Saturday, July 30, 2011

Jim, Lela and Tyler



Sunny and Hot, Water temperature 92* and Clear.
Met my clients at High Point this morning after catching bait. They were early so I had time to discuss how to deploy the baits well in advance of putting them on fish. I located some fish nearby the marina but hesitated to set up on them with so many fisherman passing by the area so I continued to look elsewhere. Charlie called me and said he had seen some scattered fish and by now we were seeing a few fish breaking on the surface. We went up nearby where Charlie had seen some fish and put our lines out because there were no other boats in the area. Within a couple minutes Tyler hooked up then Lela hooked up with the fish she is holding in the picture. A third rod bent over and Jim hopped on it. I netted all three Stripers and we were off to a good start, or so I thought. A boat had busted us and was determined to get in front of us and before we knew it there were 9 or 10 boats in the immediate area. It didn't take long for the fish to figure out what was going on so I decided to make a move. We set up on a few areas where we had it to ourselves and burnt up 200 Herring by 10am giving us time to get off the water before it got too hot and before the boat traffic got too bad. I think we made a fisherwoman out of Lela today, she wrestled in all of the larger fish and did well doing so. Jim took home 14 Stripers for dinners this weekend.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Katie and Tina




Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 92* and Clear.
Caught bait, picked up the girls and found a school immediately. We set up on them and called a friend to us that was in another boat. We popped a few and before we knew it other boats moved in spooking the school so we got our baits in and went elsewhere. We set up on another school but after catching a bunch of punks we made another move. I located another school with very nice size arches so we set up on them. Katie hooked up first with a very nice fish pulling drag. We were still putting baits out so I did not pay much attention to where her fish was going until I saw it in another line. Next thing we knew the fish got off. We put the rest of the baits out and Tina hooked into the largest fish of the day. She is shown holding her catch. We caught a few more fish out of the school then tried to find it again without success. We located one more school and worked it for about 45 minutes only to catch punks. By 9:30 the action was over and did not catch any other keepers. We were all glad today was only a half day trip because when we came off the water it was HOT.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

John, Mel, Eric and Fran

Sunny and Warm, Water temperature 91* and Clear.
I caught bait then picked the guys up at the marina around 5. While I was looking for schools one of the guys asked if it was possible to catch our limits today. I told him that if they listened to me and did things my way we would definitely limit out but if they didn't listen they may have a poor day, that is how important it is to deploy the baits properly and not to set the hooks or touch the line using circle hooks. We looked for fish for about 5 minutes till I found what I wanted to see so we tried to set up on them. We started taking hits immediately and continued to for the next 45 minutes till a fish wrapped up 5 other lines. That was the end of working that school. We had hooked up with about 20 fish but only put 7 in the cooler. After cutting off a couple thumbs and retying a bunch of lines we went looking for schools again. I found a very nice school, called a friend over to them, set our baits out and started taking hits again but immediately a bass boat ran right over the fish then we got busted by 4 or 5 other boats that ran in and spooked the school. We picked our baits up and relocated again on another school just to be run over again. I decided to go away from other boats and find some fish. Within 2 minutes I located a nice school and set up on them. after catching 3 quick fish a guy in a Bass boat ran 20 yards off our bow with his big motor, turned and ran along side of us again. Naturally the school spooked and dispersed. We moved again and located a school where we did not get run over and ended up using the rest of the 200 baits that I caught this morning. We all had a great time catching fish this morning although Mel went home without a left thumb. We caught over 30 fish this morning and got off the water before it got too hot.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Michael and Anthony



Cloudy and Showers, Water Temperature 92* and Clear.
Took the boys out for a couple hours this morning to fish and swim. We found fish immediately and worked a couple schools for about an hour then took the boys swimming. Anthony hooked this Carp on a downline. His Daddy [DP] hollered "Anthony has got a big un, probably about 12 pounds". I wanted to see that so I walked up to the front of the boat and broke the bad news to him. We were using live bait to fish with this morning, not dough balls. The boys had plenty of action and we kept a couple fish to take home for dinner tonight. These two boys have caught so many fish in the past going fishing that they believe fishing is really catching. Swimming in the lake is probably more fun and interesting to them and alot cooler than going in the 98* pool water.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Rob, Heather and Bob Light


