12/27 to 1/3 week of fishing staying at the state cabin
Jan 4, 2017 23:13:33 GMT -5
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jb4sml, Jason54, and 1 more like this
Post by jt on Jan 4, 2017 23:13:33 GMT -5
Since reading this forum about a year ago up until now I realize that there is a class of elite fisherman on here that have put in many hours and years to perfect their craft and are able on a regular basis to pull in 30 plus inch stripers. I tip my hat to you guys. However, this report is not going to impress anybody from this group. That's because as far as striper fishing goes, I am very much a student. But since first fishing in this Lake 3 years ago I have made many improvements that I'm very proud of. This week marks the best fishing trip I've had here yet.
Back in 1988, when I was a young man, I was looking for adventure and landed at Fort DeSoto Park in Florida right at the southern tip of st. Petersburg. I met a lady there on a houseboat moored out amongst some islands right off of Tierra Verde. I ended up living on the houseboat for about a year. Here's a photo of me going out to it :
I learned how to catch fiddler crabs and dig up tube worms on the sand Flats to catch Sheepshead. I got good at it:
I learn how to fish for speckled trout and even catch some Snook. Many years later I would learn how to catch flounder as well as some other species in the Chesapeake Bay even though I never fully focused on catching giant striper when they were migrating down south.
But three years ago when I came to this Lake catching striped bass almost seemed like a mythical thing. I remember one guy showing me a couple he caught with a jig and he had them in a cooler. My girlfriend and I had tried everything we could not catch a single one. Then we went out with Kathy Spike, local guide. We caught about 6 fish that day which was pretty decent for the lake. I saw how she used alewives and thus my fascination catching that bait began.
My first attempt was to build a cage about 3x3 in dimension. I I would net a few alewives up at night and throw them in the cage. For some reason they died.
I then started building my own bait tanks out of trash cans, using ice, putting in bait saver, cuz I didn't want to blow the $500 for a bait tank. I learned a lot, and each bait tank got better.
I came to the Lake a year ago and we did pretty well with my largest fish being a 27 incher. I felt great about it. If you can remember back the first time that you caught a 27 , you know what I mean.
A week ago when I first came to the lake I caught four fish with the largest one being 28 and a half the first day. I was totally and completely jazzed. I was using my own bait tank that I have built and was able to keep alewives alive for 3 days only using salt (1 cup per 15 gal, my tank is 60 gal)and some zeolite( ammonia remover). Curious thing that I ran out of the famous blue Shad keeper on one of my fishing trips to Lake Anna this summer and it did not make one bit of difference to the bait. Main thing was to cool down the water during the hottest part of the summer. I will not be buying any anytime soon. I would actually like to ask that company to provide me with some hardcore studies of exactly what the stuff does under what circumstances. Like if you use it, your bait might last one or two days and if you don't use it then they should not last that long, right?
My first day fishing was last Wednesday, and on Thursday managed to catch another striper along with a large mouth. Over the next few days the weather was rough and I managed to catch just a couple more along with another Largemouth (18") and a Smallmouth. Tuesday, yesterday, rolled around and I had fished a few hours in the morning. I did not get any bites. And by the way the previous fish had been caught in the channel that leads back to the cabins at the park. The bite was off and on. It was my last day at the cabin so I had to vacate at 10 a.m. The boat ramp was exactly two miles away from the cabin and I was going to have to walk that distance to come back and get my car, but I managed to get a ride from one of the workers at the park. I offered him a packet of vacuum sealed striper fillets and he lit up like a candle. Nothing like sharing a little of the love.
It was now 1 o'clock on Tuesday and I was faced with a choice of using up about 40 ale wives or simply going home. Hmmm....
It just so happens that I had met tablespoon by Hales Bridge a couple of days earlier and he had later told me in a private message about one spot where I might catch a couple of gizzards to try to go fishing for the big guys. I had actually approached tablespoon and offered him some bait out of the blue because I feel it's good fishing Karma and how right that would prove to be.Thank you, tablespoon.
