Nathan, again

Friday, January 29th, 2010: Cloudy and COLD, Water Temperature 48* and Clear.
Got a call from Nate today at 11am, he had been out with me on Wednesday and was dying to get out this afternoon before the snow storm hit and so was I so I went to the lake to catch bait and he met me at the dock about 2. After throwing for bait for two hours I was frozen so I sat in his warm car for a half an hour to warm up then we hit the water. Bait had been tough so we looked some more and threw some more with no success. About 3:30 I had enough and set out some boards and did a power pull over a few flats. On our first pull we had 3 hook ups and we constantly kept busy either fighting fish, putting lines out or taking fish off the hooks. By 5 we the action slow a little and we called it quits, got our lines in and headed back to the warmth of our vehicles. The gull are diving on a school of bait that is being driven to the surface by a school of Stripers. When we pulled our spread through this area all our baits got hammered. Nate is holding a few of the fish we caught, it was too late to take the time to string up all the fish.

Bill Hamilton with guests Roy, Dave and Ski

Thursday, January 28th, 2010: Sunny, cloudy, Sunny and WINDY, Water Temperature 46* and Clear.
Caught bait early this morning and met the guys at the dock at 6:30, put the boat in the water and went fishing. I set up downlake trying to keep my boat over 2o feet of water with planner boards. I was hoping to get my whole spread out but we started taking hits after I got the 5th line in. I played catch up for the next 30 minutes, the action was steady but the wind was getting up quick. By 7:20 I could not keep the baits in the water so we reeled them in and made a move. My intentions now were to work an area where I knew fish were but also try to stay out of the ever increasing wind as much as I could. I only got 3 lines in the water this time and we hooked up, over 45 feet of water! We got the fish in the boat and I put a dozen boards and a bobber out and continued to work an area of 20 foot flats dropping off to 45 foot flats. I also put out a downline, but it never took a hit today. About 8:15 clouds rolled in and and the sky's darkened, and so did the fishing. The whole time the sun was under the clouds we never got hit. About 10 the clouds began to break up and we started putting fish in the boat again. All our fish today came on boards over very deep water. By noon my batteries were struggling and by 1 we had to come off the water, the wind gusts were out of control. Although it was very windy and a little cool this morning we all had a good day, everyone caught fish and we kept some for dinners. Bill has some connection with a Lake Anna publication, it is a great bi-yearly book advertising local businesses with some informative articles regarding the lake and local attractions. He can be reached at hamilton@lakeannaconnections.com .

Nathan "The Birthday Boy"

January 27th, 2010: Partly Sunny and Cold, Water Temperature 46* and Clear.
I got out early and caught bait, met Nathan and was on the water at 6:30. Last year Nathan went out with me on a windy day on his 28th birthday and by 9am the wind was getting pretty bad, I suggested lets try to catch 28 Stripers and get off the water. Well the wind got too bad for us and we only ended up with 26 last year so he wanted to redeem himself this year. We were scheduled for Friday but some weather is suppose to blow in so we changed the trip to today. Again his friends backed out on him going on the trip so he came by himself. Yesterday I told him the action would probably too much for him to handle by himself and I suggested I
invite a friend of mine who enjoys videoing trips and Nate agreed to have him come along. We got out our spread and started taking hits immediately. I attempted to keep baits in the water and Brian filmed the action while Nathan handled the poles. For a while it worked out pretty well but there were times when numerous rods would go off that it got pretty harry. We enjoyed the first 3 hours of the morning then decided to make a move. By now the wind was getting up so we pulled a few flats where the wind was blocked by the bank somewhat and got right back into the action. We worked the area for about an hour and a half and Nathan said he had had enough so we called it a day. By now the wind was up pretty good, everyone was tired and it was a good time to call it a day. We all lost count of how many Stripers we caught and released today, I had left Nate in charge of counting but he messed that up in the first 30 minutes of the morning. We agreed when we came off the water around noon that we had to have had at least 30 hook-ups this morning. The main thing was that Nathan had a great time, he hand picked the fish he wanted to take home and cook [rumor has it that he is a great cook], he has some wonderful footage of his battles today and that his check clears. [Just kidding, he paid cash]

