Bill Hamilton

January 29th, 2009: Sunny and Cold, Water Temps 40* to 45* and Clear. Bill and I caught bait early and hit a 20 foot flat first thing this morning. In the first hour we boated 8 or 9 Stripers then went to pick up a friend at the dock. Set up on another deeper flat, boated a couple and Bill caught the first Bass. We moved on and hit yet another flat with some brush on it and Bill boated another Bass. We finished out the day pulling 10 to 40 foot flats, getting numerous hits, catching a few but not hooking up well. Although we caught 14 Stripers and a couple of Bass fishing was SLOW today as I knew it would be after 4 days of clouds, snow and rain then followed by a Bluebird Day. Alot of strikes we had today the stripers just mouthed the bait. The water temps had dropped also making the fish more lethargic. Bill released all the fish today to fight again.

Striperholic

January 25, 2009: Cloudy and Cold, Water Temp 41* to 46* and Clear. Anthony got out early and caught bait while I stayed home enjoying my grandson. I looked at the thermometer around 6am and it was 14*, had a cup of coffee and turned a fishing show on TV. Didn't think much of going out on the water today, Mike [my grandson ] and myself having a ball playing indoors where it was warm. My daughter came to get Mike and I called Anthony, he said fishing had been slow, caught a bunch of punks, but thought he was on to something. I told him I could not stand it , come pick me up at the marina in an hour, we would have a couple hours to fish. Got on board and asked to see his fish, he had been releasing them and had none. We set up pulling boards and hit his spot, everything hooked up, we got these 6 fish in on the first pass. We released these and hit another area similar to the first and Anthony caught the 14 pounder. We hooked up with a few more on different areas and called it a day. I got my fix for fishing for the day, got a few pictures and was home by 5:30 for dinner.

Walt Weeks and Mark Mautte

January 23rd, 2009: Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 41* to 46* and Clear.

We set up before daylight way out on a long tapering point that dropped off into a 40 foot flat, hoping to get a spread of 12 boards and a bobber out without getting hit, but before we could we hooked up with doubles. We were really waiting on Mark to show up and

was fishing an area nearby the ramp. We picked Mark up an hour after daylight, by then we had already caught 8 Stripers. We had to go elsewhere to set up again because we got busted reeling in fish and a guy kept trolling back and forth where he saw us boat the fish. We pulled 40 foot flats with humps on them rising up to 10 feet and ended up catching 18 Stripers today. The guys had to hold the fish by hand today for the camera, I had misplaced my fish stick. Mark caught a nice Bass, the largest he has ever caught. The wind got up pretty bad around noon and ran us off the water. All day Walt kept mumbling something about Mary Tracy comparing her to Joan Devoe and fish, I am really not sure what they all have in common!

Todd and Cathy

January 19th, 2009: Cloudy and Cold, Water Temp 42* to 48* and Clear.

Caught bait this morning and at first light we were putting baits out over a 20' flat. We only got 4 out before we got our first strike, and things did not slow down for 30 minutes. We could only imagine what it would of been like if we had our spread of 13 baits out when we hit that area. It was fun while it lasted, I could have turned around and baited up and hit it again but Todd was looking to learn the lake and fish different areas rather than fill the livewell so we moved on. We next set up over 40 feet of water wanting to pull a couple of 20 to 30 foot humps but again we got fooled, only had 7 baits out when the fish started banging the baits and every rod hooked up. By the time I got over the first hump we had no baits in the water. We scrambled to rebait and fished the humps and moved on. About noon the wind changed direction and started blowing out of the west, all the gulls sat down on the water and we never caught another fish. Before the wind changed and while it was blowing out of the south we boated 21 Stripers, the guys keeping a few to eat and releasing the rest in great condition. Todd also caught this citation Bass and released it also.

Brian, Joe and John

January 18th, 2009: Cloudy and Cold, Water Temps 38* midlake and 48* downlake.

