I had located a school of Stripers this morning running about 20mph seeing them on my Simrad. After running through the school (about 500 yards) I had a good idea exactly where they were so I turned the boat, deployed our baits and went after them. This screenshot was taken while we were hooked up. Notice the school was off to my left on side scan 40 to over 100 feet. I only had a few under the boat and none to the right side of the boat. Also notice the boat is positioned over a flat nearby a ledge to my left. Naturally I steered left to put our baits closer to the school.
This pic was taken only 30 seconds later as I was turning into the fish. You can see on side scan that I am getting closer to the school and more are showing up under the boat as well. Still no fish to the right of the boat.
After working the school for 20 minutes they had gradually worked their way up over the ledge shallower on the break. Now the boat was in 34 feet and the fish were gradually going even shallower. No longer were they over the flat, they were moving up the break and started to explode on the surface.
I eased the boat off to slightly deeper water so I would not spook and disperse the school and started catching the larger fish that were under the surface feeding punks. We were getting dialed in now with better quality fish.
We were now on the leading edge of the school where the larger fish were feeding. You can see on side scan the size of the fish were substantially larger. If you notice I tried to keep my boat positioned on the edge of the school so I would not spook and disturb the main body of the school. By doing this the fish continued to school, did not break apart being spooked by a boat running right over top of them allowing us to have our way with them for another hour or so. These screenshots were only over a 30 minute time span but we got way too busy to take time to take more pics. Boat motors on this lake spook the schools into breaking up. Once boats run through the schools too often the fun is over for everyone. Use your electronics, use your head and catch more fish.
You may end up with a catch like this!
www.JimHemby.com 540 967 3313 Jim_Hemby@hotmail.com
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