4/8 Roanoke trip

[hokie]

Bait was very tough but landed enough to fish. Bait was very deep. Nothing in the shallows.
Fished from Hardy to Indian. Nothing! All day. Just couldn’t find any fish. Am I too sit far up the river?
I’m a good bait catcher but I definitely struggle with getting fish in the boat.

[ajrod88]

Sounds like we need to team up....I stink at catching bait but can usually put fish in the boat if I have bait!

[smldlv]

I have been finding good numbers between Indian and Halesford. Until Sunday, that is, fished for four hours with one largemouth to show for it.

[Yam]

I don't think your issue was location. My guess is your issue was timing. I find that fish in a certain area eat at a certain time. If you figure that out, you are golden for a few days. Figuring this out is the hardest part of fishing and changes on a weekly basis. The only thing that increases your odds is your knowledge and experience from previous years. Funny enough, this same knowledge can be your biggest enemy as well.

Use your experience but embrace changing things up.

[hokie]

It’s good to know I’m not the only one with struggles! Lol. Thanks for input. I’ll continue to learn as I go.

[ghostcomanche©®]

Apr 10, 2018 4:03:33 GMT -5 Yam said:

I don't think your issue was location. My guess is your issue was timing. I find that fish in a certain area eat at a certain time. If you figure that out, you are golden for a few days. Figuring this out is the hardest part of fishing and changes on a weekly basis. The only thing that increases your odds is your knowledge and experience from previous years. Funny enough, this same knowledge can be your biggest enemy as well.

Use your experience but embrace changing things up.

Deleted

[johnr]

I dunno. Seems to me like certain areas always are eating, while others not so much. But these certain areas extend from one end of the lake to the other and everywhere in between, so your chances of settling on one are pretty good.

I also think stripers eat whenever a bait crosses their noses. You can’t tell me the stripers we are catching on main channel banks are out there foraging. That makes no sense. The amount of bait out there is not worth their effort to forage on. When they are seeking a meal, they are eating in the back of creeks where those vast schools of gizzards are hanging out, at this time of year anyhow.

I believe the stripers we catch main channel right now are feeding because we are putting a bait in their face. They are on the move, not out there Actively feeding on gizzards.

I could be wrong though!

[BentRod]

Apr 13, 2018 8:17:10 GMT -5 ghostcomanche©® said:

Apr 10, 2018 4:03:33 GMT -5 Yam said:

I don't think your issue was location. My guess is your issue was timing. I find that fish in a certain area eat at a certain time. If you figure that out, you are golden for a few days. Figuring this out is the hardest part of fishing and changes on a weekly basis. The only thing that increases your odds is your knowledge and experience from previous years. Funny enough, this same knowledge can be your biggest enemy as well.

Use your experience but embrace changing things up.

Stripers feed only when their stomachs are empty of all food, and they are hungry.  They are not "opportunistic" or "territorial" feeders like a largemouth bass is.

Stripers will gorge on the shad,  until their stomachs are completely full, and then not feed again until their food has been completely digested.

On average, it takes approximately 36 hours for a striper to digest a belly full of food

So, most of the time, if you catch fish out of a school one day, those same fish are not going to feed again the next day.

I would argue that stripers are very “opportunistic” feeders.

There’s some truth to them not feeding when they’ve fed hard the day before, but I don’t think that’s very predictable either for the average angler.

[ghostcomanche©®]

Apr 13, 2018 8:27:27 GMT -5 BentRod said:

Apr 13, 2018 8:17:10 GMT -5 ghostcomanche©® said:

Stripers feed only when their stomachs are empty of all food, and they are hungry.  They are not "opportunistic" or "territorial" feeders like a largemouth bass is.

Stripers will gorge on the shad,  until their stomachs are completely full, and then not feed again until their food has been completely digested.

On average, it takes approximately 36 hours for a striper to digest a belly full of food

So, most of the time, if you catch fish out of a school one day, those same fish are not going to feed again the next day.

I would argue that stripers are very “opportunistic” feeders.

There’s some truth to them not feeding when they’ve fed hard the day before, but I don’t think that’s very predictable either for the average angler.

