Vince, Walt and Brian

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 49* and Clear.
Brian and I got out early and caught bait then picked up the other 2 guys at daylight and went fishing. We set out our spread without taking a hit. We hit a point and took a couple hits then the boats started coming. Although the boats did not run nearby us 5 or 6 boat motors running around was all it took to spook the Stripers. We were taking hits and catching fish but it certainly was not like the last two charters that I took out where we were catching 8 to 15 fish an hour. I would try to avoid boats this morning but we could not get away from them. I decided to go catch some more bait and set up in an area where there were no other boats. We started taking hits immediately and boating fish. When a boat would go by we would have a lull in the action but after about 30 minutes our rods would double over again. Definitely the action today was influenced by the sound of boat motors. We stuck it out and ended up catching 22 keepers today, keeping 16 and releasing the others unharmed. Today's fish were very healthy, this stringer of Stripers weighed in excess of 120 pounds, that's why the guys are trying to hurry me up to take the picture.

Kat, Erica and Jim

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 46* and clear.

We had 5 inches of snow yesterday and last night so I could not get out till noon today because of the roads. I caught bait, picked up my crew and looked for some warm water temperatures. I found what I wanted and tried to put out my spread of boards and free lines but the fish would not cooperate, I had only set out one side of boards when we started taking hits. Jim boated the first fish, one of the largest of the trip. I hit a point and 4 or 5 hoked up. We wrestled a couple of them in and lost a few more. I knew what pattern to work so I pulled out and finished putting all my baits out then started hitting points. Every time we got near a point we would hook up. Although it was bluebird skies and post frontal conditions we managed to catch a limit in a few hours of wonderful fishing. All we needed was one more fish for a limit of fish today when I put 6 baits up on a primary point and four of the six baits hooked up all at once. We got our 16th fish in the boat and released the others unharmed.
Fishing is incredible now, thanks to the mild winter our catches are as good as I have ever seen them for this time of year. Now is a great time to catch Stripers.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERICA!

Josh, Mark, Justin and Jesse

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 46* and Clear.

I met the guys this morning at 6, caught bait and went fishing. I set up about 300 yards before where I thought we could catch some nice fish so that I could have all my baits in the water ready for the bite. I am glad I did because that was the only time for the next 2 1/2 hours that I had all the rods baited. Once I hit my area we had two Stripers hook up, thankfully one on either side of the boat. From then on out I could not keep up with baits in the water. The fish were scattered about, everywhere we fished we would catch fish on both sides of the boat. Obviously the fish were feeding up prior to the major cold front that is blowing through this afternoon and tomorrow. We were swamped with action and by 9:45 we had about 40 hits and were out of bait. It was a good thing, I was expecting the wind to blow and a few minutes before we pulled the rest of our baits in the wind got up and it appeared the fish had turned off. We kept 20 Stripers this morning and released a few more to fight again. As you can see by the picture all the fish were very nice fat fish. It took 4 guys to hold that stringer up, there is between 120 and 140 pounds of Striper on that wooded rod.

John, Mike and Steve

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 45* and Clear.

Anthony and I got out before daylight, caught bait and picked the guys up at 7 on the dock. I had mixed emotions about the day this morning, I have been on fish in numerous areas of the lake and was concerned about the extremely cold weather we had a few days ago lowering the water temperature and turning off the fish. I knew today was going to be nice and the water would warm hopefully turning the fish on. We made a short run to an area where I knew no boats would be and set out our spread of baits. Where we were fishing the water temp had dropped 8 degrees since the last time I was out. Our first fish came from out nearby the channel which confirmed my fears that the fish were indeed hurt by the cold water temps. After working the area for a couple hours only to boat 3 Stripers I knew we had to make a move. We relocated to a different area and worked about a mile stretch of water only to boat 2 Stripers and take a couple short hits. By now the air temperature had warmed up about 20 degrees and so I told the guys the banks had to be warming up so we topped off the tank with bait and put out a spread of a dozen boards covering from the bank out about a hundred yards. We had gotten only 3 boards out on the bank side when the action started. For the next 300 yards it was all Anthony and myself could do to keep baits in the water. The water had warmed up 2 degrees near the bank and that's where the Stripers were. We proceeded to work on the fish and soon we limited out. Today was a special day for Anthony and myself, we took out 3 biologists from a local agency eager to learn more about this fishery from them. At the end of the trip they were thanking us for taking them fishing but it was Anthony and myself who benefited most learning from them about what makes this lake work. We kept 12 Stripers to take home and released the other Stripers unharmed to fight again.

John and Ben

Sunny in the morning turning cloudy, Water Temperature 48* and Clear.
John and I got out early to catch bait but my frozen deck made bait catching difficult. We picked Ben up, topped off the tank and went fishing. I had gotten only 3 lines out when we took our first hit, a good start for the morning. I put out about a dozen baits then hit a point that produced 2 strikes. We kept working different types of areas till I got dialed in on the fish then we proceeded to put some fish in the boat. For the next 3 hours I could not catch up with the action. We had well in excess of 25 hits and limited out around 11 this morning. John stayed up front in the boat most of the morning trying to catch a fish on an artificial bait letting Ben reel in most of the fish but he never caught a fish on a lure. John caught his share of fish on bait and we all had a great time. The guys kept 12 Stripers this morning and we released all the other fish to fight again. All the fish we caught today were nice keeper fish. John had called me a couple days ago to go fishing. He is working an outage at the power plant and he had asked numerous co-workers to go out today but they all said you can't catch Stripers out there this time of year. Once John started texting pics of the fish they were catching his phone started to ring off the hook. I don't think he will have any problem getting people to go next time.

