Thursday, October 30, 2014

Simrad Structure Shots

 In this shot I was running about 20 mph as I went over this underground silo. Even at 20mph you can clearly see the depth of the depression [about 5 feet] on the sonar page. I keep my sensitivity up pretty high when I run which increases motor noise [all the vertical dashes] but that enables me to see bait and fish [and of the marks with color] better. In the structure shot on top you can see the silo clearly and with structure scan you can see the reflection of the concrete floor of the silo. The harder the object, the better it reflects the pings. The concrete is seen horizontally in the pic going out about 10 feet either side of the silo. With this color palette the harder the object the whiter the reflection on the structure page. On the sonar or echo screen the harder or denser the object the redder the return. As I run using the sonar page the more color in a school of bait represents more density [baits grouping tighter] and the more color the fish have the denser or larger they are. I don't mind the motor noise, I see right through it.

 This is a picture of an old road bed. In the top Structure Scan screen most of the structure shows up pretty light. The hard road and rip rap stone reflect pings very well. Check out the detail of the guard rails on the sides of the road. Structure Scan leaves little to the imagination, it is crystal clear.


This is a pic of the same roadbed at a slightly different angle. There is a lot of activity going on around the structure. In the sonar view as I approach the road on the left of the screen you can see a school of 4 to 6 inch Gizzards. About midway through the screen there are a couple stacks of Crappie then right at the edge of the road there are a couple Bass noised right against the road and railing.
In the side scan shot notice how the the small schools of bait are relating to the edges of the structure just above the railings. Setting your side scan page up utilizing the entire width of the screen like I have it here lets you get the full benefit of Structure Scan technology. I have adjusted the splits in the  screen so I can get the most out of both echo and structure. Fishing for Stripers I am more focused on the echo than the structure and having more sonar page showing allows me to see bait and fish better. Both Simrad and Lowrance have similar features letting you customize the appearance of your screen to meet your specific needs. I have shown these structures in earlier posts using my Lowrance  and since I get so many inquiries as to the difference of the two units I thought I would post these pics using my Simrad.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Front moving through [Pre-Frontal]

 Jeff and Lisa

 David and Jeff

 This was taken as the front moved through around noon today. The air temps were falling, barometer was dropping and the bait was schooling into tight balls.

 After seeing that large school of bait in the pic above I set out some downlines about 20 feet deep and hooked up a couple rods. After boating the fish I lost the small school so I scrolled back in history, touched my screen where I saw the fish, hit Waypoint on my Simrad and went right back to where they were. You can see the fish best on the side scan right where the cursor is.

Here is the shot once I got back on my waypoint. You can see some Stripers on the side scan 30 to 40 feet to the left of the boat. You can also see fish on the echo screen on the bottom. We actually fought 2 Stripers on this screen. One is at the left of the screen at 20 feet. You can barely see the bait [white broke up line] then the fish hits [red zig zag line]. That fish swam directly away from the boat and out from under the transducer. Then in the middle of the echo screen you can see me lowering a bait then locking in the reel at 20 feet. The boat moves about 15 feet then that bait hooked up with a Striper. This rod was in the middle of the boat and in the extreme edge of the cone so the signal of the fish was week. The fish came up out of the school of Stripers, hit the bait and swam out from the boat.

Cloudy and 61* in the morning with falling temps midday, Water temperature 65* and Clear.
Today my clients wanted to experience the whole deal so they met me at the ramp at 4:30 then went with me to catch bait. It was so warm this morning I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Later in the day I would regret that move. I looked for Stripers this morning but all the bait was less than 15 feet deep and I saw no fish that we could put downlines on so I decided to pull a flat ranging from 3 to 16 feet deep with boards. I had 6 baits that were 7 to 10 inches long out and the rest were rigged with Herring. After 10 minutes all of the big baits were clobbered along with some of the Herring. Lisa had boated the largest Striper of her life and David had caught a nice one as well. I only made one pull on it then the fish moved out to deeper water as the sun was trying to break through the clouds. For the rest of the day we banged them on downlines. Today we caught about 25 fish and everyone had plenty of Striper to take home for the freezer.





Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Slow day on Lake Anna for Stripers

 7.2 pounds
5.10 pounds

Today fishing was slow this morning for Stripers so my clients said they wanted to at least catch a "Lake Anna Hat Trick". I agreed and took them to a brush pile where I thought some nice pan fish were holding. I marked some nice fish on my Simrad so we decide to put some baits down and give it a try. All I had were 12 inch Gizz in my bait tank so I rigged a couple downlines and lowered the baits to the brush pile. In less than 10 minutes we caught these two nice fish, completed the hat trick and went back to the marina for pictures. We caught them right outside the power plant.  All kidding aside, I saw these pics on facebook and thought if they are in fact real everyone would enjoy seeing them. Supposedly the Crappie was caught in Mississippi and the Blue Gill was caught in Arizona. 

Monday, October 27, 2014

Mike and Louis


Sunny and Beautiful, Water temperature 65* and Clear
Louis met me early this morning so we went out and caught bait then picked up Mike at the ramp around daybreak. I looked for fish for about 10 minutes then set up over a 20 foot flat. We started hooking up immediately and had fun for quite awhile working depths from 20 to 30 feet deep. After a couple hours we got tired of that spot and went to look for some other fish. I found an active school over 35 feet of water, set up on them and started the ritual over again. We had a hard time keeping baits in the water because we were taking so many hits. After loosing that school we looked for others with little success. We ended up putting out 8 down lines, six boards and a bobber and pulled shallow and deep flats with the remaining baits we had. The guys were wondering what they were going to do if all those lines went off like they did this morning but I knew the bite was over and we just took single hits the rest of the day. We had a great day on the water, beautiful scenery and good people. Come to find out we had a lot in common and talked all day. Every time Mike would tell a story he would hook up so we did not have many dull moments today.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

A Beautiful Fall Morning


Scott, John, Brian and Thumbs 

Sunny and Bluebird Skies, Water temperature 58* up and 63* mid lake.
 Today the guys wanted to fish a half day charter and take back enough fish for a dinner. They had rented a house on the lake and had their family's here on this pretty weekend. I got out early and caught bait then picked them up at their dock around 7. I say around 7 because the fog was SO thick I bounced from bank to bank trying to get to their house this morning. We went about a mile from their place and I saw a lot of action on my Simrad. I stopped and wanted to throw for some nice Gizzards but every time I would see the bait the Stripers were laced through out the bait. I put out a couple of downlines and looked on my trolling motor. I wanted to pull a shallow flat with boards so I put out a spread on the left side and started to set up the right side of the boat when rods started bowing over. After hooking up with 8 or 10 fish in about 10 minutes we took a quick break and situated some rods in the boat then went back after them. We popped about 15 more before the action petered out. I got back up on the big motor and located some pods of Stripers with the help from Anthony so I set up on them. We picked up where we left off earlier catching fish after fish. The only lull we had is when 8 or 10 boats ran over us and a bunch of fisherman moved in on us but we hung in there and banged the fish. We saw one other guy catch only 1 fish then Tony came over and started hooking up with his clients. We had steady action this morning, probably catching close to 40 Stripers and 3 or 4 Catfish. The guys threw a lot of fish back today and ended up keeping more than they could eat this weekend.The fish will start to feed up now that the water is cooling off nicely and the action should pick up.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Roger, Bob and Andy

Oct. 9th, Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 69* and Clear
After a rain last night then clearing around 2am on a very bright full moon I wasn't too excited about going to the lake. As I expected when I hung my lanterns there was not much difference in the lantern lights and the moonlight. I threw for about an hour before picking my crew up at 5:30 then threw for another hour and a half. My clients wanted to go out to watch the bait collection process and saw first hand how difficult it can be, even for a guide throwing a 10 foot net on 4 different lights. We ended up with about 75 baits which was plenty to start with. I told the guys with that bright moon we would be lucky to catch fish in the morning because every fish already ate on that full moon and especially since the major feed was at 5am. I set out a spread of 6 boards, a bobber and 8 downlines and started pulling shallow flats and points where I knew fish were holding. We took a couple of short hits which confirmed my thoughts on the non feeding mood of the Stripers. After leaving the shallows I started to move out to deeper flats when a few gulls started circling over the flat I just pulled. I saw a couple swirls under them so I turned back and pulled the flat again. That was a mistake, I went back to 8 inch punks chasing 2 inch Threadfin to the surface. I moved to a ledge and we ended up catching 3 or 4 Stripers but took a dozen hits to boat them. The guys did not want to keep any fish but I kept a few for some people who had been asking me to save some fish for them. I worked a similar ledge and popped a few more then decided to go catch some larger Gizzards and try them. After catching them I set out my spread of 15 more lines and pulled about a two mile stretch of water only to catch a couple more fish. It was getting late and I told the guys I wanted to check out one more place. I went to an area where I catch fish in the middle of the day on a 30 yard section of a ledge. I set out downlines and before I could get 5 out 3 of them hooked up with nice Stripers. We boated them and many others till the bite simply quit. We had released fish in the area and I believe they warned the rest of the fish about our presence. My clients ended up being very happy with the trip and and want to come back and do it again, hopefully not on a full moon. They are holding a couple of the fish they caught today.

