Feathers and Fins

Bf, they do move around much more in a lake with cooler temps, in beaver however they hang at the dam durring summer or within 6 miles of it for the most part. Interesting subject you brought up. There is a well documentd case of a striper being tagged below Tenkiller and 3 days later captured in the Gulf of mexico. The move a lot depending on the water they are in.

Guys I know we have teachers on this site my wife is a teacher and I will say what I have seen and believe. First; No Child Left Behind, is the biggest load of horse crap to ever infest our education system. A child needs to be left behind or more to the point HELD BACK! I have seen children passed just to move them through the system. When I was in school if you didn’t make the grades ( real grades not study for a dam federal or state test ) you got flunked! Second; Parent accountability! Wow I can go on for hours but to make it short parents JOB is to insure homework is completed and correct and if the student is having a hard time GET THEM A TUTOR and stay the hell off the lake spending money on boats gas and toys. Your CHILD is more important than anything else and they need to come before toys and fun. Third; Put the all mighty WOODEN BOARD OF EDUCATION back in to school and teachers USE IT. When they use it the parents need to use it that night and then take all the toys from the kids! Fourth; Leave the Phones, games and electronics at home learn to use writing and thinking abilities. Fifth; If a student refuses to learn ship them to juvenile facilities or night school or someplace away from those who want to learn or who can be taught. Sixth; Pay our teachers right they sure don’t make enough now and make dam sure they have the tools needed, not make them buy pencils pins and paper etc. As an employer I see these ( No Child Left Behinds ) and it makes me furious most have elementary school education and mentality at best in some cases. Others think they are entitled a paycheck just for showing up. They need to be taught at HOME and school they have to work for what they earn and that means grades, passing to another grade or money. Government needs to insure the teachers have the tools, but they need to stay out of education and one curriculum fits all because all learn at a different pace and speed. Some need to be held back others need quicker promotion. It needs to be about the needs of the child not the governments beliefs!

HUNTING YOU SAY??????????? How about hunting and fishing combines! What could possibly be better than cast n blasting

Guides are sneaky people they are out at night but dang hard to spot in the dark lol... If you are going to pursue stripers you have to be like the fish and be mobile! It is not uncommon to put 30 miles on the boat in a day chasing them.

Nathan come the end of september early October Stripers get super stupid and much easier to find PRAIRIE CREEK simple as that. And if the shad are in the back of the creek they are even stupider simply launch at PC at 3pm go to back of creek and catch bait then go to the first doc past Old PC dirt ramp and drift to the back of the creek. They stick around there till the end of Dec and usually some there all through winter, just beware geese tend to fall from the sky durring the same time for some non-toxic reasons

Summer is very tough but if you can find the right place where they are schooling it can be great. Nathan you were on the phone with me last weekend as I was watching a striper on my cam, never touched the bait but followed it for a good time coming back several times. They can be that way. What I look for is Mornign bites on shores that maintain the shade the longest with a point or gentle slope to them, after that I try and locate them just off those areas in deeper water. Live bait is King in summer. Trolling works but it takes a lot of time to learn how to troll them up and many people use way to large a bait IMO when trolling. Average sizxe shad is 2 to 4 inches and that is the size and color I would be concentrating on for a numbers bite. I troll much larger but im targeting the BIG Bite. I said one time I love targeting the stripers in the White River below beaver dam. its a 1 in 100 or more bite and you have to have the mentality it will not always happen and a bite is more than you had hoped for. Musky fishermen and Striper fishermen are the biggest glutons for punishment lol.

the transducer cord if long enough should reach the bow I would think. Outside the Lowrance system im not sure there is another unit that has the capability to read all multiple transducers from different points on the boat. could be wrong though but think that's patented by Lawrance with the structure scan.

100% in their mouth about 20% actual hook set and hold. Live minnows will increase it to about 30% it is hard to set a hook in bone. Even if you do get it set and the fish does a lot of head shakes your landing percentage drops to about 5% to 10% at best I would guess. The rope method is a much higher landing rate up to about 80 to 90%. I have never found a gar to date with its mouth locked shut from any foreign objects like a fly designed for them. Not saying it cant happen but I have never seen it.

Sounds like fishing during Santa Anna Winds 40 to 60 mph. Grapnel anchors were mandatory, lost more than my share of them but they did hold in high winds. People often think Cali lakes are low and flat and the truth is many of them are just like the Ozark Lakes as they are in the mountains for the most part and much of the same structure minus bridges and boat docks.