Tony and Sam

Sunny and Beautiful, Water Temperature 48* and Clear.
I got out early and hung lights for Herring, caught bait and started fishing shortly after daylight. I set out a spread of a dozen boards, a bobber , a free line and filled the rest of my rod holders up with downlines. It didn't take long for the action to start and we kept busy for about an hour and a half before I decided to make a move. We relocated and put out a similar spread of fresh baits. Before we knew it rods were bent over and the guys had there hands full trying to keep up with the action. I didn't know if Sam was laughing because he was catching so many fish or a Tony for loosing so many. After going through a tank of bait we called it a day and went home early. We kept 12 Stripers and released the rest unharmed. Sam is the guy on the right with the funky pants, I think he sprained his neck laughing at Tony.

Tony and David

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 47* and Clear.
We caught bait this morning and put out a big spread pulling planner boards over flats. Fish were scattered but we had plenty of action today, we took about 25 strikes this morning. David kept a dozen fish to take home.

Greg Whitlock

Cloudy and Breezy, Water Temperature 45* and Clear.
I wanted to check out some different patterns on the lake so I called Greg up and he took off this afternoon to fish for a couple hours. We put the boat in the water, caught bait and the wind started to howl. We found a place where we could control the boat and pulled boards for about 500 yards only to catch 1 Striper. We had one hour left before dark so I decided to make a move so we got all the lines in and made a quick move. Although the wind was just as bad we pulled an area into the wind only to catch 1 Striper. We were about to get our baits in when I decided to turn the boat around with the wind at our backs and hit a point that we just worked. That was what the fish wanted, we hooked up with 4 Stripers on at once. Guess we should have been fishing with the wind, presentation put the fish in the boat.

Nathan and Jim

Sunny and Cold, Water temperature 46* and Clear.

Today's date is always looked forward to by Nathan and myself, he is a client turned friend who reserves this date every year to celebrate his birthday. Every year in the past I have gotten out early enough to have caught bait for the day by daylight, pick him up at the dock at daylight and head for Dike 3. We fish and party till the wind blows us off the lake or till we catch so many fish or till we run out of drink then part our ways, I go home and he usually goes home, takes a power nap then goes out to a game [tonight it is the Wizards and Bulls I think]. Today he brought Jim down to help him reel in a few fish and to keep him straight on the ride back home. We set out a spread of boards and enjoyed the day laughing and reeling in fish. Although it was cold out this morning the day was gorgeous and the fishing was good. We took about 20 hits this morning giving the guys plenty of action. Nathan is the birthday boy on the left, today he turned 31. In the past we would set our sights on catching as many fish as he was old and actually accomplished our goal but as we get older we enjoy not only the fishing but like to catch up on fishing stories from the past year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN

Matt, Bob, Robert and Jay

Sunny, Windy and Cold, Water temperature 47*.
I got out early this morning, hung lights, caught bait and was ready to go before the crack of dawn. I knew the wind was going to blow and lately it has been an early morning bite so I was anxious to get as many fish in the boat before the bite was over and before we got blown off the lake. After putting my third board out we hooked up and landed a nice Striper. I almost got my spread of 11 boards, a bobber and 2 free lines out when 3 fish hooked up. We got 2 of the 3 in and were off to a good start. The wind was none existent, there were no boats around to disturb us and the guys were pumped. We continued to work a similar pattern until about 9 when the wind started to get up and the fishing slowed down. We had 8 or 9 fish in the box and the guys wanted more. After about an hour without a hit I decided to hit another area hoping to catch more fish but it was slow there also, bites were down to one every half hour or so. The wind was getting up by now and I knew anywhere I went I would have issues controlling the boat so I decided to stay in the area. The fishing was slow for the rest of the trip but we managed to boat 13 nice Stripers today. We all had fun today and the guys were able to take some nice fish home for the table.
It looks like the weather may warm a little this week and if the wind cooperates fishing should improve drastically.

Brian and Eric Nickols

Sunny and Cold, Water temperatures 45* and Clear.
Brian wanted to take his son out today to fish but was more concerned with "learning the ropes" about fishing for Stripers on the lake. He met me before daylight to catch bait then we went fishing. We set up on a fairly shallow flat pulling boards and freelines. I was not too stoked about fishing today with the fronts that have been blowing through daily and it being a poor day to fish if you believe in solunar tables. We started off with Eric jumping on the first rod and landing a nice fish. We pulled another 200 yards without a strike so I turned the boat around, crossed the lake and hit a similar area and caught another fish. I thought I had established a little pattern so I stayed in the general area for a while with little success. We hit some other areas but fishing was SLOW, We only took 6 hits today. The guys did well in landing 5 out of the 6 fish.
I would like to thank a very considerate boater who was driving a White with Green stripe Bullet Bass boat today. I had a large spread out of about 100 yards wide taking up most of the creek that I was fishing. He came around the corner about 60 mph and avoided my spread by running nearby the bank. Later on when he came back out of the creek he ran the other side of the creek that I was fishing on, again very courteous. It is nice to see a considerate boater out on the lake, they are few and far between but I would like to personally thank this guy for thinking of other fisherman. What a good world this would be if more boaters handled themselves like this man did!

