. Stripers were up on the flat but were not feeding well, we had numerous swirls but only caught 2 Stripers so I decided to put out my whole spread of boards and downlines. I had out 25 baits at once and pulled them the rest of the day working 10 to 30 foot flats. I was hoping for the fish to hit either the downlines or the boards separately but we had equal hits on both. Our best hookup came on a board, the fish pulled drag for about 10 seconds. We were unable to turn the fish before someone touched the line and the fish got off. Today we caught 12 fish and had a good time on the water.

Senior, Merdad, Jeff and Hamid

Got out early and caught herring, picked the guys up and went and caught some Gizz. Put out a spread of 8 Water Bugz planner boards, a bobber, a free line and 8 downlines covering the water column from top to bottom. Right when we came up on the edge of a flat 3 of the board baits got nervous and one of them took a hit. Senior reeled the first Striper in. I was hoping for a good board bite so I pulled the whole flat from inside to outside ledges without another hit. I gradually worked my way deeper till I saw some fish on my Lowrance. Pictured above is the boat in 36 feet of water with the right side of the graph showing the Striper arches. Our bait is the horizontal line at 24 feet starting on the left side of the sonar then it gets hit. You can actually see the fish on the right side of the screen swimming up with the bait. The left side of my screen is Structure Scan, the boat is between the 2 vertical lines and the smaller vertical dashes between 20 and 30 feet are Stripers out to the side of the boat. The wider lines at 36 feet is the bottom of the lake. I snapped this picture while the guys fought two Stripers to the boat. You can also see the water temperature was 58* and by the photograph it was a Bluebird ski today. The Stripers weren't the only thing to get hooked up today, Senior got a treble hook buried in his thumb while taking a fish off for his good buddy Jeff.