Kathy and Todd

Cloudy and cold, Water temperature 44* to 50*.
I picked my clients up at 6am and went to catch bait. On the ride to catch bait I told Todd that usually after a major blow like we had yesterday the fish turn off. I also mentioned to him that on the Virginia Wildlife calendar today was the worst day of the month to fish. After 45 minutes of throwing we had plenty of bait so I set out a spread of 12 planner boards, 2 free lines and a bobber pulling 10 to 15 foot flats and humps. We worked the area for an hour without catching a Striper. We took a couple short hits, probably Kitties. We got the baits in and moved to a deeper flat. We worked that area for a couple hours, getting plenty of hits but boating only Catfish. [When the nice Stripers don't feed the Cats and punks will] By now it was after 9 so we made yet another move. We ran a few more miles where I decided to try yet another pattern. We put our spread of boards out again but I put the outermost boards right up on the bank. We popped a couple Stripers and I knew we may be on to something. After getting all our lines back out with fresh bait we hit the bank again and all hell broke loose. All at once everything we had within 30 yards of the bank went off. At one time we had at least 6 fish hooked up and other lines taking hits. Needless to say it was quite the fire drill. As we would catch a fish Todd and Kathy would put the fish on the floor and grab another rod. All I could do was keep up netting the Stripers. Todd was so excited I accused him of messing the floor up, not only was it covered with fish but the floor was white! Later once we started taking the fish off the hooks we realized that we had hit a school of spawning Stripers, vindicating Todd. We kept 12 of the Stripers that were in the poorest shape and released 5 others that swam off happy to get back to their school and have some fun. The bottom picture is the scene just after the melee. We were off the water in plenty of time to eat a hot lunch.

A interesting afternoon...

Sunny, 50* and Clear, No wind [Yea].. Water Temperatures 49* up lake, 46* mid lake.
All of my bunks on my trailer had rotted so Tony and I got some pressure treated wood and carpet, made the bunks and headed to the lake to drop the boat in the water while we replaced the bunks. The lake was dead calm as we worked on the trailer, unlike most of the previous week. It took us about 45 minutes to complete our project. We must have both been thinking the same thing, we threw our tools back in the truck, picked up some extra jackets out of the truck and jumped in the boat. It was 2:30 giving us time to catch bait and fish for a couple hours. It took us about an hour to catch bait leaving us enough time to try two spots. We set out our spread of boards and pulled about a mile stretch of humps and flats. We took 8 or 10 hits but boated only 2 keeper Stripers. The sky was getting cloudy so we decided to make a move to pull boards over very shallow waters hoping the fish would take advantage of the low light conditions of the evening. I put the outer most boards right up on the bank and had been working a bank when I noticed a jon boat trolling nearby us get hung up in about 8 feet of water. As he backed up to retrieve his rig I told Tony this guy has to been an idiot trolling in such shallow water. After he got this bait back in the boat they ran their boat using the big motor 80 yards in front of us and proceeded to do doughnuts in front of us casting umbrella rigs around them as they ran their motor????? I am working a 500 yard bank, no other boats around, this guy has to pull directly in front of me in 6 to 8 foot of water next to the bank and spook any fish that might be there!!! I wanted to ask him did he intentionally want to ruin the last 30 minutes of my day by cutting in front of us spooking the fish or was he just a plain idiot but he didn't give me a chance. Just when I walked up to the front of my boat to yell at him [his motor still running] he took off, ran across the lake and cut off other fisherman working the other bank. Needless to say he did ruin the best time of the evening not only for us but the other fisherman also. We reluctantly emptied the baitwell and got our lines in. A beautiful nice calm evening was not completely upset by this discourteous boater, we had caught a dozen Stripers and had a nice stringer of fish.

Karl and Mahmud

Sunny and COLD, Water temperature 45* and Clear.
Got up this morning , looked at the thermometer which read 13*, put plenty of clothes on and went to the lake. Met the guys , caught bait and went fishing. With the weather the way it has been for the last couple of days I decided to work a deep flat first this morning. After fishing it for a few hours catching only a couple of kitties we made a move uplake pulling flats and humps. Still without having much success I made a move back downlake by the current. We popped 13 Stripers in less than an hour. Although it was brutally cold this morning we ended up catching 18 fish today, not too bad of an outing. Can't wait for the weather to warm next week, it will be interesting.......

