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Did you try jigging spoons? I have jiged up stripers at the same depth I had out shinners and live bait never got hit.

[W. Heisenberg]

Did you try jigging spoons? I have jiged up stripers at the same depth I had out shinners and live bait never got hit.

Nope, we didn't try any spoons that day. I'll definitely try it next time we're down there if we don't stumble on some shad.

[West Fork Jason]

Im just about rigged up for stripers. Ive been wanting to fish stripers for years and just havent done it. Ive been bass lately on the Beav and seeing some big balls of shad and stripers on the graph and Im just about ready to give it a try. Im building me some inline planer boards. Ive got one done and 3 more to go before I go out and test them out.

As far as catching shad on Beaver all I can say is its not very easy. That is one reason Ive never gotten into the striper thing before is because shad is the go to bait and they are hard to come by. Ive heard in the winter they are easier to catch if you know how. Which I dont. So Im planning on using Brood Minnows I guess.

Looks like you did pretty good on your trip out I hope I can do that well my first time trying. LOL

Mostly where I seen the shad and stripers on the graph was in the first left hand bend as you first go into the mouth of War Eagle. A couple weeks ago they were there. Then the next time I went they were gone from that area.

Running a planer board off of each side is a great idea. We were doing a slow troll with live bait a few days ago on Beaver targeting fish that were keyed on bait balls that came up to 30-40 feet on the graph. We were going slow enough that I could cast my fly rod with sinking line off the bow to each side effectively with a 4/0 shad pattern, and had a REALLY nice random cruising fish blow up on me. And that was before any of our live bait rods even got a sniff. I'm sure a board on that side would have at least gotten a good look from that fish, probably more than a look. In-line planers are used very effectively where it's legal to power troll for muskies. I know a few guides that do it, one brought a 54 incher to hand this season with a board. It's not my preferred way to musky fish as i'm not meat hunting for them, but it works on big water really well. Went out for coho near duluth this spring and ran 3 off each side, dipsy divers (those could work great for striper too) inside the planers, and down riggers off the stern. The planers were the preferred thing that day, and the "candy" was delicious. A boat going over the top of fish can really spook 'em. The better graphs out there sometimes seem to show the boat pushing fish (of all different species i've noticed) down a few to several feet after you make an initial pass.

Keep us posted on those home made planers.

[Bass Ivy]

Running a planer board off of each side is a great idea. We were doing a slow troll with live bait a few days ago on Beaver targeting fish that were keyed on bait balls that came up to 30-40 feet on the graph. We were going slow enough that I could cast my fly rod with sinking line off the bow to each side effectively with a 4/0 shad pattern, and had a REALLY nice random cruising fish blow up on me. And that was before any of our live bait rods even got a sniff. I'm sure a board on that side would have at least gotten a good look from that fish, probably more than a look. In-line planers are used very effectively where it's legal to power troll for muskies. I know a few guides that do it, one brought a 54 incher to hand this season with a board. It's not my preferred way to musky fish as i'm not meat hunting for them, but it works on big water really well. Went out for coho near duluth this spring and ran 3 off each side, dipsy divers (those could work great for striper too) inside the planers, and down riggers off the stern. The planers were the preferred thing that day, and the "candy" was delicious. A boat going over the top of fish can really spook 'em. The better graphs out there sometimes seem to show the boat pushing fish (of all different species i've noticed) down a few to several feet after you make an initial pass.

Keep us posted on those home made planers.

Well I tried them out. Didnt catch any stripers but I caught a 12# Blue Cat off of one of my planers. Caught another one on a line just straight down. I need to make some adjustments to them to make them track a little better but they worked pretty good. There had to have been stripers there where I was fishing, but they were probably stuffed with shad. One of the blues had like 15 shad in its stomach. The shad were just stacked in there in the spot where we were fishing. The shad was so thick If there were stripers below them I could not see them on the FF. They shad were so thick The FF was saying it was only 20 foot deep, but we were in over 100 feet of water. When I would get in areas where the shad cleared out I could mark big fish. The shad were From 20 feet to over 40 feet deep.