After 3 days of extremely cold weather it warmed up just enough today to go out. We got out on the water at noon , caught bait and went downlake to the warmest water we could find , at the 3rd Dike. It was so windy that I just ran the trolling motor while Brian baited the lines. We set up a spread of boards and pulled the whole bay, waisting a couple hours only to catch a couple punks. The wind around 3 o'clock laid down to 10mph so we got our lines in and ran uplake to a bay where I located some fish earlier in the week and put out our spread there. We hooked up before we got all of our lines out and played catch up for the next hour. We saw fish deep between 25 and 30 feet but they would not hit, we only caught fish less than 10 feet deep, in the wind. With the wind it was hard to know how many strikes we got but we do know we caught 15 Stripers with the largest one over 12 pounds caught by Joe. The guys kept a couple and released the rest to fight again.

An afternoon of fun

January 14th, 2009: Sunny and Cold, Water Temp 48* and Clear. Got to the lake at noon, caught bait and looked for Stripers. Went right to a hump that was loaded, less than 20 seconds after putting a bait out we hooked up. Brian was gitty, he hadn't ever expected to catch fish the way we did. Since I was looking for fish for clients I left this school and searched for others. We fished 10 to 45 foot flats this afternoon, had over 25 Strikes, Brian boated about 15 and released them all to fight again.

Howard Manweller and Larry Jones

January 12th, 2009: Partly Cloudy and Cold, Water Temp 41* and Clear.

Got out early and caught bait then picked the guys up at 7am. Set out a spread of 10 boards , a bobber and some downlines and pulled 40 foot flats. Before I got them out we started hooking up. It took probably an hour for me to catch up and get the entire spread out due to the action we were having. We fished 40 foot flats till 11am and went and hit some shallower areas for a couple hours only catching a couple of fish then finished the day back over the deeper flats. Today was a great day of fishing, we caught over 20 Stripers , the guys taking home a couple for the table. We had well over 35 strikes today, not bad for a cold January day.

A Cold Rainy Day

I'm Back. I have been off the water hunting lately and today is my first day fishing this year. I will resume my regular postings.

January 7th, 2009 . Cold and Rain, Water Temps 41* Mid Lake to 53* Downlake.


I had today booked with a good client but they did not want to fight the 2 inches of rain today so I called the only other person I knew that was idiot enough to go out on a day like today, Anthony. I got out well before daylight to catch bait while Anthony stayed in town to get his crews off to work. I was having trouble catching bait, caught thousands of 2 inch threadfin. Anthony got to the lake finally and we checked a hole out downlake for 20 minutes getting a couple weak strikes so we decided to move on. We set up boards and pulled a couple 20 foot flats hooking up with a 6 pound Striper and 4 Bass, the one in the picture was a 6.12 pound 22" citation. We had discussed last night where and what we wanted to fish today but bait collection and starting at 11am messed us up a little but we decided to go with our original plan and took off. We set up fishing with boards and downlines working 40 foot flats and the points adjacent to them. Before we got our spread out the action started and for the next 2 hours we played catch up trying to keep our lines baited. [ Anthony's 20 calls from work did not help things much] Although today was miserable weather, it did keep the other boaters off the water which allowed us to fish uninhibited.

An hour of fun

Dec. 18th, 2008. Cloudy and cold, Water Temp 44* and stained.

Anthony called after lunch today and said he wanted to fish so we decided to go. He left Richmond at 2:30 , got to my house a little after 3 and we were on the water by 4pm. Threw the net a few times, caught 20 baits and put out a spread of boards and free lines. We had just enough time to pull a main lake point with our spread and had some fun reeling in a couple fish. We fished an hour after dark but all our hits came in a 1/2 hour period just before dark. Took a picture of Anthony holding 3 of the fish we caught , releasing them to fight another day.

Carl and Gary Brown

Dec. 2nd, 2008: Cloudy and Cold, Water Temp 42*.

