John Raftery and friends

Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature 66* and Clear.
Met the guys at the marina and went looking for bait. I had looked and thrown for bait for over an hour this morning and only had 32 baits so I went one more place to look for bait. I was worth the trip, I made 1 cast and caught about 80 baits. We filled our tanks and went around the corner and set out our spread. We were working a flat hoping to catch fish pulling up onto it to eat the bait that was nearby. We made pass after pass on the flat and on every pass we would take a hit or two. The Stripers were not real aggressive, I don't know if it was the clouds moving in, the barometer dropping or what but our action was limited to a strike about every 20 minutes or so. We were on some nice Stripers, the largest one [32inches] John is holding all the way on the right side of the picture, hard to tell its true size by the picture. The guy holding the Striper with the grey shirt up front is Steve. He enjoys going fishing but has no passion to reel in the fish, he loves watching his friends have fun. Steve is a gracious host, every time he fishes with me all the talk on the boat is about how good all the meals are that he prepares for his guests when they stay at his lake home. He also is very intelligent and articulate, I am going to start taking a dictionary on board when he goes out with me to look up the meanings of some of the words he uses in his conversations. [No I am not writing about him because he gave me a big tip, John who is an Attorney was also getting lost with some of the conversations] We had to cut the day short because some of the guys had to get back to Md. by 4 to go to a game so we came off the water at noon. Although the day was short we had a lot of fun, we caught some nice fish and all of us came away with a little more knowledge thanks to Steve.

Jack and Alli

Party Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 66* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 6am then went and caught bait. Set up over 30 feet of water with a spread of planner boards and downlines. Hadn't got but a few baits out when a downline rod bent over and Jack jumped on the rod. Good Start to the day. I continued to put my spread out and worked areas from 6 feet to 35 feet deep, taking hits on everything. There was breeze today so I concentrated on areas that were primarily out of the wind which made boat control easier. We had spells where the Stripers were aggressive and then lulls in the action for 30 to 40 minutes or so. Today we had about 20 solid hookups with Alli keeping 10 fish to take home. Most hits today came on boards because of the cloud cover. When the sun got bright the Stripers would pull out to the edges of the flats and when the clouds would cover the sun they tended to move up onto the flats to feed. If you are in areas of the lake where you get pictures like the one on my Lowrance and put the right baits in the faces of the fish there is a good chance you can put a few nice fish in the boat.

Dwayne and Herbert

Sunny, Cold morning turning to beautiful afternoon, Water Temperature 64* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 6 and used my Lowrance to guide me through the fog to where I caught bait. Since there was a major Bass tournament today I was concerned of safety where I wanted to start fishing so I set up on the side out of the main thoroughfare hoping not to get run over. Within 5 minutes a friend of mine was beside me and a fool in a Bass boat just missed the front of his boat by inches. I have no clue how much money these guys were fishing for but to drive 70 mph in the fog must be worth risking their lives. Back to fishing. I worked the area for awhile till the fog lifted then moved across the lake with my spread of 10 boards and 7 downlines. We caught a couple fish but a friend called saying he caught 2 fish in a different pattern so we got the lines in and made a move. We went to where Brian had been fishing, set out a spread and made the pull but the fish had already moved. I duplicated the pattern and caught a few fish but I did not like my bait so we threw our bait away and caught some more baits. I again set out our spread with the fresh baits and proceeded to pop a few very nice fish. Herman is pictured holding a nice Bass and the largest fish that he has ever caught in the lake. When you see a screen looking like the one on my Lowrance, you better get ready, obviously Dwayne was when he popped a couple nice Stripers.

Jim Stryker and Charlie

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 65* and Slightly Stained.
Picked the guys up at High Point just before 6am and went to catch bait. Made about 20 throws and filled the tank with some beautiful baits. Made about a 10 mile run to an area I thought may be holding fish and put out a spread of planner boards. We had only gotten 5 out when the first fish hit and Charlie jumped on the rod and landed the fish. I finished putting out my spread and pulled a very large bay consisting of numerous humps and points but after an hour we had only put one other Striper in the boat so I decided to make a move to where we saw fish earlier. I set out a spread of 10 boards, a bobber, a freeline and 6 downlines and pulled the area for 2 hours. We boated a couple fish and lost a couple more but I was still not happy with our catch so we got the baits in, went and caught more bait and headed back to where we started the day and pulled that area for a couple hours, catching 1 on a downline but nothing else. We again got all the baits in and made one final move. I located some fish over 32 feet of water so we put downlines on them but they would not hit. It was getting late so I kept the trolling motor on 5 and baited every rod I had. We had a spread of boards 100 yards wide and downlines at different depths. Next thing we knew boards started going off, then the downlines with the boards and within a 300 yard area everything we had got clobbered. We ended up having a great day, Jim did not want to keep too many fish so we called it a day.
It appears that some of the lake has turned over, traditionally about a week after fall turnover the Stripers go crazy feeding up for the fall. Its about time!

