Fishing Report 12/26, 01/01, 01/03 ... Need help

[stripernewbie]

I have fished SML many years for bass, crappie, and occasionally night time stripers in the spring.  After hearing many great striper stories over the years, my sons (14 and 16 years old) and I decided we could figure this thing out ... of course with help of this board. 

12/26 - No electronics. Fished from 7:00 to 1:00 with bucktails and jerk baits to banks (Moorman's to Beaver Dam).  Missed 1 fish. Result zero fish.

01/01 - No electronics. Fished from 7:00 to 1:00 with bucktails and jerk baits to banks (Moorman's to Beaver Dam). Result zero fish.

Received our new Humminbird 899 Friday ... so surely things would improve.         

01/03 - Fished from 2:00 to 3:30 with bucktails and jerk baits to banks at Moorman's with no luck.  We then tried to locate fish with new finder.  I think we found them (see attached). We tried to vertical jig from 3:30 to 5:30 with spoons and bucktails until dark.  Result zero fish.

Anyway, no fish yet but we've enjoyed the time out on the lake.  We are not about to give up ...  a lot of lake and a lot to learn.  Can someone please confirm that the fish on the finder were likely stripers?  Should we be fishing with live bait this time of year?  Is Moorman's to Beaverdam a good location?   

Thanks in advance for any feedback.  Hope to meet some of you one day.

  

    

Attachments:

[Deleted]

It's hard to be conclusive. These marks do not have the classic spaghetti signature. However at 3mph, it's hard to think this is Big bait. This is where sidescan and downscan are priceless. So many times my sonar made me think I was on a school, but downscan said nope!

Could be big bait, small stripers, perch.. Hard to say.

Your location is as good as any. This time of year, you can find them just about anywhere.

Most folks switch to jigging this time of year because the fish school deep. For example, it's real deep in the mouth of that creek you seem to like.

[striperjohn]

Having to guess, I'd say that was not stripers. Generally even a school of small stripers at that depth will give you the inverted V's especially since you were moving. Look at the tutorial Lowrance has (not sure if Hummingbird has one or not) on line and it will show you a great deal about IDing what's on your screen. I've been in large schools of small stripers (like 13-14 inches long) and they still give your the inverted V's.  However, that said, if you have your DF on Fish ID mod you're not going to see the inverted V's, so you need to get off that mode asap, you will have a difficult time learning to use you DF in that mode.
   There are so many different types of fish in this lake, like Yam said that could be White Perch, Crappie (I'm leaning that way since this is the time of year they really start to bunch up as well) walleye, etc. I used to carry, in addition to the big striper jigs and spoons, some small marabou jigs on a light lined rod. You drop that down on top of those schools and you'd probably get bit.
Congrats on just going out in this weather. I'm sitting on the couch with a JD watching the games wishing I was with you-----NOT!
LOL
Cheers

[FishON]

I am not use to Hummingbird but, I would say they are not stripers. Stripers don't mark like that. The marks are to rounded off.. If that makes sense???

[Deleted]

An upside down V simply means that the target is somewhat stationary if you are moving. Think of something 20 foot ahead and 5 feet down. Your first part of your upside down V would be around 25 feet and as you approach the target the top of the upside down V would be 5 feet. And then as you leave the target, the upside down V would go back to 25. Of course this is the perfect scenario which rarely happens but you get the point.

Real thin marks at the beginning of the upside down V either means the target is real small or it could be swimming towards you.

What you need to understand is that any mark at a distance on the unit does not mean that mark is at that depth, it means it is that far away from your sonar signal. And this signal is a cone which makes exact placement location impossible to identify.

Also understand that each unit will look different based on sensitivity, transducer placement, screen size etc.

You just have to figure out your unit based on experience and tinkering. Like John mentioned, you must play around with your unit to understand what fish look like on your screen. Eventually, you will know. Eventually!

Just one more cool and somewhat unsolvable puzzle to play with out there.

[FishON]

Jan 3, 2015 23:01:54 GMT -5 stripernewbie said:

Can someone please confirm that the fish on the finder were likely stripers?  Should we be fishing with live bait this time of year?

IMO, It is always a good time to use live bait.. Just seems to work better.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of bait I can show you..

But, here are a few pics of stripers on a HDS-7:

In this pic my HDS is on 0' to 60' so the stripers will mark bigger in this pic. (Than the next pic.)
s

The mother-load- Now this is 0' to 100' on a HDS-7 so they will mark a little smaller..


The stripers are more scattered here:


Hope this helps.

~ FishON

[piper]

Great pics. I have to agree it looks like you marked a nice school of white bass or perch. Sometimes its tough based on factors like boat speed. Sonar settings. I've thrown on what I thought was a nic school of gizzards only to land a nice striper and largemouth in my net. I would say the white bass are predators after ales. So the big boys weren't far behind. Your in the right area. I've yet to land a striper on artificial..it takes skills..especially a bucktail..seems like u either have it or dont

[Gator]

Nice pics FishOn. Also, agree with previous posts--probably not Stripers, but who knows for sure. Like previously said, gives you something to "tinker" with while you are on the water. Heck, that's when I usually get bit. Fish seem to be schooling up now so you can get on them with your electronics or let the birds give you a heads up. I love to get on them with a buck tail, fluke, spoon or even better, topwater. Everyone has it in them. Just have to get at it. 

I think these are the inverted V's they are speaking of
sonarpic (824.13 KB)


Pic from yesterday. You can see the fish are scattered and a bunch of bait under them.

sonarpic1 (642.02 KB)