So I said what the hell, I'll spend an hour looking on my HDs 7 gen 3, for some gizzards and went all the way up this particular Creek until my trolling motor( MotorGuide xi5 , love this machine!) Began kicking up mud in about a foot-and-a-half of water. I tried using the down scan as well as side-scan to locate bait as suggested by yam and M Ward. I marked some bait, but being new to hunting for gizzard Shad, was not sure. I hit the motor in Anchor mode and loaded up my net. I made a cast and about 4 feet of water and lo and behold I got one giant gizzard.13".
Needless to say I'm grinning from ear-to-ear at this point. First time I had specifically gone to look for some gizzards and actually caught one. Remember guys, I'm a student.
Second cast came up empty. Moved out into slightly deeper water and saw some other stuff and ended up getting about a dozen peanuts. I was very satisfied with myself and decided it was time to head off and use the last couple of hours of my trip and hope for the best. An old-timer back at the cabin had told me that there been some activity back in Indian Creek so I decided to shoot up there. I went all the way up just above where there is a boat ramp and a round gazebo.
Everybody's been posting the big fish hitting on planer boards, so I pulled out two of them , redneck boards , and proceeded to hook a stinger rig into the big fella. I set out a second board with a Big Ale wive. I also set out another six rods with down lines from 15 to 20 feet. Using the down lines with a 2 ounce weight, is how I caught the rest of the fish on my trip. Only one 20 inch striper had struck an Alewife on a float during the entire trip. I thought for sure something had to hit the big gizzard , after all I could not get skunked on the last hour of my last day, right?
I pulled this rig at about 1 mile an hour all the way back to the channel and all the way down to r33. Took at least an hour to make the trip. It was starting to get dark. 5:30 p.m. I was just rounding the point of r33 when I noticed a little bit of spaghetti on my fish finder. As I was rounding the point, I made a decision to stop and drop everything to the bottom at 35 feet as one last ditch attempt to catch something. I have not read a single post about anybody dropping a big gizzard down to 35 or 40 feet but I decided I was going to try it because that's where I was seeing the fish. Not that anything looked big on the fish finder. I put the trolling motor in Anchor mode to hold me right above the fish, of course they moved, so I had to move a little bit myself. I took the big gizzard off of the planer board and I had to re rig him with a two ounce weight to carry him to the bottom. I had a moment of just calling it a day, but then I thought to myself that I'm going to go through with it and give it one last shot. I rigged him up and dropped him down on my big blue, a diawa saltist 6000 combo that is built like a tank. I figured if anything was going to hit I had to be ready.
Minutes pass and it was getting darker at 5 45. I then decided that it was time to start pulling rods in, and after I had pulled up my 3rd rod, it happened.....Zzzzz-zzzzz big blue came to life. I couldn't believe it! Last few minutes on the last day! I quickly grabbed the rod , and carefully yanked back on it, not too hard, I don't want to rip the hook out of its mouth! I was so excited that the image of Jeremy Wade from River Monsters came to mind and without even thinking about it I yelled out yes yes yes yes yes , fish on! Fish on!
I couldn't believe that a fish actually hit a 13 inch bait! I knew that whatever was down there had to be big. I started pulling him in slowly and make sure that the drag was set correctly so that he could pull some line out. He pulled some out and I pulled some in. He felt heavy as I pulled him from 40 feet of water, not rushing it. After a couple of runs he came up slowly and he did not look that big when he broke the surface of the water. But when I got him in the net and onto the boat, he looked like a giant to me. He measured exactly 29 and three quarters inches and when I quickly put them on the scale he weighed in at 11 pounds and 14 ounces. Like I said, I know this does not impress the elites, but I gotta tell you, it felt wonderful to catch a fish like this to me.
In another twist of fate, I decided to spare the fish's life, and less than two minutes from the time that he hit my deck , put him back in the water but it appears the lake had given him as an offering because even though the fish was not bleeding whatsoever he decided he was not going back down and just floated there. I moved him around a little bit and told him , if you don't go back down, then you're going home with me. I waited 5 minutes and it was clear to me that I had to net him back up and throw him in the cooler since he was legal size. And so I did and that highlighted the end of an amazing trip for me. Nothing like leaving the lake with a sense of gratefulness ...... I thank my lucky stars. I filleted the fish last night when I got home to the area of Gordonsville that I call my home. The carcass I put out on a large lawn, and it was eagerly consumed by turkey vultures this morning. I don't believe in anything going to waste. Sorry to be so long-winded and I hope I've entertained you for a moment.