Patrick

Sunny and Beautiful, Water Temperature 41* to 47* and Clear.
It was such a beautiful day today I had to get out so I took a friend Patrick out later this morning, caught bait and fished for a while. We tried numerous different patterns, we ran downlines over 30 foot flats, 45 foot flats and 20 foot flat plus we pulled boards over all of those areas also. We caught fish on both boards and downlines today. Patrick is holding a couple of the fish he caught today, the fatter fish on the right was caught on a downline and the fish on the left on a board over 34 feet of water.

Jim and Tim

Sunny and Cold, Water temperature 44* and Clear.
Picked the guys up early this morning, caught 80 pieces of bait and went fishing. Due to the cold front blowing through yesterday I thought the Stripers may be deep so I set up over a deep flat with downlines where I was seeing a few fish set at 38 feet deep. We starting taking hits immediately but the fish were not taking the baits to eat them, they were simply killing the baits. I knew they were decent fish because I could see them on the Lowrance and after a dozen hits we had 3 fish hook up at once. The largest of the three was about 8 pounds. We worked deep flats for about 2 hours then I decided to go check some other places out. I looked while on the big motor for about an hour or so. I found a bunch of fish up on a hump in 22 feet of water with depths of 45 feet surrounding it so we put a couple downlines out only to catch punks. We got the baits in and looked a little more without seeing what I wanted to see. The wind was getting up pretty good so I decided to put out a spread of boards to see if the fish would eat over shallower water. We had only pulled about 200 yards when 3 boards over 20 feet of water hooked up. The guys reeled all of the Stripers and I turned around and hit it twice more without taking a hit. I then decided to hit another flat nearby and as we were over 48 feet of water we hooked up with the largest fish of the day, on a board, go figure! By now the wind was howling and the guys were getting uncomfortable. I hit one more area with downlines , caught a keeper and the guys were ready to call it a day. Today we landed 12 Stripers, had probably 30 hits and kept a few to take home for dinner tonight.
We are having front after front passing through keeping the Stripers pretty confused. Also the aftershocks we had yesterday didn't help thing much today. We have another front passing through tonight and yet another front passing through on Friday night. Hope the weather calms down soon.

Tony

Cloudy and rain, Water temperature 42* up and 47* mid lake.
Well now that hunting season is over I have to go back to work so I called Tony yesterday and invited him to go out with me for a couple hours to locate bait and fish again. I mainly wanted to drive around the lake checking out the water temps and color of the lake so we cruised for awhile, located some bait and kept about 80 baits to fish with this morning. My wife wanted two fish for dinner and Tony said he would like a fish diner so we decided to keep a couple today. I located some fish on our first set up and within 30 minutes we had caught enough for dinner and were already throwing fish back. We left that area so I could take clients out on it later in the week and hit 2 other areas this morning before deciding to get off the water before the hard rains hit. I am glad to be back out on the water again.

Kathy, Bonnie and Todd

Sunny and Pleasant, Water temperature 50* and stained.
I got out early to catch bait then picked my crew up and went fishing. I concentrated on areas this morning where we had success yesterday. I started off deploying boards on the bank side of the boat when the closest board to the bank started skipping across the surface. Before I could get another bait in the water a second board got hit. I started thinking to myself that my worrying last night of the fish turning off due to a cold front blowing through was in vain. Todd had called many times wondering if we should reschedule the trip due to the weather and after him changing his mind several times at 7 o'clock last night he decided to go today. It actually was a beautiful morning with the sun out and little wind but that did not last very long. It took me a little while to figure out what the fish were doing but once we did we worked on them. I figured out a pattern they were using and every spot that we hit that fit the pattern we caught fish. Kathy had been the luckiest today reeling in the largest fish until Todd hooked up with his big fish. He had fought a nice fish prior to catching this one but messed around with it until it got tangled in another line and broke off as I was ready to put the net in the water. He was having trouble with this other fish and I was teasing him about loosing the big fish of the day but he came through for us and we landed the nice Striper. This family really enjoys fishing and have been clients of mine for many years. Although we have had plenty of great trips in the past this trip will stand out in their mind and as Todd put it what a wonderful Christmas present.

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope all my friends and family will
take time to remember our loved ones who are ill or who can not be with us this Christmas.

PS...A long time Striper fisherman of Lake Anna, Allen Worsky, aka...TRASH CAN... is in the hospital recovering from surgery. We will keep him in our prayers.

