10-15-12

[dogsbestfriend]

fished on monday. got to the penhook ramp around noon.found bait easier than normal. fished in bull run till dark.only had 2 bites, caught 1. small one. lost the other fish at the boat.the one i caught was on float at 24 foot light line. the one i lost was on a 12 foot float light line.tried runnin planers close the bank, no takers at all.
startin to get alittle disgusted.seems like now is one of the better times to fish for stripers, and i aint doin crap.

[BentRod]

Hang in there Dog..you'll get on them. Thanks for the report.

[dogsbestfriend]

thanks,

there is only two or three knots left in my rope, so i can hang for a little longer i guess.

[mwardncsu]

Seems like it generally only gets better as October goes on and we roll into November......

[striperseeker]

Yes I have been having problems with catching fish also. A big part of my problem is I am only getting on the lake a half day every other week. But the stripers should get concentrated real soon and we should all start doing better.

[dogsbestfriend]

that sounds encouraging, but if i cant find them now, how do i find them then??

[BentRod]

Not sure what you guys mean by it getting better? It's been pretty decent. Not sure it's going to get a whole lot better other than just the normal certain days are better than others. The difficult part about right now is in a lot of areas of the lake, the schools are moving daily and tough to keep up with unless you fish daily. But the fish are out there, you just gotta go get em!

Best thing you can do Dog is keep trying spots until you hit on something. I don't know the Blackwater at all or I'd give you some help. I'd look Gills Creek over good..that's one of those creeks that's always pretty good yearround. Upper Blackwater should be good. My Roanoke patterns are the same every fall, so I know where and when give or take a week or so that the fish should show up out of their summer pattern.

[dogsbestfriend]

thanks for the advice. i was thinking about gills creek. i never fished there.let me ask ya something. are the fish biting all day now? or is it a low light bite, and what should the bite be for the next couple weeks?

[striperseeker]

Bentrod you have summed it up well. Once you find the schools and can stay on them the fishing is good basically all year round. The problem is for most of us we cannot get on the water everyday. And when work interferes with fishing, we may only be able to get on the water once every two or three weeks.

This makes fall a good time to fish. Once the stripers get up stream on the Roanoke side, there are a lot fewer places you have to search to find the fish. And the fish tend to stay in the same areas for weeks. I am happy it is that time of year and that things have slowed down at work. Maybe I can hit the water once a week for a couple of months.

[emmitt]

I fished Gills Creek 3 of the last 4 weekends and marked a lot of fish. They just had lock jaw for me. One of the charter captains came through a couple times and had the same luck and didn't stay long. May be a good place to check and see if the fish are willing to bite before moving on. Marked a lot of bait as well so the stripers may hang around for awhile. I will be giving it another try this weekend so give a shout if you are on the water.

[BentRod]

It's generally an all day bite now. Certainly, they may bite better at times but you should be able to fish all day and catch fish at any time.

I hear ya SSker. Not as easy when you don't get out much. I've been out once or twice a week for a few weeks and even then the fish are moving on me but I expect that..they are stripers after all! From experience, I know the general area a school will be so I just work it over til I hit them. If they're not there, I move. I haven't even really scouted in weeks with my sonar..just fished it and moved when I wasn't getting bites. Pulling big baits helps when the fish are shallow because you can locate them on the banks when your sonar can't see them. Even if you dont catch them, you know they're there and can try different things until you get them to bite. Travis and i located some a few weeks back and could not get one in the boat to save us for 2-3hrs. Time was running out so we switched up our techniques and within 20min had two 36"+ fish in the boat. Trial and error is all it is. Some days you win and some days the stripers win.

[striperseeker]

Hey Bentrod!!! It is so true that some days you win and somedays the stripers win. But all days on the lake are good ones. Sometimes we forget that because the stripers have been winning a lot and we complain. But I have yet to have a bad day on the lake.

[dogsbestfriend]

thanks for that info. sometimes i wander do i stay where i THINK fish are , or move somewhere else. I dont have the high dollar electronics, just a lowrance x71 . and i have never marked a big school of stripers. unless i see them busting, it pretty much just a guess where i think the fish are. i have only been fishing for stripers since march, guess i have alot of dues to pay yet. i sure do thank you guys for all the advice and knowledge.

[striperseeker]

If you were on the Roanoke side I could tell you where I am going to look this weekend.

[Deleted]

Hey dogs, the fish are always flying around in October and dang hard if not impossible to keep up with. Mid Nov. they will start slowing down a little and are much easier to stay on. Gotta remember, the best electronics in the world won't help though when the fish are on the banks or up shallow in the water column.

Use to fish blackwater a lot Mid Nov.-Dec., If I were going to fish there, I would dang near camp out in gills creek. Make sure you check the main back end ( water bout 2 ft. deep) quite often for busting fish.