Okay Yam, I finally get it, now I see why you will spend two days looking for mongos and cast your net 80 x! I'll be back!
Back in 1988, when I was a young man, I was looking for adventure and landed at Fort DeSoto Park in Florida right at the southern tip of st. Petersburg. I met a lady there on a houseboat moored out amongst some islands right off of Tierra Verde. I ended up living on the houseboat for about a year. Here's a photo of me going out to it :
I learned how to catch fiddler crabs and dig up tube worms on the sand Flats to catch Sheepshead. I got good at it:
I learn how to fish for speckled trout and even catch some Snook. Many years later I would learn how to catch flounder as well as some other species in the Chesapeake Bay even though I never fully focused on catching giant striper when they were migrating down south.
But three years ago when I came to this Lake catching striped bass almost seemed like a mythical thing. I remember one guy showing me a couple he caught with a jig and he had them in a cooler. My girlfriend and I had tried everything we could not catch a single one. Then we went out with Kathy Spike, local guide. We caught about 6 fish that day which was pretty decent for the lake. I saw how she used alewives and thus my fascination catching that bait began.
My first attempt was to build a cage about 3x3 in dimension. I I would net a few alewives up at night and throw them in the cage. For some reason they died.
I then started building my own bait tanks out of trash cans, using ice, putting in bait saver, cuz I didn't want to blow the $500 for a bait tank. I learned a lot, and each bait tank got better.
I came to the Lake a year ago and we did pretty well with my largest fish being a 27 incher. I felt great about it. If you can remember back the first time that you caught a 27 , you know what I mean.
A week ago when I first came to the lake I caught four fish with the largest one being 28 and a half the first day. I was totally and completely jazzed. I was using my own bait tank that I have built and was able to keep alewives alive for 3 days only using salt (1 cup per 15 gal, my tank is 60 gal)and some zeolite( ammonia remover). Curious thing that I ran out of the famous blue Shad keeper on one of my fishing trips to Lake Anna this summer and it did not make one bit of difference to the bait. Main thing was to cool down the water during the hottest part of the summer. I will not be buying any anytime soon. I would actually like to ask that company to provide me with some hardcore studies of exactly what the stuff does under what circumstances. Like if you use it, your bait might last one or two days and if you don't use it then they should not last that long, right?
My first day fishing was last Wednesday, and on Thursday managed to catch another striper along with a large mouth. Over the next few days the weather was rough and I managed to catch just a couple more along with another Largemouth (18") and a Smallmouth. Tuesday, yesterday, rolled around and I had fished a few hours in the morning. I did not get any bites. And by the way the previous fish had been caught in the channel that leads back to the cabins at the park. The bite was off and on. It was my last day at the cabin so I had to vacate at 10 a.m. The boat ramp was exactly two miles away from the cabin and I was going to have to walk that distance to come back and get my car, but I managed to get a ride from one of the workers at the park. I offered him a packet of vacuum sealed striper fillets and he lit up like a candle. Nothing like sharing a little of the love.
It was now 1 o'clock on Tuesday and I was faced with a choice of using up about 40 ale wives or simply going home. Hmmm....
It just so happens that I had met tablespoon by Hales Bridge a couple of days earlier and he had later told me in a private message about one spot where I might catch a couple of gizzards to try to go fishing for the big guys. I had actually approached tablespoon and offered him some bait out of the blue because I feel it's good fishing Karma and how right that would prove to be.Thank you, tablespoon.
So I said what the hell, I'll spend an hour looking on my HDs 7 gen 3, for some gizzards and went all the way up this particular Creek until my trolling motor( MotorGuide xi5 , love this machine!) Began kicking up mud in about a foot-and-a-half of water. I tried using the down scan as well as side-scan to locate bait as suggested by yam and M Ward. I marked some bait, but being new to hunting for gizzard Shad, was not sure. I hit the motor in Anchor mode and loaded up my net. I made a cast and about 4 feet of water and lo and behold I got one giant gizzard.13".