Anthony, Stephanie and DP

Sunday, January 24th, 2010: Cloudy, Cold. Rain and Drizzle, Water Temperature 45* and Clear.
Anthony and his daughter got out very early this morning, caught bait and picked DP up at High Point before daylight. He headed to an area where he located and caught some nice fish
yesterday morning and set out a spread of Planner boards. He had set the boards up prior to hitting the "Juice" and when he pulled up on it all nine rods hooked up. Naturally you could see them scrambling around the boat a mile away fighting the Stripers, and by the time they got all the fish in the boat there were 7 boats on the flat. With that kind of pressure Anthony pulled off the area and relocated where there were less boats hoping to be able to fish without boat traffic. The move payed off and although they did not hook up all rods at once they had constant action and before noon came off the water with some fish for the table. I had called Anthony on his phone this morning and was talking with him for about 10 minutes. During that conversation Stephanie screamed at least 6 times with excitement of fish hooking up and enjoying the battle the Stripers were giving her. Eventually Anthony had to hang up when they hooked up 4 fish at a time, DP and Stephanie needed help with the madness. DP talked Anthony in getting a father-daughter picture today, and a sweet one it is. Stephanie has been fishing with her Dad all here life and it is good to see her back out again. She is not only a great angler but also knows how to hit a golf ball also. Today they released about two thirds of the fish they caught unharmed to
fight again.

Travis, Michael and Tommy

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010: Sunny, Water Temperature 44* and Clear.
Got out on the water just before daylight and set out a spread of a dozen boards, a bobber and a downline. We attempted to work a shallow flat first and gradually work deeper as the fish pulled off the bank but as it sometimes happens, there were no fish shallow. We worked the area for an hour or so and decided to move on. We went across the lake and pulled some 15 foot humps next to 45 foot flats. We worked that area for 20 minutes and got punked so we got the baits in and took off for another area. We worked downlines for 45 minutes over fish but they did not want our offerings so we moved again with intentions of pulling boards over 10 to 3o foot flats and humps. As we pulled up on the first 15 foot flat 4 out of 6 boards on the shallow side got busted. We landed the fish and wanted to turn around and hit it again but another boat saw what we did and beat us to it so we continued our pull. We made our way up to a point and saw fish on the Lowrance and started taking hits over 24 foot of water , wanted to turn on them but we were busted by a fisherman nearby , he pulled right over to where he saw us catch the fish and proceeded to hook up. I had one more flat to hit so we worked over to it, 2 boards on the inside went off. Travis and Tommy reeled these fish in and we looked up and a troller in a bass boat was headed right for us. I told the guys to watch this, he is so stupid he is trolling umbrella rigs right up on a 6 foot flat. Before they got to us less than 40 yards away all there lines hung up, ruining that flat for our fishing so we moved on. [Hate the weekend traffic] We went and hit an area nearby and popped a couple of fish but it was now 12:10 and Brian had to get off the water by 12:30. He said lets go hit an area that looked good earlier in the day for 10 minutes so we got the lines in and took off. We pulled up to the spot , puts some lines out and within 5 minutes Travis took a hit but it got off. Five seconds later my grandson Michael hooked up and we knew this is what we came for. The hog took him to the back of the boat, got tied into 2 other rods, I cut them off and the fish took him right back to the front of the boat. Michael fought the fish like a champ and gave it everything he had. About 8 to 10 minutes had elapsed by the time we could see the fish and Mikes arms were on fire! He had wanted to pass the fish off to me but my deal with him has always been if he gets a fish on he has to fight it to the end. He continued to battle the Striper, he hurt so bad tears started dripping down his face. Brian was videoing the whole fight and got some great footage. I finally got the fish in the net and Michael had boated a 34 1/2 inch 18 pound Striper, his largest to date. We popped a couple of pictures and released the fish but it was wore out from the long battle with Michael. We put it in my bait tank and Tommy worked on reviving it for about 5 minutes on the way back to the ramp and when we got to the ramp Brian got in the water and gave it 10 more minutes of resuscitation but after all of our efforts the fish would not stay upright so we ended up keeping the fish. Brian is holding Michael's fish for him, Mike had no strength left to do it himself. Needless to say Brian was a little late getting back home to his wife Melissa, but he had a good excuse. Today we caught 20 fish and released 8 to fight again...... Anthony was out today and caught a nice stringer of fish with a friend of his but after seeing Mike's fish he wasn't too excited about getting a picture for the journal, he elected to pass on the picture but is going out tomorrow to try and show Mike up.