Benji, Lisa, John, Chip and John

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 70* and Clear.
Chip Wells of American Heating and Cooling gave his employees and a couple friends a day on the lake, I took out these 5 happy anglers and John took out 4 others. We got on the lake before dawn, caught bait and went fishing. Chip has been fishing the lake for Stripers and was primarily interested in learning "how to" fish for Stripers so that he and his friends could enjoy some of the catches that he has been viewing on my journal in the past. After catching bait we ran over some 28 foot flats that were loaded with clouds of bait and scattered Stripers suspended a couple feet off the bottom. We turned the boat around and put out downlines and boards rigged with some beautiful baits and pulled a mile stretch without getting a strike. I had been talking to Chadduck who was fishing further uplake and they were also seeing plenty of fish but were not taking hits either. The cold front that went through last night had pulled the bait off the banks and were positioned over and nearby the channels. We made a move and set up over an area where we could pull flats and humps ranging from 35 feet up to 5 feet deep. I set out 8 planner boards, a bobber, freeline and 6 downlines covering the whole water column searching to see what the fish wanted to bite. The first strike came on a board, Lisa reeled it in but it was a catfish. Our second strike came on a bobber over 13 feet of water, Benji jumped on the rod and wrestled the Striper to the boat. We worked the flat with no other hits so we continued to pull different water until we hit a 20 to 26 foot flat where we started taking hits on downlines. When I hit that flat we were all shocked when one of our downlines got hit so hard that if the line hadn't broke it would have broke the rod. Next thing we knew the downlines started going off and and we started putting fish in the boat. We fished the area for a couple hours until we ran out of bait, all our hits coming on downlines. Obviously the front had pulled the Stripers to the depths and they would not bite unless the baits were right in their faces.
The lake is about 20 inches low and fishing was poor in September. I postponed and rescheduled all my September trips due to the poor fishing and was happy to see that the cooler weather and shorter days have encouraged the Stripers to fatten up for the winter months ahead.

Doug, Katrin, Ron, Darlene and Kevin

Sunny and Hot, Water temperature 87* and Clear.
Doug and Kevin went out with me early and caught bait, picked up the rest of the crew at 5:15 and went to catch a little more bait. After filling the tanks with over 150 beautiful baits I showed my crew how to deploy the downlines. We had not left the area where caught bait when I looked at the depth finder and saw a screen of arches. Needless to say we put the lines out and started taking hits. For the next hour fish were blowing up around us and rods were bending over. There was plenty of action that encompassed about a 50 acre area. We caught fish on both downlines and freelines. After working that school we were low on baits so I went and found some on the depthfinder, made a cast and caught 50 more sugar shads. Got on the big motor to look for other schools and just got out of the cove when I saw another school. We set up on them and immediately Ron hooked a Hog, fought it for a minute but it got off. After loosing the school I looked for about 10 minutes and found it again. We put baits on them and worked them for a while. Today was a busy day, we went through about 175 baits, had about 35 hookups and the crew kept a few to take home. We actually lost as many Stripers today as we caught, fish would get hooked up, scream the drag and simply get off.

Dan and Joe Bednarik

Cloudy and misty, Water Temperature 85* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 5:30, caught a little more bait and went looking for fish. Set up on a few fish just to show the guys how to put the baits out, popped a fish and took off looking for schools. Looked for about 10 minutes and found some fish, got a couple of baits out and started taking hits. For about 15 minutes we had trouble keeping baits in the water. I called a friend who was out and told him we had just put 5 Stripers in the boat so he came over. We located the school again, actually there were hundreds of fish in the school but they were moving so fast it was hard for us to keep up with them. I finally looked for other schools and worked them awhile. Later we found that larger school and worked it for the rest of the morning. We took about 100 hits this morning and caught over 20 fish. The guys kept 12 Stripers to take home and released the rest.

Mike, Bob, Tim, Vince and Jack

Partly Cloudy and Pleasant, Water temperature 85* and Clear.
Picked the guys up after catching bait and headed uplake to catch some more. Threw for about 45 more minutes and had 2 tanks of nice bait. I pulled out of the cove where I was catching bait and tripped over a school of Stripers. I wasn't ready for this because I had not had time to get my rods set out on the boat nor had I told the guys how to deploy the downlines. Needless to say it was chaotic for about 10 minutes trying to get baits out. The schools today were not hard to find but they sure did move fast. No sooner would we setup on a school before they would move. We would get the baits in and find the school 5 to 6 hundreds yards away and repeat the drill time and time again. We ran out of bait so we went and caught some more and set up on a small school and worked it for 30 minutes before they moved on. Jack caught the big fish for the day. Today we caught about 20 fish, the guys kept 11 and released the others.

