Jason Barham

Partly Sunny and Hot, Water temperature 86* and clear.
What a difference a day makes. Fished yesterday and couldn't keep Stripers off the hook, today all we caught were 11 Stripers, 6 Catfish, a couple Bass and a White Perch. Although fishing was slow, we did have a lot of fun. We actually hooked up with two Stripers on topwater lures at the same time, halfway to the boat they broke off. That was the kind of day it was. Tomorrow is another day, I will try it again. Jason is pictured with the big fish of the morning.

Josiah, David, Mike and Jacob

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 86* and Clear.
Caught bait, picked up my crew at 5:30 and went looking for fish. Set up on a couple of fish just to show everyone how to put the baits out. Made a move and set up on a pod of fish but they moved before we got the baits all out. Jacob caught his first Striper there [shown in picture] but I had to move to find a school. As I was looking a friend called on the phone and asked if I had seen anything, I told him I was looking. He said some fish had been breaking nearby him, he though it was a decent school so I made the 2 minute run to his location. I looked in the area where he was but did not see enough to stop on but I did see numerous arches about 10 feet deep when I was running about 30 MPH. I decided to set up nearby and kept on my trolling motor to see if we could intercept a school. We never did find a school but we had constant action till about 8:45 when a boater pulled up about 25 yards from us while we were netting fish and just stayed there with his motor running. Naturally he spooked the fish, we fished for another hour without another keeper fish. Today was a great day, I was excited to put the kids on fish but I believe Dad and Grand Dad were more excited than the kids. Josiah hooked two Bass at once on a lure [pictured above] and is shown holding one of the bass. They are having a fish fry tonight, I don't think anyone will go hungry.

Craig, John, Chris, Bob, Chris and Robert

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 87* and Clear.
A nice cold front blew through yesterday and finally we had a day where the temps did not get into the 90"s. I picked the guys up at their dock this morning, the air temp was 67*, 10 degrees cooler than every morning of the last few weeks. We went directly to where I had found fish yesterday, saw some fish on the depth finder and set up on them. We popped only one so we got back on the big motor and looked, and looked, and looked. Apparently the cold front had dispersed the schools, they were nowhere to be found. John was also out this morning and had been fishing the whole time I was looking and said he was catching a fish about once every 15 minutes, he didn't see fish but was still taking hits. We set up on singles and small pods numerous times but could only squeeze out a dozen Stripers this morning. This group of guys were good friends and fishing buddies, we had a ball and a lot of fun fishing but it would have been a better morning if we could have caught more fish. Although 12 Stripers in a morning is a good catch for most I feel like I got my butt kicked!

Michael Duke with John, Bert and David

Sunny and HOT, Water Temperature 88* and Clear. John and I both had clients this morning so we got out early and caught bait. We both put 175 baits in our tanks and picked up our clients at 5:30 at High Point. John set up on a spot where he saw some fish breaking and I kept on the big motor looking for schools. We set up on some pods of fish but I was impatient with singles and wanted to locate schools so I spent about an hour looking. When I ran over what is pictured on the graph I knew I was on a good school. As you can imagine as soon as baits hit the water we started taking hits. Naturally my crew was anxious because there were so many fish in the area. It was hard for them to remember a few key rules in fishing with circle hooks but it didn't take them long to start filling the cooler. In the heat of the action I looked up at Michael, he had a smile on his face as if the stock market had just risen a thousand points. We worked this school for about an hour before we lost it and in the process we went through 120 baits. I looked for 10 minutes and could not locate them so I moved to a different part of the lake and ran over another school. We set out some baits but we only had about 20 left in the tank. I called John , he said he had about 50 baits left and needed 3 more fish to limit out. I told him to come and work the school I was on hoping he could catch their limit and then I could get the rest of his baits. John drove past us, located the school, set out 8 baits and everyone of them hooked up. While his clients were trying to work the fish I was on high heading his direction. He gave us his baits, we put them out and caught our limit within 2oo yards of where I had originally found the school. Today we had over 150 strikes, caught about 30 Stripers and a half dozen Cats and was home in time for lunch.

Brian, Dan, Nikki and Tim

Sunny and Hot, Water temperature 90* and Clear.
Caught 160 baits this morning and picked my clients up at 5:15 at their dock. Brian had called a couple time last week very anxious to learn how to Striper fish, I don't know if he even slept the last few nights. Since he wanted to learn I stayed within sight of his dad's house teaching them how to read the depth finder and all aspects of catching Stripers. I told them when I picked them up that the full moon hurt us yesterday, hopefully we could catch some this morning before the schools would break up. I located a school about 400 yards from their dock so we set up on them. The Stripers were stacked under our boat but as I expected they obviously had fed hard last night, we were not taking hits. I continued to work the school and finally we started hooking up. Nikki popped the first couple of fish, Brian lost a couple then Dan popped a couple. After catching 4 or 5 the school dissipated so we got the lines in and looked for others. John was fishing nearby so we double teamed the schools and were able to keep up with them pretty well. We stayed in the fish but we never got out of control, we would only have one fish on at a time. We had gone through 120 baits when John called us over to him. He had found a school busting on the surface and when we got to him he was hooked up. We ended up working the same vicinity for about an hour till we ran completely out of baits. This morning we had caught plenty of nice Stripers, the crew kept 17 to take home and we got off the water by 9 just before the lake got too busy and too hot. Nikki and her father Dan are pictured holding fish that they had just caught and Tim is holding 2 Stripers that he caught back to back. Brian got hooked on Striper fishing, probably see his picture some more on my journal.

