Feathers and Fins

LOL, Terry if it hadn't been for my wanting a walleye so bad I wouldn't have found that other bite, it pays sometimes to switch it up. Though I didn't get any "eyes" I ended up with big crappie so I think the trade off was good.

Kinda been busy beating up crappie today was a good day 18 crappie on flicker shad and bobby garlands in 4 to 14ft of water. 14 Largemouths in the same depth all were in the river. Found a good bite on white bass and stripers in the afternoon in the Horseshoe bend area on a spoon in 25ft of water. Water temps were from 42 to 48 depending where in the river area you were. Great crappie bites been going. Saturday Yakfm and I caught some nice slabs up to 15’’ in the same depth range on grubs and Bobby Garlands. Good luck to all

Its ok Marty. For your next trick you need to shoot a Quiller

Marty those short necks make me mad whenever I see them. They have blown my cover more than one time and that cackle they make just turns me in to a murdering fool... Now eating wise they are very tasty worthy of a full breast wings and legs attached and put in the rotisserie. Congrats on yours.

Randy you bring up something I hear and have heard so many times. I can honestly say I have never eaten a fish that was (X) size that was better or worse than the same species of (Y) size. I hear people all the time say a 18 to 24’’ striper is the best size to eat yet I will take a 20 plus fish day in day out and there is much more meat and thicker so I can do more with it. I can’t tell you how many times I have hear that Catfish and Halibut are bottom feeders and not worth eating or that this duck or that duck is better eating. To me it is in the care of the game and the person cooking its culinary preparation abilities. That said the one exception I put to that rule is saltwater reef fish, but that is because of the high risk for Ciguatera potential.

First let’s talk about the Ballooning that people read about in freshwater so you can understand the major reason what I’m about to say is more affective. We have all seen the write-ups on the internet and probably seen a few shows where people will tie a balloon to their line and send it out behind the boat. Yes this will work! But the drawback is there is friction when a fish takes it and more times than not the fish will feel it and release the bait. This is not uncommon and I see a lot of boats pulling balloons and I see them go down or run off all to watch the fisherman set up and nothing is there or watch the balloon pop back up and nothing there. Simply put the fish felt it and released it. The next issue with this is unless you are pulling them directly behind your boat there will be slack in the line or a big bow and when the fish grabs the bait it feels the friction again and releases it long before you can wind tight and set up on it. The solution is simple and one I learned fishing for Kingfish and Tarpon. First my disclaimer ( BUY THE TOOLS NEEDED DON’T USE YOUR WIVES I DON’T WANT ANYONE BLAMING ME FOR MAKING MOMMA MAD) Ok you need a Balloon obviously and then you need a short length of monofilament 20lbs test I suggest a nap swivel and then a Clothes Pin (not mommas) lol. Drill out the clothes pin and attach the mono line through the hole leaving about 1ft of line loose. Then tie on the snap swivel and synch it down tight to the clothes pin and cut off the rest of the line. Make about a dozen of them 3/0 snap swivel is best. Now when you get out to the lake blow up the balloon and make it big. Insert the snap swivel through the balloon leaving the pin hanging below it. Now let out the desired amount of line I make sure its set so if the bait swims down it can’t get to bottom EXAMPLE: 25FT BOTTOM let out 23ft of line. Then make 3 loops in the line and pinch them together and put them in the mouth of the safety pin. When a fish hits it they will pop out with no resistance at all. Fish won’t feel a thing and will start swimming off, and make the line tight himself and using circle hooks when he goes tight he is hooked and you got him on. This method allows for precise depth control and no need to hassle with a balloon on your line when fighting a fish. Balloons at rod tips can be a break off and let’s be honest they can chaff up a line when reeling it through the balloon or Kink it when you tie it on your line. So when a fish hits this rig the balloon is just left bobbing at the surface of the water and when you land the fish go get it and start over no having to blow up another balloon and re-rig. Just loop the lines pinch and re-attach. Kink it when you tie it on your line. So when a fish hits this rig the balloon is just left bobbing at the surface of the water and when you land the fish go get it and start over no having to blow up another balloon and re-rig. Just loop the lines pinch and re-attach. View full article

For instance I know with my boat a 190tw tracker with a 90hp mercury fully loaded I can troll at 2.5mph yet if I fill the live well to capacity it will slow me down to 2.2mph if I drop the trolling motor it will slow me down to 1.6 mph ( all speeds on the Sonar ) Knowing that information allows me to adjust speed very easily by removing some water from the well or lifting the trolling motor or any combination of those, I will even add weight to the boat before leaving the house or degrease weight depending on wind conditions. You have to play with your boat and weight. I also have employed a sock or bucket if needed. After learning the speeds of the boat the next thing I want to do is find the sweet spots on the boat for setting rod holders. For my boat I have one right next to the steering wheel and one across from it and two more up near the bow. The bow mounts are for use when I’m on the electric trolling motor or running planer boards and the other two are for when I’m on the big motor mostly. The third is dead center of the boat behind the middle passenger seat. The center holder is for a pure flat line that runs on the surface normally floating fly line and a fly on it. Next is learning the lures! Some lures work well others work great. The Berkley Flicker shad and Rapala SR series are my two favorite baits for trolling as they run true and are easy to figure depth accurately. Not all baits dive as advertised on the package and you must learn where they will run with the line you are using and how much line out. Finally the reels used are very important. For starters I suggest a good line counter reel as it will aid you in learning how much line out. As you progress and gain knowledge you can switch to spinning gear. Spinning gear you need to learn to count at a constant steady count each time. I see many people stop the line going out way to soon, even when with me I have to tell people repeatedly to not flip the bail until I tell them. It is a paranoid thought they are letting to much out and won’t be able to fight a fish on a long run. Trolling reels should hold at least 200 yards of line and letting out 150 feet is nothing to worry about. Those are the pure basics. Now how do you ( know ) what each will do? This is where time on the water is vital. Find a long flat with a known depth. Set out a buoy marker at one end and maintain a constant depth lets use 20 feet of water. Maintain that depth for at least 500 yards or more when you start getting out of that depth drop the other buoy. Now you will want to start trolling the baits. Make a pass with no baits in the water buoy to buoy and write down your speed. Then fill the live well and do it again writing the speed, next is to do it with the trolling motor down. Play with different ways of weighting down your boat and removing weight and write it all down. Next is to put out the bait I suggest doing this without hooks as you are trying to learn the depth of the bait. Doing the same procedure as listed above let the bait out slowly until it starts barely hitting the bottom and mark that amount of line on your note book along with the speed of the boat. Then let out more until the rod tip is bouncing hard, this will show you the information to write down for when a bait is barely hitting bottom and when its slamming the bottom. Make numerous passes on that line buoy to buoy playing with speeds and line out distances. Do this for multiple depths starting at 6 feet of water and run it all the way out to 25 feet of water. It can take you most the day playing with all types of factors from lure to boat speed and line out and wind conditions. When you have all that done you will know where your baits run with a high degree of confidence. I try to learn at minimum of 10 baits so I have a good arsenal. Flicker Shad for instance I have learned the entire series; color I do not worry about it’s the bait itself you need to learn. After all that you are ready to start trolling. I talk to many people who think it is a matter of putting baits out and start motoring and hope a fish jumps on the line. Sure anyone can do that but it’s pure luck if they hook up. Just like a bass fisherman working over a point for bass that takes his time and methodically picks the area apart a troller must be able to do the same thing. Both are specialty fishing techniques. Knowing your species is the next important key element, some species prefer to align themselves in different position depending on current of the water. Wind creates a current as does generation and paying attention to those factors will help you increase your catch. Many days I have caught fish trolling in a certain direction but not another. If you are catching fish for instance trolling south but come across the same area going north and get no bites I will run the south troll and at the end of it reel in make a wide birth of the pattern and run to the starting point again and maintain that south pattern until it stops paying off. A quality depth finder will pay off high jackpots especially those with side scan technology. First thing they do is show you where the fish and bait is concentrated on the up/down but typically threadfin shad prefer open water and this is when sidescan shines as you can quickly locate the area they are in. I try to never run over the top of the bait but set up a pattern that enables me to troll past the outside of the school. This is a guess as bait moves and where keeping an eye on the water will help as many times you can see the bait on the surface. When you see the bait try and miss the school by at least 30 feet to one side or the other of it so your bait is the one that got separated, this normally triggers a bite. Speaking of triggering a bite; early morning you want to troll fast ( again knowing your species ). Using walleye for an example, early in the morning they will be shallow typically but as the sun comes up they go deeper. I like to speed troll 2.5mp up to even 3.0 mph. I am looking for aggressive fish and speed trolling triggers some of the most aggressive bites and some of the biggest fish. As the day progresses on slow down till you find the speed they want or your target species wants to be specific. Mark on your GPS where you catch each fish, if you catch two from the same spot stop the boat and work the area over with a soft plastic or crank bait you may have found a holding point and multiple fish can be had here. I have caught many smallmouth and walleye by doing this, as trolling is not just a fishing technique but a fish finding technique. The last thing I want to talk about is extreme precision trolling. This requires two people to do it and is most effective on long points. You need one person on the big motor one on the bow mount trolling motor. As you troll out a point keeping a close watch on your depth finder if it moves more than a few inches of bottom depth have the guy on the front kick the bow so the boat maintains that depth the guy on the big motor does the same. This is also a very good way for sweeping points where you intentionally are making a tight turn across the tip of the point to run the baits in a sweeping motion to hit fish that might be in a pocket. In closing I know this is just simple basics to help people start trolling. If you get the old mentality of you have to be casting all the time to catch fish out of your mind and understand trolling is a very specific and precise control of the boat and baits you will have put a new trick in your fish catching arsenal. It takes time to learn just like any other type of fishing and it can be frustrating just like other types but it will cover more water than other types quickly and help locate aggressive feeding fish you may have otherwise missed. Good Luck View full article