Caught bait and set up where we caught fish last week but the water temp had dropped so much I believe it turned the fish off. We worked all day for 2 strikes, both Gary and Carl catching a fish each. I went to warmer water and pulled a couple miles without a hit also.

Josh

Here is a picture of Josh with his first Striper.

Jim, Alex and Rupe

November 26th, 2008: Cloudy and Cold, Water Temp 45* and Clear.

Picked the guys up at the dock at 6:30 and caught bait. Set out a spread of 10 Boards and two free lines. First fish Alex grabbed the rod and put the Striper in the boat. Had two more fish on before Jim caught a 12 pounder. Rupe was up next and after the 3rd hook-up he put his fish in the boat and then the fishing died. A cloud covered the sun and it appeared we would only get strikes the rest of the day if the sun was out which seemed like not very often. We went forever with just a couple hook-ups and then in the afternoon I hit a brush pile and we had 3 fish hook up at once. I turned and hit it again and popped another nice fish. Rupe was having issues today, seemed like every time he was up to reel in a fish he had to get 3 hook-ups before he would get a Striper in the boat. He was doing absolutely nothing wrong, some days that just happens. The fish were very lethargic today, I had 3 other good fisherman friends out today and only 1 of them caught a fish, the other 2 did not get a strike. Today we had 23 hook-ups and the guys got to take a few home for the weekend.

Zac Hammond

This is a picture of a future Striper Pro Zac which was sent to me by his father Bob. I took them out about a month ago and they have been trying weekly to crack the code to catching Stripers on the lake out of their own boat. This fish is just fuel to the fire in Zac's heart in pursuing the elusive Striper. Congratulations Zac!

Greg, Ed, and Will Whitlock

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008. Sunny and Cold, Water Temp 45* and Clear.

Woke up this morning , it was 18* out, I did not have a trip, rescheduled my trip from yesterday due to bad weather, had a good friend Anthony already out on the water catching fish so I moped around the house for a couple hours this morning and decided to call some friends up to go fishing. Left my house at 12 and went to the lake. Caught some "sweet baits" and put my spread of boards out right at the ramp. Before I got 4 lines in the water the fish started banging our baits. I had to move out of the boat traffic to put out the rest of my spread and once I did we had constant action for 2 hours straight. We had 20 hits in a couple hours this afternoon and kept these for an appetizer for Thanksgiving. The guy with the lights on his jacket is Ed, his wife Betty did not want him to be out after dark without being lit up.

Troy Hall and Father

November 21st, 2008: Partly Cloudy, Windy and COLD, Water Temp 49* and clear.

Met the guys a little after 6 and went and caught bait. Checked the area that I fished yesterday on a large school but there was no bait or fish in the area so I set up in the mouth of a creek that was full of bait. Before I got 4 boards out one got hit but it got tangled in another line and we lost the fish. I was seeing fish deep also so I put out some downlines and on the first pass we got 3 hits on them. I turned back and hit the area with my full spread, catching a couple fish but the fish were already moving for the channel [Stripers don't feed well or at all when they are over the channel]. The wind was getting up and it appeared a front was passing through. We fished the area and a mile around it only catching 1 more Striper. By now the wind was gusting to 30 mph so I went looking for a place to get out of the wind. Looked for about 2 hours, set up in a couple places and got blown off, decided all we could do to fish was to tie up to a bridge. After 4 failed attempts Troy decided it was useless to fish and we came in early. You may wonder why I did not warn Troy of the wind and possible bad day. I called him last night to advise him to reschedule but he said " every time I go fishing the wind blows and the weather is bad, last trip we took on the bay the waves were 15 feet high, I am use to fishing in foul weather". I told him I would feel good if we caught 3 Stripers tomorrow but he still wanted to go. I guess the day was successful, We caught more than I predicted!

