Simrad Screen Shots

 This is an interesting shot of a couple of Stripers. This was taken early in the morning before the schools developed. The 2 fish in the middle of the sonar screen were nice Stripers. Notice the white  vertical dashes on the side scan. They are not only long but are showing some nice shadows behind them.

 This is a Striper who did not like being caught. After taking him off the hook he swam as fast as he could right to the bottom of the lake then cruised off happy to be back in his element.

 In this pic I am using Chirp to watch my baits coming through some Stripers near the bottom. The long horizontal lines near the bottom are 4 of our baits. The squiggly two lines are our sinker and bait being set out. When fish are hugging the bottom Chirp works great. It shows much more detail and has more target separation especially at deeper depths. Depending on where I locate my rods in the boat I can monitor 6 to 8 baits at a time simply from watching my Simrad. Incredible technology!

In this pic I have adjusted my upper limits to 15 feet. I do this when working fish that are deep. No need to look at unproductive sections of the water column. By making my range 15 to 40 feet I can see the fish so much clearer. In the near future I will show how by adjusting some of the features of your unit you can customize your screen to your specific fishing conditions. 

Ben Strickland and Guests

Art, Dan, Neal, Randy and Ben

Today Tony took Ben and his friends out for some catchin

on Lake Anna.

Comedy of Errors

 Jim, Tony, Zeke, Kat and Bob

 A couple of nice Stripers. Signals are long on the echo page but I focus on Side scan mostly when sizing fish. You can see a couple long vertical white dashes about 40 feet from the boat but I also see two nice shadows behind the fish tell me they are decent fish.

 This is a school of punks. Again check out the small white dashes on the side scan.

Here I slow down from plane to 1.8 mph when I saw these Stripers. As I was moving fast they appeared as a yellow-reddish glob but as I slow they developed into arches. Again check out the side scan. To the right at the bottom of the side scan window the dots are small when I was going fast but as I slowed down you can see that they were nice fish with large white dashes with shadows.

Cloudy, rain and cool, Water temperature 77* and clear.

Today I had regular clients Jim and Kat. They invited a few of their friends that go out with him every year with me. It rains every time they book a trip. They usually drink a couple of cases of good beer [with a designated driver] and have a ball all day. Today was no exception. Before Jim even got on the boat this morning he apologized in advance for Zekes and Bobs "to be" behavior. When this crew gets together Jim usually catches half the fish that are caught on the boat that day. I don't believe he is that better of a fisherman, he just listens when I explain in the morning how to deploy the baits and how to reel them in. I use circle hooks and the Stripers want the bait in their faces so it is very important to do 4 things the way I explain them. Jim listens and catches fish [while drinking his share of beer]. Now Bob and Zeke are a little different. Last year it was Bob who never got it all day until the last 30 minutes of the trip but today it was all Zeke. If it could go wrong, it happened up in the front of the boat with these two friends. They laughed, told jokes and ragged on each other all day long and had the rest of us in tears. At one point we had all the rods hooked up. One man was throwing up over the boat, I was netting two Stripers in the back of the boat, Zeke was wrestling his fish that got to the other side of the boat while Bob was trying to dig a hook out of my throw net that Zeke hooked into. We banged this school for about 45 minutes before the catfish moved in. It is always a great time fishing with this crew and we always catch fish. Today we caught about 40 to 50 Stripers and 20 Catfish. Way too much fun to pack into just a day of fishing. Good fun with good people.

A Major Cold Front

 Bill Siewert and crew

Blurry picture due to wet camera.

 Here is a school of Stripers we found at noon today.

 I popped this pic after catching 6 or 8 fish this morning.

Chirp Definition picking out each individual fish

Rain and Cold, Water Temperature dropped to 78* and Clear.

I was worried about what this front would do to the fish and bait and I found out early. I hung 4 lights for 45 minutes and after no bait gathered I picked them up and hung in a different area. Struggled for bait but by daylight I had 165 in my tanks. Went and picked the guys up and on the way to them saw some fish so I went right back to them. We hit 4 or 5 schools this morning and one around noon. Everything else was just scattered about. It was a very nasty day on the water but by the end of the trip we were happy we did as well as we did. One out of every 4 fish was a keeper but not bad for such a nasty day. Looks like the same weather for tomorrow!

Too Much Action

Joe and Jeff

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 82* and Clear

Today I caught bait early , met my clients at 5:30 and went searching for schools. I told them as we departed the marina that they were in trouble today because the bite is on and two people have no chance of handling it. I set them up on some small pods of fish first so they could get use to handling the rods and fish. After two sets I took them to a real school. We got our lines out and 6 poles bent over at once. They grabbed the poles with the littlest fish and got them to the boat and reeled in one other but the other three got off, one fish wrapped around another line and broke off. I spent the rest of the morning looking for small pods of fish that they might handle, the big schools are way too much for two anglers. Caught about 60 by 10:30 this morning. If you come fishing on our boats in the next two months I advise you to have at least 4 anglers and bring your A game, you will need it.

