Recent Catches

 Guide DP took his son Anthony out for some "catching" on Sunday. After they 

caught bait they found a school and limited out within an hour.

Yea, Anthony was stoked!

Cameron, Mac, Ben, Christian, and Alex

Guide Tony took these happy fishermen out on Saturday 

and put them on some nice Stripers. Although the weather 

was cold the fishing was Hot.

Ray, Ray, D+D

 Ray, Doreen, Dana and Ray

Sunny, windy and Cool, Water temperature 64* 

We got over an inch of rain last night and when I got on the water this morning to catch bait waves were crashing over the dock. Oh Boy, I had a lot to look forward to today! As I drove to find a place to get out of the wind I noticed most of the fish and bait positioned right over the channel. That is not a good thing, when they are over the channel they are not feeding. I set up in a creek with intentions of pulling boards over flats and points. My feelings came true, the first 6 or 8 fish were Catfish. When the Stripers are not feeding we usually catch Catfish and Punks.  I knew it was going to be a challenge to put fish in the boat but we were having action with hopes of fishing getting better. Eventually we started popping Stripers but mostly punks. We hung in there and finally caught keepers. Ray and Dana are holding up two Stripers that were hooked up at the same time. We all ended up having a wonderful day on the water and my crew had some fish to take back for the freezer. Perseverance beat this Blue Bird rising barometer cold front day.

Ron and Darrell

Cloudy and Windy, Water temperature 64* and Clear

Today the weather was changing yet again, high yesterday was around 80* and today the winds blew out of the East and air temps only got up to around 60* while we were out there. We got an early start and first pulled a shallow flat with boards. We caught 7 Stripers then traffic started to get up so I decided to make a move. These guys are down for the week so I took an hour to show them places to fish for Crappie as well as Stripers while they were here. By the time we were ready to fish again the wind was howling so I tried to set up in an area where I could somewhat control the boat in the wind and hopefully avoid boat traffic. The decision paid off and we were able to limit out by noon. I am still anxiously waiting for the weather to stabilize hoping for the Stripers to start a spawn so we can work on the larger Stripers that are in the lake. I am optimistic that in the upcoming weeks fishing will break loose and the lake will give up some of its 15 to 20 pound fish.

A Busy Weekend

Phil, Jeff, Kevin and Jeff

Sunny and Warm, Water temperature 64* and clear

Today was a nice warm day on the lake and it brought out plenty of boaters with it. I decided to pull boards till I couldn't stand it and we had pretty good success up till about 9:30. By then 40 to 50 boats had blown by us and naturally put the fish down. We converted to downlines due to the traffic and continued to have good success. We had over 100 hits today, caught in excess of 30 Stripers and the guys took home 13.

A funday on the water

Jim, Steward, Jerry, Bud and Doug

Cloudy and cool, Water temperature 56* 

I have off the water for about two weeks now spending time with my grandson during spring break. It was good to get back out especially with regular clients [and friends]. We started out pulling boards and worked flats ranging from 5 to 25 feet deep. We took quite a few hits [at least 40] and caught a lot of fish but only managed 4 keepers. By noon I had covered every pattern I could hit using planner boards so I made a decision to do something completely different. On the way to pick the guys up this morning at their dock I had noticed a lot of Stripers 20 to 30 feet deep. I decided to spend the rest of the day working downlines. We looked for fish on the Simrad with little success so I decided to simply pick a piece of structure and work it thoroughly. The move actually paid off with another 40 to 50 hits. Although we still got punked we did manage to catch eight more keepers. I believe the unstable weather conditions were the reason for all the short hits and lack of big fish today. All the strikes did make for a fun day for my crew and kept them on their toes reeling in Stripers. Looks like the weather may straighten out next week and hopefully we can start working on Spawning Stripers.

New Lake Anna Record Striper

Yesterday, April 1st, we took this lucky angler out down by the power plant and hooked him up with this nice Striper. The fish hit a 22 inch Gizzard Shad right next to the intake at the plant. After a 30 minute battle we finally landed him. Na, April Fools! The fish was caught in Arkansas by Mike Bennett. The Striper weighed 50.25 pounds. Great Fish, wish we had some here that size.

