Some Recent Catches

 Billy of Tires Unlimited hooked up with these two 32 inch Stripers at the same time. After reeling one in he grabbed the bobber rod and reeled it in as well. He said he needs to start lifting weights cause his arms were burning after reeling these two in one after another.

 DP to his friend Blake out on Sunday morning and banged these nice Stripers.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

 Anthony caught these two nice Stripers while fishing SML last week.

 

 

Eric and his crew of Mountian Men

Partly Cloudy and Warm, Water temps ranging from 59 to 50 degrees.

Today I started off by catching 200 baits then picked the guys up and went fishing. On our first set we caught a few fish but after catching just 8 Stripers in 3 hours I needed to make a change. I ran up lake looking for any place where I could get 6 inches of visibility but there was nowhere that wasn't mud. We tried anyway then moved back downlake and finished the day working deep flats. Today was a tough day of fishing only catching 21 Stripers. Although our catch rate was low spirits were high and we all had a great time.

High Point Marina

High Point is just finishing up installing their new covered dock system. They have some slips still available and some will have lifts as well. These docks systems are the bomb...over ten feet high [plenty of room for pontoon tops or Center Consoles with T Tops], Stone Floors [Very heavy and stable], 3 foot catwalks for each boat and Covered. They are also over deep water and floating so water levels will never be an issue. They also have installed 4 new gas pumps that will dispense 3 grades of Ethanol Free Gas and pay at the pump. They are located mid lake at the 208 bridge. Better reserve yours soon before they are all gone!

Simrad Screen Shots

 In this screenshot I had already gone over some Stripers on a 30 foot flat and wanted to go precisely back to the spot so using the touch screen I drug back to this area and created a waypoint by touching right where the + is. Once doing this it marked my Navionics map with an X and designated a # 222 for that spot. In the square box it showed me some data that I use to go directly back to the spot. It was 55.1 feet away from me and I headed 140* on my COG [right side of screen] to go back to it. It also recorded the water temperature and exact depth of the water. On the map I also turn the trolling motor to point the boat [black boat like figure] to the waypoint which also takes me to the spot. On this particular occasion fish were few and far between but we put downlines out at 25 feet and popped a couple. Some days I have to locate numerous tiny schools to put fish in the boat. My Simrad is my best friend on the water.

 In this pic I was working a 30 foot hump pulling a downline at 25 feet [long horizontal line] right through the Stripers. As you can see the bait went right through the small school and did not take a hit. You can also see some Stripers on the side scan. By highlighting different depths on my map makes it easier to visualize the hump. I also marked a couple ares on the hump where we went over small schools of Stripers.

 On this screen shot I was looking for small schools using my sonar and map. My sonar page is zoomed in to a 12 to 30 scale because the fish I had been seeing were relating to the bottom. The Blueish small screen in the middle is indicating the part of the water column I am zoomed into. These fish were small but I wanted to see what they were so I waypointed them, turned the boat around and put 2 baits right on the bottom. One of the lines hooked up with a 3 pound Bass.

 I was working ridges on this particular afternoon and hooked up with a Hybrid where the channel split the ridge into. Notice the bait being pulled through the school and not getting hit. On side scan the fish look big but notice how slow I am traveling. When the boat is hardly moving the vertical marks are bigger because the fish stay in the picture longer. If you look at the sonar page you can see numerous fish but the arches are very thin and showing very little color. Larger fish at this speed would have much more color within the arch and the arches would be much more defined.

Here I was pulling down lines at 25 feet and went over the channel and noticed Stripers 60 to 80 feet to the right of the boat on side scan. Fishing was slow so I maneuvered the boat over to them but did not get bit. When the fish are directly over the channel I seldom catch them. When I see them 95% of the time the Stripers are not feeding and I move on, as I did in the 2 pictures above.

Beautiful Bluebird Day

 Dylan and Brian

Walt with a citation Yellow Perch

Sunny and Beautiful, Water temperature upper 40's

This morning I had a couple hours to spare before I had to go to an appointment around lunch time so I took Brian and his son Dylan and Walt out for some fun on Lake Anna. This time of year weather can be crazy, the last 2 day the wind howled and this morning it was so calm I was praying for a breeze to put a ripple on the surface. Usually when it is dead calm my shallow bite suffers so this morning I started out with downlines. We popped 6 Stripers pretty quick but after 10 minutes of catching it was over so we moved on. We pulled a shallow flat that I caught fish on a few days ago but the sun was so bright we only took a couple of hits. We made a move and hit another area with a whole lot of structure changes but only managed to catch punks. I couldn't stay out long this morning so we made one more move and tried downlines over 30 feet of water and popped some nicer fish. Dylan caught most of the keeper Stripers this morning and Walt is pictured holding a Citation Perch. He is a great Taxidermist and probably will make a nice mount out of this colorful fish.