Three Seays

Anthony and Donnie

Lowrance screen shot taken today over school of Stripers

Today DP took his Father and Son out for a couple hours of Striper action. Isn't it wonderful the cycle of progression. Donnie was one of the best on the lake 30 years ago and taught DP how to Bass fish and instilled not only the ways of catching fish but the virtues that go along with being outdoors together as Dad and Son. DP has been taking his son Anthony since he could sit in a boat and Anthony's passion for the outdoors [hunting, fishing and Baseball] is all the boy can think about. DP is not only paying it forward but backwards to his father as well. Three generations on the water or in the field helps keeps this family together. I had the same experiences with my father and now my grandson Michael. He is getting old enough to help me out on the boat and will hopefully be a mate soon learning the ways of the lake. Remember to take our kids or any kids into the outdoors, they will be better people for it.

Three Happy Guys

 Jake, Rob and Bachelor not for long.

I got these guys up early this morning to go out for a few hours and start the bachelor party off right. They left a couple of friends in bed who wanted to rest up for tonight's festivities.  Hopefully they took a nap and will have a fun and safe weekend at Jake's lake home.

 This is a screen shot I took this week using my Navionics card as a guide to put me on Stripers. You can see the contours on the map but I also have two waypoints marked. There is very deep water nearby and the two waypoints are where it rises up out of 40 plus feet to about 25 feet. Stripers were on the break coming up out of the deep water. In the summer a good map is essential to find Stripers.

I was looking for fish when I went over this channel. On the left is a school of Herring relating to some peaks and valleys then I drop into the channel. Once I come up out of the channel the bottom is laced with fish hugging the bottom. These are 1 to 2 pound Catfish.

Simrad shots

 This is a screen shot of one of my clients reeling in a Striper.

 These two shots were taken of a Railroad Trestle that was

 blown up by Dynamite before the lake was flooded.  

This is the concrete remains.

 

Side Scan works kind of like a flashlight aimed in a wide beam off to both sides of the boat. It identifies the target [in this case concrete] and casts a shadow behind the taller objects on the bottom. These were in about 40 feet of water so the"flashlight" was quite a ways above the objects. If this picture was taken in 20 foot of water for example, the shadows would have been a lot taller. If fish are out to the side of the boat, it will also cast a shadow behind the fish if it is large enough to create a shadow. Fish will show up on Side Scan as vertical dashes, the larger the fish, the longer the dash. On Lake Anna Stripers in excess of about 8 pounds cast a shadow. Smaller Stripers usually do not. Needless to say, when I am on a school of Stripers, if I see long dashes with shadows, I steer my boat directly to them.

Cayden Mills and Timmy

 This is a shot of the first school we found this morning. I was using my Navionics card working break lines near the channel. We worked on this school for an hour this morning before leaving them and searching others.

 I am on the same school here but it had moved about 200 yards. I constantly stayed on the school using my side scan. Which ever side had the most fish I would gravitate to. Notice the detail in the Navionics map. Without a good card it is hard to work contours.

 This is another large school we found in deeper water. We worked this school for 45 minutes and left it to find other schools. Again side scan kept me on the Stripers. Is there any doubt of what you are looking at here? Navionics maps and Navico [Lowrance and Simrad] are the ticket to success. Proof is in the picture. Are you seeing shots like this on your unit? If not may be time to upgrade.

Cayden strugling to hold up his share of the bar.

Navico Screen Shots

 I am often asked what Bass look like on my screen. In this screen shot I was running about 25mph and saw a school of Largemouth relating to the very top of this hump. I scrolled back in my history and took this picture. All the whitish vertical dots are motor noise. I keep my sensitivity up while running in order to see as much information as possible. Over time I do not even notice the noise, but I do see the fish and color they give off. The more color, the denser the fish. I slowed the boat down slightly after going over the hump then sped back up before taking the shot. These shots are click-able to enlarge. I am sure all you Bass fisherman are going to check out my coordinates and hit this on your next outing. Notice the time of day, it was morning and they were up on the top feeding. If you hit this later in the day once the sun gets bright you may have to work the deeper ledges of the structure. Good Luck!
 

 Again I was running fairly fast when I came up on this school of Stripers. Notice how small they appear when I first come up on them and as the boat slows it shows larger arches. This was a school of punks which is identifiable by the very small dots on side scan. Yes we caught them but left after getting punked.

This is another school that I found about a half an hour later. We worked this school for about an hour till we completely ran out of bait. The diagonal lines are us dropping our baits into the school. The horizontal line going across the screen is a bait that was not put down to the correct depth. Obviously it did not get hit. Occasionally people get excited when we are on school and do not measure out correctly and this is what happens. Usually all day everyone else on the boat gets constant action and the person who does not pay attention watches in disbelief as all the other lines stay hooked up. If Stripers are super aggressive they may come up and hit a bait 10 feet above them but these fish were stratified in the water column very tightly indicating none aggressive behavior. There was no streaking or active fish here but by putting the baits in their faces we spanked them.
Although these shots were taken from my Simrad, Lowrance HDS will show you similar views. I use both and think they are "The Bomb".