Friday, October 03, 2014

Progression of working a school of Stripers with my Simrad


 I located this school up on a 30 foot flat first thing in the morning. After setting out down lines we started catching fish. This pic was taken 30 minutes after I found the school. I had dropped a bait to the bottom [straight line on bottom left of screen] which hooked up immediately when it hit the edge of the school. You can barely see the fighting fish in the middle of the screen as it is being reeled in [Between 25 to 15 feet]. The fish was on the edge of the cone angle of the transducer therefor it was not very clear. These fish were on the trailing edge of the school and were all punks. They were not keepers but were fun catch.

 Using my side scan I determined the school was moving deeper on the flat so I steered the boat in the direction the school was moving. We were steadily catching Stripers but the larger fish were at the top of the school. We raised the lines up to 23 feet as you can barely see [very light horizontal line at left of school] then two thirds of the way across it hooked up rising up to 15 feet then the fish dove back down into the school.  We had numerous fish on at this time and fish in the boat that we were taking off the hooks therefor we could not reel this fish in for a couple minutes.

 I had temporarily lost the school in this pic and was over a small pod of punks. I saw some larger fish off to the right of the boat so I steered the trolling motor that direction. You can clearly see our bait about 10 feet deep [horizontal line at 10 feet]. We had raised our baits up this high because the nicer fish were feeding in the upper water column.

My move paid off in this shot. Just a minute after I turned the boat and got away from the punks we hooked up with nicer fish. We continued to catch nicer fish for quite awhile but I was too busy to pop more pics. I could have never stayed on this school without the aid of my Side Scan. Simrad and Lowrance have made my job SO much easier and productive. Technology has come so far in the last few years it is a shame for anglers who have major investments in fishing [boats, tackle, vehicles, etc.] to continue to use outdated depth finders. In addition to Structure Scan, today's electronics have features like touch screens that allow you to quickly navigate through menus and are simple to use. If you purchase a unit from Greentop they will even program the unit before you leave the store to set the unit up for the waters you are using. I have been primarily focusing on Structure and Echo uses of my units but but when you incorporate the technology of Navionics Charts the fish almost don't stand a chance. I will try to take time to post some cool uses of charts in the future. For more information on Navionics, contact Thomas at Greentop. He is extremely knowledgeable about Navionics and also is a regional rep for Navionics.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Classic Furniture of Charlottesville

 Carson, Gwyneth, Brooks, Rob, Robert, Abby and Leyton


 Feeding Stripers

Cloudy and Rain, Water Temperature 75* and Clear
I had met Robert at the dock a couple times when I was bringing my clients in at the end of my charters. He seemed interested in Stripers and one time I gave him some left over bait to try to catch some on his own. He wanted to learn what this Striper fishing was all about and booked a trip with me and brought along his son and his family. When I saw the four kids coming down to the boat I knew this would be a fun trip. Robert had gone out with me to catch bait earlier in the morning and we had put 194 baits in my tanks. When we took off all I could think about was putting these kids on some active fish. I looked for about 15 minutes then found what I wanted. After instructing everyone on how to deploy the downlines and how to reel the fish in on circle hooks I motored about 100 yards and we tried to set up on the fish. I could not have planned this any better in my dreams. Every rod hooked up and the kids started reeling in Stripers. Robert and Rob were helping me take the fish off while I baited the rods for Abby and the kids. As soon as they would get the new baits down they would hook up again. You would think with constant hook ups for an hour straight it would be chaos but we all worked together as a team and it worked out great. This crew did better than most of my seasoned clients! All the children reeled fish in without assistance and the adults reeled in fish when there were too many rods hooked up for the kids to handle. Needless to say when we finally lost the school everyone had forgotten the cold ride to the fish and were ready for a break.  We then went back to the marina for a break then went in search of more action. I looked for some more schools but everyone was uncomfortable with the cold temps and drizzling rain. I simply set up and put baits out hoping to create some action. We never went more than 100 yards total for the next 4 hours. We would hook up about once every 15 minutes or so with a few doubles and triples in between. We used up all of our baits and had to call it a day. This family did great today. Everyone had smiles on their faces even when it was pouring down rain. Come to find out after talking to them throughout the day we had done business with them purchasing Mattresses and furniture from their  stores in Charlottesville over the years. They were as easy to work with then as they were to fish with today. 
Good People