To better describe that picture a rock as you straight troll over it your baits will pass on the sides of it in a straight line and be there for a few brief seconds. However if you sharply turn in the right position you will have one bait that hits the front of the rock and then bounces down the entire side of it finally coming off the opposite end keeping your bait in the strike zone a few seconds longer and creating a great deal of commotions triggering a strike that a mere pass by would not. You will lose more lures doing this but you will actually catch more fish doing it. This is a screen-shot of a rock with crappie on it for examples: The rock for this purpose goes from 22fow to 17fow you want to swing at the right time to this situation to come over the top of the rock in 9 to 12 fow. Now had you marked fish on the edges of the rock you would want to use a bait designed to run 18 to 20 fow to make contact with the front of the rock and hitting its sides and finally pulling off the back of the rock. This is straight line trolling, Notice that you come close to the target object but pass by it only presenting the bait to the fringes of its center / largest point. And here is the tight turn sweep, Note how one bait actually will be making numerous contact hits to the target and the other sweeps much closer. Both allow more time in the strike zone. 2nd is bait selection; what can be said about the vast array of baits we have to us other than mind blowing and confusing! Many baits are what I term as ( for angler sale ) by that I mean they are eye catchers for anglers not fish catchers. Over the years I have found a lure can catch a fish but only a few can catch fish constantly. When I look for a lure I am looking for that bait that works! Not the one that looks pretty. Trial, error and experimentation can be costly and the average angler may not want to spend the money to find those baits. On Beaver and Tablerock I have found 5 baits that work and catch fish on very consistent bases. Below are those baits ( please remember I am trolling these baits and they may not work for other techniques ). The three on the left are something new I was turned onto, they are from Cabelas and are deep diving 18 to 22fow. The two on the right are the good ole Rapala's Shad rap SR7 to SR9 work very well from 15 to 22 fow The Flicker shad are what seems to produce great in all conditions and cover a wide variety of depths, Hook Line and Sinker in Rogers is my go to place and they keep a good selection in stock of size and color. It is worth noting Basspro and Cabelas have other colors made for them as well but I have found the ( Pearl White, Black and Silver, Blue Tiger, Black gold and Black Gold Sunset ) work best for trolling. The final hard bait I like to keep is an assortment of top water baits, I will run one out behind the boat in the early morning and toward dusk attempting to capitalize on surface feeding. There are very limited to that time frame but elicit some of the most voracious attacks. Keitechs again Hook Line and Sinker is where to get them and they are great for working in shallow 3 to 10 fow is when I use them most deep water they lose a lot of their effectiveness. Again more keitechs, same usage as the picture above just different style. 3rd is the reel; I don’t just guess how far out I am letting line, I know how far they are out by using line counter reel! This is one area I am not looking for the most expensive reel in the world as Line Counters tend to malfunction commonly on them so I look for the midrange/price reel that can be replaced relatively cheaply when they break. They are absolutely a requirement for precision presentation. I have been asked how do I know where the baits at? It is actually a simple answer. I find a piece of structure in the water that is at specific depth and mark it with a buoy then I put on a bait that is designed to run at a specific depth and let out line and make passes over it until I tap the top of it with the bait. You will see your rod tip bounce when you hit it. Then make a note of how much line was let out and the boats speed, on your graph take a sharpie and mark on the top or bottom of it ( the hard case not screen ) where on the screen the object is. This will tell you where bites should happen for that bait. At first I suggest writing it down in a log as time goes on you will know by memory. That is the TV FISHING” I often Joke about. You will actually know when the bite will happen and even after time know what should bite by the way the fish is orientated to cover and how the mark of the fish looked. Granted the quality of your GPS will be of great importance in that but even with the lower end models you will still know about where and when the bite will happen. Good Luck. View full article