Lee, Joe, Thomas and Wil

January 18th, 2010: Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 48* and Clear.
Caught bait early this morning , met my crew and was on the water 15 minutes before daylight anticipating a great day. Once it was light enough to see to put bait on the hooks I started a spread of 12 planner boards and a bobber. We pulled a shallow flat first expecting the fish to be up on it feeding with the warmer weather but the cold rain yesterday coupled with the barometer spike must have influenced the Stripers because instead of the fish being shallow and feeding it was hard to locate Stripers in any part of the water coulmn. We fished shallow and gradually worked to deeper flats and humps with limited success. After hitting numerous areas I made a major move and converted to working downlines hoping the deeper fish had not been affected as much as the shallow Stripers . With little success deep we continued to work other areas picking up a couple fish here and there. We took a lot of hits today but the fish were simply hitting the back of the bait, not wanting to eat it but just to kill it. We stuck with it fishing simular patterns where we would take strikes and by the end of the day we had caught 17 Stripers, mostly smaller fish and also a few punks. As luck would have it I emptied my bait tank and proceeded to pull one last ridge when Lee reached into his cooler and pulled out a banana to eat. All his friends exploded on him chastising him for bringing them on a boat, all of them knowing that especially in blue water the captains forbid bananas on board. Lee immediately tried to justify his actions and said that we had a good day and opened the livewell showing the guys how many we had caught with the bananas on board. Joe reached in the cooler , picked up the remaining banana and threw it as far as he could into the lake. We pulled up on the ridge with 13 baits in the water, no bait in the tank, and everything we had got hit. We boated a few and lost a few, even tried throwing artificial baits but the fish would not hit them. I do not believe in superstition but this is the second time on my boat we were having only fair success but after realizing and eliminating bananas on board the fishing changed drastically. Needless to say Lee won't be taking bananas fishing any more.

Steve, Adam, Troy and Chris

January 16th, 2010: Partly cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 46* and Clear.
Anthony and I got out extremely early to catch bait this morning knowing the lake was going to be a zoo. We at least wanted to be sure that we had plenty of bait in case we needed to make numerous moves due to all the boat traffic. I picked my crew up at their dock at 6 and we were setting out baits in the dark preparing to take advantage of the early morning bite and tranquil waters while it lasted. At the crack of dawn we had our first hit and for the next hour it never slowed. Again I wanted to have my full spread out before the action started but the fish would not let me catch up. Many times I only had 4 baits in the water due to all the action. After about 40 minutes Anthony called on the radio and said " Looks like we have been busted, look over there", I did and 8 boats were closing in on us putting up a blockade a battle ship could not go through. I told my guys watch this, I will pull over to the other bank where no other boats were and those boats will follow me leaving the original area we were working available for Anthony to work. I no sooner changed my direction and and the other boats followed suit. Didn't matter much though, they had already done their damage by spooking the school and Anthony could only muster a couple more fish from the area so he picked up and moved and I continued to go around the corner where we would be out of site of other fisherman. We banged some more fish till we got busted again so we decided to get our baits in and move to a part of the lake where we would have it to ourselves. The move paid off, we caught larger fish there and enjoyed the serenity of the beautiful calm morning. By then we were only taking about 6 or 7 hits an hour but catching quality fish. Around noon I called Anthony on the radio and he said his action had died and was thinking about going in for a few hours and then come back out for the evening feed. Our hits were down also and Chris was getting antsy. He kept looking at his watch and wondering when we were going to go in. By now we had caught 27 Stripers and fishing had slowed down. Chris also was going through a slight dilemma, he is recently engaged, he gave his wife a ring for her finger and she gave him one for his nose, and she was tugging on it pretty hard to get back home to be with some guests that were coming to his house this evening. After some regrets they all decided to pack it in and call it a day. I dropped them off at their dock, Troy and Chris took off to the party leaving Adam to clean all the fish. We all had a lot of fun today even though the boat traffic was heavy, and I believe Chris will make in home in time to save his marriage.