The Saghafi's

November 20th, 2008: Partly Cloudy and Cold, Water Temperature 48* and Clear. Went out and caught bait and picked clients up late at 7:30. Found some fish prior to picking the guys up nearby the ramp so I set up on them and started putting fish in the boat within 100 yards of starting. Second fish was this nice 14 pounder. We got right on the school with fish all around us , boards getting pounded and a boat runs right into the school. I make a turn to go back on them and another boat comes roaring in, sees a couple of boats fishing and thinks he's on the now and sets down and proceeds to fish. Well, two outboard motors turned that school off. We fished for awhile with no more luck, jump fisherman running all around so I decided to pick up and leave. We worked other areas the rest of the day, trying to stay away from jump fisherman, and caught a few more fish. A cold front is blowing in tonight, may have an interesting day tomorrow!

Earl Mielke

Nov. 17th, 2008: Cloudy, Windy and Cold, Water Temp 51* and falling.

With a major cold front just passing through [70's on Saturday, today upper 40's] and another coming in tonight [only 40* tomorrow and 20 MPH winds] Earl wanted to get out for a couple hours this afternoon so I picked him up, caught bait and went fishing. We pulled boards over points and humps, caught enough Stripers for him and Millie to eat for a couple weeks, put the boat back on the trailer and went home. It would have been a great few hours but on the way home a deer jumped out into the road, I avoided hitting it with the truck but the trailer got it and pulled off one of my fenders. Tis the season!

Travis, Bobby and Randy Via, Jeff Baskin and Jeremy Lisenby

November 14th, 2008: Cloudy, Water temp 58* and Stained.
Clients were a tad late this morning [ Travis grew a tail on the way to the marina] so we got a late start. Made a bunch of casts for bait and finally caught 30 by 8 and went fishing. Set up on shallow mainlake flats with a spread of boards pulling gizzards. Worked a 500 yard pull and hooked up 6 times without putting a fish in the boat. After almost throwing Bobby and Randy out of the boat we finally got one in to break the ice. We pulled another 1/2 mile and turned back too pick up a board we had lost, by 9:30 we had had 14 fish on and only put a few in the cooler. These fish were on, pulling the boards across the water! I could not figure out what was going on, the guys were doing everything right, the fish just not wanting to inhale the baits. We went and caught more bait, I found an area where I made 2 casts and caught over 40, and relocated further downlake. Set out the same spread and continued to get bit, catch ratios getting a little better. By 2 o'clock the guys were nailing the fish and everyone was able to catch their share. Today we had 30 Stripers on [only broke 1 off on the boat], the guys keeping 12 to take home. Naturally, the big ones got away, OK by me, my clients will catch them next week!

Rick Chisholm, Dean and Derek Fyfe

November 9th, 2008: Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperatures 58* and Slightly Stained.

Picked the guys up at 6 am and went to catch bait. Checked usual deep places but the bait was not schooled tight enough so I kept looking shallower. Threw 40 times to catch 30 and went fishing. The day did not look too promising due to a 75 boat Bass Tournament . We set up uplake where I thought there would be little traffic but after pulling a 500 yard stretch we knew it would be tough fishing in a Zoo of maniacs. Every point we went to hit a boater would race to hit it before us. Before long every point within sight had a boat on it. I should have known to check before booking a Sunday in Tournament season. Anyway, we survived and caught a few fish up there and then moved downlake and set up over deeper water pulling Boards. Fish were defiantly spooked but the guys did well boating 10 of the 12 Stripers we had on today. By the end of the afternoon everyone was happy and the guys took home a few Stripers for some good meals.