What is your definition of "opportunistic"? My definition is when a fish hunkers down on some type of structure (dock pileing, stump, large rock, tree in water) and waits to ambush it's prey. This is the typical bass feeding pattern, and Stripers (as a whole) don't use structure as an ambush point.. As you know, Stripers are a schooling, roaming fish. When they feed it is mostly in open waters.

There is very much truth in the fact that they won't feed when they are already full, even if fed the day before, because of the time it takes to digest their food.

I agree that when they are ready to feed, is not very predictable, for anyone. The only way to really know if they are feeding, is to put a bait or lure in the water, and see what happens.

The point I was trying to make is this....If you catch fish out of a feeding school one day, and manage to find the same school the next day, the odds are against you of catching fish out of that same school. They probably won't be hungry again that soon. And of course, you won't know if your in the same school as the day before anyway, because they move around so much.

[BentRod]

Well we just disagree then because I think stripers very much use structure (whether it be trees, the bottom, etc.) to their advantage when feeding. No they don’t suspend on that structure like a largemouth might (they physiologically cannot), but that doesn’t mean they don’t use it. Larger stripers are highly efficient feeders, rarely wasting energy when not necessary. That is opportunistic in my mind.

[Yam]

Apr 13, 2018 8:17:10 GMT -5 ghostcomanche©® said:

Apr 10, 2018 4:03:33 GMT -5 Yam said:

I don't think your issue was location. My guess is your issue was timing. I find that fish in a certain area eat at a certain time. If you figure that out, you are golden for a few days. Figuring this out is the hardest part of fishing and changes on a weekly basis. The only thing that increases your odds is your knowledge and experience from previous years. Funny enough, this same knowledge can be your biggest enemy as well.

Use your experience but embrace changing things up.

Stripers feed only when their stomachs are empty of all food, and they are hungry.  They are not "opportunistic" or "territorial" feeders like a largemouth bass is.

Stripers will gorge on the shad,  until their stomachs are completely full, and then not feed again until their food has been completely digested.

On average, it takes approximately 36 hours for a striper to digest a belly full of food

So, most of the time, if you catch fish out of a school one day, those same fish are not going to feed again the next day.

Hmmmm. I have yet to have dinner with a striper nor ask them how often they eat. I also don't really feel it's relevant if the fish I caught yesterday at a particular spot are the same fish I am catching today at the same exact spot and time. I only know that there are certain spots at particular times where fish are eating. I also can predict with decent accuracy the size of these fish at a particular spot. So if they ain't the same fish, I guess that certain spots at certain times attract hungry fish of a particular size.

[smldlv]

The other day I caught a 30" striper on a main channel point. Just before I netted him he spit out a 10" gizzard. I was using Jumbo shiners. So, did he eat that gizzard back in a creek and then come out in the channel and eat my shiner? Did he find the gizzard in the channel? Did he feed on the shiner just because it was an easy opportunity after he was full? The gizzard was very fresh!
I believe that even when they are keying on a certain size bait, they will eat whatever looks enticing at the time.

[drag4striper]

smldlv said:

I believe that even when they are keying on a certain size bait, they will eat whatever looks enticing at the time. [/quote]



I agree with this.

[fishnfly]

I think striper feed when they are hungry and also when they're not. The problem with stripers are how much they move. You can catch them in one area one day and go back the next and they are gone. Not only that, they can move in the water column from day to day. Most important things to understand with stripers is finding multiple spots they like and understanding when they like to feed for the time of year. Most spots will produce year after year and once you figure out what time they are going to feed you can just about set your watch to it. Trouble is determining where they will be on that feeding window. Only way to figure these things out is through experience, in which much of the time i wish i had more of.

[Shadslinger]

Stripers definitely use structure to ambush prey. Trees, deep holes, points, current seams, etc. They are predators and all predators have ambush instincts. There's a reason you pull stripers out of laydowns while pulling boards along the bank, or why we catch them off of points, or when you hit a deep hole in the river. They are there using the structure to their advantage to feed. Your smaller stripers are schooling fish who feed in open water. I'm a firm believer after they get a certain size they become more of a lone ranger.