Interesting Pictures

Here are a few recent pictures...The top picture is a net full of bait. My Lowrance was "lit up" from top to bottom when I threw the net. The net was so heavy I needed help just getting the net up. It is full of Gizzards and a few crappie. The next picture is of some nice Stripers we caught last week that I forgot to post. The picture on the Lowrance is of a pod of Stripers working a flat. They would not come up and hit boards so I turned around, put out 6 downlines and caught them. The bottom picture is Herring caught in my throw net. Click on the picture for a better view.

Super Bowl Dinner

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 46* and Clear.
Brian and Eric wanted to get out this morning for a couple hours and catch a few Stripers for the game this evening. Eric is holding dinner for 10. Good Eating Tonight!

Ralph and Bob

Cloudy and Cold, Water temperature 45* and Clear.
We caught bait before daylight and went fishing. I had a couple places to try this morning but there was a boat nearby one of the flats so we hit the other. I explained the "do's and don'ts, put some baits in the water and proceeded to catch Stripers. The fish seemed somewhat lethargic at times this morning but I assured the guys that when we hit a school things could change real quick. Less than 10 minutes after making that comment we hooked up to 8 Stripers, all at once. Well if the guys were cold before they surely warmed up quick trying to get as many fish in the boat as they could. I didn't touch a rod, I let them reel everything in, and they did exceptionally well, boating 7 of the 8 Stripers. We worked the area for a little while longer but the fish had moved on. We ended up limiting out by 10 am and got off the water early enough for Bobby to drive back to Md. before the Super Bowl weekend traffic got heavy. Picture is very poor quality, had to take it with my cell phone, my batteries were dead in my camera! The phone did not do the fish justice, there were 3 very nice fish out of the group of 12.

The calm before the Storm

Cloudy and Cold, Water Temperature 44* and Clear.
I was sitting at home watching the news this morning waiting for the weather to come on. On Good Morning America they showed a picture of the US and this "Historical Storm" that was encompassing the continent. Our forecast was to only get rain and wind for this area but a lot of the states were getting pounded with bad weather. With a storm of this magnitude rolling in I wanted to slip out this afternoon and see if the fish would bite so I called a friend Tony and asked him if he wanted to go. His response was "Hell Ya'', so we left my house at 11:30 and headed for the lake. We put in at High Point, caught bait and hit a flat downlake. After pulling it for 15 minutes catching a Bass and only 1 Striper I knew we had to move so we got the baits in and ran across the lake to hit another flat that use to produce nice fish this time of the year but had been letting me down lately. We saw fish on my Lowrance and caught a few punks and a couple keepers but we both thought it was about to break loose. I boated a 8 pounder then next thing we knew boards started skipping across the surface. For the next hour we had at least 2 or 3 fish on at a time, sometimes we could not get to a fish for 3 or 4 minutes because we had our hands full baiting rods and releasing fish. We kept the first 7 keepers and released the rest till Tony caught a really nice one that he wanted to keep. We had just experienced the major feed before the storm hit us, we were ecstatic with our experience and were eager to get off the water before it started pouring. We emptied the bait tank, left biting fish and headed back to the dock. We hit the water around lunch time and were back at the dock taking pictures as the rain started to fall. We caught about 30 Stripers, most of which came in an hour time frame.
A good formula for success...Happy Herring , 15 lines in the water covering a 100 yard swath and a friend who enjoys fishing as much as I do.

