Lake Anna Stripers everywhere

 Tony's clients Julian and George

 Anthony and Brian

 Two Stripers hit one bait

 A school of Stripers this morning

Another school of Stripers

Cloudy and Rain, Water Temperature 81* and Clear

Today was the first day that I have been on the water since my motorcycle trip. Tony had a charter today and I invited Anthony and Brian to go out with me. We all got out early and caught bait and were ready to fish at first light. I had a special place I wanted to fish but on the way there we ran over fish for about 300 yards. We debated whether to keep going or stop and fish, we all wanted to keep on going but it was too hard to leave fish to find fish so we set out a few baits. We only put out 6 baits to see how big the fish may be and started taking hits immediately. After Anthony reeled in a double that hit the same bait we knew the fish wanted to eat.We popped 4 or 5 then decided to put out 17 rods, downlines, boards and bobber. We did not stay in one place, we kept moving just to see what we could catch. After about 2 hours we ran completely out of bait. We had noticed some bait on my Lowrance so we got our lines in, turned the boat around and caught bait. We now had two full tanks of fresh bait so we went and checked out another area. Fishing was the same there as well, couldn't keep the fish off the hook. We could not communicate well with Tony, his phone only works part of the time. The part of the time that it does work is only when he wants to talk, imagine that! Obviously fishing was good for them by the looks of their stringer. We saw thousands of fish today on our Lowrance, a great sign for this time of year..

Charlies Clients

Guide Charlie took George and his friend out this morning for a fun day of fishing for Stripers.

A wet day on the water

Aaron

Gary, Aaron and Jim

I have been away on my annual motorcycle trip so DP and Tony have been taking our clients out. DP took this group out on Saturday and caught some very nice quality fish. They are holding a few of the fish they caught under an overhang at Tim's Restaurant because it was raining so hard as you can see by the picture.  We have been catching larger fish daily recently and with the cooler weather we are having fishing should only get better.

200 Strikes

 Joe's Big Striper

 School of Stripers this morning

 Same school of Stripers 10 minutes later.

 

Some Ghostly Fish

Cloudy and Cool, Water Temperature 82* and clear

Today I caught 150 pieces of bait, picked my clients up and went fishing. We found the above school and started taking hits immediately. We worked these fish for an hour before almost running out of bait. We went and caught 125 more baits and burnt most of them up before calling it a morning. Joe is pictured holding his big Striper of the morning.

A busy Sunday

 Neal

Glen, Berry, Phil, Neal, Robbie and Jerry

Sunny, cool, Water temperature dropped to 83* and clear.

Neal and Robbie wanted to go out with me to catch bait so I met them at 3:30 at High Point and off we went. I hung a couple lights and waited about 20 minutes for the bait to collect then made a toss. Caught about 50 threadfin and one Herring! Not Good...Threw on the other light and it was worse, 75 Threadfin and 3 Herring. I told the guys the cold front had messed the bait up and I hoped it did not have the same effect on the Stripers. I hung yet another light and started pounding all three. After 50 throws I finally caught enough bait so we went back to the marina, picked the other guys up and looked for Stripers.. After looking for 30 minutes and only seeing very small pods of fish I set up on a few to show everyone how to deploy the baits. We took about 30 hits and landed only 2 keeper Stripers. The fish were biting short and just killing the baits. We set up on a couple other areas with the same results. I made a move and hit an area where we caught 4 or 5 keepers then looked for and caught more Herring. We setup again in an area and started hooking up immediately, or at least Phil did [Phil had the hot rods this morning]. We worked the area till we ran completely out of bait then called it a day. Neal is pictured holding a nice Bass he caught this morning. Although today we fished bluebird skies with a strong brisk north wind following yesterdays cold front we took 200 hits and managed to catch some nice fish. Today's boat traffic was pretty bad, we constantly had boats around us that made the water very rough.

Lowrance HDS technology...101

 This picture was taken earlier this week at 6:46am. Sonar is on the left half of the page in a 30 foot scale, side scan in the upper right set on a 80 foot scale and down scan is on the bottom right side of the screen. I was searching for schools of Stripers running about 25 mph and located this school. If you look on the upper left in my history [between the 28. and the 1 in the digital depth] you can see what the school looks like when I am running fast. I turned the boat around, slowed down and had my clients start to deploy our downlines. I am just starting to come back into the school when I took this pic. Notice in the side scan how there are more fish on the right side of my boat and also larger fish.