Michael, Sarah and Pearson

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 90* and Clear.
My grandson Michael wanted to go fishing this morning so we got up early, caught bait and met Sarah, her Dad and Pearson at 5 o'clock at High Point. We went to an area where I knew a school had been working for about 3 weeks now and set out some lines waiting for them to arrive. We worked the area for about 10 minutes without seeing anything, I couldn't stand it so we got the baits in and I started looking in the area for the school. The sun was about to come up when I ran over what appeared to be about a thousand fish. We set up on them but they were moving so fast we had to get the baits back in and relocate them. We finally got back on them and the kids were able to have fun with them. Michael is pictured with his big fish of the day, Sarah with the first fish of the day and Pearson with a very nice fish. Pearson had never caught fish this big before. A little after 8 we traded the fishing rods for a tube and pulled the kids around the lake for a couple hours more. Hard to say what they enjoyed more, when we were fishing their eyes were bugged out watching for the rods to bow over and screaming when they were reeling in fish, but when they were in the tube not only did they have constant smiles on their faces so did all of us in the boat. I know the morning burnt Michael out, he came home, ate lunch, and slept for 3 hours.

Brad, Shawn, Helen, Mike and George

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 87* and Clear.
This morning I got out early and caught 175 baits and picked my clients up at their dock at 5:30. As I shook their hands greeting them I noticed Mike's hand was slimy with suntan lotion. I advised them to wear the lotion but I had them was their hands with a no sent soap in order not to spook the fish. I have had clients on board with lotion on their hands only catch 1/5 of the fish that other fisherman on board who had clean hands caught. I also instructed them on how to deploy the lines and told them that this time of year if they look at my journal and they see pictures of clients holding up large stringers of fish, those clients listened and understood how to put the baits in the Stripers face in order to get a positive reaction from the fish to strike. I also said the pictures with small stringers usually clients had trouble deploying the baits and missed the short windows of opportunity to catch schooled fish this time of year. I think I got their attention, by 7:20 we had 22 keeper Stripers in the cooler. We set up on some scattered pods of fish this morning and I kept the boat moving slowly to keep hitting the different groups of Stripers. We were doing very well till we got busted by an inconsiderate troller in a Sea Pro. He had seen us boating some nice Stripers and decided to try to run his lures next to my boat. I asked him not to come so close to me, so he veered off a little. Needless to say, he succeeded in spooking the school of fish we were working so we had to move. Ten thousand acres of lake to fish, fish all over the lake, we are 35 yards off the bank, the lake is a half mile wide, no other boats in sight, they have to come over and ruin our fishing, go figure! Anyway we went and found a couple of more schools, did the same drill, caught dozens of more fish, got busted again and would move again. At one point we had about 20 baits left so I decided to go uplake where there were no boats and burn up the rest of the baits. We caught a couple of Stripers then I saw a school on the depth finder. I told them to get ready and Brad hooked up and landed one, backed up to the front of the boat so Shawn could take his fish off and hollered "Ut Oh". We all looked up at him as he was about to fall out of the boat but he sat down on the trolling motor and saved his fall. After everyone stopped laughing we caught a couple more fish that were hooked up and called it a day. Today everyone had a great day and a lot of fun, I lost count of how many fish we caught altogether but we kept 24 Stripers and released the others to fight again. We were able to get off the water by 9 before the day turned too hot to enjoy.

DP, Lisa, Taylor, Anthony[huh], and Gina

Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 87* and Clear.
Got out early to catch bait and picked the guys up at 5:30 at High Point. With the front moving in this morning I was uncertain how the fish would react but I looked for large schools of Stripers. I saw numerous pods but no huge schools. John called and said he saw about 20 fish on the screen so I move over by him and looked on the big motor but he was seeing the same as we were, 8 0r 10 here and there. He was catching fish so I continued to look. Anthony was starting to get anxious so I set up on a couple pods of fish and the kids got a taste of Striper fishing. We had action for about 20 minutes then started catching Cats so I moved on. We continued to look for schools but where we were looking they never developed well. It was getting cloudier by the minute so we decided to get some baits in the water and we steadily caught fish. We made 3 or 4 moves and around 8:30 we started catching them pretty well. One of the girls told DP that they need to us the bathroom, DP's reply was we are really on the fish now, try to hold it! Well, less than 2 minutes later we were going for the bucket. Everything was going well till DP emptied the bucket, the other kids aboard had not known what had previously happened and as some floaters went by they asked what were those things. I told them they were fish eggs and continued fishing. We worked the general area for about 20 more minutes but did not get a strike. We picked up and made a couple more moves, it started to rain so we called it a day and came in. On the way to the dock DP said "You know once I emptied that bucket we never got another strike!" I think he learned a good lesson today, when a little girl has to go she has to go.
Everyone had a good time, the kids caught a bunch of fish and we kept 12 to take home for a fish fry. Pictured are Taylor in the white shirt, Gina in the pink shirt and Anthony John with the hood on.

Duane and Jean-Paul

Met the guys at the marina a little after 5am and hit the water. I showed them how to deploy the baits and set up on a mock school of Stripers so that they could understand completely how to put the baits in. Once they caught on we got the baits up and I got on my big motor to look for schools. I found what I wanted after about 5 minutes of looking, told the guys how deep to put the baits, put out 10 baits and the rods started bending in half. I had warned Duane 2 days ago that he needed more than two fisherman on the boat, it is hard enough for 4 fisherman to handle the action much less 2 guys working 10 rods. Well they got there workout this morning, by 6:50 they had caught over a dozen Stripers. Once other boats got around me I decided to move on and find another school, which we did a couple of times. The guys kept 12 Stripers to take home and released the other fish. The schools dissipated early this morning, by 8 fish were scattered. We came in about 8:30 before it got too hot and before the weekend warriors hit the water.