'Tiss the season for BIG 'UNS

A Good Morning on the Lake

 Nathan, Nate and George

 Nate with a Nice 12 pound Striper

Nate with a Citation Kitty

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature mid 40"s

Today George wanted to take his son out and catch a bunch of fish and also go with me to catch bait so he met me at the marina at 4. We caught bait then went looking for Stripers. I saw a whole lot of bait in a large cove so I slowed down and decided to fish around it. We set out a spread and worked the area till we started taking hits. Once we hit the magic depth I concentrated of keeping the boat on that contour and we proceeded to "Spank" the fish. Before we knew it we had caught over 20 Stripers and this nice Catfish. We took the fish back to High Point, weighed the two big 'uns and popped a picture. Nathan is in the pic because Nate could not hold up all the weight of the stringer. George said they have fished the Lake for a long time and only caught one Striper. I guess today I got that monkey off his back. I got back to my house in time for a good mid morning Breakfast.

A Challenging Day

 Ian, Eugene, Jim and Erika

 Eugene with a nice Bass

Jim with a 23 inch, 7 pound Citation Bass

Cloudy and Cool, Water temps ranging from 40 to 50 *

Today we started out working a deep flat with down lines. We hooked up immediately and boated a couple fish but the action dies as soon as it started. We worked the area for awhile then I decided to check out similar areas on my Simrad. After looking for 1 1/2 hours and not seeing what I wanted to see I set up over a couple more areas with no success. The Stripers were simply nowhere to be found. Four hours into the morning and the livewell was looking pretty pitiful. Time to change up so I made another move and set out a huge spread of Water Bugzs and planned to work a huge flat from deep to shallow. I saw a few fish deep but it wasn't until I put the boat into 10 feet or less where we started hooking up. After a couple of other hits in skinny water I had their number and we proceeded to wear the fish out. For four hours we never went more than 5 minutes without getting bit. All I time for was baiting and netting fish. I couldn't even get a chance to eat my lunch! The time went by fast and before we knew it it was time to go. We kept 18 Stripers but caught over 50. We also caught a bunch of Largemouths as well. We ended up having a great day and what a day to have it on. Jim and his daughter were celebrating their Birthdays which is tomorrow. 

Happy Birthday Erika and Jim

A Great Winter Morning

 Dave, Bobby, Alan, Tim, Tom and Tyler

 Bobby

Dave

Partly cloudy and warm, Water temperatures 38* up lake and mud, 40* mid lake and 51 at the Dam.

Today was my first day back on the water in awhile. It's hard to go fishing with the weather we have been having, but we got out today. The ice up lake finally melted yesterday but it still was very cold at the 208 bridge, 40*. Today Alan and I got out early and caught 175 baits to fish with. We picked up the rest of my clients at 6:45 and went in search of Stripers. Since the water temperature had dropped 6* in less than a week I decided to work downlines in the morning then convert over to boards once the water warmed up a little. We set up first in an area where fish migrate back and forth between shallow and deep water hoping to catch fish changing patterns since the weather was to change 30 degrees today. We set up putting out just 8 baits to show the guys what I do and my main man Bobby hooked up first. We worked an area of 150 yards in a transition area for awhile before we made a move. Bobby had the hot hand today, he kept busy most of the morning. I located 4 or 5 different areas where I found fish on my Simrad catching fish after fish. Dave and Bobby are holding up two of the better Stripers we caught this morning. Today started off right with one of the guys saying a prayer which really helped. We were fishing a full moon, very cold water temps and high winds today which usually translates into poor fishing but with a little help from above we caught over 40 Stripers and 6 Largemouths today. My job is great... I get to "work" doing what I love to do, meet great people and establish long lasting relationships, have fun in the outdoors and get paid for what I do. I also have a wonderful family that supports me in my endeavors and helps me do what I do.

I Am Blessed

Simrad Screen Shots

 This is a school of Stripers [arches] under a ball of Herring [center of lower screen]. The vertical lines on my echo page is interference from my front unit that I had on at the time of this shot.

 I was looking for fish traveling about 20mph [left side of screen] when I saw some brush up on top of this hump so I slowed down [yellow boat wash from surface down to 15 feet] to check it out. There are Bass nosed up to the edge of the drop and after going back over the brush there were a couple at the base of the brush pile.

 Here are a few Stripers [arches] next to a whole lot of Gizzard Shad of various sizes. I threw into the shad and could hardly lift the net. Must have caught 150 in one throw ranging from 3 to 12 inches long.