Sunny and HOT, Water temperature 89* and Clear.
I met my crew at High Point at 3:45 because they wanted to see how we catch bait. We caught 190 baits and were ready to fish by daylight. I looked on my Lowrance for a few minutes, found a school and tried to set up on it. Since it was our first set up we were a little slow getting the baits in the water so most of the school slipped out from underneath us. I called a friend Charlie to me and told him to fall in behind me 200 yards where I believed the school to be heading. He no sooner sat down and the bank lit up with sprays from Stripers blowing baits out of the water. We got our baits in and crept over to where I thought the fish would be heading and cut the school off. Another friend Jenson had been camped out throwing top water baits on the point that the school was locked into. We had the school surrounded and we all were catching fish. Unfortunately any boat that tried to pass us saw us catching fish so as usual the area got crowded real quick. I decided to leave the area hoping to pull the other fisherman away from the area so Jenson and Charlie could continue to work on the fish. I went around the corner and sat down with 2 boats following us. I made a short move, located another school and we started hooking up again. We worked that school for about an hour. I caught more bait and left that area to fish away from the boat traffic. Today was a fun morning till it got just too hot. We caught 30 fish this morning keeping only 16 Stripers for my crew to take home. When Rob booked the trip he was primarily interested in learning how and what I do to constantly put my clients on fish and I am sure he went away with a better understanding of Striper fishing on Lake Anna. Catching a bunch of fish today was just a bonus for them.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Brad, Shawn, Helen, Mike and George


Cloudy and Hot, Water Temperature 88* and Clear.
Caught bait, picked my clients up at 5 at their dock and went looking for Stripers. It didn't take but a couple minutes to locate some fish so we set up on them and popped a few Stripers. The school was moving pretty fast so after about 15 minutes we reeled our baits in and relocated the school. We worked on the Stripers again until the trollers broke up the fish so we moved to an area where there wasn't a boat in sight, located some fish and proceeded to hook up again. It didn't take long to get busted by a pontoon boat but they were courteous enought to shut their motor off 100 yards away which allowed us to finish using up the rest of our 175 baits. We had 16 nice keepers by 8 o'clock but had to look for more bait. I spent an hour looking for bait without having much luck then a friend Charlie called saying he had to get off the water did I want any of his bait. My boat never ran so fast driving to him to get his remaining 50 baits. Thanks Charlie. We set up on some fish, caught a quick keeper then George hooked into a hog. It pulled drag for quite some time then all of a sudden the bait pulled out of the fishes mouth. He reeled the bait back to the boat with the hook turned into the baits head. We worked the area for 15 more minutes then I went looking for some more fish. Within a minute I ran over the largest school that I have seen this year. We put our baits out and used up every remaining bait we had working on that school. This is the second year I have taken this crew out fishing while they were on their vacation at the lake. Last year one of them fell backwards into my bait tank, this year I wanted to drown one of them in the tank. Hope you don't read this Shawn!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

John and Kevin


Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 85* and clear.
I got out early as usual, caught bait and picked the guys up at High Point at 5. We looked for a while then a friend Charlie called me on the radio and said if I wasn't on anything he thought we could catch some fish where he was so we went and checked it out. When I got up to him he had 4 fish hooked up, so I guess he was right. We stopped about 100 yards out , put our baits in and started working toward him. We hooked up on 2 Stripers then an inconsiderate boater in a Bass Tracker came motoring by us spooking the school. He and his friend in another boat had seen me go by them so I guess they thought they would come up and ruin our fishing by running over the fish. Within a minute my screen was blank so we got our baits in and looked for other fish away from other boats. I found a large school, called Charlie and set up on them. We worked the school for about an hour catching plenty of fish. Boat traffic was already getting bad so we caught our limits and got off the water before we got swamped. John's daughter gave him the trip today as a present. Other than just about getting run over it was a fun morning.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Brock, Taco and Wyatt


Sunny and Pleasant, Water temperature 87* and Clear.
I picked the guys up at 5 after catching bait then looked for Schools of Stripers. I found what I wanted to see so we set up on them. We caught a couple but lost the school after 4 boats ran over us. We got our baits in and found the school again. As we deployed the baits I called a friend Charlie who was leaving the marina and told him to set up about 100 yards behind me. As he got there we were hooked up and he sat down right in the middle of the school. Charlie started getting multiple hook ups as we were then the next thing we knew a pontoon had ran right in between us. Within less that 5 minutes of our first hook up 8 boats were on top of us. Trollers were trying to maneuver through us and other boats were trying to cast and fish over us all the while other boats kept boxing us in. You would have thought there was gold in these Stripers and everyone had to get in the action. It finally got too hectic to be fun so I left and went elsewhere. The main thing was my clients had fun catching fish but it would have been more enjoyable if other fisherman would have a little consideration for others. Taco had a neat camera he showed me that I am going to go buy so I can actually video some of the fun and the madness that occurs out here on the lake.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Amy, Carie, Sara, Breanna and Kristen




Partly Sunny and hot, Water temperature 90* and Clear.
Today was girls morning out so I caught bait early and picked the girls up at the marina at 5. Believe it or not there was very little whining this morning, a couple of the girls did not want to be up before daylight but all was well. I knew the moon was bright last night and that it may be a while before the fish would feed so I looked for larger schools. We found and set up on about 6 or 8 schools of fish before we went through 200 baits. By 8:30 the schools were well formed as can be seen on my Lowrance. That particular school at times was from 15 feet to 30 feet deep and at least 160 feet wide as can be viewed on my side scan. As you can imagine we went through the rest of baits working this school. Sara is pictured holding the largest fish of the morning.