Gary, Pat and Doug

January 16th, 2010: Anthony took out Gary, Doug and Pat this morning and obviously had a great time. See above entry for details.

Greg and Ed Whitlock

January 14th, 2010: Sunny and the warmest day of the year so far, Water Temperature 43* and Clear.
Anthony got out early this morning and hung lights for bait, caught his bait and when I pulled up in the boat he threw a few times and I was on my way with a tank of bait. He and I had crews loaded on our boats before daylight and were setting planner boards out at the crack of Dawn. I wanted to get out a dozen boards and a bobber before the action started but got interrupted by a couple Stripers. We were fortunate enough to have everything ready by the time I hit the area where I thought the Stripers would be feeding. Anthony was rushing to do the same thing and he followed me in about 500 yards behind me. Next thing we knew planner boards were getting smashed, people were skating around the boat [the deck had some ice on it], I was netting fish and trying to keep up baiting hooks while Ed and Greg reeled the fish in and took the fish off the lines. For the first hour of the morning poor Greg did nothing but reel fish after fish in, his dad having to take occasional breaks. We looked up at Anthonys boat a few times, it looked like a bunch of worker bees working a hive, they were scurrying around the boat like us not having a moment to catch up with getting lines out. We both made 2 passes over the area and then as quickly as it started the action slowed. Right when the Stripers quit biting we noticed a acre of bait rise to the surface and start pipping, both Anthony and I knew it was over for a while, and it was. We went from 25 hits an hour down to 5 or 6. Didn't matter much, we had already kept the fish we wanted to take home and had been releasing Stripers for over an hour. Anthony and I checked out a few other areas , caught and released some more Stripers and got off the water early before too many jump fisherman got out. I had already been harassed by a guy in a pontoon boat, he had a half a mile to go around me and trolled right up on me while we were fighting a fish with his big motor. I had to yell at him to avoid my planner boards, and he knew my boat, how I fished, the amount of lines that I run and deliberately wanted to either cut me off or spook the fish I was on. I had been working the area for an hour with no other boats nearby. This is not the first time he has done this, but hopefully the last. A little courteously goes a long way, but people like him go through life never "getting it"!......I lost count how many Stripers we caught this morning but we know we released the four largest ones and about a dozen other Stripers to fight again. Still can't get over how pretty it was on the water today.

Warren Montague and Chris Hicks

January 14th, 2010: Here are 10 of the 14 Stripers caught this morning with guide Striperholic [Anthony]. See above entry for details.

Anthony, Brian, Walt and Vince

January 7th, 2010: Sunny and Pleasant, Air temp 36*, Water Temp 41* and Clear.
We hit the water at 7 this morning, air temp was a brisk 18*. Our intentions were to pull shallow flats early with planner boards and as the day progressed pull back to 25 to 30 foot flats and run downlines rigged with Herring. I had also rigged some rods with artificial baits so we could cast to keep warm and so maybe have some fun seeing Stripers explode on the surface but after the first 15 minutes after we got our boards wet we forgot about lures for awhile. We had the lake to ourselves for 2 hours and in that amount of time we never quit baiting and reeling in fish. By 10 o'clock we had limited out and started playing with lures. We worked swim baits, top water, jerk baits and spoons for an hour. After catching only punks on lures we decided to call it a day, and what a morning it was. Vince is pictured with one of the 2 Bass he caught today and also with a nice Striper. The Striper laying on the deck is a 17 pound fish caught and released by Anthony. Each square in the mat is 12 inches.We took pictures of plenty of fish but only had room for a few on my journal. Thanks to Brian and Anthony for throwing for bait this morning, my morning was "Sweet", all I had to do was control the boat, bait the lines and net the fish. I lost count of how many fish we caught this morning, but we probably released as many as we kept to fight again. It doesn't get much better that a January or February day with little wind, no boat traffic, good friends and a tank full of Herring.

Doug Harpster and Steve Hicks

Here a couple of pictures Anthony took of 2 trips last week . Looks like the nicer fish are beginning to bite and I will be back out on the water this week. It has been nice to take some time off from the fishing but I am anxious to get back out. The extremely cold weather will be good for fishing this year, it will kill off a lot of the bait giving anglers a better chance to catch Stripers. The bait kill coupled with the large Striper stockings of a few years ago will certainly prove to make Striper Fishing on Lake Anna better than ever.