Gil, Oren and Nor

October 31st, 2008: Sunny, Cold morning turning into Beautiful afternoon, Water Temperature 55* and Slightly Stained.
Picked clients up at their dock and went to catch bait. Caught 50 and started fishing right where we caught the bait. Set out a spread of boards and bobber and pulled shallow flats. Took about 20 minutes before we got hit and Oren jumped on the rod and put the Striper in the boat to break the ice for the morning. Pulled another 300 yards before all our bait became nervous again. I told the guys to get ready and soon thereafter a planner board went flying across the water with a nice Striper on the end of the line. Nor did well to get the fish in the boat. We only got one hit there but I knew there were other fish there so I turned and pulled it again. Although the fish were not aggressive today for the next 4 passes on the point we got hit. Around noon we relocated to the mouth of a creek and found another area that was holding a few feeding fish. We had 3 hits within a 30 yard area and caught a few fish but Boats kept running through the fish and spooked them. The guys had a great time today and kept enough fish for a BBQ on the lake this evening.

Richard, Bridget, Ronald Bergey and Haze Daw

October 27th, 2008: Cold and Rain, Water Temp 60* and Clear.
The weather station said this morning it was going to be 60* and Sunny, at daylight it was cloudy and by 10 it was raining and rained the rest of the day, and the temperature never got out of the 40's. Needless to say we were not ready for today's weather and my clients did get chilled somewhat. Went and caught bait this morning and set up pulling boards shallow since I did not see any bait or fish on the depthfinder. First fish hit next to the bank and Haze wrestled it in to start the morning off. Pulled a couple hundred yards more with a couple of hook-ups but we could not get them in the boat. Kept working the boards today and never saw any deep fish till later in the day when we found some breaking fish. They sounded and the depth finder lit up from 15 to 30 feet deep with fish. Haze even caught a Striper on a Sea Shad ! Although the day was cold and wet the crew hung in there and by quiting time we had a great stringer of fish. Bridget is pictured holding a 12 1/2 pound Striper, the largest of the day. We had 4 fish today over 30".

Ron Greenwell

October 22nd, 2008: Sunny and breezy, Water Temp 65* and Clear.

Picked Ron up at the dock at 6:30 and went and caught bait. Set up on a roadbed and pulled it with boards without a hit then moved to a 8 foot midlake flat and hooked up. While Ron was reeling the fish in several more Gizzards got swirled but the Stripers just would not bite the bait. Hooked up on the bobber, it was a pig, Ron actually thought it was hung on a log, he handed the rod to me to break it free, I yanked it and was sorry I did so fast, when I got it back to the boat the hook had huge scales on it! Made another pass on the flat and only got a swirl so I moved over to the nearest bank and put the boards on the bank, did not get bit. The bobber hooked up again and Ron got that fish in over 22 feet of water. Caught more bait and pulled another area that had previously been producing nice fish for my clients, only got 1 bite in 5 foot of water and Ron put the fish in the boat. Today we only had 5 hits, the cold frond killed us again.

The Bob Hammond Crew

October 18th, 2008. Cloudy and cool, Water temp dropped to 68* and Clear. Was suppose to pick the guys up at the marina at 6:30 this morning but when I got to the marina at 6 they were there and chomping at the bit to go. I put the boat in the water and we took off to catch bait. Went to where I had been catching bait but it was really broken up due to the second day of this cold front. Finally by 8 I had caught 50 baits and we went looking for fish. This front was hitting hard and it was windy so I set up in an area where I knew there were nice fish but somewhat protected from the wind. Second day of major fronts can be brutal for Striper fishing and I was fishing for a dozen strikes today. We put out 8 downlines first and started pulling a 25 foot flat , primarily to see how the wind would affect the boat and to see how bad boat traffic would be. We worked 2oo yards without a bite so I put out 3 boards and a bobber and put the boards on a bank. After 5 minutes we got 2 hits but the fish did not hook up. Thirty seconds later both the same rods got hit and the boards went flying across the water. We had a mini fire drill for about a minute working the fish but got both of them in the boat. We worked up the lake a few hundred more yards with more boards without success so we turned around to go hit the area where we caught the Stripers earlier. By now I had out my full spread of 8 boards, a bobber and 8 downlines. We pulled the area full of anticipation but did not even get a strike. What a bummer! I knew then today would be tough. We continued to work in the general area catching a Bass on a downline and a few other Stripers on freelines. Had two other friends out fishing today that did not catch a fish and got bait from one of them and set up in the wind pulling an area where my clients caught some nice 30" fish this week. Put another Striper in the boat on a board and then the bobber got hit. Zac picked it up and fought the fish for 3 minutes before the fish simply pulled off. He had only gained on the fish half the distance to the boat! We sure wanted him to boat that fish but it just didn't work out. That was the last hit of the day. Today we had 11 strikes, Zac is pictured with his first Striper.