Monday, July 11, 2011

First half of 2011



Here are some pictures of my clients catches for the first half of 2011. To view the pictures in a larger format simply click on the picture. Brief stories of the day's catch can be archived on my journal.

Friday, July 08, 2011

Carrie, Michael, Lidia, Dale and Steve



Cloudy and warm, Water Temperature 87* and clear.
Our grandson Michael is spending the week with us and has been wanting to fish and go tubing so I woke him up at 2:15 this morning to go catch bait. We caught bait and picked the rest of the crew up at High Point at 5am then went looking for schools. I found a large school immediately but it was our first set up and it was awkward for everyone to get baits in the water fast enough so we lost the school. I got back on my big motor and looked for a while until I hit a major school. We set up on it and started hooking up after getting 4 baits out. Talk about fun, it is so great watching 3 kids reeling in Stripers. It is also enjoyable watching adult kids run around the boat chasing Stripers. Our intentions were to fish for a couple hours then to pull the kids around on tubes. I found school after school and they fished until we went through 200 baits, which didn't take very long. Michael kept hooking up and was having difficulty fighting a couple fish but once he got them to the boat it was obvious his fish were pretty large fish. He is shown holding his largest of the morning and the girls and Mike are holding 3 nice fish. Everyone did great this morning and we all had a lot of fun fishing. We took a couple of pictures and then took the kids tubing for a couple of hours. I know 3 kids that will sleep well this afternoon! When we were working the schools I kept hearing Steve muttering to himself "I can't believe this, I just can't believe this." We kept some fish for the table and released the others unharmed to fight again another day.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Clay, David Sr., Brad, David Jr.,Parker and Ed




Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 86* and clear.
Met the guys at 3:45, caught bait then at first light went looking for fish. I had already briefed the guys on how to deploy the baits and they seemed like they understood what I was talking about. I found fish immediately so we attempted to get our baits in the water but I knew we were in trouble. The problem was I had set them up on a large school of feeding Stripers and it usually takes a few times putting baits out and reeling in a couple of fish before my clients understand how to deploy and fish with circle hooks. They were going to get broken in real quick. Within the first 10 minutes we had a dozen hookups or more and the school was growing larger as we fished. Next thing we knew a "fisherman" who knows better and sees all of our rods bent over runs his big motor by us not only once but twice. Well it took about 20 seconds for my screen to go blank. My clients wanted to go after the "fisherman" but I told them to get the lines in and lets cut the school off again. We motor 200 yards, set out our baits and wore the fish out. Yea, that other "fisherman" came over to us again and after a few minutes the school dispersed. By 6:25 we had 18 keeper Stripers in the boat and had thrown away a few more. We regrouped and set up on another school that you can see in the lower picture of my Lowrance. I had just set down on the school, there are only a couple fish showing on the sonar but you can see hundreds of Stripers scattered about on my Side Scan [White dashes]. We worked on this school till we almost ran out of baits. We went and caught more bait then set up on some other schools. About 9 a old friend Ed Whitlock called me and said he had found a school of fish and to come over and help him catch some of them so we obliged him. We had 24 fish in the cooler before we went to him so I told the guys this would be our last set up. We put the baits out on the school you see in the top picture of my Lowrance and you can imagine what happened. If you look closely at my side scan the school was Enormous! The guys are pictured holding 28 Stripers we caught this morning. Plenty were released to fight again another day.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Megan, Jeff, John, Max, Andy and Sarah




Cloudy and Humid, Water Temperature 88* and clear.
We caught bait this morning then went looking for Stripers. We hit 3 or 4 areas catching a couple Stripers early this morning before finding a huge school. As we were setting up on them I called John on the radio to come over and help. Megan hooked up with her hog [Shown in picture] and we caught a couple more before the school moved on. John and I hop-scotched this school for about an hour. This was the fastest moving school either one of us have ever seen. We would no sooner set up on it before it was 200 yards ahead of us. I would run through the school, set up 200 yards ahead of it and barely get our baits in the water before we would get hits. We ended up working about 8 groups of fish this morning catching fish everywhere we went. We went through 300 baits catching a variety of fish. We caught about a dozen Cats, 3 Bass and about 25 Stripers. Sarah is shown holding one of the Bass she caught today. This will be a day of fishing everyone will never forget.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Streaking Striper