Thursday, September 18, 2014

Matt and John

Partly Sunny and Pleasant, Water temperature 78* and Clear
I caught bait early this morning then picked my clients up at 6:30 at High Point. We rode for over an hour looking for schools but I never saw what I wanted to fish so I decided to go shallow and put out a whole lot of baits. We started taking hits on ledges but the first 5 or 6 fish were punks. Once we found the part of the ledge the fish were holding on we proceeded to catch keeper after keeper. We would only see a fish or two here and there on the ledge but that was what it took to consistently catch fish. We had to get off the water early because Matt had to go back to Winchester but they had more fish than they could handle. When John booked the trip he said all he wanted was for his son to catch fish, and that is exactly what he did this morning.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Simrad makes my job easier

 Here is a school of Herring I was throwing on in the morning. I was also catching some 3/4 pound Crappie on the outer edges of the school of bait.

 As I was running back to the marina to pick my clients up I took this shot. These were a whole lot of small Stripers suspended off of a 15 to 20 foot flat. I was running about 25 mph and saw the fish on my sonar in the middle of the screen. As I slowed down I realized what they were hurried back to the marina. By the time I picked my clients up and got back to the spot they were nowhere to be found [Over deep water]. I eventually located them up on the shallow flat feeding in water less than 20 feet deep.

 This is another pic of a school of small Stripers that were feeding. We had downlines down at 24 feet catching punk after punk but caught keepers on free lines thrown out the back of the boat with one split shot on the line.

This pic was popped a couple minutes after the picture above this one. I was just in front of the school of Stripers and was going over the bait that the fish were feeding on. Notice all the small dots on the side scan screen. The Stripers herded the bait to the surface and fish were blowing up all around the boat. Again the free lines paid off in the blitz. 

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Louisa Thunder Fast Pitch


Here is a great idea for my clients, journal followers and friends.  DP Seay, one of my guides, is giving away a full day charter for up to 6 anglers (a $650 value) to be used anytime in 2014 or 2015 to raise money for his daughter's travel softball team. The 12U Thunder Softball Team needs to raise money for the upcoming season and are raffling off a trip with DP to help generate some funds. The price for a raffle ticket is $20 each or 3 tickets for $50 and goes to a good cause.  This is an opportunity to take or give a trip to someone who already plans to go out with us in 2015 or to someone who always wanted to for 1/32 of the cost of the trip.  Ticket sales end on October 9th, drawing will be held October 12, 2014.
If you would like to get a chance to win please copy the ticket, fill out the required information and mail the ticket and check (payable to Mike Sampson) to: 
DP Seay
235 Sam Boyd Rd
Louisa, VA 23093
Please include your email address on the ticket and DP will notify you once your ticket has been received.  Thank you in advance for your support and GOOD LUCK!!!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Loving my Simrad


This is a shot I took this morning where I found fish hugging the bottom over 20 feet of water. It was cloudy and rainy and the fish were fairly shallow. We had down lines out at 18 feet and were constantly banging the fish. We had a couple of guys see us catching the fish and come right over thinking they were on them but we never saw them catch anything. Every time we would move they would move right beside us and watch the action. They finally threw their hands up in disgust as we continued to catch Stripers.


By the time I popped this picture we had four boats around us trying to keep up with the school. We were still steadily catching Stripers and had been working the same school for over an hour. Fish were also breaking on the surface nearby us. My clients were having a ball catching Stripers.