Lou Hart and Zackary

Cloudy and Cool, Water temperature 88* and Clear.
Got out early to catch bait, took quite a while, we had thunderstorms last night and sometimes that breaks up the schools of bait making it hard to catch. Lou got lost this morning so we got a late start. I briefed them on how to deploy the baits and went down to where I knew a nice school had been hanging out. I saw the fish on my Lowrance and told them how many pulls to put the baits. They had a few issues getting the baits out at first but once we got the baits in the water the rods started bowing over. We worked the school for about 30 minutes before I lost it. I got back on the big motor and found it again and we did the drill again. I left that school and found another, put the bait out and spanked them again. Zackary caught the 2 largest fish of the morning, he will have some memories to take back to West Va. By 7:30 we had caught our limit of 12 Stripers and also had caught 5 or 6 Kitties.

Steve Curran with guests Matt Heidel, Rick and Bill Jacobs

Got out between thunderstorms to catch bait and picked the guys up at High Point at 5:30. I pulled out of the way and showed them exactly how to deploy the lines and how to use circle hooks. I knew of a huge school of Stripers that I had been working every morning so I headed straight for them. They were right where I expected to find them and they were there thick. I told my crew how many pulls to put the baits and started baiting their hooks. I looked at My Lowrance and the screen looked like a pot of spaghetti, hundreds of arches intertwined throughout the screen. I called a friend Brian over to check it out, he got about a hundred yards from me and was on the school. Charlie came over to us and he sat down 200 yards from us and he was on the school. The school had to be at least 5 acres . John was further uplake and had not found anything yet so he came down, stopped about 500 yards from us and he was on the school. So we are all on this school, 15 minutes later it evaporates, we all lost it and looked for 20 minutes without being able to relocate it. After looking for about 30 minutes in the general vicinity I decided to make a big move and went a couple miles and found another school. We set up on it but only caught punks and Cats but we were seeing numerous arches so I put out some trolling rods and Brian also trolled through it picking up about 8 or 10 fish, but mostly punks. By now it was pouring down, John had already gone back to the marina to dry out and buy raingear and Brian was preparing to call it quits for the day. I told the guys I knew where there was a good school of Stripers, but were they willing to run in that downpour for about 3 miles to get to them, they all were soaked and were eager to go. We ran to the area, I located the school and we set up on them. I told the guys before the first bait hit the water that if they got the baits out correctly this time everything would hook up, and for the next 40 minutes it was pandemonium on the boat. No sooner the bait would get in the strike zone before the rod would bend over. We lost the school but found it again and repeated the drill. By now the wind was howling which made it difficult to hold the boat over fish, so I had the guys reel in the baits and trolled through the school to catch the fish. Today we caught over 40 Stripers and about 10 Kitties. The guys kept 20 Stripers and released the others to fight again. We were back at the dock before noon.

Howard, Glen, Larry and Agnes

Sunny, Hot, Water Temperature 90* and Clear.
Caught 220 baits this morning and picked everyone up at the marina at 5:30am. Looked for schools for about 10 minutes then decided to put some baits out where we caught some fish yesterday. We worked the area for about an hour and caught a few Stripers but I was getting greedy and wanted to find some big schools. I looked for about 30 minutes then set up on some fish, Agnes caught a very nice Striper and a friend Charlie called out on the radio that he was on a huge school, but it was 6 miles from where we were at. We lost our school so I took off toward Charlie, got to where he had been on fish and they had moved, figures! We worked the area for 30 minutes then went back looking for schools but could never find any tight enough to fish, just scattered pods. We hit a couple more areas and popped a few fish then I noticed we were down to about 25 baits. I made one final move to where I thought we could put a couple nice fish in the boat. Glen hooked up with a hog but it broke off on another line. Then Agnes hooked into a nice one. We had 4 or 5 more solid hook up and actually broke a couple off. We were running out of bait and the Stripers were turning on. Agnes hooked up , then Glen caught a couple, Larry hooked into 4 or 5 in a row and Howard caught a couple but we ran out of bait. I looked for more bait but could not find any so we called it a day. Today we caught 25 Stripers, a Largemouth Bass and over a dozen Catfish. The crew kept 15 Stripers to take home and released the rest to fight again.

David Saunders [Equity Concepts] with guests Craig, Colin, Ian and Josh

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 90* and Clear.
Caught bait early this morning and picked up my crew at 5:30 at High Point. I instructed them on how to deploy the baits and went looking for schools. We set up on some scattered fish as a drill to learn how to put the baits out, caught a couple fish then I went looking for the real deal. I looked for about 15 minutes, Ian was getting impatient and asked if there were any fish in the lake, but soon I found what I wanted and we set up on it. The fish were shallow this early in the morning so I told them to put the baits out at 9 pulls and before we got all the baits in the action started with Ian hopping on the first rod. When he landed the fish his eyeballs almost popped out of his head, he had waited for this day and there were indeed fish in the lake. For the next 90 minutes we had steady but controllable action. In that time frame we had 30 solid hookups but had a few issues getting all the fish into the boat. David actually had 3 hooks come off the line, he said they had to be monsters. That school moved on and so did we. We stayed in the general area, set up on Stripers maybe 3 more times before David informed me that they were meeting a friend around 11, so I showed the guys how to troll lures then got them back to the marina in time to meet their friend. It was a great morning for everyone and now the boys know not only are there nice Stripers in the lake but how to catch the them.

