Thursday, January 20, 2011

Brian and Walt




Cloudy and Cold, Water temperature 46* and Clear.
Driving to the lake this morning I had my concerns about what the day would bring. The moon was full and bright [Stripers feed hard at night with a full moon] and the weather report called for an East wind all day, didn't like starting the day off with 2 strikes against us. I was still optimistic about catching fish, but I thought our chances of catching some Big Stripers would be hindered. We launched the boat, went and caught bait, set out a huge spread of boards and free lines. Before we knew it we were taking hit after hit, the guys reeling the fish in while I baited and put lines out. We made our first pass on a flat, took about 10 hits, turned around and pulled the same area with only a couple more takers. We moved on hitting another productive area nearby boating 3 or 4 more fish. I decided to get the baits in and make a move to an area that we haven't fished lately hoping to boat a few larger Stripers. The move paid off, we boated 4 nice Stripers within 10 minutes but we spooked the fish and turned them off. We had to make 3 more moves to different areas but only would catch a few fish in each area, nothing to get real excited about. We ended up today catching over 25 Stripers, not a bad day considering the conditions. The cast net in the picture is covering about a 20 foot circle, that is how we catch bait for the trip. The Lowrance is showing a school of Stripers we fished today, you can see our sinker coming through the fish at 28 feet. Our bait on the hook is just above the sinker trying to get away from the Stripers. Brian and Walt are pictured holding a few of the fish we caught and kept today, all others were released unharmed to fight again another day. There is a strong cold front moving in tonight that will mess fishing up for a few days. I will be staying off the water this weekend keeping warm and enjoying some time with my grandson, Michael.

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