'Tiss the season for BIG 'UNS

A Good Morning on the Lake

 Nathan, Nate and George

 Nate with a Nice 12 pound Striper

Nate with a Citation Kitty

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature mid 40"s

Today George wanted to take his son out and catch a bunch of fish and also go with me to catch bait so he met me at the marina at 4. We caught bait then went looking for Stripers. I saw a whole lot of bait in a large cove so I slowed down and decided to fish around it. We set out a spread and worked the area till we started taking hits. Once we hit the magic depth I concentrated of keeping the boat on that contour and we proceeded to "Spank" the fish. Before we knew it we had caught over 20 Stripers and this nice Catfish. We took the fish back to High Point, weighed the two big 'uns and popped a picture. Nathan is in the pic because Nate could not hold up all the weight of the stringer. George said they have fished the Lake for a long time and only caught one Striper. I guess today I got that monkey off his back. I got back to my house in time for a good mid morning Breakfast.

A Challenging Day

 Ian, Eugene, Jim and Erika

 Eugene with a nice Bass

Jim with a 23 inch, 7 pound Citation Bass

Cloudy and Cool, Water temps ranging from 40 to 50 *

Today we started out working a deep flat with down lines. We hooked up immediately and boated a couple fish but the action dies as soon as it started. We worked the area for awhile then I decided to check out similar areas on my Simrad. After looking for 1 1/2 hours and not seeing what I wanted to see I set up over a couple more areas with no success. The Stripers were simply nowhere to be found. Four hours into the morning and the livewell was looking pretty pitiful. Time to change up so I made another move and set out a huge spread of Water Bugzs and planned to work a huge flat from deep to shallow. I saw a few fish deep but it wasn't until I put the boat into 10 feet or less where we started hooking up. After a couple of other hits in skinny water I had their number and we proceeded to wear the fish out. For four hours we never went more than 5 minutes without getting bit. All I time for was baiting and netting fish. I couldn't even get a chance to eat my lunch! The time went by fast and before we knew it it was time to go. We kept 18 Stripers but caught over 50. We also caught a bunch of Largemouths as well. We ended up having a great day and what a day to have it on. Jim and his daughter were celebrating their Birthdays which is tomorrow. 

Happy Birthday Erika and Jim

A Great Winter Morning

 Dave, Bobby, Alan, Tim, Tom and Tyler

 Bobby

Dave

Partly cloudy and warm, Water temperatures 38* up lake and mud, 40* mid lake and 51 at the Dam.

Today was my first day back on the water in awhile. It's hard to go fishing with the weather we have been having, but we got out today. The ice up lake finally melted yesterday but it still was very cold at the 208 bridge, 40*. Today Alan and I got out early and caught 175 baits to fish with. We picked up the rest of my clients at 6:45 and went in search of Stripers. Since the water temperature had dropped 6* in less than a week I decided to work downlines in the morning then convert over to boards once the water warmed up a little. We set up first in an area where fish migrate back and forth between shallow and deep water hoping to catch fish changing patterns since the weather was to change 30 degrees today. We set up putting out just 8 baits to show the guys what I do and my main man Bobby hooked up first. We worked an area of 150 yards in a transition area for awhile before we made a move. Bobby had the hot hand today, he kept busy most of the morning. I located 4 or 5 different areas where I found fish on my Simrad catching fish after fish. Dave and Bobby are holding up two of the better Stripers we caught this morning. Today started off right with one of the guys saying a prayer which really helped. We were fishing a full moon, very cold water temps and high winds today which usually translates into poor fishing but with a little help from above we caught over 40 Stripers and 6 Largemouths today. My job is great... I get to "work" doing what I love to do, meet great people and establish long lasting relationships, have fun in the outdoors and get paid for what I do. I also have a wonderful family that supports me in my endeavors and helps me do what I do.

I Am Blessed

Simrad Screen Shots

 This is a school of Stripers [arches] under a ball of Herring [center of lower screen]. The vertical lines on my echo page is interference from my front unit that I had on at the time of this shot.

 I was looking for fish traveling about 20mph [left side of screen] when I saw some brush up on top of this hump so I slowed down [yellow boat wash from surface down to 15 feet] to check it out. There are Bass nosed up to the edge of the drop and after going back over the brush there were a couple at the base of the brush pile.

 Here are a few Stripers [arches] next to a whole lot of Gizzard Shad of various sizes. I threw into the shad and could hardly lift the net. Must have caught 150 in one throw ranging from 3 to 12 inches long.

 In this screen shot I had just gone under a bridge [yellow road on map] and noticed Gizzard Shad [chunky marks on the left side of echo page], a small school of Herring [cloud of bait just to the right and above the Gizz], and a school of Threadfin with Stripers underneath them.

 This is a shot of Stripers that I wished would eat our baits. These Stripers were inactive. I can tell by the way the arches are almost perfect and not moving or streaking. Also I pulled baits right through them without any success. You can look at Stripers and tell without fishing them if they are active or not. These fish were in somewhat of a thermal shock after the water temps dropped to 42*.

 This is a shot of 3 to 5 inch Gizzard Shad. I can tell by the size of the chunks on the echo page. Side scan and down scan also help verify the size of the baits. I made one throw on these and filled my tank up. The dark blue area on the right side of my side scan 50 to 100 feet out is the shadow of the channel.

 This is a shot of Herring scattered from 10 to 15 feet deep relating to this rock pile. Notice on the left side of my side scan all the rocks.

In this shot we were working a hump that rose up to 30 feet out of 50 feet of water. Stripers were scattered in a half dozen places on the 6 acre hump is small pods of 20 to 30 fish. We pulled baits through all of the pods but the fish were not active and would not respond to our offerings. I located these Stripers while running about 30mph and turned back around. I told my crew that they were not streaking and that we may not get bit but it had been a long day and it was worth a try. The horizontal line at 24 feet is a bait that we pulled through the schools. We basically bumped them in the heads with no response from them.