Here is the answer to where they went! They went deep and fast and scattered because YOU scared them when you ran in at WARP 10 Captain Kirk. When you see fish busting up the surface, DO NOT run in on them at Warp 10! In other words Don’t be a Captain Kirk running in to do battle with a Klingons! Yes your blood will be pumping your heart going faster than a NASCAR driver toward the finish line and your eyes will be as big as dinner plates! But this is the time to show the patients and wisdom of the Sphinx! Because you have a riddle to answer. The Riddle is many folds. Which way is the school going? What size bait are they feeding on? Are they even moving or are they sitting in an area ambushing bait schools? Is it a large school or just a few fish? You need to answer each of these questions to form a plan of attack to optimize the ability to catch them and to keep catching them. Done right and you will be in the thick of a bite I have seen go on for hours. Done wrong and you will be frustrated and at best get one or two fish. So let’s look at the Riddle of the Sphinx: 1. If you see the fish boiling up don’t just run at them, stop what you are doing and mark where they are by using structure on shore as a point of reference. Watch them for a couple minutes, if they do not move from that point then proceed on over to them. But stop as soon as you are in casting range to the edge of the last boil you saw. The reason is they may well have a ball of bait hemmed up and by casting to the edge of the boils you are the lone bait that got separated from the school. That lone bait just got the attention of everyone in the school and most times gets attacked ferociously and quickly. 2. Using the same wait and watch approach you see the fish moving along the shore boiling up, yet they are moving. This is when you need to mark several areas of reference and draw a line along those points to where the school is going. Get over to that ending point BUT make sure you do not get dead in front of it. The Key will be to be again the outside bait. 3. After you have dissected the directions of the fish and have set-up your ambush point for them something as important as not running like Kirk into them is turn off the dang fish finder! You ever heard one under water? They are loud, turn it on in a garage one time and you can hear the clicking. Silence is Golden. You want to be stealthy. Im going to say it again DO NOT run your big motor into the school. Shut down well in advance of it. Shut off the fish finder. Your eyes at this point are the fish finder. Before I touch on Rod, Reel and Lure selections I want to talk a little bit about etiquette and courtesy to other boaters. I know how exciting this time of year can be and how the visual effects of fish turning water into fire can be. Please if you see a boater in on the actions DO NOT go blasting into the bite! DO NOT go throwing your bait into the fish he is working (without asking permission)! DO NOT cut in front of other boaters to get at the fish! When you do hook-up BACK OFF away from the school so your hooked fish doesn’t spook off the school. Show respect to others. Nothing makes me madder than people who come blasting in being rude and putting down the fish I am working on. Simply going in slow and even asking permission will help everyone catch more fish. So then what Rods to use for this? I carry many 3 different styles of rods this time of year, Casting, Spinning and Fly-pole. First is the Spinning and Bait Casting. I Like to have one spooled with 12lb test on an 8ft med/heavy, fast action for long range casting. I can put a 2oz lure 100yrds without much effort. This affords me the ability to maintain a long distance from the school and get a quick chance at them. The second spinner is a 7ft med/ heavy fast action with 10lb test on it and I prefer it to be loaded with ½ oz to 1- ½ oz baits. Finally I keep a 7ft med/lght moderate action rod with 8lb test on it for casting ¼ to 1oz baits. This covers the spectrum of lures and allows for long distance casting. Yes you can land very large fish on light line as well and makes it an absolute thrilling experience. Reels I suggest getting ones with a minimum of 200 yards of line capacity, this will allow you long casting and still have plenty of line on the reels. They need to have good drag systems and balanced to match the rod you are using. I don’t know how many times I see people putting on a big Ocean reel on a small 6 foot rod with 30lb test line. Match your Rod, Reel and Line it will maximize your ability to cast and fight a fish. The Fly pole: Now this is just my personal preference but I like a 7wt 9ft rod with a matching reel. I like to have 300yrds of 20lb backing and then my fly-line which I like to have the last 30 ft of it as a sinking line then tie on 12ft of 12lb fluorocarbon to a fly. This set-up allows me long cast and more accurate control of my fly. I also want to remind people, this is the time of year I see more rods broke than at any other time. Guys you can only cast one rod at a time. Put all the others in the rod locker and keep the boat clean! You may need to rush around the boat fighting the fish or even fire up and go to the next school. It only takes a few seconds to open a rod locker and change out rods. Save yourself some frustration and money and keep the decks clear. Now for the lures: To save a little space and time I’m going to just link the Lures I Prefer most. 1. http://www.basspro.com/Offshore-Angler-Lazer-Eye-Saltwater-Series-Pencil-Popper/product/30704/147539 2. http://www.basspro.com/Cotton-Cordell-Pencil-Poppers/product/1729/236397 3. http://www.basspro.com/Rebel-PopR-Plus/product/2954/104569 4. http://www.basspro.com/GotCha-Plug-300/400-Series/product/120221144/83031 A word about this lure, I first discovered it in Florida about 8 to 10 yrs ago and they for some reason are just an incredible fish catching lure and they cast a long way. 5. http://www.basspro.com/Heddon-Super-Spook-XT-Hardbaits/product/10230810/230309 I suggest not only this spook but all sizes of spooks. These round off the top water hard baits I carry. Colors I always like to have Red/White – Rainbow Trout – Chrome/ Black and pure white. Of all lures though to make certain you have is Buck-tails from ½oz to 3oz. You can run them as they are strait out of the package or put on a grub tail or swim bait. I actually will add or take away the trailer depending on the bait they are chasing to adjust for size and profile. If the fish are super active staying up minutes at a time I put away the Hard-baits and will throw the Buck-tail past the school and let it sink to the bottom and then start retrieving it under the school, many times the biggest fish hang out under the commotion picking up the stunned bait or pieces falling below the action. Also of interest on Beaver is the Walleye always seem to be below the actions so the chance at Large eye’s are very possible! But they only seem to be below the schools that are not moving but more so are ambushing bait as it comes across an area. http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/index.php?showtopic=33228 View full article

Catching Shad has given more than one angler fits, Most people look for the schools on the surface of the water which can be productive at times, but by far the best method is getting them in backs of coves, over mud flats or best of all in small creek mouths where they have little running room to escape a cast net. Open Water netting posses a major issue, Shad are fast and moving, I have seen many guys throw at the school with their net and then look puzzled when they come up with just a couple shad. Remember refraction which is to say you see a target under water at what looks like 2 feet when in reality it is 3 feet. Also they are moving. When you see schools follow them for a few seconds and see where they are going. Cast your net in front of the school at least 3 feet and a 2 feet beyond them. This normally will put you center of the school and a full net. Backs of coves and mud flats are great areas to get them. You still have to use the same principles for casting a net as you do in open water but you have higher odds of catching them in these areas. Be careful though of underwater dangers to a net. Know your depth and only let the net sink to half the bottom depth will help keep nets out of danger. Creeks and especially creek mouths. Just the simple fact most are narrow make catching shad very easy in these area. I seldom pay attention to sigh casting them in these area. I use the sight to know where they are but beyond that it’s irrelevant! Cast beyond where you see the shad and let the net sink. Normally you will be where the true school is and will be pulling in a heavy load of shad for fishing. Keeping Shad alive is NOT easy!!! Shad do not do well in unclean water, low oxygenated water or takes that are square. The water in your bait tank may look clear but shad are like pigeons the poop everyplace and a lot as well as release a lot of ammonia from their urine. For the inventive angler a trash can be cut in half and used with bilge pump to fill it and a relief hole to allow water out. Or buy a circular or oval style bait tank. Some boats like mine have bait tanks that are oval or rounded corners. These will work fine for keeping shad from beating themselves up, but not from the water quality issues if the angler does not pay attention to it. Many anglers do not understand how fragile this bait is. If you have a bait tank onboard that is suitable for shad you will want to have the drain running drain plug out and fill on constantly or at very least on timer. Do NOT forget to clean the screen on the filter frequently. You will want to do this for the first hour after catching the shad. After that keep your aerator on timer and once an hour repeat the full procedure. Hooking Shad, There are three good ways to hook shad! First is nose hooking, take the hook and run it through the upper jaw through the nose {be sure not to hook the bottom jaw} you want them to breath and swim naturally. This type of hooking allows the shad to do what it wants and swim naturally. Next is Anus hooking them, You hook them just like it says directly above the butthole. This method will cause the shad to swim down and near the bottom. The problem is it puts a lot of stress on the shad and they are only good for about 5 minutes at most, so be ready to change them frequently. It is not a good option if you are limited in bait in the tank. Lastly is tail hooking them! You actually do not hook them in the tail but between the dorsal fin and the tail. A good rule of thumb is hooking them where the threadfin stops and just below the back bone. This will cause them to run away from the boat, you will need to play out line to allow them to keep running. When the shad stops running keep your reel in free spool and let the shad swim. I have had them live fine for 15 minutes no problem but as soon as you start reeling them in you stress them bad, So if you reel them in change them out. Hook size’s are where I see more anglers make mistakes then anyplace else. The smallest possible hook size the better, For shad under 3’’ the best hook size is a #4 and for shad from 3’’ to 6’’ a 1/0 hook is perfect for nose hooking and a 3/0 for Tail or Anus hooking. These give the shad the best movement and least amount of stress and are perfectly capable of handling a big fish. I have personally caught Tarpon over 150pnds on a 3/0 hook. Line is another factor. If you want natural looking bait then use the lightest line possible, I prefer Fluorocarbon line myself, 12lbs is perfect for most freshwater fish for fly lining (hook only to line no weight) and 20lbs Fluorocarbon for Bait that has a weight above it. In summer I suggest adding ice to the bait tank to keep the temperature down. This has a negative aspect to it as most bagged ice or made at home has additives in it that can harm shad, to counter this deadly problem simply purchase SHAD KEEPER at your local bait or sporting goods store, it removes these harmful additives and also controls ammonia from the shad. Finally do not discard dead shad! Put them in a bucket and if the fish start surface feeding toss out the dead bait to them and keep them feeding ( know your local laws on chumming before doing this though) This can also be deadly productive on getting deep fish to turn on and come up. View full article

