I've been pretty busy the last couple of months and haven't posted much other than a reply here or there...busy in a good way, some renno on the home shop and some actual fishing, to go with other life stuff not pursuant to AT...some pics of various cookings, projectings and fishings so far...2020 is off to a good start in that regard at least...
Looking good and looking like fun ............... except for the light beer !!! ???
Cheers:
Todd
Saw that fish on the finder and jigged it with a 9" hogie.
Sal Special Surfmaster, going to try to get a fish onnit this weekend
lake pics.
Below,
a nice gumbo in Dutch oven, built a reel shelf for shop, moved dart board with new backing, new rod building station.
more...
reel station and a couple of rods in progress. the lake pic is upside down, when the water was down I pushed out about ten CY of sand that eroded during the hurricanes back up the bank to dig out my mooring (the square). The water is up 11 feet as of now vs that pic a week ago...
Some nice dingers and bacon-oyster-white wine-butter drizzle to top off angel hair with those filets..
Looks like a great winter for you buddy!
That water looks great :)
All we are getting is rain, gales, sleet, snow, more rain and more wind - Thanks Roger >:(
look closely at the depth sounder shot- the solid line near the bottom is a shiner on Carolina rig, and you can see me jigging the hogie top left hand- then dropping it down into the school when it comes on screen about 40 ft deep. Good electronics are almost like watching TV. My buddy in the orange coat was jigging- I was watching and says "you just dropped it on his head"...and bam...
back in the day, we miked "fish on"; nowadays it's "Contact!".....well, last week we watched Eddie Murphy "Delirious" at the cabin....friggin hilarious and I'd forgotten most of it...anyways when Eddie's uncle's "Bigfoot" brother in law catches a fish with his teeth and goes "Gooneygoogoo!!!!"
So, now it's gooneygoogoo, lol. May name the boat that....caught a whole lot more than what you see but not always time for pics wen on a skool....
Those are lake strippers ? How big can they get in Fresh water?
Todd
Looking good buddy, l wish I was there with you guys.
Strippers appear to be around 24", the perfect size for some good eating... except for that light beef of course🙂.
Your gear looks well organized, very nice.
Thanks for the report!
Sal
Great pics John, those are some fat stripers!!
Sal's eye is calibrated- he's dead on give or take an inch...the limit in winter is 20" minimum FL, but at that size they are all head and belly, so by the time you take out the red meat, there's not much left. I turn those away for another day.
Re the Natastrophe's: you caint be drankin a dozen craft beers on the boat. First, it will hurt yo head. 2), redneck fish won't bite 3) you'll get laughed at. If you need more horsepower, we get a Natty Daddy. It'll getter done! Can I get an Amen from my brother in Northern KY! :)
Todd, back in the 90's when I started messing with them, you could catch 10-12 lb'ers every day and some up to 20 in this lake. Back in the 70's, it was 20-30's. Pressure, forage (the mis-introduction of blue cats) and habitat degradation have demo'd the herring population. Bluebacks are illegal to even possess now), and a gill maggot (sea lice) outbreak in the 2000's had also hurt the population. There's plenty there, but where I was seeing lots of 16-20" two years ago now I'm getting 26". So, hopefully they are on the way back. The blue cats have taken over- they eat tons of mussels too, but also anything else in front of them. The WR came out of here a few years ago (Buggs Island if you wish to google) at 143lbs, I think. 100lb cats come out every so often, and a 30 doesn't even raise eyebrows....these eat a lot of forage. To answer your question, the NC freshwater record is over 50lbs but the WR is somewhere in the 60's; I think from Tenn. I'm foggy on that one. This is the same river system, the Roanoke, that Benni fishes. I'm appx. 140 miles or so downstream from Salem, and the river goes all the way down to Roanoke Sound behind the OBX. I'm fortunate in that our lake is actually long enough (39 miles of lake plus a lot more back up the rivers) for the stripers to spawn naturally.
OK...I want a big bowl of that gumbo and a cold beer...while I nose through those reels! Nice lookin' stripers John. 8)
so far so good Johny boy.
seems like a nice way to start the year, fishing, a clean and organized place to work at home, friends and good times.
now, THAT's a REAL fisherman who keeps his beers (albeit, Light) in the same cooler as the fish
been yelled at for icing a few freshly dug clams, because they might spit a little sand onto CLOSED beer cans
(threw the shells at the whiny bastard, after I smashed 'em together & scraped the meat out w/ my teeth)
BTW, if you take your English darts half as seriously as your reels -- I may have some trade bait
Nice rack, work bench, personalized rods, stripers(not strippers, unless you're single), nice dock. Did I miss something ?? You sure didn't lol
Quote from: thorhammer on February 13, 2020, 05:53:06 PM
Sal's eye is calibrated- he's dead on give or take an inch...the limit in winter is 20" minimum FL, but at that size they are all head and belly, so by the time you take out the red meat, there's not much left. I turn those away for another day.