Tim, Lovee, NATHAN and Animal

Partly Sunny, Pleasant and Calm, Water Temperature 45* and Clear.
Today is Nathans birthday, he has a tradition of fishing with me on all his birthdays. He brought along with him his best fishing buddies and his Bulgarian Babe, Lovee. Nate is DC fishing fool on You tube, the fishing addict who catches Snakeheads by hand. We all knew we were in for good times today so we simply went fishing and had some fun. We caught bait and fished an area till 10:12, the minute Nate was born, then had a Mimosa as a toast to his life then relocated. We pulled boards for the rest of the day in numerous areas with minimal success, but as you can see in the bottom picture of Nate, who cared! We all knew it was a weekend and no one expected a banner day of fishing but when it was all said and done we did exceptionally well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN

Thomas, Joe, Mathew, Mark and Lee

Partly Sunny and Cool, Water Temperature 43* to 47* and Clear.
We caught bait at daylight and set out a spread of a dozen boards and a bobber pulling 25 foot flats. After 2 hours, 12 strikes and only 2 keepers I decided to make a move. We relocated and boated 4 quick Stripers. A boat moved in next to us and kept running his trolling motor around us [within 20 feet] threw an anchor into the water a couple times and guess what? Spooked those fish. We moved to 2 other spots but the east wind was blowing making it hard to control the boat. We ended up catching 16 fish today, not a bad stringer considering the wind and weekend boat traffic.

Walt and Brian

Brian and Walt went out in the snow today and caught some nice Stripers. Walt is pictured holding a few of the ones they caught. Regarding the Lowrance picture, ever heard the phrase "Stacked Like Cordwood"...

Brian and Walt

Cloudy and Cold, Water temperature 46* and Clear.
Driving to the lake this morning I had my concerns about what the day would bring. The moon was full and bright [Stripers feed hard at night with a full moon] and the weather report called for an East wind all day, didn't like starting the day off with 2 strikes against us. I was still optimistic about catching fish, but I thought our chances of catching some Big Stripers would be hindered. We launched the boat, went and caught bait, set out a huge spread of boards and free lines. Before we knew it we were taking hit after hit, the guys reeling the fish in while I baited and put lines out. We made our first pass on a flat, took about 10 hits, turned around and pulled the same area with only a couple more takers. We moved on hitting another productive area nearby boating 3 or 4 more fish. I decided to get the baits in and make a move to an area that we haven't fished lately hoping to boat a few larger Stripers. The move paid off, we boated 4 nice Stripers within 10 minutes but we spooked the fish and turned them off. We had to make 3 more moves to different areas but only would catch a few fish in each area, nothing to get real excited about. We ended up today catching over 25 Stripers, not a bad day considering the conditions. The cast net in the picture is covering about a 20 foot circle, that is how we catch bait for the trip. The Lowrance is showing a school of Stripers we fished today, you can see our sinker coming through the fish at 28 feet. Our bait on the hook is just above the sinker trying to get away from the Stripers. Brian and Walt are pictured holding a few of the fish we caught and kept today, all others were released unharmed to fight again another day. There is a strong cold front moving in tonight that will mess fishing up for a few days. I will be staying off the water this weekend keeping warm and enjoying some time with my grandson, Michael.

Robert Williams

Cloudy and Cold, Water Temperature 43* to 45* and Clear.
I picked Robert up at 7, caught bait and went fishing. We set up over 25 foot flats with numerous points and humps nearby pulling 12 planner boards and a bobber. Since I had only one angler in the boat today I did not want to fish areas where the action would be out of control, I only put out 13 lines working areas that held fish but not schools of fish. We hit a few different spots taking plenty of hits but only hooking up with about a third of the strikes. After about 35 hits I decided the fish were just not wanting to eat so I told Robert to help me get the baits in, we were going to do something completely different. We made a big move, started putting baits out and hooked up after only getting 3 baits out. The move paid off, these fish wanted to eat. We caught 4 or 5 more and called it a day. Robert kept a few fish to take back home and we released the other fish to fight again.

Friday Afternoon

Sunny, Cold and Calm, Water Temperature 45* and Clear.
Realizing it was going to be relatively calm this afternoon Anthony and myself were thinking the same thing, he called me around 1 in the afternoon and said he could leave Richmond and head to my house, I said lets go. We backed the boat into the water at 3:30, located some bait, threw the cast net and loaded the tank. We set up over 20 foot flats pulling a spread of boards, bobber and free lines. We no sooner hit the area where we hoped the fish would be holding when we saw the Stripers on the Lowrance. We hooked up with 3 nice Stripers on one side of the boat, landed them and rebaited. We continued about 100 yards without a hit so I decided to turn around and hit the area again. In the turn the furthest board on the inside hooked up, Anthony reeled it in but it had already tangled up 4 other boards. We netted the fish, untangled the mess and got the baits back out before we hit the juice. Good thing, next thing we knew we had fish hooked up for the next 45 minuted till we just couldn't see well enough to put the boards out. I snapped a picture of Anthony holding one of the fish we caught when we weren't busy reeling in fish. We didn't take a stringer picture because we released all the fish we caught this afternoon. We caught over a dozen Stripers in a a 2 hour time frame, all of the fish better quality than the fish we have been catching the last month. Tis the season for the larger fish to start feeding.