Most who fish bass are doing so based off those very articles I mentioned, some tournament fish others recreationally fish for them and still others are fishing for meat. It is the Meat fishermen who have always sparked my curiosity as they are the ones who use what works to put the meat on the table be they a commercial fishermen doing it for pay for their family or a family man doing it to provide for their family, they are the ones who consistently know where to set their lines and what works throughout the year. Those are the ones I most try and figure out as they are the ones who must for necessity catch fish. I paid attention to where they set their trot-lines and jug-lines and the depths they were setting them at. I paid attention to people in boats that were catch and keeping fish constantly more to say the ones who were the same people doing it all the time not just in a tournament setting or a weekend recreationalist. If you watch the lake around you certain boats and people become familiar and you know what they are doing and can make your own patterns off watching what they do. But it takes giving up fishing yourself to watch what they are doing in the end it will make you a better angler. By watching those things I was able to piece together patterns that worked throughout the year and what I found was even in the coldest and worse condition by duplicating what I was seeing I could put fish in the boat when others were complaining that nothing would bite. I wanted to test my theories and what better way to do it then do it on days when there were in fact tournaments going on with people who were from very good anglers to the elite anglers. I did it by using tournament fishing rules as my guide on those days and then checking my weight versus their weights. I more times than not out-fished them in weight and numbers. I am not saying I am better than them but on Beaver Lake my local knowledge based off the meat fishermen I watched was a deciding edge. I truly believe with the catch n release era many fishermen have forgotten the basics of bass fishing. If you walk in to a tackle store there are more baits and lures designed for bass then at a woman’s shoe store and you married guys know how dangerous that is for a man to say. But I believe most the lures are designed to catch anglers more than fish. Yes they catch fish but if you stop and look at each one and research it the bat was designed from a specific angler or part of our country and while they might be great there they may only be average where you are. What I look for is no more than 3 to 5 lures for each season. I mimic what I see the meat fishermen using most and then find out what the forage color is. That seems to be the truth and key in every lake I have fished. I do not often fish specifically for Bass as the ones in Beaver Lake when I do target the Beaver Lake bass I am searching for the biggest ones possible and do so with a one bite a day mentality. That mentality has served me well as when I get the bite I have accomplished my goal and anything beyond that is gravy on the turkey. It is a pressure relief to settle me down and let me enjoy the rest of the time which allows me to relax and pay attention for fun not pressure. That bite doesn’t even have to be a landed fish or a big one, just a bite so I can settle down. So what am I looking for? Well Beaver Lake has Six seasons when it comes to Bass and I should specify I am talking about Largemouth, Kentucky and Mean mouth when I’m discussing these bass, smallmouth to me were created by God to teach anglers what the meaning of powerful aggression is and though they can be caught fishing for the Green Bass they are something special and unto themselves, and disserve to be discussed by themselves. The First season is Winter; I watched the meat anglers set their lines especially limb lines and jug-lines in very specific places I had to go to charts to find out why and my sonar in combination with a drop down temperature gauge. Interestingly these places were a little warmer than the surrounding lake and when verifying them on charts were springs or shallow creeks spilling in to the lake that emptied over flats that heated faster than main lake water. I quickly learned the Bass were in the channel of the creeks and as the day progressed would chase shad and other baitfish on the flat toward shore and feed quickly and ravenously for a few minutes before retreating to the channel. In winter I have seen most meat fishermen using Night-crawlers and long lines jug or trot-line they seem to put them on unusually long lines, after watching for a while I understood what they were doing was actually allowing the bait to very slowly drift around especially on the jugs they were using the wind current to move them. To mimic that you need to use the same size bait in plastic and move it much slower than you think and do not forget to pause it and then pop it to imitate wave action. Another popular bait they were using was crayfish but something I noticed when they used crayfish is they were getting their own ones from the lake where they were setting the lines. As soon as they were done setting lines they would dump the remaining crayfish out and go to the next spot and pull another trap and use those crayfish for that area. What this told me is they were looking for a specific color to use for a specific area even if it was just a mile away they wanted that specific color for that specific area. The final tactic I watched was them cast netting baitfish in shallow water and then letting them drift out with the current of creeks. Simple as that seems they still would adjust the lines to specific depths. It took a little time to figure out they were set to be barely below surface to actually on surface depending on wind conditions and they picked them up much faster than you would think. As soon as the baits got out over deep water they picked them up and put them back out. Usually I would see two guys this time of year a boatman and a shore man. The boatman’s duty was pick up the line get it to the shore man who would walk the bait back up the creek and throw it out. This habit on the creek made me become a sit and wait angler by that I mean put the trolling motor in the mud or drive a push pole in it and tie-off. I learned by watching them that when they made this type of attack you only had two to 5 minutes of aggressive feeding but could also catch one or two fish fast and having several rods tied up with surface baits enabled you to make the most of it. When the bite was over just pull out the coffee and wait for it to repeat itself sometimes it could be a few minutes other times it might be an hour of waiting. But on a active day it was possible to land a limit that could go from 12 to 18 pounds! But it took being able to fight off all my urges to move around and try and find other fish. The one thing that kept me from doing it was the average size during these bites was 3lbs with kicker fish to 6lbs common enough to make me want to stay. On the spring fed fish they interestingly would sit on the spring or the edge of the warmer water I verified this with an aqua-vu. The fish in it were not aggressively biting however, but what they would do is make little feeding adventures away from the spring to catch shad or crayfish. But never far from the spring maybe 10 to 15 feet. These fish were very susceptible to a jerk bait worked on the fringes of the spring or a jig within that 15 foot circle of the spring. The aqua-vu helped me immensely in choosing the color of jig to use as I use it to find a crayfish and imitate its color. The jerk bait was always the same color simple white works very well. So now I have my bait selection based off the Meat fishermen and an understanding of what I was seeing also. So what baits do I use in winter? 1. Pig n Jig to imitate crayfish and knowing they are moving slowly a 1/16th to 1/4oz head I used bacon to get a crawfish up for color, now I get to use aqua-vu to see. 2. Night Crawler in 6 to 8 inch to get its color I will cruise the bank and see what color they are. 3. Square bill bandit baits or flicker shad in white or avocado or Keitech swim baits small surface baits. 4. Spoons for deep fish 5. Finally I still enjoy trolling on occasion for the real big bite and to that I use Flicker shad, Rapala SR-9’s or reef-runners. But something that will run deep and I do use downriggers if I have to. Yes that is10 baits more than 5 but it isn’t really as it is only 5 styles for application specific uses. The first 4 baits are tournament legal the fifth is if you are not trolling. If you are not in a tournament you can use a live crawler inflated with air on a Carolina-rig, cast net your own shad or crayfish. I am not writing this for just tournament style anglers but for everyone to be able to catch fish. The next season is pre-spawn; this time of year it seems Bass just get stupid as they are moving out of their winter depth and springs to shallow areas to feed in preparation with one notable exception the creek fish remain in or near the same spots and continue the same style of attack but are joined by many more fish and the attacks are more frequent. The other fish tend to stack up on humps and points and wind is the key. I always set up on the down-wind side and throw baits past the bar and then bring it back over the bar to simulate bait fish being swept over the bar. Jerk baits and swim baits excel at that with a jig for the ones sitting deeper. Mud lines are a key area here and the right one takes people time to figure out. First you are looking for a wind caused mud line. These form on points and bars and can be easily spotted. Just because you see one does not mean it will be productive and I have seen many people stumped by why they don’t catch fish off one and hear of people catching many fish off them. So here is the mud line secret. You want to first pull up to it and look at it carefully, if you can look at it from an angle on the clear sides and it looks like a light cloud where there is clear water under it then you have found the right mud line. This means the line is cloudy on top clear below and thus it’s like a cloud in the sky giving the predators someplace to hide in the shad but not enough crud in the line to sink down and make it hard to breathe. If you are from California think of it as SMOG vs Clouds! Cloudy days are nice and comfortable and fun to be in where SMOG is polluted air and makes it hard to breath and you just don’t want to do anything let alone eat. So you found that mud line how to fish it? That is determined by current and by sunlight. You want to be able to cast your bait up current and bring it in the mud line. You also want the sun on the down current side. If the mud line is running offshore West to East and the current is coming from the south to the north and the sun is casting a shadow to the south you want to be on the north. All the factors have to be in line to be a productive point. I am not saying they all won’t produce but if you have all the factors lines up it will be more productive. The other pattern and the one that produces the biggest bass is still in deep water. Shad balls! This is actually the time of year I do fish for bass as it is when a limit can hit 25 to 30lbs that’s right 5lb average. I start by locating a ball and then set my sonar so it barely registers them that way any large marks near them I know will be larger fish most likely bass. Using a jerk bait, deep diver or spoon I work the outside edges of the balls to pick off the big bass. Do not expect to catch a lot of fish doing this but a limit is well within reason. Also be ready to move around a lot to find the same situation of Bass on balls, look specifically for 3 or 4 marks and if you get 1 waste no more than 20 minutes trying to get another before you move. This is another technique that requires the angle to be patient but more than anything it requires an angler to know how to use his electronics. Far too many anglers buy electronics and do not know how to use them or take advantage of their full capabilities I really suggest anyone wanting to catch fish that has good electronics to spend several days learning how to use them to maximize his or her ability to catch fish. Just a few percentage points of contrast and brightness open up an entire new world of opportunity. Another key secret is trolling figure Eights is in open water, You are targeting shad balls and trying to pick off the big fish eating them. It isn’t hard mark several balls and then figure eight around them and hold on to your rod not only will big bass be on them but big stripers. The 5 baits I have for Prespawn are; 