Re the Natastrophe's: you caint be drankin a dozen craft beers on the boat. First, it will hurt yo head. 2), redneck fish won't bite 3) you'll get laughed at. If you need more horsepower, we get a Natty Daddy. It'll getter done! Can I get an Amen from my brother in Northern KY! :)
Todd, back in the 90's when I started messing with them, you could catch 10-12 lb'ers every day and some up to 20 in this lake. Back in the 70's, it was 20-30's. Pressure, forage (the mis-introduction of blue cats) and habitat degradation have demo'd the herring population. Bluebacks are illegal to even possess now), and a gill maggot (sea lice) outbreak in the 2000's had also hurt the population. There's plenty there, but where I was seeing lots of 16-20" two years ago now I'm getting 26". So, hopefully they are on the way back. The blue cats have taken over- they eat tons of mussels too, but also anything else in front of them. The WR came out of here a few years ago (Buggs Island if you wish to google) at 143lbs, I think. 100lb cats come out every so often, and a 30 doesn't even raise eyebrows....these eat a lot of forage. To answer your question, the NC freshwater record is over 50lbs but the WR is somewhere in the 60's; I think from Tenn. I'm foggy on that one. This is the same river system, the Roanoke, that Benni fishes. I'm appx. 140 miles or so downstream from Salem, and the river goes all the way down to Roanoke Sound behind the OBX. I'm fortunate in that our lake is actually long enough (39 miles of lake plus a lot more back up the rivers) for the stripers to spawn naturally.
Thor, for a short period of time the freshwater striper record was from Tennessee, Melton Hill Lake, about half an hour drive from me. This fish was a tad over 60 lbs, caught on a live 20" skipjack herring, sometime in the mid 1980s. A few months later the freshwater striper record was broken in California. It's been broken again a few times, and the freshwater record might now be from Alabama, somewhere around 69 lbs or so. LOL, the first few stripers I caught were by accident. We were fishing for channel cats with shad guts in a creek not even 40' wide. TWRA has warning signs practically everywhere advising not to eat stripers, claims they're full of PCP and mercury.
I really like this tread,,,,,, :D good work shop,,,nice fish,,,,,great food,,,,, ;) and yes there are monster in the lakes around here,,,,,,, ;D
Festus, your Tenn fish caught on the skipjack was exactly the one I recall reading about.
Amen Brother! ;)
You have really nice stuff John. Those record stripers are about 20 years old.
-steve
Quote from: oc1 on February 14, 2020, 07:17:20 AM
You have really nice stuff John. Those record stripers are about 20 years old.
-steve
I don't know why,,,,but they tested a 15lb striper at the cove and it was 18 years old,,,,,,, ;D
I tested a 12 year old scotch and I was 52 years old lol
Quote from: Benni3 on February 14, 2020, 08:40:19 PMI don't know why,,,,but they tested a 15lb striper at the cove and it was 18 years old,,,,,,, ;D
The life expectance (in the absence of predation) seems to be roughly 20 years. How large they grow in those twenty years depends on climate and forage.
-steve
Quote from: philaroman on February 14, 2020, 12:07:19 AM
now, THAT's a REAL fisherman who keeps his beers (albeit, Light) in the same cooler as the fish
been yelled at for icing a few freshly dug clams, because they might spit a little sand onto CLOSED beer cans
(threw the shells at the whiny bastard, after I smashed 'em together & scraped the meat out w/ my teeth)
BTW, if you take your English darts half as seriously as your reels -- I may have some trade bait
I enjoy my darts but have beaten the neighbors so soundly they wont play me anymore unless I'm seeing double ;D ;D ;D
want a good drunken hustle for all 01/double-out games?
you could be blindfolded and bound, drop-kicking darts in the general direction of the board ...and still not lose:
tell your opponent that you're so much better, that in order for them to even have a chance of winning,
all their shots count double (let 'em bet, if they want ;) ;) ;) ) with all scores doubled,
they can never score an odd number & can never even get to an out-shot -- mathematically impossible!
John, that red and silver is off the charts. Is that that OG thread you showed me the last time I was up?
We gotta catch up soon. Doesn't look like I'll be back in Raleigh anytime soon but I'll let you know if I get up that way - I'm sure I will once or twice over the summer. If you're ever in the 910 let me know and I'll see if we can't get the boat running.
Drew