In this picture we had just released a nice Striper. You can see the splash as it hit the water in the center of my sonar screen and you can also see its swimming back down to join the school on the bottom right side of the screen. By the time I popped this picture we had been working the this same school for about an hour and a half. We were getting hungry so I pulled off the school so Kim from Honey Bake Hams in Fredricksburg could make sandwiches and we could take a short break. Well the Stripers were not going to let us have any peace, they still hammered us. The rain eventually got uncomfortable later and they decided to call it a day. We had not caught a fish by 9:30 when we went back to the marina to pick up James, a wounded warrior who missed out on the Bass tournament this morning, but once he got in the boat we had almost constant action for 3 hours. James commented "I have Striper thumb, I have to quit handling these fish".......That's a good problem to have.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Some more Simrad Shots


Guess what this is? I see a whole lot of disappointed anglers jigging spoons with their eyes fixated on their depth finders wondering why they are not catching any Stripers in the fall. Guess what? You have to be near Stripers to catch them. This pic and the one below are schools of Gizzard Shad. Notice my speed, almost still. My motor is running and I am spooking some of the Gizz directly under the boat which appear to be fish but are in fact Gizz. The small vertical lines on my side scan in the darker blue [water] are Gizz swimming getting out of Dodge. Look over to the balance of the school  to the right on SS and you can clearly see that they are Gizzards.

Again, another school of Gizzards. Jig a toothache spoon on these all day but you will be eating Chicken for dinner. These pics are typical for fall fishing, there could be Stripers nearby but we did not see any yesterday when working these Gizards. Now, come back through this scenario later and see the bait all broke up and chances are the Stripers broke the school up and are aggressively feeding.

This is a screen shot I took going into the back of Contrary creek. I actually was just going into the left arm and in the mouth of Freshwater. The structure you see on the right side of my sonar screen is Hydrilla. You can also see it on the blue side scan screen. The grass is prolific all the way to the back of the creek.

Sunday, September 07, 2014

Screen shots working the same school for 3 hours on my Simrad

 These are screenshots I took yesterday when I had a chance while working the same school of fish. I located the Stripers at 6:35 and we started hooking up. When things slowed a bit I took this shot. This school was huge and occasionally busted on the surface. I chased it from the marina all the way to Rose Valley using my Simrad.

 You can see clearly all the fish under the boat on the sonar and fish out to either side of the boat on the side scan.

 I am still on the school but as you can see in the side scan pic I am beginning to loose them. I turned the boat 90* and located them ahead of us, sped up and got right back in them. We worked them till we used up the 200 baits that I had caught this morning.

 I left the school and went to catch bait. I located a school on my Simrad then stopped the boat, put the trolling motor down and turned on my front Lowrance [Which I have rigged a SS ttransducer on].
I got the net ready, started the big motor up and headed toward where I had seen the school. I am now shooting side scan off to the right and left of my boat using my Simrad on the console and looking forward with side scan using my Lowrance on the bow. I found the school again with the Lowrance and threw on it catching about 250 Herring in one cast. The pic above is where I relocated the school. Notice on the left side of the sonar screen I had been running about 20mph to located the fish. Once I found them and slowed down the arches got larger confirming it was the school. We set out baits down to 20 feet and went through another hundred baits in thirty minutes.


We are still catching the fish here thanks to my Simrad sonar [echo] page and primarily my side scan that allowed me to keep the boat over the middle of the school. I would simply look at SS and see which side of the boat had the most fish [in this case the right] then steer the boat that direction till all our rods would hook up. If you are ready to get in on some of this action contact me and set up a trip.

Better yet if you want to own this type of technology contact Steve Lane at Greentop Sporting goods. Not only do they sell the units but they know more about Navico than anyone I have ever dealt with. Not only will they help you with your purchase, they will show you how to navigate through the different pages and menus, take your unit out of the box when you purchase it, install any software if needed, mate the unit to the transducer you have and set the unit up for the conditions where you fish. If you have issues once it is installed their support is awesome. Don't expect that kind of service buying a unit over the internet or through a big box store. These guys know their electronics. Thomas Harris is a rep for Navionics and will show you what a card for your unit can do for you in the waters you fish. He will actually insert a card into the unit of your choice and show you what you have been missing. Check 'um out, you will be glad you did!

Saturday, September 06, 2014

Hilltop Consultants


 Jim Turner and Crew

Sunny and Pleasant, Water temperature 84* and Clear
Today was our annual outing with Jim Turner's Hilltop Consultants. I took Jim and 5 of his employees out on my boat and Tony wanted all the lovers and drinkers on his boat. It took us a while to get out of the marina but I found fish immediately and set up on them. I knew what was about to happen before I stopped but all I could do was hope to get some baits in the water before we started taking hits. I hadn't even got a chance to educate everyone on how to deploy the lines and how to reel in the Stripers but we gave it our best try. Before they knew it we started hooking up and for the next 3 hours there was nothing but chaos on our boat. I found the school at 6:35 and followed it for 3 solid hours till we ran out of baits. I went and made one cast on some Herring, caught 250 and went right back out and relocated the same school. We worked it again for another solid hour before it began to peter out. My crew thought they were going fishing this morning but they were not prepared for hysteria of constant hook up and screw ups. I lost count of exactly how many fish we caught this morning but I know we could have easily tripled our catch if they would have listened better. It didn't really matter though, we all had a great time. 
As for Tony's  Booze and Cruz boat, they caught one keeper Striper and a hell of a buzz. We heard them 500 yards across the lake yelling and screaming having fun this morning. You can see by the stringer they are holding what they caught this morning. This was just the beginning of their day, Jim was having them over to his house to cook out and party the rest of the day. They are going to have a wonderful weekend at Jim's.