Ferguson Enterprises Vinnie Habib

Vinnie working out with a stringer of chunky Stripers

Sunny and Pleasant, Water Temperature 50*

After all the wind, rain and funky weather we have been having Anthony took his long time friend Vinnie out yesterday. Future weather doesn't look much better, 10 day forecast has rain 5 of the days and wind in excess of 20mph 4 of the days. The guys enjoyed the spring day relaxing out on the boat and caught some nice chunky Stripers as well. Anyone looking for any Plumbing supplies, fixtures or appliances Vinnie is the best and certainly will hook you up! By the way Vinnie does wear shirts at work.

Email form a Client

Fishing March 26

Ross Halbersma

3/27/15

Jim,

If you wish to post this – you may….

Photo:  Ross, Hyo, and Jack  (Three Reverends)

I took Jim’s advice, rounded up two friends and went fishing.   Having fished with Jim twice in the past 18 months;  I have found his instructing helpful in the art of catching stipers!  I probably asked him more questions than a four year old boy could ever imagine.   (The first 27 years of my life where in Minnesota, and I do have experience in putting fish on the table year ‘round!)   So on Thursday I introduced my friends to catching bait;  hung lanterns at 5 a.m. and by sunrise, we  had netted about 75 blueback herring.   Having said our morning prayers, we set 9 lines from our fishing machine, and began the slow lake tour!  Our first hit was within five minutes.  The rain started at 8 a.m., and wind pushed us around with gust up to 20 mph.  Caught a few punks.  The fish seemed to be scattered all day, and yes, we fished from both sides of the boat!  As we headed into shallower water, we took some serious hits.  The 28 inch stiper discovered my hook in 6 feet of water on a down-line!   The 20 inch greenback found lunch three feet from the bank served up on a planer board!   As the afternoon sun emerged and the temps surged, we laughed, told stories, and just enjoyed good friendship!   Water temps measured 52 -54 degrees.  I have my calendar marked “fishing” for a few days in April for rest and renewal!   If you’re thinking about a fishing trip, give Jim a call.  He has some great guides who will introduce you to a whole new world.   - Ross Halbersma  

A couple of nice one's.

 Carson and Rick Hogue

Cloudy and Pleasant, Water temperatures 52* and Stained

I got out on the water this morning very early to catch bait and after 2 1/2 hours all I had to show for my efforts were 8 Herring. I met the guys at High Point at 7 then headed up to catch bait. I made 6 or 8 throws, filled the tank up and set out a spread of boards. Fish were not feeding well and all we fished was a half a day but the quality is better than quantity some days. The two fish they are holding hooked up at the same time. Carson boated his fish first then I started teasing Rick to get his up to the boat, he had already wrapped up two other lines and I was afraid it would break off. After the fish took him around the boat it rolled and we saw why he was having a problem getting the fish in. The fish weighed 17.5 and was 34 1/2 inch long. Not bad for Lake Anna, although 'tis  the season for big Stripers.

Chilly Morning

 Bobby [Hobo], Eric, Mike and Cheese and Rice

 Simrad shot of pulling downlines across a deep flat this morning laden with Stripers.

Another nice Simrad shot of us coming up on some pretty structure.

The weather still can't make up its mind. It was 31 this morning when we took off from the marina and 74 when we came off the water. Oh well, better than Ice! Guys are holding up 4 of the Stripers we caught around the middle screen shot. It was around 9am and the only way the guys could warm up was to reel in Stripers. Glad I could oblige them. Caught 15 Stripers today.

Challenging Day

JJ, Hamadi, Mike, Rudolph, John, Vallerie 

Sunny and Windy, Water temperatures 45 to 47*

Quite the challenge today. Started off with our dogs not letting us sleep last night. They were very restless and at 3am we realized why. My wife and I heard a rumble like a dump truck was driving up the driveway then ca-bang, it sounded like someone drove into the house. We knew right away it was a earthquake. Since we had the big quake and the aftershocks I have noticed the it really messes up the fishing and catching of bait for that matter. Bait was difficult but we started with 61 baits. I knew the wind was going to howl today so I hit a couple areas where I though we would get bit. The pattern I was working is very difficult to fish but we hung in there and enjoyed the morning. By 10:30 the wind was up and white capping everywhere on the lake. I went and caught more bait and tried to set up on a flat I knew fish were holding on. I would put a board or two out then a gust would come and we would get hung up. Half the time I was going backwards and the rest of the time we were going sideways. I struggled for 4 hours just trying to keep a few baits in the water. By 2:45 my batteries were smoked and we had to call it quits. We managed to take hits in the wind but it was extremely difficult  to control the boat. We caught 17 Stripers today, not bad for fishing in 30 mph winds.

