Fall striper bite

[thorhammer]

Since I moved away from the coast, the fall top water bite at my lake has become my most frequent fishing go. After Labor Day, the tourons are mostly gone, the bass tourneys haven't started back yet, so we get about three weeks of peace although there seem to be more people striper fishing than I have seen in a while. The bass boats blister by you no matter what you are doing if you are in their way point A to B, with zero regard to any rule of navigation, let alone common courtesy. I've had them prop into my live bait planers 40 feet from boat, and I hope their seals got eaten. This lake is miles across in places so there is plenty of room to veer around, and IDAC if they are fishing for money. Sat., had fish dang near splashing the boat, but not wanting anything I had tied on . Friday:

[steelfish]

nice fish JOhn, what reels/rod you used for that size of fish?

[thorhammer]

Alex, I'm throwing 4400SS / 4500SS / 550SS or generational variants, plus the Battle 4000DX, which I'm a fan of. 20lb braid with shock. Rods, Tsunami 7'10" 12-25lb, I think; they really sling poppers and when the fish are popping up like whack-a-mole I like to be able to reach them quickly. I recently built an 8' Rainshadow from a blank I'd forgotten about, and it's performing really well with the Battle. Typically I have casting reels for metal: Ambassadeur's and Calcutta's, mainly. May take 6-8 rods to keep several different size poppers on, and sometimes if they are really on, we sticked a hooked fish up in the TTop and pick up another rod. Two-three jig rods with metal spoons and plastics  / swimbaits, and I have recently had luck on Tady's!!! But don't tell anyone on the East coast, lol!

[Bill B]

Livin' the dream John.   

[quang tran]

These are pure striper ,not the hybrid ,is that the fresh water striper in CA ? Here in Texas the hybrid fall "fish boil " happen in November and mostly smaller fish ,the big one mostly caught while trolling in deep water .Spring while lots of baby shad in the shore .they came real close and lots of big one

[jurelometer]

These are pure striper ,not the hybrid ,is that the fresh water striper in CA ? Here in Texas the hybrid fall "fish boil " happen in November and mostly smaller fish ,the big one mostly caught while trolling in deep water .Spring while lots of baby shad in the shore .they came real close and lots of big one

The stripers in California are transplants from the East Coast.  Some move through the ocean/bay into rivers and the  water transport canal system, ending up in some lakes.  There are also landlocked striper plants in some freshwater lakes.  There are reproducing populations of planted white bass in a few lakes, but this is less common.

Don't know how common Wipers (white Bass/Striper hybrids) are here.  I think there are some plants in SoCal lakes.

-J

[jgp12000]

We used to go to lake Westpoint in LaGrange,GA. every year. The captain, Keith Hudson would catch shad with a cast net before sunrise then meet us at the boat ramp. Then we used ABU 6500C3 reels. Carolina Rigged with 1oz egg weights 15# mono just off the bottom or whatever depth the fish were on the Fish finder. We always slayed them Limited out every trip. We caught hybrids also, most striper were 10-15lbs. Keith has a bait/tackle store in LaGrange & also Has an article in GON magazine every month, great guy ! Striper fight so hard they die sometimes, it's like SW fishing without the long Boat ride. Looks like great weather John, Not so freakin' hot ! (That's me on the far right with the big head, last photo)

[thorhammer]

Nice fish, brother!


Quang, yessir, these are full strain striped bass. There uses to be hybrids stocked, but haven't seen one in forever. There may be some white bass around. love those guys, but I think are probably supplanted now by the huge white perch population.

There are four main ways to fish this lake: Surface bite, which is generally poppers but they will hit about anything that lands in the boils; jigging with spoons like Stingsilver, Hopkins, fluke or anything that looks like shad; trolling with leadcore and / or downrigging with umbrella rigs, bucktails and spoons; livebaiting as James describes with several "down rods" Carolina rigged with gizzard shad or jumbo shiner minners as well as side planers and pegged corks with same bait. Traditionally, that was 6000/6500C and Penn 9's, though I turned my buddies on to Mag10's and they loved them. People are using anything with a clicker now, as Shakes and Okuma have put out plastic fantastics that do ok on these smaller fish. Alewife and blueback are off limits now, decimated by the enormous of blue cats that crept in back in the 90's from a flooded hatchery, supposedly. The WR blue came from here, 143 lbs. The fish are much smaller now, I believe combo factors of the blue cats, a gill maggot outbreak in the late 00's and generally increased pressure from more boats with modern electronics vs. the Super 60 and Lowrance LMS350 / Hummingbird LC4 which were used back in the day. The 309 caught more leadcore fish than maybe all others combines and still does, but I switched to 330GTI's way back due to weight and bigger line guide to clear leader knot.

[jgp12000]

Thor, you making me wanna go soon, hope you slay them !!!

[thorhammer]

Headed back up Wed.; if I can get new power pack and optical sensor dialed in without having to play with timing, I will be out Wed night. If not, boat goes to shop for timing and I will be fishing the 'toon Wed evening and until Edgewater is ready. Not my preference, but it's already on the dock and better than blowing leaves:)

[Keta]

Some jerk guides fishing for salmon in tide water run a high speed slalom course between boats trolling to get to the bottom of slots with zero concern for other fishermen that are "in their way".  When confronted they act like they own the water and non guided fishers should get off the water.  It is not all of them but a far too high %.  I have also had then troll with their boats directly over our gear running 50' behind our boat and 25'-50' down.  I donated a spool full of old Spectra to his prop deals.

[jgp12000]

Lee, a good guide like Keith respects other fisherman & doesn't have to resort to such navigation. I also get peeved when a boat gets right on top of you when they have a huge lake to fish in, it's like they think they own the spot. My thinking is if you got there,1st  come 1st served...

[thorhammer]

Agreed...the fat albert guides at Cape Lookout in the fall were the worst..they would cut off my buddy's fly line..that's too close, fishing or not.

[Keta]

Another "wonderful" guide out of Ketchikan thought he had the right of way and everyone had to change a 50+ year trolling pattern at a hot Chinook spot.  It was the end of a point that led into a long fiord that had a 1/4 mile bluff that dropped from shore to 300' in 100'.  The troll was go north close to the bank where most of the fish passed and south far enough to not conflict with others gear.  On a weekend there would occasionally be 10 boats fishing the point and never a problem until Richard Head shows up with clients.  He felt he could take the inside cut both ways and told everyone to go to hell when we mentioned the pattern.  After 2 weeks of this we started maintaining course and depth and the turd just went shallower.  When the 3rd boat crowded him he caught a down rigger ball on the rocks and lost it a bunch of cable and his gear.  He met us at the dock and tried intimidation, 6 of us made him decide he was not as tough of guy as he thought.  He did not last long in our small town.

[Gfish]

John those pictures in the first posts are framing-worthy.
The discussion tangent reminds me of where I launch and the Dive companies vs the shore fisherman and kayakers. The Akule are running now which brings shore fishermen to the Landing. Chances to get an Ulua(GT) from the shore are much better now(especially if you can get an Akule for bait). The shore fisherman are there first, but the commercially oriented Dive company people act like they own the place. Too many conflicts. A guy said me once; "cherry-bombs or M-80's launched from behind da rocks, gonna make dis problem bettah".

Always the same, $. Is it "the root of all evil" or are people/greed.