3/19 Team Lund1/2 Gator

[lund2]

Lund1 made his way up to the lake Thursday evening in order to catch bait all day Friday so that we had some solid pieces for Saturday morning and didnt have to waste time Saturday Morning. Lund1(my dad) and Gator caught bait all day on Friday and ended up having a harder time than anticipated, ended up with roughly 13 baits that were in the 10-15" range. I got to the lake Friday evening around 5:30 and ran out to see if I could add to that, ended up catching about 3 or 4 more gizzard over 10" Thanks to Cohesion helping out (Cohesion I'll throw the good karma back to you one day). Saturday Morning we were on the lake by 6:15am in order to be completely set up and in our spot before the sun came up, and make sure nobody intruded on our pull area. started pulling bankside boards with big bait. Started out quiet with only good sized blow up that missed our bait. kept pulling with very little interest for about an hour until we started to get some action. had one board get buried off a point, hooked the fish, and then proceeded to get wrapped around our prop and lost the fish. kept pulling the same area over again and the interest started to increase. fish began to bust up on our baits, and i was dying of anticipation of when to actually strike the fish (actually reel twice bc we were using circle hooks). finally a good fish connected with a bait and we hooked him with room to work. got the fish to the boat and measured him to be a healthy 35.5in and 18lbs on the boga grips (I tried to post a picture but cant figure out how.) that set a new personal best for me on SML. very soon after another board buried, and out of anticipation I jumped the gun and pulled the bait right out of the fishes mouth (assuming it was a good fish the way the board buried and the gizzard it hit was an absolute Mongo). I felt pretty sick to my stomache. Had a little bit more action throughout the day, but failed to boat another fish. two things are for sure, i am hooked on big fish fishing on SML (big bait), and I need to work on catching big bait.  


All and all it was a great day on the water, even with the weather. thank you Striper Mafia for putting this together, and i'm ready for next tourney. 



I do have a few questions I'd like to hear input on. I have always fished circle hooks, and it proved somewhat hard to do while using large bait and planar boards (easy way of saying i missed a lot of fish). How do you guys fish big bait on planars? types of Hooks(circle, J, stinger, etc)? How much faster do you pull big bait? and what can I do to not lose as many big fish while attempting to set the hook?......I don't think I can take loosing another big fish that ive watched chase my bait on the surface for 5 min. 

[mwardncsu]

Good report.... sorry about the fish in the prop.... dang....

You're going to miss fish when fishing with big bait - just part of the deal..... a lot of bait for the striper to have it's mouth on that may not be your hook.... it's a balance of trying to wait long enough for the fish to take the bait fully but not feel tension on the line and realize somethings up. Bait over 10" or so, gets a stinger certainly in the early Spring.

I fish J hooks - just never liked the circles on my planers... use them exclusively on down-rods and I thnk they would be fine on smaller baits they they will mostly just inhale, but on a gizzard, its a Octopus J hook for me.....

Oh, and next time you yank the bait from the fishes mouth, just stop reeling ASAP... play out some line and see if the fish won't come back and nail the bait and give you a 2nd chance.... that's how I landed my personal best the other week..... and how Gator landed his tooth critter last November.....

[johnr]

Big Octopus J hook for me too, anytime I use planers. Circle hooks are for downrods only in my book, and alewives only at that.

I pull big bait however fast I need to, to keep it from passing the planer board. Sometimes that is pretty fast. Other times, it's just crawling.

9/10 times, a big fish won't mess with the bait, it will just bury the board. Do not hesitate. Crush it. And I do mean crush it. No girly hooksets with those big baits and big hooks. Swing for the fence.

If a fish is just fiddling with it, I like to pull the board ahead real quick for about 10 feet, then freespool it. A lot of times, this will get that fish to eat it.

And do as MWard says when you miss one. Stop the boat and let it soak if you have to. Give it a chance to catch up and find it.

[lund1]

So glad I just bought value packs of Gamakatsu Octopus Circles - 5/0, 6/0,7/0's ...then spent 2 hours tying snell knots with stingers....even went and bought a brand new noodle to wrap 'em around....I'll tell you what...I have learned more about Striper fishing in the last few months then I have in all the years I've been dragging alewives around the lake. Every single bit of it has been from the Board and from my son's demand that we "get better!!!".....oh...and quite a bit from my pal Gator.
Speaking of Gator...he was the third member of our team on Sat.. he showed up at the house at 6am looking a little green around the gills...something about a bad can of sardines the night before. I made sure the emergency zip lock of TP was safe and dry on the boat. We headed out as Lund2 described, Gator was uncharacteristically quiet for a while. He was definitely off his feed. He came to life when we had that 18lb cow swirling around the stern. He grabbed that net from my hands so fast it was a blur and hauled her in....gotta love it.
It was great to meet a bunch of fellow fishermen at this event. I really enjoyed it.
I only have one question -----where the H was Bigun??