Quinn, Wendy and Dylan

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 85* and Clear.
Jeanne's daughter's family is down for awhile so we decided to take the boys fishing for a couple hours this morning and to get off the water before it got hot and the weekend warriors hit the water. We caught bait and headed downlake till we couldn't see any boats. I found a school of Stripers over 40 feet of water so Wendy and myself put out 10 downlines rigged with Herring. It took about 3 or 4 minutes before we took our first hit, Dylan reeled in a Catfish, I told him to kiss it and it would bring him luck, so he did. I knew by catching the Cat that we were on the tail end of the school so I sped up my trolling motor, moved about 75 yards and got right into the middle of the Stripers. I called a friend over to work the school and before I hung up with him the rods started bending over. The action was perfect, Wendy and Myself constantly stayed busy baiting and taking fish off while the boys reeled the Stripers in. I wasn't out today to have all the rods hooked up at once, we just wanted to have enough action for the guys to keep interested for an hour or two. We hit 3 more schools, caught fish out of all of them and got off the water before most people woke up today. We kept all I wanted to clean and released the rest to fight again.

Michael, Alec, Sam and Spencer

Sunny and hot, Water Temperature 89* and clear.
Michael and myself got out early to catch bait then picked the guys up at the marina and went looking for schools of Stripers. It being the weekend we were only going to fish for a couple hours and we came off the water around 8:30. Today's crew consisted of my grandson Michael, friend Tony and his son Alec, 2 of Tony's best friends children [Their dad recently passed away], Pa Pa Bobby and Hunter. I looked for about 5 minutes and found a school, we tried to put out 10 baits but before we knew it every rod was bent over. I was baiting all the lines and net the fish, the kids were reeling in the fish and everyone else tried to get the baits in the water. After about 15 minutes of pure action Bobby tapped out and said this was way too much action for him. The kids were steady reeling in fish and LOVING IT! We worked that school for a half an hour and then took a break. We gave the kids a drink and I went and found another school. We duplicated the first drill time after time until the kids ran out of energy and I ran out of bait. Spencer is holding a Carp he caught on a Herring while Sam and Alec are wishing they had caught that big yellow fish. Everyone had a ball today, the kids did exceptionally well, at times you could have heard them screaming a mile away.

Gary Gray Jr. with guests Phil, Chris, Chris, Gary Sr. and Travis

Sunny and HOT, Water Temperature 89* and Clear.
Caught bait early , went back to the dock and got the boat ready for my clients. I knew it was going to be a scorcher today and was hoping to get on the schools early and get off the water before it got too hot. I thought the Stripers would be schooled up well in the early am hour but I also knew they would disperse by 9 or so. I pulled out of the marina to show my crew how to deploy the lines and how to put the baits right in the Stripers faces and took off in search of schools. I looked for about 45 seconds and ran right over a major school. I stopped the boat, told the guys how many pulls to put the baits out, put the trolling motor in and started baiting hooks. Everyone was doing OK but poor Travis was still asleep and had a lot of difficulty getting his two rods out. Being on such a large school for the first set up and everyone's rods bent over with fish did not help him much either. I had told them earlier that our first set up was going to be the worst then after two or 3 times it would go smooth, and it did. When I got everyone baited and they were all reeling in fish I yelled to John in his boat that I was on a school but he walked on me and was yelling the same to me, he had found a school and was working it in a different area. We put 7 or 8 fish in the box on the first set up and for the next couple hours we would find schools, work them for a few minutes, catch fish then loose the school. All the rest of the schools we encountered we worked like a well seasoned team, we could get 10 baits out and into the water in less than a minute. The schools were tight until we would release or loose a fish then they would disperse into pods. I would have to get back on the big motor and find other schools that were larger and tighter in order to catch fish. As it has been for the last month by about 10 all the schools had dispersed, the fish shut down and basically the fishing was over. We stayed out till 1 looking and fishing some areas but with little success. I had told the guys around 10:15 that if we would catch another keeper I would be surprised, we fished for 3 more hours, and caught 1 keeper. It was a good morning, plenty of early action, once Travis got the hang of it he put it on most of the other guys.

Jeff, Hamid, Dick and Senior

Sunny and HOT...Water temperature 88* and Clear.
I got out early and caught 200 nice baits, went back to the marina to pick up my clients. We were suppose to depart at 5:30 and after me calling them 3 times I left the marina at 6 with no clients on board. I looked nearby the marina and found 2 schools of Stripers, put out 2 lines on each school and caught fish. I called the marina about 6:20 and half my crew had arrived, the others had got lost and even got a speeding ticket trying to get back to the marina. We were finally on the water by 7 and I headed to a school that I knew of that was holding a lot of Stripers. I went right to them and they were there. I tried to explain how to deploy the lines as the depth finder was lit up with arches, soon as we engaged the reels the rods would bend over. It was quite hectic for a short time while Dick was trying to learn exactly how to work the rods. It didn't take long before we all understood, and then the school was gone. We had been on it for 15 minutes and popped 10 fish out of the school. I got back on the motor but could not locate that school again. I found another school, we set up on it and caught 8, but most were small fish so I moved on. We found a couple more schools in the neighborhood and worked them but did not have as good results. I decided to make a big move and left the area looking for greener pastures. We pulled up on a school uplake and caught 6 out of it but most of them were punks so I looked for another school. By now it was mid morning, the schools had broke up, all we could see were single and small pods of fish. I still had plenty of bait but could not find anything worth setting up on. Senior had asked about trolling on previous trips so I decided to show him how it was done. We ended up trolling the rest of the day, catching another 10 Stripers. Today we caught over 30 Stripers, better than I had thought after such a late start, the guys took home a stringer full to eat. Dick is the guy in the black shirt, he is mad because he has to drive all the way home while Jeff sleeps.