Paul Henon and Crew

October 17th, 2008: Cloudy and Rain, Water Temp 70* and Clear.

Picked the guys up at 6:30 at High Point and went and caught bait. I was concerned about the cold front blowing in last night and today's temperatures being 25* colder than yesterday. Bait was tough but once I had 48 I went to find fish. Only took about 5 minutes for me to find a school over 30 foot of water so we set up downlines on them and got 5 hits before loosing the school. Searched some more and found fish a little shallower and worked them till we ran out of bait. Went and caught more bait , found some single fish and fished downlines on them. Today we had 2 hits on boards and 19 on downlines. We saw only one school of Stripers busting today but 2 other boats were working them so we left them alone. After this weather comes through and the water temps drop 5 degrees Striper fishing will be out of control.

Jeff Fincham with friends Doug, Dwayne, Wayne and Scott

October 16th, 2008: Sunny and warm, Water Temp 72* and Clear.

Picked the crew up at their dock at 6:30. I knew it would be an interesting day today because not only were they new clients but when I got to their dock not only were they there but also 4 Large, heavy coolers filled with beverages for the day. We loaded everything up and went to catch bait. Caught 32 and needed a few more so I ran uplake and saw a friend throwing but he had only 3 baits. I saw some baits on the depth finder and made 3 more casts putting 18 more baits in my tank and giving Ricky about 25 to get started. I went looking for fish but could not find any on the depth finder so after looking for 15 minutes I decided to set up a spread of boards and downlines and see what the fish wanted. Our first hit was on a board over 26 feet of water and Wayne jumped on the rod. After fighting the fish for 2 or 3 minutes he started moaning , groaning, panting [this is not a sex novel, but his friends commented it sounded kind of like a porn flick], and landed the fish after a 5 minute battle. We all had fun with Wayne , but seriously he was hurting reeling that fish in. Before we hooked up again Jeff said he showed Wayne my web site last night and Wayne commented on a saying I have on my home page referring to your arms burning, ....., that that could never happen on Lake Anna. Well, the rest of the day Wayne complained how hard that 31" Striper fought. The next 6 hits came on boards and then we had 2 hits on downlines, all over 20' or more. I went and caught more bait, made 1 cast for 75 Gizzards, and relocated to another area fishing solely downlines. We would get hits about every 15 minutes for the rest of the day. Once all the coolers were empty we decided to call it a day. We had a lot of fun today and could have had a nice stringer if Jeff didn't loose so many! All kidding aside, we all had fun today, had a great crew, had 26 strikes today and the guys took home some fish for the grill and the freezer. Three of the fish today were over 30" long.

John Crawford with friends Phil and Mike

October 10th, 2008: Sunny and warm, Water Temp 69* and clear.

Picked the guys up at their campers at Christopher Run and threw for bait around there, only catching 16 pieces. Went midlake and looked for bait with no success but fish were breaking everywhere. We could not get on the schools of breaking fish, they would only be up for a matter of seconds before sounding so we went to catch more bait. I looked a couple of other places then found some, made a cast and caught 34 more, then went fishing. Set up on a 15' flat running 15 baits on boards and downlines with no luck, pulled a 25 foot flat nearby with no luck, then moved up onto a 5 foot flat running boards, still no luck. Pulled off to deeper water and caught a Striper on a downline, then got hit a couple more times. I got all the freelines in and just ran downlines the rest of the day. Most of the times we saw fish there were only 8 or 10 fish in a pod and we would catch only 1 fish from a pod. Towards the later part of the day the fish schooled a little better, had 3 lines go off at once, then just before we came in we hit Spaghetti and most of the lines went down. One of the guys on board did not bring much luck with him today [I won't mention his name], every time he would pick up a rod with a Striper on it Mike would loose the fish. The guys wanted to put him in the penalty box but he caught a nice bass so they let him fish the rest of the day. Today we had 18 fish on, put 6 Stripers, a Largemouth and 5 Catfish in the boat.