Bruce and Jim Riddle

Sunny and Warm, Water temperature 86* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 4 at the dock and went and caught bait. Set out a spread of 8 boards, a bobber and 8 downlines rigged with beautiful baits. We fished for 6 hours for these 2 Stripers. Stripers have not fed this week, the ones we are catching are decent but obviously have not been eating as is evident by Jim's fish pictured above. Today we fished the Splits down to Tara Woods with little success. Tomorrow is another day!

Adam, Jamie, Connie and Osprey

Partly cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 86* and Clear.
Interesting morning... Mike started out with a Bass, Jamie [Black Jacket] hooked up with a Striper and 3 minutes later Connie caught another nice Striper, then this Osprey decided it wanted breakfast. When I saw the bird I alerted the crew what was about to happen, and it did. The bird was eying one of my baits for about 30 seconds before it decided to tuck and dive behind our bobber. We reeled it in and released it unharmed. About an hour later we witnessed the same bird diving on another anglers bait nearby us. Adam is pictured holding a nice Striper that he caught this morning.

Bill with guests Brad and Brian

Cloudy and Pleasant, Water Temperature 86* and Clear.
Picked the guys up at 5:45 and went looking for fish. I saw a few so we set up on them, Bill popped a Bass and Brian caught a Catfish, time to move on. Looked for a few more minutes and a friend called and said they were breaking all around him, he was only a couple hundred yards away so I went over to him and set up just to catch 1 Striper [it doesn't take long for the fish to move on]. By now the Saturday fisherman were everywhere so I made a move to where we did not see any boats and found a nice school. We had only gotten a couple of lines out before they started hitting. Brad hooked into a nice one that broke off, Bill and Brian landed a few then a nice one hooked up that Brain grabbed, he got it to the boat but Bill tried to lift it over the side of the boat, yea, the line broke. Brian hooked up on a couple more and the guys up front lost a couple more before we lost the school. I looked for the school for 20 minutes with no success so I moved on to another area. I found another school of very nice fish in less than 10 minutes. We tried to get baits in the water but again rods were bending over before we could get all the baits out. We caught 3 or 4 out of that school but lost 5 or 6 more that had the rod tips buried in the water. The best thing that happened on that school was that Brad got that monkey off his back and caught the nice Striper he is holding with his son. We worked one more school before the action died, it was after 10 and the boat traffic was rocking. Bill is pictured with his largest fish of the day, after catching it he ragged on Brads fish the rest of the morning. Today we had 20 solid hookups, we had a little trouble getting some in the boat but overall it was a great morning. Bill was happy with the catch, 9 fish was all he wanted to clean this morning.

John Reifenberg and Family

Cloudy and Pleasant, Water temperature 88* and clear.
I was a little concerned this morning after the front blew through yesterday if the fish would school well. Immediately I found fish this morning, although they were not in large schools I thought if they wanted to eat there were plenty to catch. We popped one pretty quick but pulled the area for another half hour without catching anymore so I went looking for fish. We set up 4 or 5 times on similar pods of fish but I could not find the larger schools. It was very cloudy and I knew the fish would not pull off the flats to deeper water without sun. After a while I decided to keep on the big motor till I found a large school. I located 100 yards of stacked up Stripers and we set our baits out on them. It didn't take long before the rods started bending over. We had all the action we could handle for about 15 minutes before we ran out of decent bait. John took home 9 Stripers this morning for the table.

Jonathan and Gerry

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 90* and Clear.
Caught bait early and picked my guys up at 5:30 at High Point. I instructed the guys on how to put the baits out and hit the water. They were suppose to have 4 people this morning so I told them they may have their hands full if we find large schools this morning. Found some fish and set up on them and worked them for about 30 minutes without boating a fish, just short hits. I kept moving and hit a large school of fish, everything went off. The guys found out real quick what I meant earlier about not having enough people to handle the action. We eventually lost the school because we could not keep enough baits in the water to hold the school. I got back on the big motor and found another school. We set out 6 baits but I had temporarily lost the school so we held off on putting out the other 6 baits till I could relocate the fish. Well it didn't take long and all 6 of the rods bent over at once. They wrestled the fish to the boat, I netted the fish and they were done. It was 7:10 and we were limited out. As soon as we caught our last fish Stripers came up around the boat busting Herring on the surface, all we could do was watch the show.

, Bobby, Ernie, Jason, Steve and Frank

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 87* and clear.
Picked the guys up at 5:30 at High Point after already catching bait. Set up in the back of a creek and pulled a spread of 8 planner boards, 10 downlines and a bobber until 9:30 when the fish turned off. We only got into a school on one occasion and when we did there was plenty of action. We caught fish today on topwater artifical, boards and downlines. We certianly could have caught more Stripers today but everytime we would start to pull a bank a boat would motor over in front of us and force us to turn around, then another boat would do the same until we would basically get pinned in. Although today I set up in an area where there wasn't another boat in site tomorrow I will probably try someplace off the charts where I can pull my spread without getting harassed.

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.