1/11/11

Five days ago the weather forecasters predicted snow for today. Some of my best fishing since '89 when I moved to the lake has been in the winter during snow storms. Three days ago I noticed there would be no wind. My phone started ringing, Anthony and Brian also knew of the potential of fishing in the snow so we planned the trip. Anthony was to pull my boat with his Excursion, Brian was going to follow us in case he had to leave early to take care of his 1 year old son or if the road conditions warranted his early departure, and a client/friend [Nathan] drove from Springfield and met us at the ramp. We were in no hurry to get to the lake, it has been an evening bite lately so we arrived at daylight, went and caught 130 baits and went fishing. We pulled a dozen boards and a couple freelines all day working flats, humps and points where we believed we could catch a Hog. After working the first area thoroughly for a couple hours only to catch a few punks and a keeper fish or two we hit 4 other areas with the same set up only to have the same success. At 3 o'clock we caught more bait to prepare ourselves for the anticipated evening bite and set out our spread one final time. We took a few hits and then a friend called me to see how we were doing and said the roads were icing up. We took a vote on the boat to see if we all wanted to stay and fish or get off the water and get back home due to the weather. I was surprised to see that our desire to fish lost to common sense and survival. We hesitantly loaded the boat and headed home. Anthony was driving about 25 mph and about 3 miles from the ramp on what appeared to be just wet roads he simply let off the gas and broke loose. The boat trailer started fishtailing going from shoulder to shoulder trying to pass our tow vehicle. Amazingly Anthony kept his cool and controlled the runaway trailer gaining control of the moment. I immediately called Brian who was following us to ask him if he had any spare underwear in his Jeep. He was in shock of what he had just witnessed and informed me that not only did he loose control but Nathan had also. Anthony put his Excursion in 4 wheel high and crept the rest of the way back to the boat shed. About a 1/4 mile from where our episode took place was a 3 car accident, vehicles in the woods. We made it home without further incident but not so good for Brian. Before he got to 95 he had passed 4 or 5 other areas with cars in the woods and shortly after passing one of the accidents Brian lost control of his Jeep, did a 360 and went through 2 concrete pillars at the entrance to someones driveway, ending up in the driveway without hitting a thing. Nathan had witnessed it all and was in disbelief. We all made it home safely, fortunately with no damage to ourselves or vehicles, but hopefully a little smarter [Duh!]. Back to fishing... We never got into any nice fish today, caught plenty of punks, a limit of Stripers, 3 Bass and a Catfish. Nathan is holding a couple of the Bass he caught.

1/11/11...a day 4 fisherman will never forget

A calm day on the Lake

Sunny and Cold, Water Temperature 45* and Calm.
Anthony and myself wanted to fish together today so we planned a day on the water taking a friend out in the morning, dropping him off at noon then picking up another to fish with us for the afternoon bite. Anthony caught bait, we met Carlos at 7:30 and went scouting for fish. We set up on an area nearby the ramp, we wanted to try places today we thought should hold fish that we haven't fished recently. The first place we pulled resulted in only a couple hits catching punks only. We moved to another area, found a school of fish and pulled 15 baits through them only to get about a dozen short hits. We then knew the fish were not feeding but we continued to fish. We hit one area where we took 7 hits and boated a couple fish, only 1 would keep. We dropped Carlos off, picked up Ed and Wilson, caught some more bait and pulled a deep area where we hoped fish would be. After working a half mile stretch we hit a point where we took a few hits and boated a fish. About 100 yards further we saw fish on the Lowrance and popped a few fish off of a ledge. Numerous boats were watching us so we decided to leave the area before they saw us catching fish. We then set up in a creek and pulled out to the main lake working flats and humps. As soon as we got our spread out we took 4 hits on boards on the port side of the boat and hooked up with 2 very nice Bass. Wilson is shown holding a citation Bass along with the other Bass that hit at the same time. We released the fish and worked a nearby hump for the rest of the evening until other inconsiderate boaters ran over the spot spooking the school. [It is still hard to believe what compels boaters to run over where anglers are set up fishing instead of giving the anglers a wide birth avoiding the area as much as possible]. Guess what, when it is calm out, winter time with little boat traffic and a boat runs over a 10 foot flat, it turns the fish off! A better choice wold be to avoid fisherman as far away as you can, especially when the lake is a half mile wide where the fisherman is. Anyway we had caught plenty of fish this afternoon, 3 Bass and 12 Stripers, kept a few for the table and took home some good memories of a beautiful Lake Anna.