Scott and Mark

Cloudy and warm, Water Temperature 51* and Stained.
I got out early to catch bait this morning but after a couple hours of throwing I only had 2 baits that I wanted to use so I picked the guys up at 7 and went back out to catch bait. Finally caught a beautiful tankful of bait around 8, located some fish and set up on them. The fog was thick this morning and didn't clear off till around 10 o'clock. Fishing was slow so I relocated to an entirely different area and set out a spread of boards. Once the sun came out of the clouds we started taking hits. For the next couple of hours it appeared when the sun was out the fish would hit and when it was cloudy we didn't. Hopefully the sun shines tomorrow and everyone catches fish. Although it is December 22nd it felt like October with light winds and air temps into the 60's.

Lowrance Pictures

Quite often I receive emails requesting more depth finder pictures with explanations of how to interpret what I am seeing on my Lowrance so that my viewers can understand what they see on their own units. Although I am not an expert I can relate to my experiences of what we catch when I see different scenarios while fishing for Stripers. Last week while on the water I took this picture [lower picture] at 7:50 in the morning. The screen is set up with 3 screens showing bottom lock on the left of the screen set to show from the bottom up 7 feet off the bottom, the center screen traditional sonar in a 30 foot scale and on the right half of the screen side scan set on a 80 foot scale. I was looking for Stripers on 30 foot flats at the time and crossed over the channel which was 36 feet deep. I saw a couple arches on the center screen but when I looked at the side scan I noticed actually how large the fish were. I was traveling 7 tenths of a mph and noticing extremely long lines with large shadows out behind them. The boat is at 0 in the top middle of the right screen and fish were showing up around 20 feet with the larger fish showing shadows further out to the side on the screen. In the past seeing lines this size at this speed produced Stripers usually in excess of 8 to 10 pounds. The problem with fishing here is that they are in the middle of the channel, an area where Stripers seldom feed. I continued to search for fish and at 8:30 found a school of Stripers up on a flat where they will feed. After observing the screen seeing smaller fish above the larger fish we put our downlines down to 20 feet immediately hooked up with 6 Stripers at once. After boating the fish I changed my left screen to show the middle of the water column [12 to 22 feet] where I could see the fish more clearly. I saw more fish on the right side of my screen so a gradually steered the boat in that direction to stay on the fish. After about 10 minutes of working the school a couple of boats came nearby us with their big motors on and we watched the fish break up into all directions, time to get our baits in and find another school of Stripers!
Click on the picture for a larger view.

Jeff Prather

Cloudy and cold, Water temperature 50* and Stained.
A friend and I got out early this morning to catch bait then we picked Jeff up at 6:15. We went back out and spent about 30 minutes catching some nice Gizzards then set out a spread of boards and downlines pulling flats nearby the channel. We had no sooner got our baits out when a couple downlines went off. Jeff boated them and before we could rebait boards started skipping across the surface being towed by Stripers. For the next hour and a half it was all we could do to keep baits in the water. I had taken a friend Brian out to do some video filming today. He had his camera running when we had 6 rods hook up all at once. Jeff wrestled all of the fish to the boat without loosing a fish. I guess the action was a little too reveling because before we knew it jump fisherman were all around us. I eased off of the school and popped a couple more a few hundred yards away before the front blew in around 9 this morning. We had caught 21 by then and had enough of other boaters so we got on our big motor and looked for other schools. The temperature falling about 10 degrees coupled with the wind howling made it quite uncomfortable for awhile. The front took its toll, we only caught 5 more fish the rest of the trip. We still were happy catching 26 fish for the day but we were also bummed out knowing that if the front had not come through till later in the day we could have easily doubled our catch.

Shelton, Greg and Vinnie

Partly cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 49*to 53* and Stained.
Anthony took Vinnie and Shelton [Ferguson Enterprises] along with Greg their Kohler rep fishing today. Anthony and Vinnie got out early enough to catch bait, picked the rest of the crew up at 7 and hit a flat that had been producing some nice fish. After pulling the are for an hour and a half without much action he change tactics and converted to using down lines over deeper water. Before they knew it the action got hot and heavy. By noon they were out of bait so they ate a great lunch prepared by Greg and caught more bait. Anthony wanted to try fishing boards again over shallow flats so he converted back to pulling boards hoping to catch some bigger fish that we know are feeding this time of year. Unfortunately the water is still very stained [6 inch visibility] coupled with the cold water making fishing difficult using this method. Today was a great day on the water, little wind, warm air temperatures and plenty of fish to take home for table fare.

Reed, Todd, Matt, Johnny and Bruce

Cloudy and Warm, Water temperature 50* and clear.
Got a late start this morning, one of the guys got lost so we left the marina around 7. I threw for bait for a an hour and a half, caught enough to get started so I put out a spread pulling shallow flats. After getting 3 baits in the water one of the boards started skipping across the water and after a short battle we had our first fish in the boat. The guys faces lit up with smiles, there was a lot of chatter about maybe they may catch some fish today. Later I found out that some had bad experiences of fishless trips with other guides and some others had not caught fish so large before. We continued to put baits out and catch fish. We fished till about 11:30 taking strikes about every 15 minutes or so. I decided to make a move to collect more bait and hit another area. After throwing for a couple more hours I had what I wanted and tried once again to put a spread out. I had only gotten 5 baits out when we had a double hookup so the guys wrestled them into the boat. The rest of the afternoon was slow, the fish had turned off. I was hoping for a big bite in the afternoon like we had yesterday but it simply did not develop. The guys had a great day and had plenty of fish to take home for the table.