Here is a picture of my graph today after we went through a small school of Stripers. There are 3 screens showing on the unit, the left screen is Bottom Lock, it is showing the bottom up to 10 feet above the bottom, it is actually showing the bottom quarter of the water column and is zoomed in 3X. The middle screen is traditional sonar, 0 to 40' scale. It is showing 3 Stripers at 25 feet and one Striper streeking off the bottom coming up to hit our bait [small dotted line] just underneath our sinker [solid descending black line] at 15 '. The right screen is Structure Scan, it is showing about a dozen Stripers [White dashes] that were part of the school about 20 to 60 feet to the left of the boat. The boat is at 0 and the 20, 40, 80 is how many feet away from the boat the fish are. Most fish were in the lower left of the screen about 50' away from the boat, and in real time about 20 yards back and to the left of the boat when I shot the picture. I turned left after taking the picture and went back to the spot where we had two more hook ups.
This picture may be clicked on to see it better.

Mike, Emily and Matt

Cloudy, Thunderstorms, then partly sunny, Water Temperature 85* and clear.
Caught bait then picked my clients up at high Point at 5. Waited a couple minutes for a storm to pass then went looking for fish. I saw what I wanted so I stopped and we tried to get baits in the water. The fish did not let us get set up without hitting our baits. Within 2 minutes we had 5 Stripers on the deck and my crew was wondering what had just happened. They had been fishing Lake Anna for years even with other guides and had not caught a Striper much less seen so much action so quickly. Problem was after catching the fish we had no baits in the water so the school dissipated. Today we hit about 5 or 6 groups of fish and easily caught our limit. We were able to get off the water before the madness began on the lake. Matt will be grilling Stripers this afternoon with Mikes family coming over to help him eat some of their catch.
I will be off the water for a couple days to celebrate Independence Day and to give the Stripers a break.

Saturday, July 02, 2011

Will and Ashley




Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 85* and Clear.
Caught bait this morning and picked up my clients at 5am.
I gave them a brief explanation of how to put the baits out then went and set up over a couple fish. After taking 25 hits and putting only 1 Striper in the boat I relocated to an area where we caught 5 0r 6 more Stripers. We moved again to a third location, caught 2 or 3 more then made one final move where we saw a lot of fish and finished out the morning. Will and Ashley are pictured holding 2 Stripers Ashley had hooked up at once and the other picture of Ashley is her big fish of the morning. We had a productive morning and got off the water way before the weekend warriors woke up.

Friday, July 01, 2011

Tommy Bailey with guests Lee, Jeff, Elwood, Brad and Matt



Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 85* and Clear.
Met the guys at the marina at 5 after catching 200 baits. We drove about 5 minutes and set up in an area fish had been using but after 30 minutes of short hits and only 1 keeper we made a move. I ran over some fish, turned the boat around and we put our baits out and popped 3 or 4 Stripers real quick then I didn't see any more so we got back on the big motor and went looking again. We found some scattered Stripers so we set up on them and caught 6 or 8 more in about 10 minutes then the action died. We had run through 150 baits so we decided to go catch some more bait and stop by the marina to pick up some food the guys had left in their vehicles. We went back out and hit a few areas catching a fish here and there but not seeing anything I really liked. About 11 o'clock I ran over a wad of something at 25 MPH that I could not determine what it exactly was so I turned around and looked closer at it. It was a cloud of arches so tight I almost thought it was Gizzards but I told Tommy that it sure looks like Stripers so we set up on them. The time of day was right [major feed today was mid day], I had fresh bait and we proceeded to spank the school of Stripers. After going through about 75 baits the fish came up and started blowing baits out of the water. I looked over at Tommy and he was kneeling on the floor trying to stuff some more Stripers into my livewell so I had to get a quick picture of him. We worked the school till we ran completely out of baits and called it a day. Today we went through over 300 baits and caught a bunch of fish.
Tommy had contacted me a couple weeks ago and said that his son Jeff was getting married on July 3rd and the guys wanted to go fishing for a bachelor event. I told him that the Friday before the July 4th weekend would be busy and that fishing could be tough with the traffic but they elected to go out to have a good time. We all worked hard today to make this happen and what a great day it turned out to be. Elwood got married over 50 years ago on July 4th and Jeff is getting married on the 3rd.
Hopefully Jeff's marriage will turn out to last as long as Granddads.
Good Luck Jeff!