Some fun Screen shots

 This shot is of a sunken bridge support that was knocked down prior to flooding the lake. You can see it clearly on the left of the side scan and on the right of the echo page you can see the remains of the two pilings. The small fish are Crappie.

 Here are some inactive Stripers. When I see these fish marking so clearly without any movement [Streaking] the fish are not biting. Remember them and come back later.

 A nice school of bait with inactive fish nearby.

The bait would be broke up if the fish were feeding.

Same deal, non catch-able fish.

All these pics look good, but don't expect to get bit. When bait are in tight balls 

and no motion from the fish it is hard to catch them.

Enjoy the pics and get out there and get you some!

Finally got back out, Oh what a day!

 DP holding a nice limit of Stripers

 

When you see this and have fresh live bait out

the results are below.....

 

 Total Chaos.....Every rod went down and we had to throw the fish into the boat and grab another and another. Rods and fish scattered from one end of the boat to the other. This is just a pic of the front of the boat! Since it was early in the day we released all of these Stripers and they all happily swam away. We left this school and went looking for other patterns.

 This is a school of Crappie on the left and some predator fish on the right .

 

 One of many Bass we caught today. A couple 

were Citation size. Would have been a massive stringer.

 This is a great shot from my Simrad, probably one of my most favorite shots that I have taken on the unit. I have the screen up top in Green on Side Scan. We had located pods of nice Stripers very deep in the afternoon in little depressions in 50 to 60 feet of water. After seeing numerous pods like this we put downlines out 2 to 6 feet off the bottom and hit some of the pods. The bottom 2/3rds of the screen is my echo page which on the left side I have on bottom lock showing the bottom water column up to 8 feet off the bottom. The right side of the screen is regular sonar set to a 50 foot scale. On the right you can clearly see all my downlines being pulled just off the bottom. Then towards the extreme right we come upon a pod of Stripers. Immediately all the lines get hit and you can clearly see us fighting the fish as we reel them up toward the surface. Notice all baits hook up! Chirp sonar is INCREDIBLE! With chirp I can monitor all my lines and bait off of one transducer in the rear of the boat. The separation and clarity is off the charts! I can actually view my baits swimming in fifty feet of water. The baits swim up and down as you can see on the bottom lock. When they get around fish they swim frantically until they meet their maker. We boated the eight fish DP is holding in the top picture off of this set, took a picture and called it a day. I popped the screen shot when all 8 rods were bent over. We were lucky to boat all the fish without loosing any or tying any lines up.

WOW, I am still high after a trip like that.

DP with the smallest Bass of the day.

Global Warming

March 6th, half the lake is frozen, coldest February I can remember. All boats clean, 50 rods and reels oiled and new line, trucks serviced, canceling charters. This is getting old. Only good thing is the house is 74 degrees. Feel sorry for the Stripers, once the lake thaws they won't stand a chance. I will be out every day hunting them down. Maybe next week.................!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come on Spring

Cold

I could not stand it any longer hanging around the house so yesterday afternoon around 1:30 I hooked the boat up and headed for the lake. I put out at a private ramp downlake and rode around just seeing what I could see. I started off heading to the dam and 3rd dike area where I found the warmest water naturally, 48*. I went up to the 2nd dike and the water temp dropped to 44*. The pockets on the north side were the same. I went on up to Dukes [42*] then up to the mouth of Sturgeon where it was 39* with the backs of all the pockets frozen. No need to go up any further, too cold for me. All the upper lake is still froze. Hopefully some warmer weather will bless us soon so we can get back in action.
I popped a couple of screen shots yesterday, they are as sad as the weather is. I couldn't find anything worth stopping on in the few hours I was out. It was so disappointing I got off the water around 4. The upper shot was taken down by the dam. Although I did not fish these I am assuming the school of fish on the left are punk Stripers hanging around a ball of small baits. The vertical stack of fish on the right may have been white perch. In the bottom picture I was checking humps out downlake and found Bass hugging the hump in 20 to 30 feet of water. You can see them on the right hump. You can click on the picture to enlarge it if you want. Again, pretty boring but I had to get out. Looks like the rest of the week will be a replay of the last 8 weeks. Unstable.