Anthony and Greg

Sunny and Beautiful, Water Temperature 50* and Clear.
After hanging around the house this morning wishing I was on the water I called a couple of friends to see if they wanted to go out for a couple hours this afternoon. We left my house after 1, put the boat in the water, caught bait and went fishing. Less than 2 hours later we had these fish to show for our efforts. The guys had no smiles on their faces, we left while the fish were still biting because I had to get home to prepare the boat for a trip tomorrow. While we tried to take this picture the largest fish of the day hooked up but it was released to fight again. This afternoon we had about 22 to 25 hits.

Anthony and DP

DP also decided to fish today so he got his son and a friend and headed to the lake. DP is pictured holding up all the fish Anthony caught today. Anthony is holding up his biggest fish of the day and is smiling because he doesn't have to clean all the fish, he has to get ready for school tomorrow while his daddy does the dirty work. There was another picture that I wanted to show but it did not come out very well. I was playing with Anthony on the radio today and after awhile he said they finally caught something, a leaf. We all had a good laugh but he got the last laugh of the day, he caught more fish than we did! Sure is great to see kids enjoying the outdoors.
If anyone would like to book a trip with little Anthony, let me know and I will set it up. You have to supply the boat and gear, he will tell you what to do and where to go.

WT Carter

How about this Deer? A friend who belongs to my hunt club harvested this one yesterday. The buck was with another buck chasing a doe that was in estrus. I heard from many people yesterday that they witnessed Bucks chasing does. Looks like the rut is late this year!

Pat Kelly

Sunny and warm, Water Temperature 55* and Clear.
Anthony took his neighbor from when he lived on the lake fishing today. They got out early before daylight to catch bait with intentions of catching fish this morning. They caught a couple fish early but before they knew it boats were everywhere, not only fishing boats but skiers and Jet skiers. The fish turned off until boat traffic settled back down later in the afternoon when they caught plenty of fish. Pat kept a few fish and released the rest of the days catch. The holiday weekend coupled with the beautiful weather prompted most people with boats to get out on the water to enjoy one of the last pretty weekends of the year.

Michael

Although fishing has been very good lately I have been looking forward to hunting this year with my grandson Michael. I fish for a living and one of my other passions is hunting. The lake gets pretty busy this time of year with fisherman so I take time to avoid the traffic of the lake by relaxing in the woods. Michael has been hunting with me since he was 2 years old and is as passionate as I am about the outdoors. I have passed on dozens of Bucks this year and was hoping to see a nice one while Mike hunted with me over his Thanksgiving vacation from school. He is 6 years old and still a little too small to use and even fit a weapon that will kill a deer with an ethical shot but next year will be his first year of carrying a weapon. His best friend [Mosby] is a bird dog that I converted to a Deer dog that we take out into the woods whenever we can. This morning we were hunting a 400 acre property with 10 other hunters putting on drives to move the deer around. Mike and I were the drivers and we were taking Mosby in to an area where we knew big Bucks were living. We had only walked about 200 yards when I saw Mosby's head rise up into the air then immediately he took off. Within seconds he was barking every breath. He ran the deer almost out of hearing then the next thing we knew he had turned and his barks were getting louder and louder. I told Mike that the deer was coming our way and to get ready and be alert. Mosby was only about a hundred yards out when Mike whispered "Its a big Buck". I threw a round of OO Buck into the deers shoulder and the deer expired immediately. I don't remember who's heart was pumping the loudest, Mosby's for running the deer and bringing it to his two best friends, Michaels for experiencing the excitement of the hunt or my heart, being able to share my life's passions with my grandson who is as enthusiastic as I am about hunting and fishing. Hopefully next year Michael will take his first Whitetail Buck.
The deer was a 4 1/2 year old buck that had been seen on the property over the last 3 years. It is a main frame 8 point with 6 stickers. Its antlers were well developed with a lot of mass and long tines.
I will be back on the lake next week chasing Stripers but in the back of my mind I will be counting the days until Mike comes back to spend time with him. He will make the decision whether to hunt or go fishing.

Anthony Seay

DP wanted to take his son Anthony fishing today so he caught bait and put out spread of planner boards pulling shallow flats. The boat traffic was pretty bad today but they managed to hook up with some nice fish. Anthony really enjoys fishing taking after his daddy DP and his granddad Donnie Seay, long time resident of the lake who many moons ago use to take everyone's money in Bass tournaments on the lake. It is great to see traditions passed down through the generations.

