Tony's trips last week

Jensen

Jensen

 Here are a couple of  Tony's charters from last week. He took Jensen out for a successful morning Spring gobbler hunt then took him fishing after the hunt for a great catch of Stripers.

Bill Irwin

HDS Pics

This is a picture of my boat going over some shallow structure. As you can see in the upper right side scan picture the structure is on the left side of my boat and so tall is shows a shadow behind the structure.

Here is a picture of Punk Stripers mixed in with some Herring. Notice the shadows in the Side scan of the Stripers.

This is a picture of a large rock pile.

Here is a picture showing bait on the extreme left of my sonar and downscan 

along with a Striper feeding on the edge of the bait.

Gary, Dave and Bob

Gary

Guide DP offered a full day trip to benefit the Moss-Nuchols elementary school PTA at a silent auction and Gary had the highest bid. Not only did Gary win the trip he caught the 2 largest fish of the trip. Thanks DP for giving a day on the water to the school.

Gary and Anna Clay

Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 66* and Clear

I met my clients at High Point this morning, caught 70 pieces of bait then set out our spread pulling 20 baits on boards. We fished the morning taking hits about once every 20 minutes or so then after 11 the bite died. Gary is pictured holding his big fish of the day.

Mike, Mike, Andrew, Katie and Wes

Tony took these Guys and Gall out on Sunday for a great day of fishing for Stripers. Not only was the fishing good the weather was beautiful. Looks like they forgot their Suntan Lotion!

Mark Dudley family reunion

Lynn, Robin, Andre, Derick, Richard, Bill, Nigel, D'Andre, Mark, Darren

Mark, his family and in-laws [some out-laws also] had the opportunity to rent a house on the lake to get everyone together for a beautiful weekend on the water. Tony and myself took them out for a day of fishing. Although fishing was slow and boat traffic was heavy everyone caught fish and tonight fish is for dinner. It was a pleasure to spend the day with Mark and his family.

Chris

Chris is from California and while he was visiting here in Va. he wanted to try some Striper fishing on the lake. Guide Anthony took him out and showed him how it is done.  Looks like some fat fish! 

Lane Technology Inc.

Johnny, Joey, James, Brian and Donnie

Sunny and warm, Water temperature 65* and Clear.
I met the guys at High Point at 6 and took off to catch bait. Bait had moved because the lake temperature had risen 15* in 2 days! It was certainly nice not to have ice on the deck this morning. Bait collection was a little tough, last week I would make 3 throws for 70 to 80 baits, today I looked for about 30 minutes till I found enough to throw on then had to cast a dozen times or so. We ran back downlake and put out a spread pulling flats and points for about a mile only to catch one fish. We moved to a different area and put out 25 baits and before long we started hooking up. We hit a stretch where we would take hits every five minutes or so and worked it for an hour till we went through 50 baits. I hated to leave to catch more bait because the fish were feeding and as luck would have it after catching bait we hit the same area only to catch a dozen catfish.We eventually made one final move to the splits and caught 5 or 6 more Stripers before running completely out of bait again. Today we caught 12 Stripers, 12 Catfish and lost another dozen Stripers. The water temperature has change so drastically it may take a day or two for the Stripers to adjust, but once they do the game is on.

Hilltop Consultants

Mike, Randy, Paul, Joseph, Ashu, Jim Turner, Diane, Nain, Bob and Sal

$100 Big Fish winner Nain

Paul

Cold and windy morning, Water Temperature 50* and Clear

Jim Turner wanted to take his company out on a fishing trip on Lake Anna so DP and myself met them at the marina this morning, divided the group up and made the cold run to catch bait. We both caught bait relatively easy and were able to start fishing by 7. I had only gotten 3 baits out when Nain hooked up and landed the big fish of the day. Before I could get all my baits out the wind got up out of the north and made it quite uncomfortable for my group where we were fishing. Dp's group could not feel the cold, probably due to the Beer they were putting away plus all the fish they were catching were keeping them warm. The bite was fairly steady for a couple hours then slowed for an hour mid morning. DP got on some nice fish around 11 then we all met back at the marina at noon to see who won the big fish contest. There was a lot of trash talk going around but in the end Nain topped Paul's fish by a couple pounds. Even though it was cold for some this morning it was a fun time for all of us.