1. Flicker Shad, Bandit 300 series casting or trolling 2. Keitech swing impact 3. Surface poppers and zara spooks 4. Jerk Baits 5. Pig n jig I love the limited selection needed in pre-spawn they are stupid and don’t take much just being in the right location more than anything. Next we move on to the Spawning Season; really what more can be wrote about bed fishing and this is a time of year they are most vulnerable. On Beaver Lake look for pea-gravel flats, shallows with buck brush and flat boulders. There are so many baits to catch them and so much written about catching them, really how hard is it to pull up on a pair guarding a nest throw a bait in there so they pick it up to move it off their bed. This is not a time I enjoy fishing for bass for many reasons and just won’t talk about it here either they really need to be left to breeding. I know that might not be popular with tournament anglers but we close seasons on so many other species for breeding we really should knock off tournaments during that time as well. Again just my opinion so let’s leave it at that. Post Spawn time; Now here is a fun time when bass are hungry from guarding the nest and much like pre-spawn they pull off to the same areas and can be caught with the same techniques, though on Beaver Lake Buck-brush is my favorite place to look. Nothing like a little carnivorous mom eating her own baby action. I do enjoy tossing a small plastic bait in the brush that is floating to somewhat buoyant and twitching it a few times for an aggressive hit but these are not the big sows for them go back out to finding the shad balls and same style as pre-spawn but look a little shallower and be ready for aggressive top-water bites. When I say small I am talking baits that are no more than 2 to 4 inches and the longer baits need to have a slender appearance as I am trying to mimic fry. People laugh when they see me tossing crappie jig in shallow water and pulling in big bass but it is a tactic I learned years ago that is productive from California to Florida and Texas to Michigan this time of year. It also doesn’t hurt crappie are up shallow eating the fry either and who doesn’t like crappie in an oil bath after a day on the lake. Surface bites this time of year are fantastic and having those baits ready is a must as sometimes those babies decide they want to see what this big deep stuff is not knowing that every big fish in the lake wants to see what they taste like. Because of this it forces me to keep the boat in a position that enables me to fish shallow and deep and the same time. On beaver I have found keeping the boat between 12 to 15 feet of water is perfect for this. I can still put a small bait in brush on shore or turn fast and throw a bait to deeper water for surface fish. It is a time of year you never know exactly what spot will produce on the lake but you do know they will be both deep and shallow so it gives you a lot of possibilities if you are in the right position with the boat. Lure selection for this time 1. Crappie Jigs 2. Small plastic swim baits 3. Flicker shad in size #5 and 6 4. Bandit 300 series 5. Surface baits Pop-r and Zara Spooks Yes everything is designed smaller and more around shallow water, not saying you won’t find a deep bite or a jig or worm bite but the ones I listed don’t fail me for putting numbers and size in the boat. Then comes the Summer Bite; I like to think of this as the commuter bass days, they seem to move a lot with the sun and warming of shallows and boat traffic. Hey we all like seeing girls in Bikinis but bass are not people and they do not like boats blasting around them. In the early mornings I look for them shallow early and as the Bikini hatch comes on I search the bass out in deeper channels and timber where the bikini boats won’t go. This time of year I start out with top-water baits, come on who doesn’t like catching a fish any fish on a surface bait? But as the day goes on I look to pole timber and using the aqua-vu I look down to see where they are sitting. The vast majority of time they are in pole timber but sitting in cedar tree root bases. This is when I love throwing a pig-n-jig down to the bottom and pop it in to the stumps pausing after each hit watching my line for a subtle movement that tells me I got one of them to come out of hiding from the noise the Bikini hatch causes. When they go deep it’s a jig bite or worm bite for me! Though a deep diving crank will work I do not like spending time with a lure retriever trying to get hung up baits back. My strategy is simple in deep water, use my sonar and find stumps and drop the bait to it then back off with the trolling motor just enough so I can pop the stump hard like a crayfish going backwards and hitting it. This takes practice and yes it is a precision approach as you are dropping the bait to the stump then backing off to do the hit the reward though is a hungry bass and coving a lot of productive cover fast. Bait selection 1. Pig n Jig 2. Crawler Texas rigged 3. Surface bait 4. Trolled flicker shad on edges of structure 5. Deep diving cranks ( not for me but some like to do it ) Finally the fall pattern; The word here is SHAD, you need to think like a shad and become a shad! Be afraid be afraid of everything because this is when the Stripers are looking to destroy you and the birds are telling everyone on the lake where you are. This is when Monster bass can be found and for me it is when I have swim baits tied on and Pencil Poppers. Find the shad and hang on because you will make a connection with some of the biggest species the lake has to offer. Targeting bass is a run and gun from bait school to bait school. Sometimes it will be Bass sometimes Stripers and yet Walleye and White Bass play in the mix. Everything is on the move and everything is eating. Though you can certainly hit the ambush points the bigger bass seam to defy logic and become roamers in search of food. I know they follow the stripers and stay just below them letting the stripers attack the bait and then the bass pick-off the injure baitfish falling below the striper pods. This is the time of year I love to throw the Alabama Rig. This is the time of year I really love as you never know what will be on the line but certainly it is when you can load up on very large fish. Baits for this time of year 1. Surface baits 4 to 6 inch poppers and zara spooks 2. Big swim baits ( bucktails and gizzard shad imitations ) 3. Alabama Rig 4. Flicker shad and Thin-fins 5. Fly-fishing large streamers Shad Shad Shad I cannot say it enough! Target the Shad and areas where the Shad are present! It can be frustrating to see so much bait on the sonar and nothing biting and the trick is work the area and stay on it. People get anxious and think the fish are not there or they are not biting or too much food and they are not going to bite. This is true and untrue! True they might be full but they are full because they ate and they will eventually eat again. Most likely they will feed just before dark, knowing this I don’t even mind working it gives me something to do during the day because I know I will be off by 3 or 4 and that gives me a couple hours to fish after work in the most predictable bites of the year for some of the best action of the year! All these things I have learned watching the meat fishermen for as the seasons progressed the location of where they were fishing put me to those spots and then it was a matter of learning what to do to get the Green Fish to bite. No magazine and no book or video tape could have ever replaced the information I garnered by watching people who were fishing to put meat on their table. And even more to the point it taught me that just a very few lures is what I needed to accomplish this instead of the million that are on the market. Simple is always better and it forces you to become an expert in its use and when to use it and when not to. It teaches you the seasonal patterns on a specific lake and even specific spots. Then it is up to you to decipher the mountain of information you have. Think about that information for a minute, you have what you have seen from meat fishermen and what you have learned from your own trips. You need to then put it all on the table and make the Positives and Negative list for baits, after you get that done you will find that off the millions of baits on the market there will be maybe 15 to 20 baits on your local lake. Your wife will thank you for limiting your shoe errr bait selection and cost lol. After the bait selection is don’t you need to figure out the tactic/ depth zone! This is actually very easy to do, and gives you a picture of where you need to be for the conditions. Finally you need to put those two things together so you have a picture of what baits to have on you for the season and bang tackle box is smaller and you have the most important thing in fishing, Confidence and that is what separates the good anglers from the great ones. Great anglers I have met all have confidence that what they are doing will work and most importantly they know WHY it will work not just because of the spot but because they know why they are using the bait. The best anglers I have ever known all could tell you why the bait works! It might be that the forage bait in this spot is a pumpkin colored 3’inch crayfish that likes to be around stumps with some small rocks around and the bass will be keyed in on that bait here because of a spring that keeps the water .5 degrees higher than the rest of the water and they want it to be a hop and pause retrieve parallel to the shore or structure. They know WHY and that builds not only confidence but patients to stick with a pattern. So the big question; if I only had 5 baits to use for bass on beaver lake what would they be? First and foremost I am a multispecies angler and because of that I want baits I have confidence in to catch not only bass but other species. In other words versatile baits that mimic the primary forage of the lake is what I want to mimic. I also want it in a wide selection of colors and sizes and need it to be readily available for replacement if I lose it. So here they are in no specific order. #1. Berkley flicker shad size’s #5 to #9 #2 Bandit 300 series crank baits #3 Keitech swim baits #4 Spoons 1/16th to ½ oz #5 Surfaces baits Pencil Poppers, Pop r’s, and Zara Spooks. You may wonder where the worms and jigs are on that list. Truth is I can make the keitech baits do the same thing! I can a jig it or use it as a worm and it gives me the versatility to fish multi-species in multiple ways, If I am jigging a stump field and have fish bust top-water behind me I can quickly reel it in and throw it at the surface feed and use it as a swim-bait. All those baits have a degree of versatility to them and that is what gives me confidence! I know they can be used in multiple situations to catch a large variety of fish. Doesn’t hurt they keep your tackle box lighter or well less cluttered with so many baits. Finally and I must add it, Live bait fishing, something I see on Beaver is more bobbers and corks than at a public swimming pool. THINK no weight and simply let the bait do the work for you. Whether you are using a bait fish or a crayfish learning to use lighter lines and throwing the bait out and let it naturally work for you can be very productive for all the species and can teach you a lot about the bass you are fishing for. Then go back to using artificial if you like but learn to use bait as well it will teach you to be a better artificial fisherman. Many of us started fishing with our father, uncles and grandfathers and all we had was an old closed face bait-caster with a hook and bobber with a work or minnow on the line, but we caught fish and were happy. We then progressed to watching way to much TV and had to be like our hero’s on TV and had to use artificials and be ‘sporting’ and all that went with it. But we will always remember the days with a old kiddy pole and our little minnow ( sometimes even naming the bait ) or a worm and the pull of the line when the biggest fish in the lake a gigantic 3inch bluegill bit our line. You remember those days? I bet you are smiling remembering the day on the pond right now with family and your little magic pole and your giant fish. So why not take the time from “Sorting’’ and get back to smiling with a little throw back to what started it all for most of us a basic little minnow named Fred or a worm named Pete. If you take anything from this take this; get back to basics, long before the million bait days we are in it was simple baits by simple men that had a deep understanding of the lake they were on and why what they used worked. Good luck. View full article