A few nice Deer

Cold December rains, muddy water and jump fisherman kept me off the water most of the month so I concentrated most of my time in the woods. Here are a few nice deer that were taken within a few miles of my house.
My 4 year old grandson and I with one of the bucks we took this year, 21 1/2 inch inside spread, hopefully next year he will be squeezing the trigger.
Eighteen point Buck harvested by Jason Life after jumping the deer out of its bed.
B+R Buck...This monster had been seen by dozens of hunters for months in the vicinity of B+R market and thousands of hours had been put in by hunters trying to take this wonderful trophy. Chip Fletcher grunted this trophy to his stand.
The next two pictures are of Wendell Seay, he harvested these two beautiful deer in the same piece of woods.
Greg Whitlock called me one morning panting "I just shot the big one!" He had seen this deer two days in a row, had an opportunity to take it the day before but did not take the shot. His persistence payed off the next morning harvesting this Buck. This deer was huge, the heaviest deer that I saw this season!
Finally Tim Clarks Buck. I had seen this deer along with another very nice Buck 2 days prior to Tim taking this big Buck. He shot the deer across a large creek with slim hopes of finding the deer but a good friends tracking ability payed off with this beautiful trophy. Could not have happened to a nicer guy.
Congratulations to everyone this hunting season, here is a little proof that if you let the small ones Go, they will Grow.
These pictures are zoomable.

Troy Phillips and friends

Saturday, Dec. 5th, 2009: Rain, Snow, wind and Cold.
Anthony and I both had trips today, my clients backed out due to the extreme weather , Anthony's clients were going no mater what. Anthony got out early to catch bait and picked his clients up at daybreak. It had been raining for 3 hours by now and they had a 10 minute ride in the rain to worsen the situation. After arriving at his destination and setting out a spread of boards Anthony noticed that most of the points he wanted to fish were occupied with spreads of duck and goose decoys. He did not want to disturb the hunters so he worked other areas nearby with limited success then decided to make a move. By mid morning the wind was up and it was snowing sideways. Anthony made one offer to the guys to see if they wanted to abort or continue fishing, they wanted to stay, they took another slug out of a bottle of Crown and hunkered down for the duration. These were some tough guys! By 2 I noticed the roads were getting pretty white and slippery so I called Anthony up and told him he should consider getting his boat home before the roads got to bad. They all had to be soaked to the bone and frozen, and by now they were a little easier to convince it was time to go in and warm up. They had a good day catching fish and seeing who could stand the elements the best.

George Graysinger , Hillary, Seth and Eli

November 25th, 2009: Cloudy, Cool and Nasty, Water Temperature 54* and Clear.
Caught bait early and picked up the guys at 6:30, put out a spread of boards and pulled mid lake flats and points. This morning it was foggy and damp, the sun did not come out till we came in this afternoon. The bite was slow today but we fished hard to catch these few Stripers. Usually the youngest [Eli] catches the largest fish but today his mother had the honers.

Brian and Todd

November 23rd, 2009: Cloudy, Cold and Rain, Water temperature 55* and clear.
Brian did not have to work today due to the rain so he called me to go out and fish this afternoon. We caught bait and put out our spread at 3pm hoping to catch a few big fish. We took a couple hits before hooking up but once we did on a particular stretch the fish ate our offerings. By 4 o'clock the feed was over and we did not boat another fish. With in an hour we had taken a dozen hits and boated some nice fish. Guess if we started earlier it would have been like work keeping up with the fish. Todd is pictured holding the first fish of the afternoon and the guys held up a few of the fish we caught in the parking lot after dark for a quick foggy picture.

Dixon Ellis

This 34 inch Striper was caught 30 minutes ago on the Lake by a friend of mine. The picture was sent by phone. You may notice Dixon's eyes are closed, he may be thanking God for letting him reel in this beautiful fish, allowing him to warm up on this cold morning and asking forgiveness for missing Church today. Congratulations!

Gary Leonard

Nice stringer of Stripers caught with Anthony in a couple hours this morning.