 This screen shot is one minute later after I turned my boat into the middle of the school. 

Needless to say we spanked um.

 This picture was taken in the afternoon around 2 o'clock. The water temp was 92* and I was working a breakline that came up onto a shallow flat. The black triangle in the center of the map is my boat. The grey on the map is water between 31 and 50 foot deep. The light blue is less than 30 foot deep. I was actually working the 30 foot breakline where the grey meets the blue when I located these fish on the ledge. Notice in my history I had been seeing them for about 40 yards.

 This picture was taken a couple seconds after the above picture. I changed the screen back to sonar plus scan. Looking at the blue down scan screen on the bottom right you can clearly see bait on the left and the shallower I got the more fish we got into. The Stripers had just fed on the bait and had busted the bait balls up over the shallower flat and the bait fled to deeper water to regroup into larger bait balls. The sonar screen on the left is in split screen, the left side is on bottom lock zoomed in 3 times and the right half is sonar. These Stripers were hugging the bottom.

This picture was taken this morning when we were over a school of Stripers. The school was trying to develop and had busted up the bait pretty well. On the left sonar screen you can clearly see our bait being pulled through the school at 23 feet deep [The horizontal line]. This bait actually had been hit and was dead. These fish were a mixture of keeper Stripers, punks and a few catfish mixed in. We popped 4 or 5 keepers out of this school before 7 or 8  boats busted us and spooked the school bad enough to bust it up resulting in us having to leave the area. Hopefully some of those fisherman will see this posting and learn how to locate their own schools of fish instead of locating someone catching fish and selfishly encroach on other anglers.

PS.....For everyone who is frantically trying to figure out where we were fishing in the third screen shot with the map, I will give you a clue. It is the second creek below the 208 bridge at the mouth where it intersects the main lake. The creek's name starts with a C. Where we are in that picture is not a particular spot, a honey hole, a go to area, is is SIMPLY one of thousands of places on the lake where the fish were using a flat to feed on and on this particular afternoon I caught them here. This is a text book situation where the fish had been feeding shallow and chased the bait off of the flat over the edge of the underwater point on the flat. Do you think after loosing that school of Stripers I checked out the other underwater point 100 yards to my left? Yea! Most boats have decent depth finders on them, use them and be better fisherman. Fishing Lake Anna for Stripers or even largemouth is not difficult if you use your electronics to be your underwater eyes. We catch a lot of nice Bass on similar structures. Keep your eyes on your Lowrance instead of on other boaters that may be catching fish and enjoy the thrill of locating and catching non pressured fish.

Beautiful Family, Beautiful Fish

Cheyenne, Bruce and Tabatha

Guide Charlie put his family on some very nice Stripers yesterday. Charlie is a very knowledgeable guide who can take up to 3 anglers comfortably in his boat. He is available 7 days a week during the summer.
Check out Charlies catch this morning!

A Morninng of Fun

Charlotte, Bob, Connie, Larry, Liz and Mark

Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature 88* and Clear

Today was Bob's birthday and his loving wife Connie wanted to do something special for him so she booked a Striper Charter for him. This was the first time this family had been out with me so they really did not know what to expect. I gave them instructions on how to deploy the lanes and off we went. I set up on a few fish for them to practice on which worked out well and they caught a few Stripers. I then looked for schools for over an hour not seeing much. We did find a large school of fish breaking but when we set up on them the fish would not bite us. Charlie was out today and called me to some fish he was working so we went to him and popped a few. We had taken over 100 hits by now so we went and caught more bait. I looked for another school for a few minutes but Charlie called me again and said he was on a school like I was this morning and not taking hits. I decided to simply put our baits out and keep the boat moving hoping to catch fish. Within a couple minutes we started hooking up catching Stripers with some Catfish mixed in. The decision paid off, action was not frantic but it was steady. We used up all of our baits and called it a morning. Today we caught about 50 Stripers and a dozen Catfish. Charlotte was the Catfish Queen today, but she also spanked the Stripers as well. Every time I looked at Bob today he had a big smile on his face.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB

Mutt, Melvin, Bob, Matt and Shon

Sunny and Hot, Water temperature 89* and Clear.

Some of this crew went out with Tony a couple of weeks ago and wanted to see if he was real or if they just got lucky the last time out. By the looks of these fish I believe they know that

Tony does produce day after day and Lake Anna Guide Service knows 

how to put their clients on Stripers. They will be back!