First is the Wahoo Bomb (pic)! I first learned of this lure back in the late 80’s or early 90’s on Long Range trips to Clipperton and Clarion Island for Yellowfin and Wahoo. When I first saw the lure I had to chuckle at it and think to myself this guy has got to be kidding. He pulled out a 6oz Egg Sinker, Took a piece of Mylar out of his tackle box and then cut small slices up it pulled off the sticky tape and wrapped it around the Egg Sinker. He then ran a length of 100lb mono trough the egg crimped on a 9/0 J-Hook and then crimped on a 3/0 ball barring swivel to the front. He cast it out and instantly was on a 60lb Wahoo. I was standing there in amazement, here I spent hundreds of dollars on wahoo lures and this guy had a $1.00 egg sinker a 30-cent hook and 20 cent swivel and 2 minutes of his time and was catching wahoo! I was looking at them a few weeks ago and they sure have come a long way from their humble start and the price sure has gone up for the fancy factory bombs that outlast the old egg sinker but the sinker still works and works on stripers. Yes I said it works on stripers, I still on rare occasion use them. Same principle only I use a 2 to 4oz egg sinker . The advantage of this lure is simple --DISTANCE! I can cast one of these bombs well over 100 yards and some days distance is needed This is where a surf rod with 30lb test is very much needed or a good 8 foot heavy action baitcaster. Second is another favorite of mine because you look at it and say NO WAY! A simple Cedar Plug, Those who have fished Bill Fish and Tuna know how deadly this cigar is and for some reason landlocked stripers will eat it as well. Don’t expect a ton of bites but it’s one they for some reason do bite. The trick to it is troll it behind the boat at 2 to 3mph, it skips in and out of the water and is a schoolie catching machine. I run them 100 yards behind the boat or I will run them out on a planer board 100 yards out near shore lines. Third in another Saltwater Lure Iron Jigs Size 2 and 4 in Blue and white, it’s a Jig and a Swim Bait. They are fish catching machines and have been used on the West Coast for years for Saltwater fishing. I was getting annoyed with fish in a spillway out of casting distance of most lures and had one in my box and figured why not. Tied it on and a limit of stripers later decided I better always keep these in the box. Just throw it out and reel it in or in deep water vertical jig them. Now these are not common baits by any stretch but fun baits none the less. Especially when guys are watching you throw these big heavy baits out and think no way you will catch a fish. Then the look on the face when they see you hooked up to a big striper and you know they are just busting to ask what the hell is it! View full article