Roger and Bob

November 19th, 2009: Cloudy,Windy, Rain and Hail, Water temperature 55* and clear.
Got out early and hung a lantern for bait. Caught all I needed in a few throws , went back to pick up my light and the top on my boat hit the bottom of the bridge, creating a slight tear over the rail support. Seems the lake rose over the hour I was there this morning. Picked the guys up at 6:30 and went fishing. Before I could get my spread out the board closest to the bank went off and Roger grabbed it, fought it well and we boated the fish. I continued to put the baits out till I had 10 boards, a bobber and a downline in the water. We hit a flat and 4 baits got real nervous but the fish would not hook up. After a couple hours of action Roger hooked up with a nice fish while the wind was blowing and a luck would have it my trolling motor decided to break. I worked on it for a few minutes, restored power but the steering was shot so I called my wife and asked her to bring me my spare TM. I steered by hand for the next 30 minutes until she arrived. We continued to work flats, humps and points with similar results, about a third of the hits we would get would actually hook up. Anthony was also out in his boat today and was having the same results until he called me on the radio and said "You better get prepared, I am getting pounded over here, with Hail!" Two minutes later it hit us and the storm was quite impressive. Wind and marble size hail rocked us for 15 minutes, thank God I had put the top on the boat this morning. Anthony called back and said that all the bait and fish had gone straight to the bottom of the lake. We could only imagine what that storm would have looked like from a fish's perspective, looking up and seeing and hearing the hail hit the water. Within 2 minutes the lake was white. We continued fishing until 12:30 , I was out of bait, we had gone through 35 baits so we decided to go catch more. Within 30 minutes I caught 28 more and set up in a different area. The leaves were so bad today from the lake rising and the water pulling the leaves off the bank every minute of the day I was constantly shaking leaves off my planner boards. We fished till we had all had enough and decided to call it a day, and what a day it was. Not only was the day very eventful, we were all in good company, had a lot of fun and the fishing was Great. The few mini fronts that blew through today stalled the fishing temporarily but it wasn't long before it would pick right back up. Roger is shown holding a nice Striper he wrestled in the boat. We caught and released some very nice Stripers today, the guys keeping a limit to take home.

Sara Seay

Here is Sara with her first deer[s]. Her daddy Steve has been practicing shooting with her all year in anticipation of taking her hunting in muzzle loading season. Today was their first chance to get out and Steve called about an hour before dark to see if they could come over and give it a try. They got up in one of my stands while I was driving in the driveway from my trip today. While I was posting my journal about our fishing trip today I heard a KPoww,, immediately got a call from Steve that she had laid one down. He said he was going to reload in case another deer came out in the field. About 10 minutes later I called him and he did not answer, and I knew why. KPoww, then he called all excited, she just shot her second deer. They came up to the house and Sara was as calm as she could be, we got my Doberman and went to check on the deer. Sara had dropped the first deer in its tracks, shot through the heart, my dog tracked the other deer about 30 yards and it to was shot through the heart. Two perfect shots!
Great job Sara, we are very proud of you and your expertise with a firearm. Not bad for an 8 year old.
I just am a little concerned though, I don't know if Louisa County can handle another " Seay" hunting!

Chris and Christopher Brennan with Jim Chen

November 2nd, 2009: Cloudy then Blue Bird Skies, Water Temperature 62* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 5:30 and went to catch bait. Threw for 4 hours with no results, the sun came out , the bait bunched up and 3 casts later we were fishing. The first ledge I pulled over 4 out of 5 rods started shaking, only one hooked up but it got off before getting to the boat. We pulled the mouths of creeks, across points, hit humps, basically fished from Stubbs Bridge all the way to the 522 Bridge and other areas and caught 5 Stripers. I hate to make excuses but I think we missed the early morning bite and once the front came through the fish turned off. We were glad to get the 5 fish. Christopher is pictured with his first Striper.

The Goochland Gang

The Goochland Gang strikes again! These are some die hard Striper fisherman who fish the lake every chance they get. They are on the water in the wee hours of the morning collecting bait and spend long hours looking for and catching Stripers. They teamed up fishing out of Ricky's, Timmy's and Roger's boats and herded these Stripers up to catch this beautiful stringer of fish. Timmy is holding the largest Striper of the day, Ricky is holding his grandson Dean. They all have big smiles on their faces but little Dean gets the last laugh, he caught the big one today. If the guys had a bet on the largest fish of the day Dean would have some cash for his piggy bank. Congratulations guys!