Bill Haynes with sons Bill, Scott and daughter Lynne

Cloudy and drizzle, Water temperature 84* and Clear.
Went out early and caught bait, picked my crew up at 5:30 at High Point Marina. I was concerned today with the weather, they were calling for East winds all day and 50% chance of thunderstorms, neither are good for summer fishing. John was out today also and I told him that the clouds would make the fish not school very well early, so he went one direction and I went the other looking for schools. Unfortunately I was correct, after about an hour of looking all we saw were pods of Stripers. Both John and I set up on a pod just to show our clients how to deploy the baits then I went looking for Schools. I found a school over 25 feet of water , set out baits on them, called John, and everyone started hooking up. We were taking hits but in true East wind conditions the punks and Catfish were more interested in eating than the nicer Stripers. We put a few in the box and I move a little and found another school. These Stripers were a little more cooperating but still our bait was getting used up fast. John pulled up and experienced the same thing, our ratio's were about 2 keeper Stripers, 4 punks and a couple Cats for every 25 baits we used. I felt we could do better so I left John with that school and went looking for another. I found a large school, we set up on it and all the rods went off with decent fish. I grabbed the mike and called John, grabbed the net and started throwing fish on the deck and at the same time tried to get more baits out before the school moved on. As luck would have it a few fish swallowed the hooks, a couple lines got tangled and it took a while to get back in business. We worked a couple more schools and ended up having a good day. Bill got to take home 17 fish. Today's trip was a birthday present from Bills children, he is celebrating his 75th.
Happy Birthday Bill!

Jim Garner with son Brian and daughter Erica

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 85* and Clear.
I caught 200 baits this morning and picked everyone up at 5:30 on their dock. I hit the main lake and ran till I found a school of Stripers which took about 10 minutes and set up on them. For about 30 minutes we had all we could handle, Jim and I were constantly baiting and netting fish. After we lost the school it was kind of a relief to have a break, Jim wanted to have his coffee and I needed to tie a couple hooks on to the lines. We left that school and hit another but after boating 3 Cats I told them to get the baits in and lets find another school of feeding Stripers. We only had to go about 200 yards, obviously I had originally set up on the tail end of the school first and once I found the nucleus of the school we Spanked them. By now we had caught about 25 fish and Brian had a big grin glued to his face. I got back on the big motor and found yet another school, set baits out and did the drill again, every rod bent over, fish all over the deck, Jim and I hopelessly trying to keep up with the action. After a while that school moved on, we reeled the lines in and Brian hit the couch. Jim asked him how he was doing and Brian tapped out, he had all the action he could take and was ready to give up and call it a day. What a morning it was, we lost count of how many fish we threw back but I know we went through the majority of our bait by 8:30. We were able to get off the water before it got too hot, a blessing being that is will be well into the 90's today.

Joe and Brian Mohr, Josh, Steve, and B.J.Thumbs

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 83* and clear.
Brian and I got out early and caught 250 baits, picked the guys up about 5:45 and went in search of schools. Within 45 seconds of leaving the marina I found an acre of Stripers. I shut the big motor off and tried to explain to the guys how to put the lines out but by the time everyone understood how to do it [and a backlash later] the school had moved. At least is was practice on how to deploy the baits. I got back on the big motor and found another school, this time we got the baits out quick enough and every rod hooked up, and continued to hook up for the next 30 minutes. Brian and I were baiting at this time and the other guys were reeling in the fish. After about 20 fish I lost that school and located another , we put the baits out and popped a few more. We hit 2 more schools catching fish in all of them then I hit the mother load, after we baited all the lines I looked up and every rod was buried into the water. We worked that school for about 30 minutes then moved on. We hit another school, caught a couple more fish and called it quits for the day. It was 8:45, we had boated over 50 Stripers and a handful of Cats, we kept 24 and released all the others to fight again. All these guys except Brian were and are teachers from West Va. and took a couple days off just after school let out to celebrate Joe's retirement and the end of the school year. Not a bad way to start the summer, catching 50 Stripers in a couple hours. We were off the water before it got too hot, plenty of time to clean the fish and enjoy the lake for the rest of the day. Joe is an avid fisherman and plans to fish as much as his wife Sherry will let him in his retirement. Good Luck and Congratulations on your retirement Joe!

Sylvester, Zeb, Todd and Kirby

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature dropped to 80* and Clear.
Caught 250 pieces of bait, picked the guys up at the marina and headed out looking for schools. It was quite windy this morning and every time I would locate a school we would have a short window to get the baits out before we would get blown off the school. I located 8 nice schools this morning before 10:30 and we caught fish out of every one of them. Today we had over 200 hits and had plenty of action although I was on my big motor the better part of the morning looking for schools. The guys took home a couple of fish and released the others to fight again.

Joel Billingsley and friends

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 85* and Clear.
Caught 225 baits before daylight then went and picked up my clients at their dock. Knowing it was the weekend I was concerned about all the other fisherman being out early and the pleasure boaters later spooking the fish so I was anxious to get away from other boaters and locate fish early. I simply went to where I could not see another boat for about a mile in either direction, located a school of fish, showed the guys how to deploy the baits and started fishing. No sooner did we get the baits out on the first school we got a few hits then the school moved. We got the baits in and I relocated them, set up on them, caught a couple and within 5 minutes they had moved again. I called a friend Greg who was out and told him to come over to me and we would work the school together. I knew the school was really moving fast and 2 boats working the school were better than one. He was trolling and as soon as he set up he hooked up. The school was moving about 2 miles an hour but we had the direction they were going and we would set up, catch a couple fish, get the baits back in and move again and again. We were doing great till we got busted by a Carolina skiff, once he found up it only took 6 to 8 minutes before a dozen boats were on top of us, naturally spooking the school. The Stripers will not tolerate that type of pressure, motors running over them, anglers gut hooking fish and killing them, consequently the school split up and the fish got into smaller pods of 10 to 15 fish verses hundreds of fish. Within a half hour we had almost every Striper fisherman on top of us so I decided to move again and get away from all the pressure. We again moved to where we could not see another boat, found a school and had our way with them. Soon we ran out of bait and had to convert to using artificial. I located a school, stopped and showed the guys how to work the baits and while I was showing them we had 3 hookups at once. By now it was about 10am , the boat traffic was getting bad, the sun was up high and the fish turned off. We looked for a couple more hours but could not locate a fish so we called it quits for the day around 12:30. Today we caught about 35 Stripers and a few Catfish, not too bad for a weekend. I am looking forward to fishing again during the week in peace.