Morone Saxatilis (Striped Bass) are members of the family Percichthyidae, the temperate basses! Morone is a genus oftemperate basses (family Moronidae), consisting of fourspecies. 1. Moroneamericana (whiteperch) 2. Moronechrysops (whitebass) 3. Morone mississippiensis (yellow bass) 4. Moronesaxatilis (stripedbass) The word Saxatilis tells you a lot about the Striped bass. Saxatilis is Latin meaning "dwelling among rocks." Which is avery accurate description of where you can often find them at certain times, insalt-water but in freshwater the have adapted to different habitats. Max.Recorded Length: 78 3/4 inches Max.Recorded Weight: 125 Lbs "commercial netting" Climate: 45 - 77 degrees - preferred water temperature range is 65 to 70 degrees. Part 2: The Biology Striped BassInhabits coastal waters and are commonly found in bays and enter rivers in the spring to spawn. Stripers are native to the Atlantic coast, from the St. Lawrence River, Canada, to the St. John's River, Florida. This is something fishermen need to be mindful of when targeting stripers. Note they are in ornear rivers which means they want current. Even in the Atlantic Ocean they are commonly found near inlets and in oceanic current areas. This is where the food is congregated as well. Female stripers release their eggs to be fertilized by any pursuing males. The semi-buoyant eggs then need to drift in currents for several days until they hatch. There is a lot of controversy as to if Landlocked stripers truly do have successful spawning. There is evidence to it in numerous reservoirs but to my knowledge not in Beaver lake as of yet. Eggs hatch in approximately 2-3 days, Spawning occurs when water temperatures reach 60-70°F. The semi-buoyant eggs are released in flowing water as many as 3,000,000 eggs may be released by one female. Eggs require a flow adequate to prevent their settling to the bottom during the incubation period. Hatching occurs after 48 to 50 hours. The best survival rates occur with a salinity of 9-9.5parts per thousand. The optimum temperature for egg maturation is about 63°F. Optimal hatching temperature appears to be at 68°F. I mention these facts as it appears that in landlocked populations lakes that are in areas with salt deposits in the ground creating the salinity levels in the water column appear to be the same ones with reproduction. Though I am not a biologist this does seem to have a correlation. Life Span: Striped bass are a long-lived species; they can live roughly 30 years. Growth Rate: Growth rates are variable, depending on a combination of season,location, age, sex, and competition. Growth is more rapid during the second and third years of life, before striped bass reach sexual maturity, than during later years. After age four, growth may be 2.5 to 3 inches a year until age eight. Starting at age four, females grow faster than males. Growth occurs between April and October. Part 3: Discussion and Speculation I have added this section as the topic always seems to come up. Though for our region it is just the speculation it is a good discussion topic at any lodge or garage. There is evidence of spawning in land-locked Stripers in numerous reservoirs but to my knowledge not in Beaver lake as of yet. Remember: Eggs require a flow adequate to prevent their settling to the bottom during the incubation period. Hatching occurs after 48 to 50 hours. The best survival rates occur with a salinity of 9-9.5parts per thousand. The optimum temperature for egg maturation is about 63°F.Optimal hatching temperature appears to be at 68°F. I have taken water samples of Beaver Lake and have found this salinity level, and Beaver certainly does support the current needed and it certainly has the water temperature needed. So the question beckons, is it possible? To date I have found no studies done on Beaver or had reports of successful breeding. Yet many people catch white bass each year and most could not identify a juvenile striper from a white of the same size. Fun to think about and maybe in time we will have an answer. But then comes the next question: If they did breed in beaver and we had heavy spring storms and if the gates were opened could stripers get into Table Rock? We already know for fact they are in the tail waters of Beaver, the state record came from it. I have caught many stripers from the tail waters. So is Table Rock the next BIG STRIPER LAKE? Think about it Table Rock has two rivers that flow into it with heavy trout stocking programs, The White River and Roaring River. We know from waters with stripers as close as The Lower Illinois below Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma to as far asLake Silverwood in California those lakes with Trout the Stripers reach gigantic sizes. A lot of speculations yes! But it has happened in other lakes. PART 4: Striper Food The most common food source in freshwater is shad gizzard and threadfin. Yet I must say I have seen stripers go crazy over a school of suckers. In fact when over schools of Stripers I have dropped down both a Shad and a Sucker and hands down the sucker will out catch the shad 20 to 1. Perch also are a staple for stripers as well as crayfish, hands down where legal though nothing will beat a trout. You don’t get big without protein and Stripers I have found are the champions at any eating contest and have a high metabolic rate. They eat a lot and will not be found far from the table. Unlike Largemouth bass Stripers are not an ambush predator, waiting for food to come to them, they go to the food. Find the food find the fish. This is an interesting and frustrating thing for most anglers. You see a Shad Ball on sonar but no stripers! Why? Again this is speculation, but over the years I have noticed something about Stripers and Bait schools but not until the last 5 years and people posting pictures of their graphs has it started to come together for me. I would see a single striper on my old flasher or graph and even when diving I would see maybe 1 or two stripers hanging around large bait pods; by large I mean one that is over 20ft round. Yet when I would come across smaller pods 10ft or less it would be shadowed by large schools of stripers. The smaller the pod the more active the fish seemed to be. That got me to thinking about what I had seen so often in salt water dives. Smaller bait balls had more active fish. This confuses people as they see large areas of“boils” where fish seem to be exploding on huge schools of bait in lakes. In most cases where I have metered and been diving and witnessed this what is actually occurring is the fish have herded many schools over flats and are actually picking off individual small schools over the flat. It gives the appearance of them busting a super bait ball when in truth it is smaller balls they actually forced together. When they do this it is an interesting thing to watch as they start attacking with from what the surface appears to be wreck lace abandon, just attacking any bait near them. But underwater this is a very different picture. Some hold under the attack picking off stunned bait and others actually form a wall in front of the bait. You can see videos like this where sailfish and marlin circle bait balls while others slash through them. It may look like chaos and certainly puts anglers into chaos but in reality it is a very methodical feeding ritual. There is of course an occasions when they do have large bait schools pinned and watching them in this situation shows an intelligence to the fish or as a biologist once told me “they are hard wired for life and just do it from millenniums of wiring” they tend to hang on the fringes and when another species crashes the ball it scatters. Then the stripers start attacking the individual bait left out of the protection of the bait ball. PART 5: Habitat There is plenty of research done on Oceanic Striped Bass but very little information on Landlocked or Lakes Stocked Striped Bass. This is a frustration to many anglers trying to learn about these fish. My belief as to why we have little research on this vital part of the fishes life is simple! They are a “Put N Take”species, in other words they are stocked for the purpose of anglers taking and keeping them thus little to no need for the research, and the research is mostly on the growth rates and environmental needs to survive.. With little to no “Scientific studies or evidence” to back my findings, I am always open to input from other anglers, but the following is based on years of Diving with them, Marking them on Graphs, Catching them and then correlating my findings to lake maps and where they were caught. Using my logs for the last 23 years from the following lakes, 1. Silverwood Lake, California 2. Pyramid Lake, California 3. Skinner Lake, California 4. Castaic Lake, California 5. Lake Powell, Arizona 6. Lake Havasu, Arizona 7. Lake Mead, Nevada 8. Texoma, Texas 9. Beaver Lake, Arkansas 10. Lake Ouachita, Arkansa 11. Cumberland Lake, Kentucky I have seen distinct patterns of landlocked Striped Bass that I use each time I fish for them, though some of these lakes are separated by thousands of miles patterns are the exact same, which tells me landlocked stripers do have habitat they prefer and being migratory have stop off points they traditionally use each year just like migratory birds. PART 6: First is Summer Patterns Understanding the Striped Bass preferred Temperature range is vital. Stripers want water in the 55 to 70 degree range. Water Temperatures in summer near the surface can range as high as 90 degree’s which is far too hot for them. The other thing to understand is the Dissolved Oxygen content Stripers prefer which is 8.1 to 10.1. On all the above lakes one thing that was clear and present was Stripers moving to the deepest sections of the lakes in summer, you can go on the internet and search for fish reports from all of them and the same story unfolds, “STRIPERS AT THE DAM”! The dam is the deepest section of most lakes and makes perfect since that a species preferring cooler water temperature would be there. But more so the BAIT the striper eats prefers cooler water temperature. Again we have the symbiotic relationship between the fish and the food, which is a vital part of understanding the fish. Everything eats and if you can find the food source you can find the game animal a fact as old as history. This is also an exact attribute of the oceanic Striper, They are in the open ocean during the summer months fattening up on food sources in cool Atlantic’s Northern waters but in fall they migrate south. Same holds true in lakes. PART 7: Fall This transition time of year for stripers is when they are migrating and can be difficult to pattern for many people. But the simple truth is just as with other migratory species they have key resting/hold over spots. This is when stripers truly show their oceanic origins. In the fall they start leaving the deep water home and start moving up lake. It is this time of year to pay close attention to water temperature and bait movement! As the water cools they will work up lake toward the river mouths. Remember shallow water retains its heat longer and this will be the contributing factor to where you find the fish. As they move up they will start keying in long main lake points with adjacent flats, also they key in on main lake humps and rock piles. Fall is also the time leading up to the winter gorging to get weight up for the spring breeding time. Smaller stripers move up to the traditional feeding grounds first. I have watched many times in creek areas that first the small fish arrive and as the months go on they get larger and larger in size till you max out a specific range. The big females always seem to be last. This characteristic behavior of stripers is exactly duplicated in the Oceanic Striper. PART 8: Winter This is a tricky time of year to locate striper! Habitat to look for is of course the creek mouth flowing water constantly. A mud flat as this is where shad feed and a flat bottom with points with that hook I mentioned earlier. Key is to find the Shad on your fish finder and target the outside of the schools of bait. In the absence of For some reason I have never seen stripers under docks or in structure during the winter, they are always in open water or set-up in a funneling area for bait. They also run up the creeks in the mornings and evenings. PART 9: Spring This time of year they can move fast from the winter ground up river to try and spawn! But it only last a couple weeks then they start heading back to the deep water. A striper can cover a lot of water in a short time, some reports show them moving 100 miles in 24 hours and speculation of more. So when they want to move they move. Like fall points are a good place to look, trolling is a very productive method this time of year as you are trying to intercept fast moving schools. The water is still cool so surface activity is common; I see it on points and open lake mounds where they stop off and feed. Striped bass are originally and Oceanic fish for certain, but have adapted to freshwater life. Understanding they relate to a lake much like they do the ocean is the key to catching them but more important understanding how close the relationship is between them and the bait the feed on. PART 10: Fun Information Everyone knows the start of the land-locked story began in 1941 when striped bass were accidentally landlocked in the process of building the Santee Cooper reservoir in South Carolina. The true first stocking or land locking of striped bass could be much earlier than that even, In 1879, 132 fingerling striped bass were introduced into the San Francisco Bay, from the Navesink River in NJ. An additional 300 fingerling were stocked 3 years later. Captain John Smith wrote in 1614: that the fish seemed so plentiful that one might walk “dryshod”across their backs over the river. In 1670,Plymouth Colony established a free school with income from coastal striped bass fisheries. Greg Myerson's , striped bass caught on August 4 2011 that weighed 81 pounds, 14 ounces and beat the 29-year-old previous world record of 78.8 pounds caught in 1982 by Albert McReynolds. Has been certified by the International Game Fish Association. Land-LOCKED World Record (67 lb 8 oz) O'Neill Forebay, Los Banos, California , 5/7/1992 by Hank Ferguson. View full article