A Hot day on the water

 Michael, Ross , Anna, Patti, Caleb and Julia

Larry, Cameron, Adam and Stephan

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 89* and Clear.

Today we had three guide charters on the Lake. I took out the Halbersma's, Tony took out Adam Bechtel and friends and Charlie took out Jim Matta and his friend. Tony burnt most of his baits up on schools of punks this morning before having to go catch more bait around 8 o'clock. My crew got a late start but we managed to have a lot of fun catching fish through out the day. If Anna would have stayed in the back of the boat instead of feeling sorry for Michael we probably could have doubled our catch. Michael had a monkey on his back today, he caught the first fish of the day which cursed him for the rest of the trip. Anna was catching Stripers two at a time. Charlie hung around me most of the morning picking off fish after fish. I know they had a good catch but he had been up for 30 hours straight and when he got off the water he turned his phone off and went to bed without sending me his picture. Although it was very hot today we all had great times catching fish. We caught well over 100 fish today.

Gary, Loki and Jalen

 Jalen's Largest Fish ever

Jalen's Largest Bass

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 88* and Clear.

I caught bait early then picked everyone up at the marina at 5:30. Jalen was excited about today, not only does he love fishing but Gary and Loki have been out with me before so expectations were high for a good catch today. I set up on some fish early and about 15 minutes later the whole lake erupted. Fish were breaking for as far as you could see. We worked the Stripers for over a mile then left them while they were still busting on the surface! We hit 2 or 3 more schools before we had to go catch more bait. After catching bait we worked an area picking off a Striper about once every 15 minutes. Fishing is crazy for the first 2 hours of the day then the fish get full which makes it hard to catch much once the sun gets up in the sky and starts cooking you . Everyone had a great day and you can bet they will never forget today's fishing excursion.

Larry and Larry Jr.

Sunny and Hot, Water Temperature 88* and Clear

Tony took these clients out this morning and put them on some nice Stripers.

Noah, Johnny, Ronald, Michael and Thomas

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 85* and Clear

A few days ago Johnny called me and said he has been fishing the lake with the same bait we are using and only catching a Striper or two a day and wanted to go out with us to help him improve his catches. I hooked him up with Tony yesterday and by the looks of the stringer they caught a few Stripers. Striper fishing will continue to be good for the rest of the month, contact us to get in on some of the action.

JFHQ-NCR, J3 Directorate, Washington, DC.

 Bart, Vic, Al, Zack, Worthy, Zimmer, George, Angel, Rob F, Rob L., Scott

 Al

 Nice School of feeding Stripers

 Thousands of Stripers

Cloudy, Rain, Water temperature 84* and Clear

Today Tony and I took out a group of Men that we take out every year. We woke up to pouring down rain and struggled to catch 130 baits each this morning by daylight. We picked everyone up at High Point and started their day on the lake. Tony had said that since it was raining he was going to take his crew and set up in one area hoping to take hits and not soak them. I told him I would keep on the big motor and look for schools. My guys probably were wondering what I was thinking about as I drove for 20 minutes through pouring down rain. Their patience paid off when I found a MAJOR school of Stripers. I stopped the boat, had them grab their rods and hollered for Tony on the radio to get down here now. He knew from the tone of my voice that I was on them and scrambled his crew to get their baits in and they flew to me. By the time they got to us and set down the fish were rockin. We worked the school till everyone ran out of baits, 260 hits! Tony and I went and caught bait and found 3 more schools of fish this morning and burnt them up. We ended up catching well in excess of 125 Stripers. We also caught a couple nice Bass and 5 Catfish, one of which was a Citation Channel Cat. These stringers are representative of what we can catch in a morning on the lake if everyone listens to their Captains on how to deploy the baits and how to reel the fish in once they hook up. Needless to say everyone including Tony and myself had a great time this morning. A day like this couldn't happen to a nicer group of men, they have served our country well and deserve a good morning on the water.

A slow day on the water

 Dave, Joey and Jan

of Simplicity Barter

 Dawn, Ray, Marissa, and Scott Palmer

 Ray

Dawn

Cloudy and Warm, Water Temperature 86* and clear

Tony and I caught bait again this morning then picked up our clients at High Point at 5:30. We were expecting an eventful morning since fishing was so good yesterday but we were humbled this morning. I looked for schools for a couple hours this morning while Tony set up on pods of fish but by 9am we only had caught a couple keepers. The fish simply would not school up like they had done for the last couple of weeks. We both had to catch bait a couple of times today which also was tough. I had a half day charter and Tony had a full day today. Right when we were ready to get off the lake Tony called and said he finally found a school. They banged them for about 30 minutes to save the day. Even a bad day on the lake for us as guides is a great day of fishing for most anglers. Tony and I can't wait to get back out there and redeem ourselves.