Lowrance Gen 3 HDS-7 Bundles now available

For those of you that have been waiting on the new Gen 3 Lowrance products 

to arrive Greentop has just received HDS-7 Bundles. They are selling them for $1499.99. They also have a few Gen 2 bundles left at a great price as well. There are no rebates on Gen 3 products but for a limited time there are still rebates on the Gen 2 products. Contact Steve at Greentop 804 550 2188.

HDS-7 Gen3 InsightUSA Bundle

83/200 & Structure Scan HD Transducer

Brand New Includes Two Year Warranty

Product # 000-11788-001

• 83/200 kHz Transducer Included
• StructureScan® HD Transducer included
• Optimized for inland lakes & freshwater uses
• Preloaded Insight USA cartography

Cabin Fever

 This shot is from Stonewall Estates up by Tim's Restaurant

 

 High Point Marina

 Down lake side of Holiday Mill Bridge

 522 Bridge over North Anna

Uplake Side of Holiday Mill

Like everyone else I have been sitting inside for the last couple weeks waiting for the weather to break. I have had to cancel/postpone 8 trips due to wind, cold and or ice recently. I popped a couple of pictures today around the lake. Basically the lake is frozen solid to the splits. From the splits to 208 the main portion is open in places where the wind breaks the ice up. Patches of ice are in the main lake down to Sturgeon. All creeks that I looked at were frozen to the main lake. The backs of the down lake creeks were frozen as well. If you can find a place to launch a boat be careful running, there are patches of floating ice through out the lake with the exception of main lake below the power plant. I saw ice thicknesses ranging from 6 inch up and in the backs of creeks to over 3 inches at the 208 bridge in coves. Once the weather breaks I will be back out on the water making up for lost time.

There is one good thing that results from a freeze like this. In all the years that I have been fishing for Stripers on the lake whenever the lake freezes like this fishing the following spring and summer is incredible. Most of the Threadfin die off giving leaving biomass levels down increasing catch success. The fisherman simply does not have to compete with so much bait giving us a better chance to catch fish. Last fall there was so much bait fishermen didn't stand much of a chance catching Stripers, they were full most of the time! I had to actually work areas with no or little bait nearby to catch Stripers. This year will be different.

Lowrance and Simrad Rebates

Navico is giving rebates on some great Lowrance and Simrad units. Here are some of the rebates you can take advantage of. Lowrance rebates run through May 3rd, Simrad run through March 31st.

Stop by Greentop and let Steve or Thomas show you how they work.

Lowrance

ELIGIBLE PRODUCTS AND BUNDLES FOR PROMOTION Check boxes below for Purchased Qualified Products
$300 Rebate:
Purchase any HDS Gen2 Touch Display model with any one of the following:
o LSS-2 StructureScan HD Transducer
o SpotlightScan Transducer o GoFree Module o Point-1 GPS Antenna o SonarHub Sounder Module o Outboard Pilot o Broadband 3G or 4G Radar
$200 Rebate:
o HDS Gen2 Touch + LSS-2 Bundle (any size model)
$100 Rebate:
Purchase any of the units or accessories following:
o HDS Gen2 Touch (any size model) o SpotlightScan
For additional information on eligible products please visit: http://www.lowrance.com

Simrad

ELIGIBLE PRODUCTS FOR PROMOTION
Check boxes below for Purchased Qualified Products
$500 Rebate o 000-11196-001 N SS16 evo2
$400 Rebate o 000-11192-001 NSS12 evo2 o 000-11451-001 NSS12 evo2 w/4G Radar
$300 Rebate o 0 00-11190-001 NSS9 evo2 o 0 00-11450-001 NSS9 evo2 w/4G Radar
$100 Rebate o 0 00-11184-001 NSS7 evo2 & purchase of:
 o H DI SKIMMER XDCR 50/200 455/800KHZ (000-10977-001) o H DI SKIMMER XDCR 83/200 455/800KHZ (000-10976-001)
Check box below for “Free” product in addition to your Visa prepaid card: o “Free” GoFree Module Or o “Free” RS35 VHF Marine Radio
_________________________________________________
$150 Rebate o 000-11674-001 ForwardScanTM XDCR Kit GoFree Module o 000-11184-001 NSS7 evo2 – No Transducer