Simrad Screen Shots

 This is a screen shot I took a couple days ago. I am on a 80 foot side scan scale [80 feet to the left and right] and a 45 foot scale on my echo [sonar] window.You can see Stripers both on side scan [small vertical dashes] and as yellow and red arches on my echo window. I have adjusted my splits between the screens to have more of a size window on the sonar than the side scan. That way I can see the echo's of the Stripers a little better.

 In this pic I customized my depths on my echo page to an upper limit of 15 feet. By doing so I can eliminate the upper water column which no fish are in and see the fish much more clearly. About halfway through the shot you can see us making 2 foot pulls lowering a bait down into the school then getting clobered by a Striper. These fish were not feeding until I put the bait in their faces then they started to get excited and started streaking. We had some fun with this school.

Here are some dormant Stripers not feeding. The colorful horizontal lineis my sinker and the light line under it is the bait. As you can see I lowered bait from 22 feet down to 28 feet in hopes of inciting a strike. Come to find out after not being bit that our bait was dead. No wonder we didn't get bit! Notice this was just a small pod of Stripers, nothing showing up on side scan. Within a few minutes I did see some Stripers on side scan, went to them and started catching them as can be seen in the picture above this one.  

Shawn and Kelly

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 78* and Clear

Here are a few of the 59 Stripers we caught this morning.

If we hadn't used up our 175 baits by 9:30 we probably 

could have caught another 50 Stripers this morning.

Truth Light and Life Ministries

Cindy, Britteny, Manny, Mary, Daniel, Naomi, Mahlon, Darion, Courtney

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 77* and Clear

Daniel Rhodes wanted to take his crew out for a morning of fellowship and fishing so he booked a trip with DP and myself. Although fishing was tough this morning we managed to catch about 80 Stripers and they had enough to take back for a nice fish fry. Today we looked long and hard to find fish but only located a couple of schools. Everyone was happy and enjoyed the outing.

Saturday Fishing

 Aaron with 2 nice bass. The one on the left is 21 1/2 inches and fat, 

the other is a Citation. 

 Brian,  J, Bob, Bernie, Aaron and Scott

DP's clients Jeff and Skeets

Sunny and Hot, water temperature 76* and Clear.

Today DP and I both had clients so we met very early this morning and caught bait. We both set up on some downline fish and popped a few then went our separate ways. There must have been 45 to 50 Striper fisherman on the water today, every acre of water between Stubbs and Dukes was trolled through. At times 6 or 7 trollers would be heading single file covering the exact same water. Hopefully everyone caught fish. Anyway we put our clients on the fish today and between both boats our clients caught well over 100 fish. Aaron was on a roll in my boat catching Stripers and Largemouth as well. Lots of boat traffic today and lots of madness. When I got back to the marina they told me a water plane even crashed in the lake today. Can't wait to get back out on the water during the week, weekends will kill you out there.

Fiber Technology

 Collin, Brad, Doug, Dillon, Jeff, Jeffery, Earl, Mike and Jarred

 Nice school of Stripers

 Fighting a Striper

Some Stripers off to the right of the boat. 

Without side scan I would have not know they were even there.

Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 75* and Clear

Today Tony and I both had trips with Doug Myers and his company. We caught bait early and both started fishing at the same location. Tony put out a spread of boards and headed up and I put out a bunch of downlines and headed down. My boat went through 130 baits by 9:15 so I went and caught more bait. We came off the water at 11 this morning and had good results [for a weekend day]. Our boat caught about 70 Stripers and ended up with 17 keepers. Tonys boat caught about 20 Stripers and ended up with 12 keepers. Tony had asked his crew this morning if they wanted to catch numbers or size, they elected size. Their fish were nicer fish and Tony gave them what they wanted. Fishing is only going to get better daily from here. Looking forward for a great summer bite. It is not uncommon to catch hundreds of Stripers a morning, and this year should be one of the best in recent history.

Fridays Trips

 Chip and Tyler

DP's clients Curtis, Vernon, Steve and Ralph

DP and I both had trips this morning so we got out early to catch bait and picked our clients up at High Point at 5:30. DP headed one direction and I headed the other. We both set out spreads of boards and worked them for a few hours then later in the morning converted to downlines. Together both boats caught over 80 Stripers today. You could hear Tyler screaming in two counties at once today every time we hooked a fish up. Chip had tole me when he booked the trip that all he wanted was for his son to reel in a bunch of fish today. Well, we wore him out. Great day of fishing and beautiful weather on the lake today.

A few Pics

We must be using the wrong bait,

this Striper choked on a 1 1/2 pound Catfish

 Here is a screen shot of me pulling a bunch of downlines through a school Stripers.

 This is the same school as above with one of the baits hooked up 

fighting it to the surface.

A few scattered none feeding Stripers.

Some recent outings

 Jeff with a citation Bass caught this morning

 Guy, John, Jeff, Charlie and Joe

 Bob Hammond and his Motley Crew

Dink and Shane

No they are not mad, they are just from Pennsylvania.