Happy Fisherman

 Kelly, Bryan and Ann Williams

16 Stripers

Troy, Karl, Thomas, Andrew and Madison with Tony helping hold the bar.

23 Stripers

Cloudy And Warm, Water Temperature 85* and Clear.

Tony and I both had trips this morning so we got out on the water early and topped our tanks off with 125 baits each. We picked our clients up at High Point at 5:30 and hit the water looking for Stripers. I located a school, set up on them and took 20 hits in about 10 minutes but all the hits were short. I then went one way and Tony took off the other way to continue looking. I set up on a school and caught a dozen Stripers within a 30 minute span, all 19 1/2 inches. Tony was getting banged also but was getting punked as well. I had about 50 baits left in the tank and found a huge school of Stripers. We set up on them and within 15 minutes used up all of our bait. By now Tony was also out of bait and it was still before 7am. We both went to catch bait, I caught 80 in about an hour of throwing but Tony was had more difficulty locating the bait. I took what I had, found another huge school and burnt the baits up in less than 30 minutes. I tried to get Tony to join in but he wanted to top his tank off with bait before fishing. I made one more move and filled our livewell with our limits. Tony ended up having to catch bait several times today which paid off for his clients with a wonderful catch of Stripers. Everyone had fun today and left with smiles on their faces.

Incredible Catch

 Shon, Bob, Frank, George, Jamil and Mutt

Shon's Big Bass

Sunny and Warm, Water Temperature 86* and Clear

Today was probably the busiest day of the year on Lake Anna. Tony had 6 clients today and got up early to have 2 tank fulls of bait and picked his crew up at 5:30. The boat traffic was horrible today as well as the fishing pressure. With every obstacle in Tony's path he rose to the challenge and put his clients on one of the best catches of the year of Stripers. With everyone on the lake boating and spooking the fish and all the Striper fisherman pressuring and dogging him he managed to put his clients on a truly incredible catch of fish today. To figure out what the Stripers would do with the traffic today and to be able to hook up with the amount of fish that his clients caught is amazing. His clients probably caught as many Stripers as most of the Striper fisherman that fished today, combined. When most Striper fisherman and other guides are happy to come in after fishing a day like today with 4 or 5 fish Tony put his knowledge to work for him and gave his clients a day that they will never forget. This picture is of the fish they kept today, wonder how many they released? Shon is pictured holding a nice Bass he caught today.

Ryan, Lee and Andrew

Cloudy, Rain and Mild, Water Temperature 85* and Clear

Tony took out the Kestler boys this morning on a half day charter in the rain hoping to catch some Stripers. Unfortunately bait was difficult this morning and they had to spend a good part of the morning catching bait. Once Tony had the bait he wanted it took less than an hour for them to catch their limit of Stripers. Tony turned a poor morning into a memorable fishing trip. Our guides continue to produce limits for our clients.

A fun day in the Rain

 Anthony, Dale, Michael

 Frank, Kirk, Zack and Missy

 Missy's 11 pound Striper

Kirk

Rainy and Warm, Water temperature 85* and Clear

Today DP had a trip and I took my grandson, Anthony, Dale and Doug. DP got out early to catch bait for his clients and we did not get out till mid morning. By the looks of the stringers we all had a great day despite the weather. The kids kept 20 Stripers as well as DP's clients. DP got off the water before the rain hit but we stayed out and fished in it. The boys were soaking wet and wanted to go in but on the way back in I ran over some Stripers and asked them if they wanted to try them. They all jumped up and before we got all of our baits in the rods bent over. Needless to say they did not even know it was raining for over 30 minutes.

Ron Spears and Guests

Cloudy and Warm, Water temperature 85* and Clear

Guides Tony and DP had clients today [DP could not take a picture due to pouring rain] and here is a picture of Tony's clients catch. They had a great day today despite the weather, his clients caught upward of 80 Stripers with over 200 strikes. Our Guides are putting our clients on incredible catches this summer and this kind of action should continue for many weeks to come. This kind of action is incredible, we would like to see you in one of our pictures this summer. Contact us and book a trip to have a memory of a lifetime!