 In this screen shot I had just gone under a bridge [yellow road on map] and noticed Gizzard Shad [chunky marks on the left side of echo page], a small school of Herring [cloud of bait just to the right and above the Gizz], and a school of Threadfin with Stripers underneath them.

 This is a shot of Stripers that I wished would eat our baits. These Stripers were inactive. I can tell by the way the arches are almost perfect and not moving or streaking. Also I pulled baits right through them without any success. You can look at Stripers and tell without fishing them if they are active or not. These fish were in somewhat of a thermal shock after the water temps dropped to 42*.

 This is a shot of 3 to 5 inch Gizzard Shad. I can tell by the size of the chunks on the echo page. Side scan and down scan also help verify the size of the baits. I made one throw on these and filled my tank up. The dark blue area on the right side of my side scan 50 to 100 feet out is the shadow of the channel.

 This is a shot of Herring scattered from 10 to 15 feet deep relating to this rock pile. Notice on the left side of my side scan all the rocks.

In this shot we were working a hump that rose up to 30 feet out of 50 feet of water. Stripers were scattered in a half dozen places on the 6 acre hump is small pods of 20 to 30 fish. We pulled baits through all of the pods but the fish were not active and would not respond to our offerings. I located these Stripers while running about 30mph and turned back around. I told my crew that they were not streaking and that we may not get bit but it had been a long day and it was worth a try. The horizontal line at 24 feet is a bait that we pulled through the schools. We basically bumped them in the heads with no response from them.

A few recent catches

 Matt

DP went out one afternoon last week, caught bait and located these Stripers on his HDS 8. As you can see on the screen shot below he was traveling 5 mph when he went over the school. He turned around and put downlines on the fish and caught this stringer in less than 20 minutes. It pays to trust your electronics!

 

 The left screen in side scan and the right is down scan.

 This is the sonar pic of him approaching the fish on plane on the left half of the screen then slowing down and marking the school under his boat.

Mike, Ernie, John, Art and Joe

Dale

Anthony at SML

 Anthony took some time off and went to Smith Mountain Lake to try out his new boat and tackle some Stripers up in the teens. He is holding his fish next to 24 inches of Lowrance up on his dash. He has another 12 up on the bow for catching bait. Poor Boy!

 Anthony and Jeff holding up a couple they hooked up at the same time., You can see he is pulling boards and covering most of the creek.

 Jeff holding a couple nice ones.

Simrad Screen Shots

 This shot was taken back in late November. We had been working 30 to 40 foot flats catching Striper after Striper. I had just located this school and you can see on the sonar page use dropping a bait and egg sinker down into the school of fish [about 3/4 of the way across the screen]. The white vertical dashes on the side scan are Stripers. 

 This pic was taken the same day a few minutes after the first one and it shows us pulling a couple of downlines through a few Stripers. The baits are the horizontal lines on the sonar page. You can see on my chart that I had laid out a waypoint and was working around it.

 Later on that day the fish had moved up onto shallower flats. We are working a flat in 27 feet of water here with downlines and 3 of our baits hooked up. You can see us fighting the fish on the right side of the screen.

 This pic was taken this week. I took my grandson and his friend out for a couple of hours in the afternoon. These fish were extremely active, we were catching them on boards and downlines at the same time. We caught 18 Stripers in a little over an hour of fishing. The pic below was taken just a few seconds after this one.

In this pic we still are pulling downlines and boards. The light light blue horizontal line at 17 feet is our sinker and the yellowish line is the bait swimming above the sinker. If you look out to the left on the side scan 40 to 60 feet you can see 6 or 8 Stripers with shadows behind them. I was pulling 5 boards off of each side and our 3rd, 4th and 5th board on the left side of the boat hooked up presumably with some of these Stripers. After boating the fish I went back in my history and waypointed the spot, turned the boat around and went to it. We finished out there hooking up with nicer fish.

The water temps this year are warmer than usual and the weather forecast predicts warm weather for at least the next week. Stripers are very active now and will be feeding all over the lake. Look for the upper rivers to be very productive. The stained water and shallow flats will warm in the afternoons and the Stripers should feed heavily up there. Jump fisherman will also have fun mid lake chasing the birds. The bottom three pics were taken this Sunday afternoon. I don't know if it was more fun watching the boys catching Stripers or watching 7 boats running from bird to bird. They would see a bird dive and fire up there motors and run right into where the birds were diving. They would make 8 or 10 casts then do it again and again. I hope they caught some fish but we did not see them catch any. They were competing against themselves to get as close to the birds as they could spooking the fish. A better approach would be to stop at least 100 yards from diving birds and use the trolling motors to silently sneak up on the fish. Everyone would have greater success being stealthy and probably have more fun. December fishing should be great this year. Get out and "get you some".