Tony and Joe

Cloudy and Cold, Water Temperature 44* and Clear.
The wind was light today so I called a couple of friends to go look for fish. We met at High Point at lunch time and headed out looking for bait. There was plenty around the marina so we caught bait and looked for fish. I saw a few fish over 30 feet of water between 13 and 20 feet deep so I idled a couple hundred yards past them , turned around and set out a spread of 12 boards, a bobber and a few free lines. Before we got the lines out we started taking hits. Joe reeled in a 5 pounder then Tony lost a couple. We went a few hundred yards and went over 40 yards of fish but only got 1 taker, Joe reeled it in and Tony lost a couple more fish. We hit a main lake point and 3 more lines went off, Joe reeled in a keeper and Tony lost a couple more. I decided to get the baits in and check out another area but saw no fish there. We ended up setting up our spread and pulled flats till dark, Joe catching fish all the way and Tony loosing fish. Just about dark a nice fish hooked up and I told Tony to grab the rod. He did and landed the fish, although he took out the whole side of boards. It was great to get out this afternoon with friends and fish different areas of the lake. Joe and I had fun with Tony, we gave him a lot of grief but it wasn't quite as bad as I make it sound. Tony is a great fun loving guy and we had plenty of laughs. The guys are pictured in my boat shed holding a few of the fish we caught this afternoon. We released a bunch more to fight again another day.

Happy New Year

Here are some of my clients January catches of the past couple years. Now that the holidays and Hunting season is over I will be back on the water on a regular bases. The cold winter has killed a lot of the bait which will only result in better fishing this year. John, Anthony and myself would like to wish you a Prosperous and Happy New Year.

Steve, Jeff, Eric and Chris

Sunny and Cold, Water temperature 38* and Clear.
I got out early this morning , caught bait and met the guys at the dock at 7. Water temp at the marina had dropped about 4 degrees so I looked for warmer waters and set out my spread of a dozen boards, free lines, bobber and a couple downlines. We worked humps, points and flats all day today. This morning fishing was fairly slow but steady, we would get bit about every 15 minutes or so. We had a couple spells where we would get 4 or 5 strikes in a 50 yard area but the fishing definitely got better as the water warmed up in the afternoon. Thee guys came prepared to have fun today and that is exactly what we did. Today we had 33 hookups and boated 22 Stripers. Guys are shown holding some of the fish they kept today. We had a couple nicer fish on today but Jeff must have felt sorry for them and let them go. Over all today was a good day considering the conditions.

David, Jonathan, Jim and Carter

Partly Sunny and Cold, Water Temperature 44* and Clear.
Got out early and caught bait then picked the guys up at High Point Marina and went fishing. As I was running I noticed numerous fish between 15 and 25 feet deep. I went past where I saw the fish and set put my spread pulling baits back through the fish. It didn't take long for the the first fish to hook up and Carter landed the first Striper of the day. For the next hour I was behind trying to get baits in the water because as soon as I got a few lines out they would get hit. We boated quite a few fish on our first pass but all of the fish were hitting boards furthest away from the bank. We worked less than a mile stretch of water all morning catching a nice stringer of Stripers. Other than when the wind would blow it was a very nice December day. Jim is pictured with his son Carter holding a nice Bass. We caught 19 fish today and had a great time.