[mwardncsu]

Mar 21, 2016 15:37:44 GMT -5 lund1 said:

I only have one question -----where the H was Bigun??

Maybe he was there.... maybe he wasn't.......

I'm sure hoping he, and maybe Striper John will be at the April event however..........

[striperjohn]

You have to realize lund2 that those big fish will hit the bait hard from just about any direction then turn it to be swallowed head first. If you are putting pressure on the fish too soon it may release the bait. I use inline circles exclusively. My biggest fish on Sml 39'7 blasted the bait twice and missed it, then blasted and missed it again. I stopped the boat and the gizzard laid on top just off the bank swimming in small twitches and circles for an excruciatingly long 5 minutes. Just when my patience had gone I started to reel and all heck broke loose as she blasted it again and the fight was on. I have to say I almost crapped my pants on the last hit.
Personally its all about patience and fishing technique more so then the hook you are using. Learn to use what you have, everybody does it a bit different.
Perhaps bigun2 and myself and bud Mike can put and old farts team together. If it's for Danny that makes all the difference.

[Deleted]

 

     Well, I've spent the majority of my life fishing and hunting, away from my family. Selfish in a way that only you guys on here will ever understand. My son and daughter are grown now and have children of their own.  I have 2 grand-daughters, Madison 6 yrs. old and Ella 18 months. I'm not ashamed at all to say, they have my heart wrapped around their little finger and I cry as much as they do when they go back home.

    I retired December 1st. of this past year and my priorities have drastically changed. I've had 2 dear friends the same age as me pass in the last few months which made me do a lot of soul searching. My wife's birthday is April 2nd..... Madison's is April 9th.  No one knows how much time we have left on this earth and am going to spend most of what I've got left with them. Haven't been fishing since New Years weekend and won't be fishing  nearly as much as I have in the past.

  Don't take this post wrong, I and my family are in good health and nothing is wrong

Oh, and I do realize, there goes my reputation as a hard ass ....... but it's ok, I consider all of you guys as family also.

[BentRod]

I use Octopus hooks which aren't exactly a true J hook, but much different from a circle Octopus. I'm honestly not sure it matters which hook you use - what matters is that the hook is fitted right to the bait and you have plenty of "hook point" for the hook to grab the fish when it's in his mouth. A lot of times, when the fish is knocking that bait around, the hook will get moved around some and if you don't have enough point showing when the fish eats the bait, then you can yang as hard as you want on a J or cuss a circle or whatever, but you're not going to catch that fish. Big bait - 14"+ baits require a much bigger hook than a moneymaker shad - 8/0-10/0 at least.

Some days you'll miss them all - and other days they'll hook themselves before you can even blink - it's just part of it. Just gotta be patient and make sure you're ready when all the stars align.

Good meeting both of you at the tournament!

[Deleted]

I use Octopus hooks as well. I once used circles. I think circles are your best bet if you don't use stingers. However, with stingers I found 2 main issues with circle hooks. 1... The fact that you can't swing for the fence, means that you can't set the stinger. This can result in many hook ups turning into many disappointments. 2... While waiting for the circle to set, you might just be giving the striper more of a chance to swallow the stinger. Since switching to Octopus hooks, I have yet to see a stinger being swallowed by a striper. Finally, IMHO, swinging for the fence is way more fun than just reeling fish in.

In terms of speed, after witnessing many strikes coming from quick turns, I learned that increasing speed seems to activate a stripers instinct to attack. Kind of like running from a dog. Personally I like pulling between 1 and 2 mph. The faster speeds certainly allow you to cover more ground but also mean you have to be more attentive. Thus, I feel you need to find a speed you are comfortable with then be prepared to vary your speed when you see action. Sometimes this means doing nothing, slowing down or speeding up.

In conclusion, speed, hooks, and when to swing, are all a matter of personal preference based on your own experience. My main point here Lund Junior is that you should never allow yourself to be confined to rule-based thinking. Think in an agile manner with an open and adaptive mind. Welcome change and experiment with everything from traditional to off-the-wall techniques. Create your own original fishing identity and techniques but most importantly, just enjoy the ride!

[lund1]

.......and that, my friends, is the voice of an excellent college professor...impact the way our kids think...not just gathering facts.
You've kids are lucky to have you Yam. Well said.