Jason with guests Daniel, Clint and Ken

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 85* and Clear.
Some horrible storms blew threw last night which worried me about fishing today. The guys came out with me to catch bait and dodged a storm on the water. We went in search of Stripers at 5:30 and looked for an hour not finding any schools. After storms like we had sometime fishing is slow to start on the following mornings as was the case today. I set up on a couple of pods of fish with little success. I finally found what I wanted as the schools were forming about 7:45 and we put the baits out. We had a double hookup and Jason landed the big fish of the day. We chased that school around for the rest of the day, sometimes the Stripers would feed briefly then other time the Cats would eat. Sometimes we were right in them without getting bit at all. Our baits were running out early and ended up having a long day. We ended up catching 27 Stripers [only 13 kept] and a bunch of Catfish. We went through more than 200 baits today. We had plenty of action for just a fair day of fishing.

Jim, Bob, Rachid, Amir and Jalil

Sunny, Hot, Water temperature 86*and Clear.
Caught 220 baits this morning and picked the guys up about 5:30. Didn't go far before I found a school so I instructed the guys on how to deploy the baits and we set up on them. It was still before 6 and we took about 20 hits before the school dissipated. I got back on the big motor and started looking and found a school up in a creek and we put out on them. By now the guys were a little better in getting the baits out and we started putting fish in the boat. It wasn't long before I heard someone yell "This is just like it says on the journal!" We worked that school for about 40 minutes before we lost it. I got back on the motor again and looked this time for about 20 minutes then found acres of Stripers. I told the guys this is what they came for and we needed to get her done right this time and before we could get all the lines set everything hooked up. We burnt up the rest of our baits on this school and only had a few weak baits left after the action subsided. It was just 8:30 and we had gone through 2oo baits. All I could do is troll for the rest of the time, by 8:30 we had 20 keepers on bait, we fished for 5 more hours for 1 more keeper on artificial.
The 2nd picture is a ball of bait I attracted with a new light that I am trying out, the bait ball was about 40 feet wide by 20 feet deep.

Tim, Linda, Michael and Kristin

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 80* and clear.
I wanted to take my grandson fishing today so I called a few friends and went out for a couple hours this morning. I looked for a while and could not fined any large schools so I decided to set up on a smaller school and we started catching fish. With the moon so bright last night the fish we obviously not very hungry first thing but as the morning progressed they bit better and better until a dozen boats surrounded us, naturally the fish broke up and turned off. We went and found a couple of more pods of fish and used up 200 baits this morning. By 9:30 we were out of bait and I was out of patience, boat traffic was up so we decided to come on in. We had achieved what we wanted to do, everyone reeled in plenty of fish and we took a few home for the table and released the others to fight again.

Elden and Bill

Partly Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 79* and Clear.
Went and caught bait early this morning and picked the guys up at 5:45. Looked for a few minutes without seeing any major schools so I moved to another area and located what I wanted to see. We put baits in the Stripers faces and for the next two hours it was constant action, we were either baiting rods or reeling fish in. I never took the guys to a big school because to anglers can not keep up with the action. Today's action was perfect, always a fish hooked up and we could keep a few lines with bait on them in the water. I lost count of how many we caught but we were back in before 9, it was a good thing to because the holiday weekend traffic was picking up and they are calling for some bad storms today. The guys were happy to get in early so they could clean their fish and get back to home before traffic got heavy on the highways. What a great way to start the holidays.
Hopefully everyone will take a moment this weekend to remember all the members of the armed forces who were killed in action.
Semper Fi

Vince LaScala with friend Chuck

Cloudy and Warm, Water temperature 74* and Clear.
I went out and caught bait this morning and picked the guys up at the marina. My hopes were not too high to find large schools till later on in the morning because the weather was similar to yesterday [Fish did not school until mid morning]. I looked on the big motor for about 30 minutes only seeing small pods so I went to where I saw the most fish and trolled a couple of crankbaits hoping to catch a few fish and burn some time until I ran across some downline fish. I hit one area for 6 or 8 minutes and did not see what I wanted to see so we got the lines in and I set up over another area. Within 5 minutes I hit a school that stretched for about 6oo yards. Needless to say both rods hooked up, Chuck caught a double and Vince had a single. We were still over the school so we put baits on downlines and no sooner did we get a couple out they started going off. It took us about 40 minutes before we could ever get all the lines out, way too much action for two clients. We stayed on that one school for a couple hours and used up all of our bait. Vince was interested in trolling on the hot side of the lake so I showed him how it was done, caught some more fish and called it quits just before lunch. The guys took home 12 Stripers for table fare.