Size: 1- to 4-ounce Colors: Day, White, White with Red, White with Blue, White with Green. Night, Black, Black and Purple, Red and Purple, Purple and Glow Head White. When to use them? When stripers are in shallow water 15ft and less on flats, cast them out and slow swim them back to you near the bottom occasionally gently lifting your rod tip up and down. When stripers are surface feeding, Cast them right to the fish and reel them as fast as you can. Trolling them, this is when I will add a swim tail to them and troll them 100-yards behind the boat using different head sizes for depth control. Jigging, Depending on current or drift speed I use from a 1oz on a no wind no drift boat to a 4oz on a good wind or drift. They key is short snaps of the rod tip no more than 18 inches and position it 2ft above where you mark them on your sonar. I suggest setting sensitivity high so you can see the bait in relation to the fish. Stripers will feed up. Now if they are on the bottom pop it on the bottom 6 inch snaps like a wounded fish and they will go down to get it. I really suggest buying the Jig-heads and make your own it’s a lot of fun and you can experiment with colors Never know when you will come across a color for the lake you are on that is a hot producer. Also Bass and Flat-heads like them so don’t be surprised to get one of them. Finally Use a shock leader. When I use the 3 and 4oz size I always tie on a 2ft section of 50 lbs shock leader. The repeated casting and a big fish can be tough on line not to mention the take on a cast and retrieve could easily break you off. View full article

Very Nice congrats

Sebastian inlet state park is a great place. Right next to the first NWR. You are only a few minutes from Stick Marsh also and that place in the Bass World needs no introduction. I liked the area but I wanted to be close to where the gulf stream came in to the coast is why I want Hobe.