Jack, Paul, Kim and George fn Barboza

Cloudy and cool, Water temperature 64* and Clear.

I got out early to catch bait then picked up the guys at High Point. We set out a spread of planner boards and a bobber and before we knew it we were hooking up. Fish were feeding early this morning and it was all I could do to keep up with the action. Fish fed for about an hour before they shut off or us loosing a couple fish turned them off. We had gone through most of the bait so I had to go catch more which was not easy, I spent every bit of 2 hours till I caught 20 in one cast. I set out another spread with fresh bait and hadn't gone far before we started taking hits again. We fished in this area for the next 3 hours till we ran out of baits, not bad action for mid day fishing. Today we kept 13 Stripers.

A beautiful windy day on the lake

Sunny and Windy, Water Temperature 64* and Clear.

Both DP and I had clients today so we got out on the water very early and caught bait before picking up our clients at High Point Marina. DP went up one side of the lake and I went up the other. We both pulled spreads of planner boards over various depths. The fish only cooperated the first hour of the morning then fishing slowed way down due to the cold front. We both did our best to put our clients on fish and everyone had a good time today. The top two pictures are of Eldon with a Citation Bass and a nice Striper. The third picture is of Michael's Stripers which is the largest fish he has ever caught. the forth pic is DP's clients holding up Stripers and the group picture is of the Jim Ciulla gang. The bottom picture is what happens when the wind is howling, your trolling motor batteries are spent and a Stripers swims through your whole spread on one side of the boat, courtesy of Elden on DP's boat. You can click on the pictures to enlarge.

Paul, Bob, Dave and Ron

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 61* and Clear.

I got out early to catch bait this morning, picked the guys up and was fishing by 6:15. It was quite foggy this morning so I set up in an area where I thought boats would not run over us. We pulled a spread of a dozen planner boards along with a bobber and a free line over shallow points and flats. I was concerned about the water temperature dropping over the last couple days and also today was a poor day to fish according to the solunar tables. Our first hit was a catfish which confirmed my fears but the next half dozen hookups were traded off between Catfish and Stripers. We fished for about 4 hours going through about 30 baits before it was time to go catch more bait. I looked and threw for a couple hours before getting enough bait to set up a spread again. We set up over a little deeper flats this time and took 6 hits, boating a couple fish and loosing some very large fish. Overall it was a good day, the weather was beautiful with not too much wind, fishing was fair and friendship was great.

Some of last weeks catches

Here are a few pictures of our guides catches from last week. Tony took Marc, Mike, Mark and Tim out fishing and although they did not want to keep any fish he managed to get a picture of them holding some fish up. Tony took Sam and Jimmy out and caught this nice stringer of Stripers. Bob is holding up 4 of the 12 Stripers that guide Brian put them on. Finally DP is holding a stringer of Stripers that his client could not hold up. Our guides learned from the master, they are ready to take you out on the water and prove it. Give us a call and book a trip while we still have some available dates.

My New Boat

I just purchased a second boat [22' Crest Center Console ] just like mine to accommodate our growing guide service.  Over the years business has expanded to the point where I have had to make adjustments to handle the demand of numerous groups of clients, many wanting to fish on the same dates. I have made changes to insure the continued high level of service we offer our clients. In addition to the second pontoon boat which can handle up to 6 anglers we also have 2 Champion Bass boats to handled the client who wants to learn how to fish for Stripers with live bait off of a platform that may be more like their own boat, a boat that can handle windier conditions but is limited to 1 to 2 anglers. We now have a total of five guides that have a total of well over 130 years of experience fishing for Stripers on Lake Anna. In addition to myself and Anthony, DP Seay, Tony Smith and Brian Mohr have teamed up with us to work together to keep our clients constantly on Stripers.

After seeing this video of the electroshocking boat I am beginning to think I bought the wrong boat!

Doug [Douger] and Joe

Cloudy and Rain, Water Temperature 65* and clear.

Picked the guys up at 5:15 and went to catch bait. I threw for about 45 minutes and caught 58 nice baits. I was excited about the morning, it was suppose to rain which hopefully keep a lot of the boaters off the water but when I called Doug yesterday his wife said he was out fishing and had fished the day before also, my kind of guy. Doug and his cousin Joe were interested in seeing what this lake Striper fishing was all about and by the end of the trip I believe they found out. We had taken 46 hits when I ran out of bait in the tank so I emptied the tank and right before we started to get the remaining few baits in 2 hooked up at once and they reeled them in. Forty eight hits in a morning is quite a bit of action, makes you not even feel the rain pouring down on you.