Elden and Bill

October 30th, 2009: Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 62* and clear.
Met the guys at the dock at 6:15 and ran uplake to catch bait. The guys were standing at the store this morning when I drove up, later I found out that they had set their alarm an hour early, so they were anxious to go. Looked for bait for an hour till I found it bunched up near a channel and caught what we needed and went fishing. By 7:30 this morning 15 Striper fishing boats had already passed us so I decided to go to the other side of the lake hoping to avoid boat traffic. The move paid off, in the first 15 minutes we boated 3 Stripers. We worked a large bay that the Stripers were holding in for a couple hours but we must have hit the end of the feed, our baits were constantly getting boiled by the Stripers but the fish were not aggressive enough to eat the bait. I decided to get the baits in and make a move to another area where I knew the fish were holding. We hooked up before I got most of the baits out and for the next few hours every time we hit the area we would get action. We actually got some action we were not bargaining for, a Osprey hit one of our baits and got hooked up. I reeled the bird in and unhooked it unharmed hoping it would leave us alone to fish the area. Elden wanted to be back at the dock by 2, and as luck would have it on our final pass we had 3 baits on the left side of the boat get hit. We all enjoyed the day and the guys took home 6 of the Stripers for some good eating.

Jimmy and Gary Bridges

October 27th, 2009: Cloudy and Cool, Water Temperature 63* and Clear.
Picked the guys up early at High Point and went to catch bait. 3 hours later we finally had enough to get started so we went fishing. Set up with boards on shallow flats and pulled them for the rest of the day. We had missed the morning feed if there was one but worked hard to catch these 4 Stripers. I stayed out later than normal hoping the fish would feed in the evening but they never did. Jimmy is pictured with the largest Striper he has ever caught. Although fishing was slow Gary and his son had a good day fishing and enjoying the fall foliage.

Sam, his Dad and Pop

October 23rd, 2009: Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature 63*and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 6 and went and caught bait. Set out a spread of boards and downlines and worked a shallow flat this morning hoping to catch fish up feeding. We pulled about 400 yards before we had our first hit. Within a few minutes baits were getting clobbered, the guys were running around the boat, most of the lines were getting tangled and the only one to boat a fish was Sam. I straightened and retied the lines, turned and made another pass with similar results. By now we had lost 5 or 6 fish and only had a Sam's fish in the box. I reviewed with the guys again how to work the fish once we hooked up and hit the point again. Pop hooked up with a freight train, it took him around the boat while Steve worked his fish in and around 3 other rods. I netted Steve's fish but in the excitement Pop somehow lost a nice one. Turned around and hit the same point again and Sam hooked up and boated his fish. We worked the area until we ran out of bait, went and caught some more and set up on some similar structure. By now the sun was out and the fishing slowed down. We worked our way back to the point where we had previously caught the fish and took a couple more hits before calling it quits for the day. Today we had a minimum of 30 strikes, most of which hooked up and the guys took home a few for a fish fry at the lake tonight.

Pre Rut Buck

This is a Buck that I have observing for about 2 weeks now. I have 100 acres of land in Louisa and maintain 14 food plots through out the property, using trail cams to take pictures of the animals that use the plots. These particular pictures are fron 2 cameras, one under a set of Persimmon trees and the other a long trail in the woods planted in Whitetail Imperial Clover, under a stand of mature White Oaks. The deer over the last few weeks have decimated the clover to the point that it is only about 2 inches tall now and have kept it mowed to that height for the last 2 months. There are 2 Oak trees dropping acorns into the plot and the deer are eating them as quick as they fall. There are very few Oak trees producing on my property this fall, I think these 2 are due to all the lime and fertilizer that I have spread in the area. I have over a thousand pictures of other deer from the 3 trail cams on the property and about 50 more of this particular deer but I thought these were the most interesting, chronicling the movements of this Buck.
I was worried this Buck was going to leave the property soon with the rut not far away and I knew if we were to harvest the deer it would have to be soon. The weather was changing drastically, there was a major cold front moving in today, the weather was cold and getting colder, and it was going to rain for the next 3 days. I called up 3 other hunter friends and invited them over for an afternoon hunt, hoping someone would get a chance to bag the Buck. I got into a stand on a trail that led to one of my plots and at 5:45 a doe and her 2 fawns came by and started feeding in the plot. Soon after I heard some grunting and a 6 point passed by following the does. A little after 6 the does got nervous and started looking up the trail, at which point I saw a larger Buck coming in. The does and smaller Buck took off as the larger Buck approached. I waited for the Buck to give me a good shot, I watched him for 5 minutes before he turned quartering away from me at 40 yards and I let an arrow fly. I heard it score , he ran up the hill 50 yards and I heard a very loud crash.
We recovered the deer about an hour later, the shot was true and it was obvious the deer did not suffer. Pre rut deer are relatively easy to pattern, especially with trail cams, and with a little luck on our side our plan came together. Enjoy the photo's of this deer.