Anthony

Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature 55* and Clear.
Couldn't fish yesterday due to the high winds and after looking at the weather this morning it appeared today was going to be the best day of the week to fish so I called Anthony up to see if he could get off work this afternoon and it didn't take him long to answer. I met him at the lake about 1 this afternoon, caught 40 10 inch Gizzards and set out a spread of a dozen boards and a bobber. I found an area where there were no other boats and where the "Jump fisherman" would not encroach on us. Just as we put our spread out a guy that had been winterizing his jet ski put it in the water. I told Anthony this guy was going to be a jerk and low and behold he ran a couple circles around us barely missing our boards. Well he messed that area up so we moved to another area that I knew held fish. On our first pass on the area we had every rod on the bank side take hits. The Stripers would blow the baits out of the water a couple times before hooking up. Watching the baits get hit was as much fun as reeling the fish in. We boated 5 on the first pass them made a big circle to hit it again. Anthony did not want any fish today, I wanted 2 and had a friend that wanted 3 so we kept the first 5 fish and decided to release all the rest of the Stripers that we would catch today. By the time we got back to the area where we caught the fish we had baited all the rods and were ready for action. The Stripers seemed mad at these big Gizz and would chase them to the surface and punished the bait before taking it. We worked the area until just after 3 when a front blew through the area. It looked like it was going to pour down rain. We looked at each other and thought the same thing, we had already gone through 30 baits, caught 15 or 16 beautiful Stripers and neither of us wanted to get wet or ruin the afternoon. We emptied the tank of the remaining baits with fish still slamming our Gizzards that were still out. The fish we kept today had big shoulders and were very healthy. The fish we released were all in good shape and will certainly live to fight again. Tis the season for great Striper fishing.

Jack Miller and Stan Cobb

Sunny and Windy, Water temperature 55* and Clear.
Anthony wanted to see if he could catch Stripers on a sailboat so he took Jack and Stan out this afternoon to do battle with the wind on Lake Anna. It certainly is a challenge to try and control a dozen planner boards while fighting the wind but by the looks of their catch it appears his trolling motor held the boat long enough for the guys to catch a few nice Stripers. Greentop Pro Stan Cobb gave the Bass on Lake Anna a break today also by laying down his casting rods opting out for pulling big Gizzards around the lake. When they weren't fighting fish or the wind Stan was enjoying watching and playing with Anthony's Lowrances, he has a HDS-10 and a HDS-8 on his dash using the 10 for Structure Scan, the 8 for sonar and a HDS-7 up on the bow which he uses for catching bait and also networking with the others to view sonar reading from the stern. Regardless of the weather these "High Tech Rednecks" enjoyed their day off today and took home a couple of fish for the table tonight.

Small school of Stripers

I went out this afternoon with a friend to scout for bait and fish. After catching about 40 8 to 10 inch Gizzards we started looking for Stripers. The wind was blowing out of the East so I did not expect to see very large schools today. We looked and fished for a couple hours finding schools like the one on the picture above. The sonar screen on the left shows a small school only about 10 yards wide with the fish stacked up pretty tight. When I see this configuration of fish the Stripers are generally not feeding. The Stripers were very tight to each other and there was no streaking which would indicate the fish were not feeding. The upper line on the sonar is my sinker and the line just below it rising up to the sinker is my Gizzard getting chased by the Striper that can be seen streaking up chasing the bait which did hook up and eventually boated. The fish was a smaller 5 pound Striper and notice only one fish was interested.
The right screen is Structure Scan set on Side Scan in a 80 foot range. The boat is at 0 and we can see the size of the school and actually how tight it was. The school was only about 100 feet wide by 10 yards long with maybe a couple hundred fish mixed into the group. We boated only 2 fish out of this particular school, again the fish were pretty lethargic at the time this picture was taken. The fish would only hit the downlines that I had set at 24 feet deep, [The big Gizz had swam up to avoid the school of fish]. The Stripers would not engage my freelines that I had out on a dozen boards. If the school was broken up more and numerous fish could have been seen on the Lowrance my boards would have also hooked up. We caught our limits easily and got home in time to climb up in a stand for the evening.

Len Ralston Birthday Trip

Cloudy, Cold, Wind, Cold front conditions, Water temperature dropping to 62*and Clear.
I would have postponed today's trip but this trip was scheduled about a month ago when a hurricane blew into the state and this would be the only day they could get everyone together to go fishing. I told Len's son Mark yesterday that fishing could not be any more challenging than fishing today with a major cold front blowing through last night dropping the air temperatures 25*, high winds and the lake turning over. Mark thought it would be a great day to learn the ropes on locating bait and Stripers and cracking the code on how to put fish in the boat in less than desirable conditions. We hit the water at 5:30 and went to where I caught bait the last couple of days but after an hour of looking never saw a piece of bait. The cold front had worked its magic and dissolved the acres of bait I had been working into thin air. We picked up the rest of the crew at the marina even though I warned them of the frigid day and poor expectations for bait collection and fishing. After burning 3/4 of a tank of gas and 5 hours later we finally located enough bait to get started fishing. I had been looking for fish as well as bait for hours and set up nearby where I had seen fish a few hours before. We had pulled an area for about 250 yards when I saw a school of fish off the right side of my side scan so I turned the boat hard right and chaos erupted. Eight people on the boat with boards and downlines hooked up on their first experience with this type of fishing was needless to say interesting. I might as well been speaking Russian when I asked them to hold their rods up high, follow the fish, avoid the other lines or to give them any assistance in boating the Stripers. They had been so cold and patient with me trying to catch bait they were ready to warm up reeling in the fish. After the first round I had to retie and rebait most of the rods resulting in loosing the school. We worked an area of about 400 acres never finding the school or even picking up a single. A couple hours had gone by, I only had a few smaller baits left in the tank, my baits on the hooks were tired, I wanted to catch fresh baits and suddenly I ran over a school of big Gizzards so I had everyone reel in the lines, throw away the baits , got my net ready went back over the school and caught 35 in one cast. Now I was feeling better although my shoulder was killing me from throwing the net so many times today. I got on my big motor and found an area where I felt we could put a few fish in the cooler. I set up my spread again of 8 boards, a bobber and 8 downlines and trolled around popping a fish here and there. I glanced at my side scan and saw about 20 Stripers 80 feet out to the side of the boat so I made a gradual turn in their direction. Within the next 10 minutes everything we had out had been hit, Stripers were hooked up going every direction, some coming in the boat some tangling up with other lines. Once everyone stopped screaming with joy one gentleman spoke up and said "My wife need to use the rest room"! My heart sank as I looked at the Lowrance with fish everywhere. I had struggled all day to put a fish in the boat but it was getting late and when nature calls their isn't much you can do. We reeled in all the lines and headed for the marina. Although I was disappointed in leaving feeding fish on a day that I knew would be difficult the smiles on everyone faces especially Len's made all my pains and labors of the day seem worthwhile. Patience, perseverance, confidence and Lowrance gave a group of people memories that will last forever.

