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The weather looks perfect for chasing stripers. I hope most people are too busy planning parties picking up ice ect to hit the lake. To all those with my phone number I will hit the lake around 10am looking for shad. Give me a text if you are out and we can share if either one gets too many. Been a while since I have been able to escape work so any PMs about where there are any stripers hanging tight would be greatly appreciated though I know I have not had much to share lately. I really hope no one has a bass tournament, low winds look like a possibility of top water action if boats don't run them to the bottom. I have a wopper popper tied on that has yet to be cast into a surfacing school.

Was someone really in the water or were they just running circles and destroying docks?

Yea 2 inches over 4 days is not near 14 inches in 4 days so the impact will not be anywhere near last year. I am just saying when it is cold I like clear water, also makes throwing a cast net a lot easier when you can see the bait. It just depends on how and what you fish for, stripers tend to run away from dirty water. Bass seem to hit reaction type baits better when they can't see them as well so a little stain will help spinner bait and crank bait fishermen. As long as the wake boats don't get out, I am good.

Go back to last Xmas, that was not good. Cold water is hard, cold muddy water is worse. I for one like the cold clear water but a little colder when the shad start the death twitch.

Thursday the wind dies down, then it drops 10 degrees and Friday through Sunday it rains with solid cloud cover until Monday. Just goes to show you that is always something.

I was just looking at the forecast, the next two days look great for temps, but the wind will be between 10-25 mph during the day. Man does that make it hard to net shad.

I am getting ready to climb some mountains in Colorado in a 2016 Ford Explorer and I am dreading that, you are nuts. My training is sipping JD and repeating over and over that I have to go to Colorado to install new GPS equipment in the cold when they did California in August.........

That gliss is not really braid and is as thin as 8lb test and was on sale, it was not an active choice of I am going to use this reel for ned rigs. It was more like I am going to use this reel all day and wanted to throw a ned rig. But I threw that little ned further on that sit up than any other I own, several times ending up 10 yards on shore with half the effort. It was the spoons that ruled the day and I usually don't use a spinning reel for spoons but I wanted a 20lb fish on that spinning reel to see how it would hold up with 50 yards being pulled thru the drag. Next time I will put a 6inch shad on it to see if I can get a big fish to give it a workout.

Does anyone know why the shad are holding so deep on Beaver this year versus last year? I remember last year before Christmas and and years before seeing shad move into the creeks on top of the water and fish blowing up on them. This year they seem to move back through the deep channels and hardly push the top even when attached by schools of fish. Is this a temperature difference ? Does it have to do with were the food is located or water clarity?

I couldn't have called that any better when I predicted spinnerbait and crankbait in the wind. Now if I could fish those two baits.LOL Thanks for the post

Well have used this reel quite a bit, but not landed a big fish on it a five lb bass is about the biggest. I spooled it with 24 lb gliss braid. I don't know if it is the gliss or the reel but it throws 1/32 oz ned rigs further than my Mitchel with 8lb flouro or my Shimano with 10lb. I paired it with an ALL Star MH worm rod and it seems to be one of my favorite reels, have done some spooning with it and hung up bad and not one thing to complain about. We will see how it holds up, it is a little heavy but it is also a big reel. I am going to order another one. Anybody else have one they have used for awhile?

You are jerking the spoon too hard if you bury the hooks in the wood that deep, a 3/4 or 1 oz spoon will unhook itself.

I think we need to rename that tournament, seems to be to good of weather last few years. Well who is fishing? Spoon bite has been great but there will be too much wind on Sunday. I think the crankbait, spinnerbaits will rule this one.

I went out to Coose and spooned up bass all the way down to 50 feet, just find a bait ball there are bass around. I hit the trees and found a big fat spot behind everyone.

I found fish and lots of shad from PC to Horseshoe, even found them tearing up shad at 35 to 50 feet but could not get them up to hit the brooders I was pulling. Tried a spoon and had a brief hook up that pulled loose. Really nice day, even took the coat off a few times.

Where are the pics form Hittin Hard ? Have you got a 30 pound plus yet?

If not Thursday than Friday, can't tomorrow.

Does anyone have a water temp after this arctic cold front?

This cold spell should put shad shallow and doing the death twitch, Christmas eve looks to be a good day. I hope to be able to hit that time when a few are dying and before there are tons of dead shad lying around. Thanks for the report.

There was a discussion about wives fishing then a confession about cheating, I was afraid where that was going. I was thinking something like hey your wife fishes with me and she broke two rods and lost 4 of my best jerk baits so now you owe me $400. That would be the story if my wife fished with someone else anyway. But I have jigged a dead threadfin on a spoon and got fish to bite that were not hitting the bait or spoon before. Also disclaimer if you sneak around fishing with my wife I am not paying for anything she breaks or looses !!!

With water temps like that already looks like a shad kill year is coming. We have not had a good shad kill in years. I am surprised you could not find any, you are the shad master.

Really depends on how cold it is, I don't follow Dan when it is below 40....when it gets cold I will wait for the fish to come to me.

Well I ordered one from Walmart for $14 and free shipping it cam from IDS online out of NJ. No idea what that company is, but you can find these online for as little as $10 in places like WISH. Looks to be a good reel, a little more plastic than I like but seems everyone does that now. I will post more when I spool it and use it. It is a Yumoshi DF3500 and holds 190 yards of 10lb test.

Took me a while to throw without taking down the front seat...still not fast enough to hit the good gizzards most of the time.

I was driving from Minot, ND to Fargo a couple of months ago and saw a coyote snatch a pheasant in mid air. Anyway plenty of birds of any type you are looking for left in the up there. I think pheasant is the number one road kill in ND. How did Dan's Striper thread get to be a bird thread?