Reply to Sunday's "What do you think" post

A few days ago I put a screen shot up asking viewers opinion on what they were looking at. I have been posting screen shots on my journal for many years now to help anglers try to understand.....
A...What is going on in the shot and how to interpret what they they are seeing
B...Help fisherman to see and understand what their units are capable of
C...Setting up their units to work properly for the conditions they are fishing
D...General support to Lowrance and Simrad owners
E...What they are missing not using this technology
F...and mainly to give confidence to anglers that they can go fishing and by using a good Depth finder and understanding what they are seeing they can go to any body of water and locate fish, establish patterns and Catch fish.
That being said hopefully I am helping some of you and here the answer to what is on the screen.

  That day fish were pretty lethargic and the only fish that we could pattern well were deep. In this shot I had the boat over 48 feet of water pulling downlines at 40 feet deep. I am using Chirp on my Simrad which shows incredible detail. I tend to use Chirp more when fishing deep and broadband fishing shallower. Lets start off near the bottom of the screen. Remember, I am Chirping which gives me more separation and vivid pics. The bottom shows up on most of the screen as reddish brown highlighted by a bright light green line. The more solid horizontal Brown/green marks are Stripers. The thinner horizontal brown/green lines are my lead sinkers. The squiggly lines near the bottom is my bait that we were using swimming up and down. The more to the center of the cone angle the more pronounced the image is. As the image gets out to the edges of the cone they appear less dense because the signal is less strong. The numerous diagonal lines are White Perch swimming up to feed on a school of 3 inch Herring that are near the surface. The screen moves from right to left, what is happening currently under the boat is on the right side of the screen and as the screen scrolls to the left it becomes history. Therefore the Perch are swimming up toward the surface, not swimming down. Some viewers thought I emptied my bait into the water and they were swimming back down towards the bottom. If that was the case the diagonal lines would start under the school of bait and they would go from the bait to the bottom toward the right side of the screen. Some viewers thought we were reeling in a bunch of Stripers, I only wish that was happening in the picture. I have posted some shots of us reeling in fish in previous posts. Thanks for your opinions and enjoy my future posts. If anyone has questions about Lowrance or Simrad units let me know. If you don't want your questions viewed on the net you can email me at Jim_Hemby@hotmail.com. Lets all hope this weather breaks soon so we can all get out and enjoy boating and fishing.

Some more Simrad Screen Shots

 In this pic we are over 45 feet of water and have our down line baits set between 25 and 30 feet deep. You can see four baits being pulled through the water [ Horizontal lines] and a fish comes up from near the bottom and hits a bait. The fish initially pulls the bait down about 3 feet then we gain control and reel him up to the boat. This Striper does not appear to be very large on the screen but it was a solid 5 pound fish. The fish was out to the edge of my transducer signal and showed up very week on the screen. The closer the fish are to the middle of the ducer cone the stronger the signal appears on the screen.

 In this pic we had located Stripers between 40 and 50 feet deep so we deployed our baits to that depth. You can see four of our baits traveling from near the surface going down to 40 feet. For each bait we put out you can see to distinct images. The more solid signature is the lead sinker and the dotted lines is the baits swimming down. Once the baits are locked into place the sinker stays at a constant depth and you can see the bait swimming up and down on the screen. At the right side of the screen the four baits are in place and the sinker signature is stronger.

This shot was typical of what we saw all day long. We would locate a few fish here and there, nothing ganged up. I am motoring at 4.5 mph looking for fish. Notice a hump on the bottom about a third of the way across the screen. A couple of nice Stripers are suspended above the hump. They may not look too big but I was moving fairly fast. If I was going the speed I fish at they would have showed up larger. About 2/3rds of the way across the screen is a stack of White Perch. They also are suspended. They stack vertically this time of year unless they are feeding, then they will streak. Just before I come up onto this ledge there are a couple more fish. None of these fish in this picture were feeding.