Lowrance HDS

 This picture was taken while driving 18.6mph. It is a good example of how well Lowrance Structure Scan works, even at higher speeds. The sonar on the left side of the page shows a 5 foot hump with 20 foot water nearby. There is a vertical white line that is barely seen at the top of the hump. The upper right picture is side scan shooting out 80 feet to the left and right side of the boat. In the middle of the picture you may notice an hour glass shape that turns bright yellow with a horizontal line in the middle of it. [The brighter the yellow the harder the bottom] The bottom right of the screen is downscan. It also shows the depths very clearly and picks up this 'mystery' line at the top of the hump. It also shows a fish 18 feet deep on the right side of the picture just before the bottom starts back up again. The 'mystery' line is actually an underground silo with a concrete bottom. Notice in the downscan pic the yellow line extending down under the water portion of the silo. [ an underground silo is where a farmer digs out a huge trough into a hill where he stores his silage for the winter then puts a cover on top of it to keep it dry.]

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 There are two sections to this screen, the left side is bottom lock. It it locked onto the bottom regardless of the depth and is reading 2,4,6,8 feet up off the bottom. It actually is set to show the bottom portion of my screen zoomed in three times larger than the sonar on the right side of the screen. Those arches are Stripers stacked right on the bottom of the lake.

 This picture is a sonar page showing a group of Stripers that are streaking [active] up on the flat and another group of Stripers out over the channel. The fish on the flat are catchable, the fish over the channel are inactive and will not feed.

The upper sonar picture is a classic feeding scenario for Stripers. They are on a flat looking to eat. The larger lines at 20 feet are the Stripers and above them are 10 inch gizzards.

The bottom picture is an area of the lake stacked with probably millions of Gizzard Shad. Notice in the top portion of the screen in my history that I had been marking the schools for a couple hundred yards. Think the fish have enough to eat?

Josh, Mike, Jonathon, James and Josh

Cold and Cloudy, Water Temperature 48* and Clear

I got up this morning and went outside to start my truck and it was 25 degrees! I picked the guys up at High Point at 6:15 and headed out to catch bait. After about 5 throws we had over 70 baits and we were ready to go fishing. I set out a spread of boards and a bobber pulling shallow flats. It was hard to walk in the boat because the deck was a sheet of ice. We worked an area for over 2 hours only to catch 1 keeper. The water temp had fallen overnight and I knew it hurt the bite. We made a move to catch more bait and set up in a different area. We worked it for the rest of the day taking hits about once every 15 minutes or so. The Stripers were off today, We caught 9 keepers and a punk, along with a dozen Catfish and a Crappie. We had a lot of fun today and it sure was nice not to have to fight the wind.

I expect the fishing to explode next week, I am seeing temperatures well into the seventies by mid week. The Stripers will feed heavily and start their spawn. 'Tis the season for catching Big Stripers!

Brad Price and daughter Kaci

Kaci

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Brad has been booking trips with us for about 5 years now and always brings his daughter Kaci along. Brad sometimes doesn't pick the best days to fish, they have been out on some very cold days when most would not even think to venture outdoors. Guide DP took Brad and Kaci out fishing for Stripers and here are a few of the fish Kaci caught. You would be surprised how fast you warm up reeling in a big Striper!

Eugene and John

Sunny and cold, Water temperature 49* and Clear.

I picked the guys up early at High Point and set out for a cold run to catch bait. Thankfully all I had to throw was twice this morning to catch 71 beautiful baits. That was enough to turn the deck into a sheet of ice. We made a short run and attempted to set out a spread of boards but the Stripers kept interrupting us. We had some decent action for about 90 minutes then it subsided. I decided to go catch some more bait and try to set up in an area that I wanted to fish before the wind got up too bad. Well I put out 3 or 4 rods then the wind hit us like a sledgehammer and I had to put the trolling motor on 9 just to keep the boat going 7 tenths of a mph. It seems like the wind has to howl every day! We fished that stretch for about 3oo yards without a hit. Then I pulled up on a point and hooked up with 2 or 3 fish. We then went to another point and took 2 or 3 more hits. I turned to go back to those areas but the wind would not let me so I gave it up and moved elsewhere out of the wind. We worked this small area for about an hour only to catch a couple Stripers and 3 Catfish. This was not getting it so I decided to make one final move. We topped the bait tank off again and headed downlake to make one final last stand on something completely different. Our perseverance paid off and we popped the three biggest fish of the day. 

Active Stripers near the bottom