nathanhooper Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 Guess I am not the best at giving good reports, but I can tell ya'll what happened while I'm out. Got out to the dock around little before 7. People were coming out, and I was a bit apprehensive about going in. It was a mean looking storm to our south that looked like it was back building our way from the clouds, but the radar showed otherwise. So I stayed at the dock for 30 mins or so fixing up all my gear and then I couldn't take it any longer and headed out. I found good bait fish sign and some good arches on sonar. In the 30-35 FOW range. In fact, there was one spot that held good sonar returns most of the night. So I rigged up my homemade downriggers with a bomber long A on one and a Cotton Red Fin on the other. They looked like striper lures.... I dropped the rigs down to where my sonar was showing them running at 25 or so feet. And then proceeded to troll for a few hours with nary a bite. I ran over fish that should have been hit it the head with the lures and nothing. I adjusted them every so often just to see if my depth was off, and still nothing. One time even had a fish come look at one of the balls and then swim down. Pretty cool to see that on sonar. So it was getting late and I figured I would try out the whole trolling a deep diver with the riggers. So I let out 50'-60' of line and dropped the balls down to 10'. Few passes over fish and nothing. Then I started going shallow to see if they were running deep. I ran over 26 FOW and maybe saw my rod tick a tad. I am running them on rubber bands so I should see something if its ticking the bottom. So I got frustrated, which happens when I am trying new things, and was going to call it a night. But, I decided to let the balls down to 15'-18' just to see if I could get the lures to tick on the bottom. I proceeded to ease into the shoreline a little at a time because in my mind it made sense that at 18' I should be hitting bottom at 38'. Even though I know from the previous test that I was not, still I was cautious. So I get to 35' and nothing, get to 30' and I am really starting to get nervous so I start watching the rod tips more than what's on sonar, I just would look at the depth. Then all of a sudden one of the rods doubles over and I think great...I'm hung. Then the band breaks and a whole bunch of line starts to peel out. So I stop and shut the motor off and realize that its peeling more line that I am going forward. Fish on! It was exciting to say the least. I had set out last year to boat a 10lb+ stripper of my own doing, in my own boat, and did not achieve that goal. So here I was fighting this fish that I knew had to be over 10lbs and was stoked! Well, long story short, good thing that in the summer they wear out quick when they get into shallow water. Because I got him up to the boat and goofed up landing him every which way. If he would have had more spunk I would have lost him. But I got him in and called it a night. So I'm still not sure how deep the lures are running, but I am guessing from what I was seeing most of the evening on sonar that I had achieved my goal of getting them close to the 30' mark. Most all the fish I saw, except in the deeper water, were holding close to the bottom. Now, I am curious, is this a striper or hybrid? I thought hybrid lines were broken on the lower ones. This guy had his upper lines broken. Either way, I am happy happy. I am going out again tonight and will do some more testing.
Feathers and Fins Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 Its a Striper. Body shape and lines are a dead give away. The lines on a hybrid are broken completely and the body is more like a football than a pencil. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beaver-Lake-Arkansas-Fishing-Report/745541178798856
nathanhooper Posted July 9, 2014 Author Posted July 9, 2014 That's what I thought too. Lets just say that I don't have that much experience with seeing a lot of these.
nathanhooper Posted July 9, 2014 Author Posted July 9, 2014 Oh, I was going to add. My scales showed this guy to be a tad over 10lbs. But what I found very interesting was he had a significant amount of meat on him compared to that 20lb one I cleaned earlier this year.
nathanhooper Posted July 9, 2014 Author Posted July 9, 2014 Did you get out last night F&F? I saw a few guys in fishing rigs drive by me last night, had to wonder if it was anyone from on here.
Feathers and Fins Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 Nope I stayed home for a wonderful dinner. That area is just to far for me to run for an evening trip I seem to always find deer on the way home from out there and not in a good way. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beaver-Lake-Arkansas-Fishing-Report/745541178798856
nathanhooper Posted July 9, 2014 Author Posted July 9, 2014 Nice fish, they sure are a blast to fight. Yes, they are. I sure wish I could have put my friend I took out last night on one. I knew I had a good one just a little bit after I picked up the rod. I know some might consider it on the small side, but it was what I was hunting for.
nathanhooper Posted July 9, 2014 Author Posted July 9, 2014 Nope I stayed home for a wonderful dinner. That area is just to far for me to run for an evening trip I seem to always find deer on the way home from out there and not in a good way. You know, these deer out here do seem like they are always trying to get into someone's vehicle. You would think they would learn to wait till the vehicle comes to a stop and not while its going 55mph.
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