Jeff, Mark, Mike, Shawn and Jim

October 7th, 2008: Sunny, chilly morning, Water Temp 71* and Clear.

Picked the guys up at 6:15 and went to catch bait. Another cold front blew through and made bait collection difficult, tried areas that I had been catching it on previous trips with little success. Ran to the other side of the lake and tripped over a school ,threw the net and caught over 30 and went fishing. Pulled from Hunters up hitting the points and flats without getting a bite. Relocated to another area and put out 8 downlines and 7 boards and pulled various depths till we caught a fish. We made 8 circles on the spot and got hit every time till we ran out of bait. Looked for 45 minutes for more bait, could not catch or even find any, called it a day. I suggested to the guys when they booked the trip that fishing was not very good and they may want to pick another date, so instead of going out Monday they choose Tuesday! Duh! These guys had been with me before and needed a day away from work and knew how fishing would be, went out and had a good time. They all were happy with the results. If anyone needs a Ford, check them out at Universal Ford, maybe they will book another trip with me soon if you buy a vehicle from them.

Paul Barboza , Dave Ault, Bob Burleson,Ron Rheude, Rene Fonseca

Oct. 2nd, 2008: Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temp 72* and Clear. Picked the guys up at the Marina and went and caught 40 baits. Put out a spread of 8 boards, a Bobber, and 6 downlines and pulled some 20 foot flats. With the front coming through last night and the air temp being 47* this morning I was a little concerned how it would effect fishing today. We worked for 1/2 mile before getting our first fish but after putting it in the boat we had all the boards on the bank side go off. Talk about running around the boat, people were going everywhere, the fish were going everywhere, and the good thing was we got all the fish in the boat. Went a little further and nailed a few more fish then the fish turned off. We worked the area and similar areas only picking up a few more and some big Catfish. Went to catch more bait and from the time I caught bait this morning till noon, all the bait had left the creeks where I had been catching them and pulled out to the main lake over the channels. I knew the front finally got to the bait and the Stripers!

Berk Ellis and Brian Mohr

Sept 30th, 2008: Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temp 72* and Clear.

Been away on vacation for a couple of weeks and wanted to go find some fish for my clients this week so I called a good client up and invited him and his friend Berk to go out with me today. He jumped on the offer and they met me at the marina a little after 6 and we went to catch bait. I checked a couple of places seeing a little bait but kept looking till I found what I wanted. Made 5 or 6 casts and caught 40 nice baits. The water temp has dropped 7 or 8* since I was out last so I decided to pull some very shallow flats, points and banks. I set up in an area and made a 1 mile pull, only to almost boat a turd-roller. We made a move to another area and I put out 10 boards and 6 downlines, covering 80 yards wide from top to bottom. Bert broke the ice with a nice Striper soon after we got set up so I decided to pull another mile to see what would happen. We got into some fish finally and put a half dozen fish in the cooler but ran out of bait so we went to catch more. No worries though, I was only 1/4 mile from where I located bait earlier, made 1 cast and put 40 in the tank, made another cast and we were set for the rest of the day for bait. We hit another area for awhile with no success so I decided to duplicate the same pattern that worked earlier and started catching Stripers again. This time the fish were Nailing the baits, some hits were so hard the fish would break the line on the hookup or bury the rod in the water. Poor Berk, he was having issues touching the line and fish getting off and also having problems getting the rod out of the rod holder when a fish would get on, but once I gently explained to him the proper way to avoid those problems he got a little better. Today we had 25 fish on, boated 15 fish, Brian taking a few home to eat.