Bill Setrin with friends Al and Jerry

October 14th, 2009: Cloudy and Cold, Water Temperature dropped to 67* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at their dock at 6 and went and caught bait. Checked a few areas before locating catch able bait, threw a couple dozen times and went fishing. Set up where I knew some nice Stripers were cruising with a spread of 10 planner boards, a bobber and a couple of downlines. We pulled some very shallow flats early looking for feeding fish but none would cooperate. I kept noticing some action on the surface about 1500 yards away so I turned the boat and headed for it. When we got in the general vicinity our baits got nervous , boards started backing up and we started taking hits. On our first pass most of the baits on the boards either got boiled or got hit. We boated a few and turned around to hit the area again but the fish had moved on. I had to guess which way they went, we must have zigged when they zagged because I could not located them for another hour. Once I did I was prepared for them , I had gone and caught 45 more fresh baits, retied all my lines and reviewed with the guys what to do and how to handle numerous hook-ups. We found the school and talk about confusion, rods were bending all around the boat, people running around the boat, Bill shouting out to Al and Jerry which rods were hooked up, everyone working together to handle the action. Once I looked up and Al was holding 2 rods with fish on them at the same time wondering what to do. Bill is on Oxygen and when he would hook up Jerry would grab the tank and follow Bill around the boat while he fought his fish. A couple of times after Jerry landed his fish he wanted a hit off of that Oxygen tank, but he would get side tracked with another strike. We would loose the school for a couple minutes and find them again repeating the same scenario over and over again. We had 27 fish hook up today, lost a couple that screamed the drag, lost a few others that we simply could not get to in time due to not enough hands in the boat. All the fish today were very nice Stripers, we did not have to deal with catching punks today and by the end of the day the guys could not believe what had happened to them. Al said he had never caught so many big Stripers before and Jerry is still wondering about the bait I was using!
A cold front is moving in tonight, I am going to go home and try to bag a Buck this evening.

Mel Chaiet with friends John, Vince and Fran

October 1st, 2009: Partly Sunny and Cool, Water Temperature 74* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 6 at the marina and went to find bait. Bait was tough again this morning and by 8:30 we finally had 25 pieces so we went fishing. Set up a spread of 10 Water Bugz planner boards, a bobber and 4 downlines and worked a flat where I new some nice fish were using. We made pass after pass on the flat getting strikes every time. On the first pass we had 4 different fish boil the baits but would not take them. We worked the area till noon, then we were forced to leave. There is this pesky Osprey that loves to harass us by diving on our baits, picking up one, flying under all the other lines then when he ascends he ties up all the lines and lifts the rods out of the holders, almost throwing them in the lake. This is the third time in 2 weeks that this has happened. Well today he messed up all the rods and we had to loose our baits and retie and untangle the lines leaving us with no bait to fish with. After straightening the lines out we went to look for more bait. I found some deep but could not catch it due to the water being so clear so I went to where I caught it this morning and found some shallow in 4 feet of water and made a cast catching about 30. Yea! I asked the guys if they wanted to go back and work the area we fished this morning or try a new area, they opted for new. I set out the spread and pulled a couple mile stretch taking a few hits and boating a couple more fish. Today we had 17 fish on but could only boat 9, for whatever reason? I would expect October fishing to really turn on next week and resume the great fishing that we have enjoyed all year.