Happy Birthday Len

Lowrance HDS Pictures

Anthony and myself went out yesterday morning looking to catch some big Gizzards to use as bait today. Anthony was going to give me a break throwing the net so I got behind the wheel and searched for areas that were holding bait. The bottom green screen was taken off of an HDS-10 which was programmed to side scan on an 80 foot scale [the 20, 40, 60 and 80 on the scale represents feet out to the right and left side of the boat, we are looking at a total of 160 wide area]. We were in 23 feet of water and came upon a broken up school of bait. The boat is currently at the top of the picture in the 0 range, we are looking at scattered bait [small dashes] increasingly getting denser as we travel forward [The screen travels top to bottom, the further down the page you look the further behind the boat the picture shows]. I had Anthony throw the net when I took this picture resulting in catching about a dozen 8 to 10 inch Gizzards. The middle screen is showing 3 different screens, the right screen is down scan, the middle screen is regular sonar and the left screen in bottom lock which is showing the bottom 10 feet of water zoomed in 3x, the other 2 screens are set to a scale of 0 to 40 feet deep. On this screen you see clearly on down scan 4 or 5 Stripers located about 30 feet deep attacking the Gizzards on the edge of the school of bait [Stripers are the longer streaks]. The middle part of the screen shows the Stripers again as longer arches and the left screen is zoomed in on the whole mess. The upper screen picture shows 2 screens, the left screen is traditional sonar and the right screen is Structure Scan set on Down scan. These screens move right to left, history is moving to the left. It is clear to see that we are on a school of Big Gizzards with a few Stripers on the lower left edge of the school. I was slowing down as I took the picture so the Gizz are showing up as smaller dashes on the down scan at about 4 mph and when the boat gets to about 1 mph they start to arch toward the top right of the page nearer to the transducer because the boat has slowed down to the point where the bait stays in the picture longer. If I were running at a speed of 30 mph the school would show up as a large cloud of bait packed so tight you would not be able to see any individual baits beside the school. Needless to say we caught plenty of Gizzards this morning which resulted in a cooler full of fish after a couple hours of fishing.

Gilles Lizimaque with guests Steve and Tom

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 65* and clear.

I got out early this morning and caught 40 baits, picked up the guys at their dock and went fishing. I intended to put out my spread of a dozen boards and a couple free lines before I got to the flat that I expected Stripers to be holding but we started getting jammed after getting only a few baits out. For the next couple of hours we did battle with the Stripers till we ran out of baits. We got all of our rods in and took off to catch more bait. After about 20 minutes of looking I found what I wanted and filled the tank up. It was still early in the morning so I decided to look around to see if I could located any schools. I set up putting out 10 boards and 8 downlines rigged with beautiful fresh bait. I pointed my boat uplake, set my speed and turned on my auto-pilot because it was very little wind and no boats out. By lunch time and eighteen Stripers later we called it quits, took a picture and took them back to their dock. The picture of the Lowrance is a school of Stripers I located a couple days ago around the power plant.

Paul Redmon and Son Paul

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 68* and Clear.

I picked the guys up at the marina at 6:30 and we went to catch bait. I was very concerned this morning about the bait collection and fishing conditions after the last 2 days of major winds and a cold front blowing through. Bait was tough but we caught plenty and set our spread out of a bunch of boards and downlines. We had pulled a stretch for about a half a mile when I noticed one Striper blow up across the lake. After a couple minutes a gull flew over to the same area so I headed that direction. About 200 yards before getting there I started showing Strippers on my Lowrance. We had our downlines in there faces but we were not taking hits. Next thing we knew a board went off and before we could net it 6 or 7 other rods bent over. Needless to say we were quite active for a brief time. After tying a few lines and rebaiting we hit the area again with no success. We fished the rest of the day without putting another fish in the boat. The lake should settle back down in a couple days and I will start working on them again.