Monty Walker with Angela and Jack Olinick

Sept 15th, 2008: Sunny and Warm, Water Temp 81* and Clear.
Picked clients up at High Point before daylight and went and caught bait. Caught over 40 very nice baits and set up in the mouth of a creek and pulled boards over the points and flats there, the only strike we got was Angela's Bass. After an hour of no fish I went looking for some fish to work with downlines, saw a bunch of schools of Stripers, mostly smaller fish. We worked 3 different schools with no luck. I then found some larger fish and pulled boards and downlines through and over them, still no hits. Monty caught a Bass on a point then we moved. We then went almost to the back of a creek and worked downlines and boards from the bank out to 25 feet deep, still nothing. We fished for 7 hours today, never getting so much as a strike from a Striper! I tucked my tail and went home to forget the day. Best thing about the day were my clients, they were understanding of the poor fishing and I invited them back to try again when the fish are more cooperative for half price.

Ken Wilson and Linda Ayers

Sept 19th, 2008: Cloudy and cool, Water temp 79* and Clear.

Got on the water at 4:30 and went to catch bait. That was my first mistake of the day. I went to where I had been catching bait but saw very little, lost 1 net and tore another. [A $200 morning]

Caught only 8 or 10 baits by the time I picked my clients up at their dock at 6:30 and went to catch more. I hit the areas that bait has been but it wasn't. Around 8 I went to a midlake cove and saw and threw for bait there but Stripers were all around the bait which made it even harder to catch. By now I had about 18, I moved about 100 yards out and tried to put downlines out but there were too many Stripers in the area. Clients were catching them casting and on the downlines as fast as we could get them out. I never had more than 3 out when we were on the school without them going down. Talk about confusion, my clients did not know what hit them! We boated 10 in 10 minutes then I had to go catch bait. To make a long story short, bait collection sucked today, I must have looked and thrown for 5 hours today, the guys caught plenty of Stripers to take home.

John and Frank Guillard

Sept. 9th, 2008: Cloudy and rain, Water temp 80* and Clear.

Got a late start this morning, didn't leave the marina till 6:30 and it was already getting light. Went to a flat to catch bait but it was too light for it to be balled up well so I headed for another favorite place to catch bait. I came around the corner and saw a couple of acres of Stripers busting so I set up on them, only with artificial. As fate would have it, there were huge fish under the breaking fish and we didn't have any bait to put on them . We all picked up lures and hooked up 9 times in about 10 minutes , the larger fish hitting Spooks. I left the school and flew to get bait, threw about 5 times and put 36 nice baits in the tank, and went back to where we left the fish but could not find them. We fished shallow and deep without catching any more for a couple hours. We found some nicer schools later on in the day, fishing them with boards and downlines but the front must have turned them off somewhat, we would see hundreds of big arches on the screen, put baits in their faces and nothing. Then for some reason right before it started to rain the fish turned on and we had 8 fish hit within 10 minutes, I turned back around and hit the area time and time again, still seeing the fish but they would not bite. Today we caught 15 Stripers and 4 Cats, the guys only keeping a few for dinner and releasing all the others to fight again.

Gene Crudo and Gary

Sept. 3rd, 2008: Sunny and Hot, Water Temp 85* and Clear.

Picked the guys up at 6 and went and caught bait. Set up working 5 to 25 foot flats with boards and downlines. Pulled for 2 hours with no luck so we threw those baits away and went and caught more. Saw a couple of fish break over 30 foot of water so I set up with downlines once I saw fish on the depth finder. Worked that area for an hour, seeing nice stripers but only boating a couple, although Gene did have a very nice one on for awhile , but it got into a braided line and snapped off. Set up on numerous other groups of Stripers, running boards and downlines, seeing plenty of fish but they were not hungry today.