Brad, Casey and Cliff

Brad got in touch with me about a week ago to fish today and take his daughter Casey out on the lake but I was previously booked so I hooked him up with Tony. Before Tony had deployed all the baits they started taking hits. Tony had got on the water at 4 to catch bait to insure they could be fishing at daylight and it payed off with a nice stringer of Stripers. Today they had about 20 hookups, caught 9 Stripers, a nice Bass and a Catfish. The wind blew most of the day restricting Tony from fishing where he wanted to.

Craig and Mike Rasmusson

Sunny and Windy, Water Temperature 58* and Clear.

I picked the guys up at High Point at 5:30 this morning hoping to catch bait before daylight.
The bait gods were with us today and we caught over 50 in about 5 or 6 throws. That enabled us to get a spread of baits out on the water at the crack of dawn early enough to beat some of the wind that has been blowing every day. I hadn't quite got all my boards out when the first Striper of the morning boiled a bait then hooked up for a brief moment. We got that rod in to change the bait and the one right next to it hookup up but 10 seconds later simply got off. Not a good start but at least we were getting hits. Instead of turning and going back I decided to just hold my course and put out my full spread. Lately it has not mattered where you fish, the most important factor to catching fish has been to stay away from boat traffic and keep out of the wind in order to keep your baits in the water column where the fish are holding. We caught 5 or 6 Stripers then the wind started howling again so I headed for a more protected area out of the gusting wind. Once I hit a calmer area and slowed the trolling motor down one of our free lines hooked up and Craig jumped on the rod. Next thing I knew the fish had pulled my tight drag out about 50 yards from where she originally hit. I cleared the back of the boat of rods that were out in order for Craig to fight the fish but it was too late, the fish had already got into one of our planner boards. Craig wrestled the fish from one side of our spread to the other, up under our boat to pulling out 30 to 40 more yards of drag. Craig's arms were on fire and he was ready to tap out but I got on him to keep doing exactly what he was doing, holding his rod high in the air, keeping the rod bent and not letting the line touch anything. Eventually the fish tired and Craig got the fish close enough to the boat for me to get a net under it. Craig was exhausted, the fish was HUGE and his father got it all on a video camera. We popped a couple of pictures and continued to try to fish the bank we were on. We caught a few more Stripers but the wind was getting worse and the 8 pounders they were reeling in just didn't seem to be much of a challenge any more. It was around 10 o'clock, Craig could not keep any more Stripers because he did not have much room in his freezer for fillets, they had conquered Lake Anna and were ready to go in and get the fish to a taxidermist. We went back to the marina and the fish pegged Carlos's scale. The fish was in excess of 21 pounds, a memory Craig and his Dad will never forget.

California Phil and Vince

Cloudy, Windy and Cold, Water temperature 60* and clear.

We left High Point at 5:30 and went to catch bait this morning. After catching over 30 I set out a spread of a dozen planner boards and a bobber. Just as I put my last bait out a board got hit and Phil reeled in the first Striper of the day. Vince's eyes bugged out, he took a picture of the fish while another board was screaming across the surface. Vince jumped on that rod and got the fish in the boat. I don't believe they were ready for this kind of action but it didn't take Vince very long to figure out the deal. From there on out Vince was ready to pounce on any rod that got nervous and he did with the exception of letting Phil reel in an occasional Catfish.[Just kidding] We continued to have action, hooking up about every 10 to 15 minutes till we ran completely out of baits. We went to catch more baits but it took 2 hours to catch enough to set up again. It didn't take long to start hooking up and continue where we left off. Today was a very bad day weather wise on the water, aside from the wind blowing 25 MPH, Snow and Hail it was quite cold out there. We had 20 Stripers hooked up today and caught a Bass and a Kitty also. Can't wait for the wind to die down.....

Tony , son Brandon, his wife and Daughter Casey

Partly cloudy and windy, Water Temperature 62* and clear.
Today was a slow day on the water, we fished all day for about a dozen hits. We ended up catching only 6 Stripers, a Bass and a couple Catfish. Hopefully after the full moon faze the fishing will get better.

Dan and Jacob Ourada

Sunny and Cold Front, Water Temperature 63* and Clear.
We got out at 6 and went to catch bait. The wind was Howling and a storm had just blown through. We caught 38 baits then I looked for awhile for a place where I could fish where I could somewhat control the boat and my baits. I had only gotten 3 lines wet when Jacob hooked up with the first Striper of the day. While he was trying to get it off the hook another Striper hooked up but got off before getting to the boat. Unfortunately where we took hits the lake was white capping so all I could do was try to keep the boat heading straight while I put baits out. We worked the area for about 2 hours boating 4 Stripers. Eventually we ran out of bait and had to catch some more. Fishing was SLOW but we hung in there and Jacob ending up having a ball catching Stripers. Today was an extremely slow day but Jacobs patience and fishing ability paid off with a nice stringer of fish.

Anthony's Clients

These are a few recent catches of Anthony"s clients.