Allen, Bill and Willard

Cloudy, Rain and Warm, Water Temperature 72* and Clear.

Last time I had this crew out we had an aftershock of 4.something which shut the fish down and just before I called Allen yesterday we had a 3.0. I knew I was in for a tough day because every time we get these earthquakes it messes up bait collection and fishing. Well I had to throw for about 3 hours today to get enough baits to fish with. Fishing today was also spotty, I would see plenty of fish but we would only take an occasional hit. The rain did not cooperate either, most of the morning it poured, we ended up getting over 2 inches. We caught fish on boards as well as downlines today, there was no pattern, rhyme or reason why the fish would hit or not hit. I believe the fish get very confused with the earthquakes. We ended up having a good fishing day with the guys taking home plenty of Stripers to feast on. Bill said they caught every fish that hit today. Bill is an old neighbor from when I use to live on the lake and it is always good to see him. [Hi Rita!]

Dave and Joe

Cloudy and warm, Water Temperature 71* and Clear.

Picked the guys up early and caught bait. We set out a spread of boards and a couple downlines and the boards started going off. The first fish we hooked into was a pig. Joe jumped on the rod and battled the fish while it pulled drag. Once he got it to the boat it went under the boat and motor and out the other side. He could not gain on it and it finally got into a downline. Dave thought he had a fish on so he snatched the rod up and, well you guessed it, broke the fish off. Before the guys could realize what had happened other boards started going down. We went through 2 hours of action then had to go catch more bait. After catching bait I made a major move and as I was running I spotted what I thought to be a large school of Stripers. I slammed on the breaks and told the guys to get the downlines out as quick as we could. My interpretation of the Lowrance was true, we pulled up into the school of fish that you see above on the bottom picture. The left screen is on bottom lock, the middle screen is traditional sonar and the right screen is side scan with each dash representing a Striper. Needless to say we had our hands full for a while. About an hour later I took a picture of the Lowrance on yet another school of fish, this time the left screen was side scan and the right screen was on down scan. There were not thousands of Stripers in this second school but enough to keep us busy. Joe is pictured holding a citation Channel Cat that weighed in at 14 pounds which he released alive and well. We had well over 30 hook ups today and kept our limit of Stripers for the table.

Gary, Brian and Dan

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 72* and Clear.

Picked the guys up at 6 then went to catch bait. Every morning lately it has taken about an hour or so for the bait to get balled up enough to catch so we worked on bait collection for awhile then set up on an area that I knew was holding some nice Stripers. We worked the area for about 2 hours until we ran out of baits then caught 40 more baits and went to another area. I saw plenty of fish there but for some reason they were not real aggressive. After working the area for an hour I decided to make a move but after reeling in the first bait we started taking hit after hit. After hooking up with over 20 Stripers it got hot out and the guys were ready to go. The end to some beautiful weather is on its way, rain is coming for a couple of days this week.

The Cralle 25th Annual Family Fishing Vacation

Sunny and Beautiful, Water Temperature 70* and Clear.

Maury contacted me a few weeks ago excited about setting up a fishing trip for his 25th annual family fishing vacation at Lake Anna. He had told me that although they had been coming to the lake for so many years on these fishing vacations they had never caught any fish and that he was ready to break the curse. I picked him up with 4 sons and a Grandson and off we went to catch bait. It was extreemly foggy this morning until about 8:30 which made bait collection a little difficult. I was in no hurry to set up fishing because I wanted to fish on the main lake but with a Bass tournament today I did not want to put my clients in harms way. [ Bass Boaters use their GPS to navigate in the fog driving at speeds up to 70 mph not giving themselves much chance to avoid a collision with another boat.]. Once the fog lifted we had caught plenty of bait so we put out our spread and fished. We popped a couple of Stripers and right when we got on a school 2 Tow Boats had to run right next to us spooking the fish. Michael was ready to go back to the dock to get some more Beers so we had a pit stop, dropped off a couple fish for the girls to clean and went to top off our bait tank. The picture of the Lowrance depics a major school of baits that I threw into. I barely could lift the net over the side of the boat due to how full the net was. We set up on another area nearby and took about 8 or 10 quick hits before the boat traffic ran us off. Maury wanted to let some of the other family fish so we hit the dock again, traded some fisherman and went to another area. We fished there till everyone caught a fish then they were ready to call it a day. We all had a great time today and I don't think I have ever seen a family get along with each other as well as this family does. It is a good feeling to see families regularly make time to reunite every year to enjoy each other before heading back to their lifestyles. Today we kept 10 nice Stripers to feed the family tonight. What a beautiful weekend for the Cralle's. Gus [the man holding the pole on the right side of the picture] is a Marine.

SEMPER FI

Enrico, Steve and Rod

Sunny and Beautiful Weather, Water Temperature 71* and Clear.

I picked the guys up this morning around 5:30 and went to catch bait. We put out our spread and our baits immediately started getting chased to the surface with Stripers boiling under them. We worked the area for quite some time taking occasional hits but never had numerous rods go off at once. Although fishing was slow today we all had fun and certainly enjoyed the weather. The guys were anxious to get off the water today because they were interested in meeting some Russian for dinner this afternoon. They kept 7 Stripers to take home for the freezer.