Double anchor method works to stop that issue. It is the go-to approach for catching the monster Largemouths in Cali. Process I like to use is set the bow facing the way the wind is coming from. First thing to do is drop a marker where you want the boat to be. Now set the bow anchor 100 feet in front of the boat using twice the normal weight you would then back the boat down 100 feet past the Marker and drop another anchor and position the boat back to the marker. It will lock you in place.

Meats good on all sizes of gar but easier to clean the larger ones. I am fond of baking fish or grilling or ok ok im found of eating fish lol

OP I use to use a net a lot but they seem to have the ability to leave the net as fast as you get them in and they are a pain to get out when they do stay so I just use a set of welders gloves now and grab the bill. Cool thing about Gar is when summer comes around and others species get harder to catch Gar become plentiful and somewhat simple to catch. The perfect Summer fish if you think about it. They fight hard, they are good size and they are perfectly designed for the BBQ. I measure them from tip of snout straight to tail myself.

Psst Nathan... Those are for ALLIGATOR GAR ONLY! The ones up here are primarily Longnose Gar listed as Rough Fish – Gar (except alligator gar), bowfin, common carp, Asian carp (grass carp, bighead carp, silver carp), sucker (including buffalo), bullhead and drum.

OP welcome to the dark side lol.

I will try but formulas I haven't done since the kids needed them If you know the size of a given object ( in this case the weight ) You can blow up the screen shot and large enough and measure it then compare that to the fish. Egg sinker = 1 inch.... fish girth = 8inch Now if you know the speed of the Unit plus water speed you can determine how many feet of water is covered and translate that back to length of the fish based on size of weight plus speed of boat and distance covered. Its very much like trolling and knowing exactly where on the screen the your bait will impact a target.

Sounds like a good morning and finished off with a good dinner.

Nathan it is a Fly Ducky ties in various colors and lengths. I wish I had a picture of them not in use but here is one that has been used. I have shared some with saltwater friends of mine and the list of species it catches just doesn't stop. By far my favorite fly for everything large enough to try for it.

streamers, I prefer the FOF but I am out and ducky is in Alaska so I will have to wait for him to get back in the fall to get more

yes it is, it is the irregular bouncing marks on the bottom

Here is another piece of the puzzle. for the last few months I was using my buddies underwater camera, it taught me a lot but I picked up my own this week. His was Black n White, mine is Color and the detail with color is 1000x's better. I spend a good chunk of the day yesterday tv fishing. It opened my eyes to just how many big fish are in beave but more how many fish come look at a lure or live bait but more fascinating was how many fish come look at a bait, in some cases multiple times but for some reason back off. It has a major draw back though. As with topwater where anglers set the hook to fast I did it watching the bite lol. It has opened my eyes to many things and really helped me read the sonar. Now with a color unit I am betting I will only get better. I do need to learn all its functions for sure but here is one picture I took and it sucks but gives you an idea. Upper right corner between the lines is a Kentucky bass swimming away. Just below it to the right are two walleye sitting on the bottom. I wish I could have had a better picture. HERE IS THE SONAR PICTURE Bottom left at 20fow is the Kentucky right below it on the bottom you can see the walleye.

Nathan 2 ways I like to catch them are LIVE and FLY. You must have super sharp hooks and a very hard hook set. The Nylon rope works well! The third option is Archery. But of all ways on the fly is by far my favorite they put up a great fight ands some of them will give you a great air show. Wrench, Gator is a good comparison If you look at the picture you can see the muscle tone in the meat and the density of it. Very firm but not tough at all. Apparently the way I cooked it last night is even Coonass approved from my Facebook lol. Hard to get the seal of approval from those boys on food I don't good lol. Al's way is good, that method is good on small fish but be warned the Gars skin/scales on the small ones are very sharp and I and a few others have sliced our fingers open doing that, this is why I advise only larger Gar to be kept and the cleaning method I listed. And definitely DO NOT EAT THE ROW!

Used them 4 times now WC. One time for trolling , 2 times for night fishing as light holders and 1 time yesterday for aquavu camera holder lol.

John right now I don't think there is one, most of the shad I am seeing and marking is in open water that's why im just buying bait.

Any time, BBQ at PC sounds like a good idea to me.

Quill, they are very tasty in all honesty, only takes me about 5 minutes per Gar to clean. Well worth the effort but needs to be 3ft at least to make it worth the time. If you eat one you will want more.