The JFHQ-NCR Group...Col. John Neumann with guests Tom, Toney, Rob, Steve, Bill, Roger, Joel, Mike, Mike, Angel and Erica

Cloudy, Warm , Rain pre-dawn, Water Temperature 74* and Clear.
Today we had our annual outing with the group commanded by Col. Neumann. He had reserved 3 boats to take his crew out fishing for Stripers on Lake Anna. With bait being extremely difficult to catch John, Anthony and myself got on the water at 2am hoping to have enough bait for everyone. All of us were concerned about the bait, especially after the storms that blew through last night and this morning. John ended up with about 70 baits, Anthony had 150 and I had about 170 to start the morning. John got back to the marina early to deal with his boat while Anthony and I stayed out till after light catching bait. We ended up departing the marina about 6:30. I noticed John was in quite a hurry leaving but I did not think much of it at the time. He went about a mile from the marina and set out some lines while Anthony and I cruised the lake looking for schools. After 45 minutes of looking for the schools both Anthony and I decided to set up on little pods of fish just to break the ice. About 7:30 John called and said he had put 6 fish in the boat and to come over to him so we did. We set up around him and started taking hits, after an hour I had gone through 60 baits, only putting a couple of keepers in the boat. Anthony was doing the same. John by now had used up his baits and had started trolling artificials. I looked for another hour for schools and set up on numerous pods but all the fish wanted to do was hit the baits in the tails and not eat the bait, consequently I went through my baits catching punks, Cats and 8 or 10 keeper fish. John had trolled for a couple hours and only caught 1 Striper and things were looking bleak. Fish were not schooling, they did not want to eat, between the 3 boats we had had over 300 hits , 80% of those resulted in killed baits. John who was still trolling called me on the phone and said to come over by him, he was seeing more fish and it looked like they were trying to school. We went over, saw the school and burnt up the rest of the baits. John had put a couple more in the boat and was seeing more and more fish. I realized since I could not put a stinger on the live bait and that the fish were only hitting the rear of the baits to kill them that I needed to troll some crankbaits with treble hooks on the rear of the baits to catch fish. I rigged up some rods and headed for the school. John started catching more and more fish so I called Anthony and told him to come over to us and use up the remained of his baits on the school. We started catching fish, one after another. Erica hooked up with the first real nice fish and things started looking better. Anthony's crew were putting fish in the boat while John and I continued to catch fish. Angel hooked up to a nice fish, we did not know if he was reeling the fish in or the fish was reeling him in. He finally got it in and I think it was a little bigger than Erica's fish. We continued to hit the schools and catch fish till lunch time then we called it quits for the day, everyone was out of bait, everyone was hungry and there was food waiting back at the marina. I found out while we were eating from John that the group had a bet on who caught the first fish of the day and whoever caught the largest fish of the day. That explains why the Col.'s boat snuck out this morning and started fishing immediately. No one told Anthony or I about the bet. One of the crew out of my boat won the big fish bet, I did not see who it was. After a slow start this morning we ended up with a great days catch, between the 3 boats we all caught over 150 fish , the guys keeping 56 Stripers and a few Kitties to take back home and releasing a bunch of punks. Three Captains left the marina very tired, I am sure John and Anthony went straight home and crashed. The group is probably still cleaning fish back at the marina!

Live Bait for Lake Anna Big Bass

Cloudy, Showers and no wind, Water Temperature 74* and Stained.
It has been tough getting on the water before 2am to catch bait for my clients so this morning I picked my client up at 5:30 at High Point and went uplake to catch Gizzard Shad. I only had to throw for about 30 minutes and caught 30 10 to 15 inch Gizz so I decided while I was up there I would pull Water Bugz planner boards around the banks up around Gold Mine Creek. It being overcast I thought we could catch some nice fish feeding shallow. I had just got all my boards out when the 15" shad on my furthest board out closest to the grass line got nervous. Next thing we knew there was a huge swirl and we were hooked up. The fish pulled drag for about 50 yards before I could turn the boat and attempt to catch up to the fish. After about a 10 minute battle we finally got close enough to the fish to see that it was a nice Bass. I noticed the Bass had wrapped itself around a dock piling and was worried it would break off so I took all my clothes off and jumped into the water, swam up under the dock, grabbed the fish and tried to pass it to my client but the line was wrapped too tight around the piling. I bit the line in half and threw the Bass up onto my boat, it hit my trolling motor controller and turned the motor on high bypass, the boat took off and my client had no clue how to control the boat. I climbed up onto the dock butt naked to yell to my client how to cut the motor off then all of a sudden I woke up with my wife Jeanne shaking me in bed telling me that I was dreaming!
Well, it was exciting while it lasted....Actually this fish was caught on July 2nd, 2009 on Lake Biwa , Japan by Manabu Kurita. The fish weighed in at 22-pound, 4-ounces. The bait he used was a live Bluegill.

Michael Bailey with guests Bruce Jr., Bruce III, John, Rus and Jeff

Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 72* and Clear.
Threw for bait for 3 hours this morning then picked up the guys at High Point at 5:45am. Went looking for schools of Stripers but was concerned about the weather change and weekend traffic. I instructed the guys on how to deploy the lines and set up on a couple fish but did not get bit. After 10 minutes we got the baits in and looked some more. I could not find what I wanted so I set up on a few fish just so the guys could catch a few fish. After 30 minutes I could not stand it any more and went looking for schools. I looked for an hour without seeing what I wanted so again I set up on pods of Stripers, a few fish spread out over a couple hundred yards. We would catch 6 or 8 here and there, no rhyme or reason why they were there or why I could not find larger schools. I attribute the lack of schooling to mainly the weather, the barometer dropping and the cloudy day. The east wind did not help much either. I kept trying to find fish for my clients and burnt up 20 gallons of fuel doing so. A couple times today we would get 5 or 6 fish hooked up at once but the small schools seemed to evaporate quickly. Around 1 o'clock we finally ran out of bait, great timing, we had just reached their limit of fish. Today we caught 40 Stripers and a few Catfish, 24 of the Stripers were keepers, the others were punks that we released. It ended up being quite a good day in fact after I learned what other anglers had caught today. Today was Michael's birthday, the trip a present from his loving wife Penny.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL

Doug Mills with guests Dorothy, Mike and Zeppy

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 72* and Clear.
I got out super early this morning and caught bait and met my crew at High Point around daylight. I knew when I met the 3 new clients Doug brought along today that we were going to have fun, they had brought a 120 quart cooler full of Beer and Ice and were ready to enjoy the day regardless if we caught fish or not. Mike mentioned he had " fished everywhere and not caught fish everywhere", I assured him that today catching fish was not going to be an issue. I had planned to start fishing where I left off yesterday on that huge school of Stripers and had been concerned last night after being busted there yesterday while all my clients were reeling in fish that maybe there would be other boats on it so when I came around the corner and saw the "Buzzards" circling in the area I simply headed the other direction. I looked for about 10 minutes and John called and said he was catching a few fish so I went up by him to break my crew in and showed them how to deploy the baits. We worked the area for about 45 minutes catching about 15 Stripers but half of them were punks so I decided to get the lines in and go find a mega school. I looked for about 15 minutes till I ran over about 3oo yards of solid Stripers, I shut the big motor down and told everyone this is what they came for and they were certainly ready. By now they knew exactly how to put the baits out and the rods started bending before we could get half of them out. For about 30 minutes there was constantly rods bent over, one time we had 5 hooked up at once, the rest of the time only a couple fish were being fought at a time. I pulled off of the fish for a moment to re-group, we got 8 lines back in the water and did it all over again. At one time I turned around and Zeppy had rods in both hands bend in half begging Doug to help him out. Once Doug grabbed a rod Zeppy took a slug of Beer and continued to fight and land the fish. We probably caught 25 fish out of this school in less than a hour, we had our limits and had thrown plenty back to fight again. I usually keep count of how many fish we catch but it was impossible this morning to keep up with how many fish came in the boat in just a few hours of fishing. This is the start of the "summer season" of Striper fishing, year after year it has not been uncommon to catch 20 to 40 fish per hour if we have the right live bait and weather conditions stay stable. Based on the size of the schools of Stripers I have seen in the last 2 days this year should be as good or better than previous years. If you go fishing with me or one of my guides remember to bring plenty of people to handle all the action!

Steve Mudre with guests Denny and Teresa Smith

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 70* and Clear.
Got on the water before 2am this morning to catch bait, picked the guys up at 5:30 and headed uplake. I set out a spread of planner boards and pulled a 5 to 15 foot flat nearby the mouth of a creek. After working it for 45 minutes and only getting punked we got our lines in and set up over an area where I could put out my whole spread, 10 boards, a bobber, 2 free lines and 5 downlines. We hit various structures and depths but again the nicer fish were not aggressive, we would just catch punks. I finally hit an area where a hump dropped off into the channel and hooked up with 4 or 5 fish but by the time I turned back they were gone. We worked the area looking for the fish but never found them again. I had a friend out fishing also and he was experiencing the same thing as I was so I decided to move to a completely different part of the lake hoping the fish there had different attitudes toward eating. I had no sooner told Steve what I was doing when I saw what I wanted to see so we put out out lines and started taking hits. We got into so much action that more times than not we had numerous fish on. Steve was enjoying this action, he had been out with me in the past and was hoping we could turn his friends on to some of the madness. Today we had well over 100 hits, I lost count of how many Stripers we caught but it was many more than 30. We came off the water before noon after running out of baits and before it got too hot.

Mitch and Jamie Webb

Cloudy and Cool, Water temperature 68* and Clear.
I got out very early as usual to catch bait and picked my clients up at 5:30 at High Point Marina. I looked around for a short time and decided to set up over about 20' of water and I put my spread out of boards, free lines and down lines. With the front blowing through yesterday and it only going to be 60* today I thought I would present the Stripers all different techniques and let them tell us what they wanted. I knew the bite today would be difficult and it was certainly a slow start. We started taking hits on boards but with no regularity. I hit different areas the first few hours of the morning but by 9:30 only had 5 fish in the box. I decided to make a radical move so we got all the lines in and went downlake hoping the fish would have different attitudes over clearer water. We set out some downlines and immediately started getting bit. We worked the area for about an hour catching 8 to 10 fish then I decided to move again to a completely different location. I put out downlines there after seeing fish deep but after working the fish for about 20 minutes I decided to put out a spread of boards to see if they would attack them, and they did. We went through a spell where there was too much action, the guys were caught up in the moment and forgot about the process we had been going through all day but they got it back in control and ended up catching 24 Stripers, 6 Catfish and a couple Bass for the day. Hopefully this weather will straighten up soon, we are having way too many fronts and temperature changes for the Stripers to be stable and predictable.

Massive school of Stripers

After running over about 100 yards of this this morning I decided to take a picture, although it is hard to see through all the pollen on the screen I believe there were a few fish in the area. The fish were from 22 feet deep up to 10 feet deep before I quit seeing them on the screen like this.

Earl Custer with friends Ken, Glen, Paul, Tony and Jim

Sunny and Hot, Water temperature 75* and Clear.
Both John and I had trips this morning so we double teamed the bait, I went for Gizz and he went for Herring, we met back at the dock at 5:30 and went fishing. We both set up in the same general vicinity, John pulling similar spreads as mine. The early am bite was slow, we would get punked and caught a few Bass but the Stripers were not ready to eat early. As the morning progressed the bite did get better although the fish really never did turn on , we would simply catch a fish here and there. A similar bite was going on with John, although he was catching most of his fish shallow and we were catching ours over 22 foot flats. About 9:30 Johns client hooked up next to us and we enjoyed watching his lady client fight a very nice fish for about 8 minutes and a couple hundred yards. By the time she landed the fish they were too far away to see actually how large the fish was. With the water temperature climbing the Stripers seemed a little confused, patterns may change over the next week or so. Today my crew had 30 hook-ups and took a few nice fish home back to Pennsylvania.
PS...Special thanks go out to Timmy.

Memorable May Catches