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

A busy day on the lake

 I picked my clients up at 6:15 and went looking for fish. Ten minutes later we hit our first school and had only gotten 4 lines out and they all hooked up. By the time we landed the fish and regrouped the school had moved on. After 15 minutes I got on the big motor and located this school. Yup, we had our hands full again. Nice fish in this school and quite a bit of them also. I could tell by the side scan picture that the school was moving to my right so I headed the boat that direction.

 The school migrated up onto a flat where they started busting on the surface. We are catching fish on downlines and free lines here. The vertical lines on the sonar page is interference with Lowrance on the bow. I was using the side scan that I have mounted on my trolling motor to follow the school ahead of the boat and using my dash mounted Simrad to scan left and right. With both structure scans the school did not stand a chance, we went through over 100 baits in less than an hour.

 The smaller fish went shallower so I moved deeper where I saw the larger fish and worked them till we got tired and almost ran out of baits. I took the ladies back to the marina for a well deserved break.

Here is a pic I took after emptying out my bait tanks this afternoon. I told my clients before I started to that more than not when I empty the tank I will see other fish and it happened, we went over this and all the lines took hits. No more bait!!!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Simrad Pics

 This screen shot was taken over a 20' flat. What you are looking at on the sonar screen is a mixture of White Perch and smaller Stripers [less than 20inchs]. We caught nothing but punks here.

This is a screen shot of some nicer Stripers. I was working a 30 foot flat and noticing Stripers in the channel [not catchable] and better Stripers up onto the flat [larger arches on sonar screen about two thirds across the screen near the bottom. Also notice on the side scan page the the larger Stripers [white vertical lines] to the right of the boat about 40 feet out. These Stripers were decent size, notice the shadows out behind the white dashes on side scan.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

A Whole lot of Testosterone

 Anthony and DP

A nice catch of Gizzards

Sunny and Warm, Water temperature 83* and Clear
DP called me yesterday morning and said he needed more fish for his annual fish fry that he is having this Sunday. He needed 12 more fish to feed his crowd so I agreed to go. He also called Anthony and he met us at the marina at 3pm. Three guides on one boat..... that's a lot of Testosterone, ideas, wishes, wants, arguments, kidding, just to name a few issues created by three "know it all's". Since we were taking one of my boats I decided to listen to what they wanted to do and make decisions according to what we mainly wanted to accomplish, put fish in the livewell for the picnic. DP wanted to catch Herring in order to catch a lot of fish. We hit the first creek we came to and with the aid of my new Structure Scan on my trolling motor we located a school of Herring in about 2 minutes. DP grabbed the net, saw the bait on the front SS, made a toss and put 100 Herring in the boat. Now Anthony does not want to fool around with Herring and prefers using big Gizz to catch quality fish and to avoid the punks. We used my new Lowrance and Structure Scan on the bow to locate and catch some very nice Gizzards and put them in my other bait tank. Now they both were happy, I told them to sit down and shut up and I would find some Stripers using my new Simrad on my console. We located some hugging the bottom in 25 feet of water so we set out a couple of down lines right on the bottom. After catching 5 or 6 real quick and only catching 1 keeper we made a move. As I looked for schools I noticed most fish on ledges in 20 to 25 feet of water. I decided to hit a very small ledge next to a migration route going in the blind, not looking for fish first but simply setting up over the break and pulling it. We set out a few lines then DP asked why I was fishing this particular ledge. Just as he completed his sentence the rod doubled over behind him and I said, "That's Why". We worked the ledge for about an hour catching about 20 fish. We had a successful quick afternoon, DP got his meat for the cookout, Anthony got to run his Gizz and catch some nice fish, and I got to give them both grief for a few hours. Just kidding, we enjoyed being together and getting our "Striper fix" for the week.  Can't wait to do it again.