Needless to say I'm grinning from ear-to-ear at this point. First time I had specifically gone to look for some gizzards and actually caught one. Remember guys, I'm a student.
Second cast came up empty. Moved out into slightly deeper water and saw some other stuff and ended up getting about a dozen peanuts. I was very satisfied with myself and decided it was time to head off and use the last couple of hours of my trip and hope for the best. An old-timer back at the cabin had told me that there been some activity back in Indian Creek so I decided to shoot up there. I went all the way up just above where there is a boat ramp and a round gazebo.
Everybody's been posting the big fish hitting on planer boards, so I pulled out two of them , redneck boards , and proceeded to hook a stinger rig into the big fella. I set out a second board with a Big Ale wive. I also set out another six rods with down lines from 15 to 20 feet. Using the down lines with a 2 ounce weight, is how I caught the rest of the fish on my trip. Only one 20 inch striper had struck an Alewife on a float during the entire trip. I thought for sure something had to hit the big gizzard , after all I could not get skunked on the last hour of my last day, right?
I pulled this rig at about 1 mile an hour all the way back to the channel and all the way down to r33. Took at least an hour to make the trip. It was starting to get dark. 5:30 p.m. I was just rounding the point of r33 when I noticed a little bit of spaghetti on my fish finder. As I was rounding the point, I made a decision to stop and drop everything to the bottom at 35 feet as one last ditch attempt to catch something. I have not read a single post about anybody dropping a big gizzard down to 35 or 40 feet but I decided I was going to try it because that's where I was seeing the fish. Not that anything looked big on the fish finder. I put the trolling motor in Anchor mode to hold me right above the fish, of course they moved, so I had to move a little bit myself. I took the big gizzard off of the planer board and I had to re rig him with a two ounce weight to carry him to the bottom. I had a moment of just calling it a day, but then I thought to myself that I'm going to go through with it and give it one last shot. I rigged him up and dropped him down on my big blue, a diawa saltist 6000 combo that is built like a tank. I figured if anything was going to hit I had to be ready.
Minutes pass and it was getting darker at 5 45. I then decided that it was time to start pulling rods in, and after I had pulled up my 3rd rod, it happened.....Zzzzz-zzzzz big blue came to life. I couldn't believe it! Last few minutes on the last day! I quickly grabbed the rod , and carefully yanked back on it, not too hard, I don't want to rip the hook out of its mouth! I was so excited that the image of Jeremy Wade from River Monsters came to mind and without even thinking about it I yelled out yes yes yes yes yes , fish on! Fish on!
I couldn't believe that a fish actually hit a 13 inch bait! I knew that whatever was down there had to be big. I started pulling him in slowly and make sure that the drag was set correctly so that he could pull some line out. He pulled some out and I pulled some in. He felt heavy as I pulled him from 40 feet of water, not rushing it. After a couple of runs he came up slowly and he did not look that big when he broke the surface of the water. But when I got him in the net and onto the boat, he looked like a giant to me. He measured exactly 29 and three quarters inches and when I quickly put them on the scale he weighed in at 11 pounds and 14 ounces. Like I said, I know this does not impress the elites, but I gotta tell you, it felt wonderful to catch a fish like this to me.
In another twist of fate, I decided to spare the fish's life, and less than two minutes from the time that he hit my deck , put him back in the water but it appears the lake had given him as an offering because even though the fish was not bleeding whatsoever he decided he was not going back down and just floated there. I moved him around a little bit and told him , if you don't go back down, then you're going home with me. I waited 5 minutes and it was clear to me that I had to net him back up and throw him in the cooler since he was legal size. And so I did and that highlighted the end of an amazing trip for me. Nothing like leaving the lake with a sense of gratefulness ...... I thank my lucky stars. I filleted the fish last night when I got home to the area of Gordonsville that I call my home. The carcass I put out on a large lawn, and it was eagerly consumed by turkey vultures this morning. I don't believe in anything going to waste. Sorry to be so long-winded and I hope I've entertained you for a moment.
Okay Yam, I finally get it, now I see why you will spend two days looking for mongos and cast your net 80 x! I'll be back!
