Hello to all, this is my very first post on this site. I am huge fan of Striper fishing and being on the water in general. The only problem is… Apparently I am terrible at it ! Lol. I am in law enforcement and basically work two full time jobs, so between that and an active family, I do not have a great deal of time to devote to the craft. I have been reading the site as a visitor for a long time and find it extremely helpful and the folks very knowledgable. I read these posts frequently from people like Murrymaker and Fogman and several of the others and it amazes me that we are even fishing in the same lake. I bought pretty much some of the best equipment I could find… Rods, reels, bait tank, electronics etc. I pretty much follow the direction of everything I read and listen to from you guys and others… But I have been coming home either empty handed or with one or two lonely fish. I would absolutely love some advice or even the opportunity to fish with some of you guys sometime just to maybe find out what I am doing wrong and where I could improve. Thank you all for the insightful posts and taking the time to read mine as well.
Lakefan, we certainly understand what you’re feeling. When I started this stuff 30 years ago, I would more often than not head home frustrated. I would watch guides from a distance to try and pick up a few things and was blessed enough to meet and pick the brains of some great fishermen. Slowly, I started to put all the little things together to be successful. I never stop learning and never take fishing success for granted. This sport can humble you big time, and I still have struggles at times.
Thanks for your kind words! The best way to learn is to get with an experienced angler for rigging, boat setup, and electronics tips. Feel free to contact me with a PM. Perhaps we can wet some hooks sometime. Also, consider joining Midlands Striper Club. That would give you a network of information as to the general patterns of the fish at a given time. No one will give away their honey holes but will tell you everything short of that:smiley:
Tight lines!
James “the Fogman” Lindler
MSC Secretary
Xpress HB-22
175 Yammy Jammer
Lakefan, I have to agree with Fogman. In my opinion the smartest thing you could do for striper learning would be to join Midlands striper club. They meet at the ■■■■■■■■■■ in Lexington. I’m not a member, but I do know several of them. The ones I know are geart guys like Fogman. Just having their “special” lake map and going to a few meetings would pay for the membership fee probably 10 fold. The savings in gas alone would be substantial.
Also, if you decide to try the largemouth or white perch I’ll help you all I can. I’m fair when it comes to bass or perch. Saturday a week ago was my first time on the lake in 2 months and we managed to catch 28 “keeper” sized perch in about 3 hours and threw back a bunch of smaller ones. The white perch are very accomodating when it comes to just having fun winding in fish. Good luck.
Spoon, you think those perch would live OK on the end of a carolina rig down about 75’ or so? Just wondering…
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
quote:
Originally posted by striperskiffSpoon, you think those perch would live OK on the end of a carolina rig down about 75’ or so? Just wondering…
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
after today … ANYTHING on the end of a line at ANY depth would have been appreciated … 
it’s my Wife’s fault we HAVE to fish now!!!
2005 Sea Pro 2100cc / Yamaha 150hp 4-Stroke
Welcome aboard, Lakefan. You’ll find a lot of good stuff in this forum from some experienced folks, and I also concur that there’s lot of benefits with the Midland Stripers Club. A “Fish Hunt” map of Lake Murray is helpful to identify many of the places and locales people are talking about unless you already know them. Electronics (if you’ve got GPS that’s a plus)are just about a must to identify where the fish are, especially now since most seem to be hanging out pretty deep right now. I’m sure most folks aren’t going to share GPS coordinates where they’re catching them, but they do share what type of water they’re fishing and that’s a big help. With that kind of info you can identify your own spots. Obviously the type of bite changes over the course of the year, and you’ll pick that up here too. Good luck on your next trip.
quote:
Originally posted by pattianne… A “Fish Hunt” map of Lake Murray is helpful to identify many of the places and locales people are talking about unless you already know them. …
I’ll ask … what’s a “Fish Hunt” map?? and where do you get one? I have Top Spot maps and an Android Navionics Map (most expensive android app I ever bought - $20 … $60 for Apple products) … oh yeah … and I have a Tim Tim that works when I listen to it/him …
it’s my Wife’s fault we HAVE to fish now!!!
2005 Sea Pro 2100cc / Yamaha 150hp 4-Stroke
The map is made by Fishunt out of Chapin. You probably have one or at least seen one displayed as I think it is one of the most common maps of Lake Murray. One side show lake contours and the other side shows the lake with surround streets and roads. Think I got mine at Jake’s a few years ago and has a list price of $4.95. I doubt they are hard to find.
All of us have gotten help from someone. I have learned sooo much from this forum and the people on it. When I first started fish hard it was during the summer. People would say the same thing as they do today…awww just go out there and get on a hump and you will catch fish…I hated those words. I really thought no one really wanted to help.lol. and now for the famous words I hated for yrs and you have heard before…“just gotta put your time in on the water”…
Anyone can tell someone where to go exactly but actually getting there ane catching the fish is anoyher job in itself.
another thing I have noticed is that people like to talk a little more at the ramps. Even I am guilty of that. Most people wont spill everything online but will be pretty detailed in person.
Get ya a navionics app on your phone. Dont know which one lawcrusher bought, but it should only be 9.99!..look at it on your free time.
do you hunt? If so think about fishing the way u hunt. Bottle necks funnel game as well as fish. Humps work like fields surrounded by woods. Deeper water being the woods or protected areas. Those are just a couple examples…if u dont hunt then just ignore that…haha.
Here is an example of places to look for. These are no secret places and are found in the big pool. But u can sit around and look at your app and look for places like these to try on your next outing.
“Sea~N~Stripes”
21’ Hewes Craft Custom
115 Evinrude
Striperskiff, In answer to your question, yes I think they would. However, as one who used to fish for deeper stripers many, many years ago… You might also want to try live bream. In the old days a two or three finger sized bream or especially CRAPPIE was our favorite bait of choice!!! Being honest, I’ve never tried live herring. Us po’ boys were lucky to have gas money for the boat and a couple of good rods. One important tip… Let the stripers run with the bream while the rod free spools. They will usually peel off 20 - 40 yards of line, then stop, turn the bream…and they always swallow a bream head first, then set the hook. They probably would do a perch the same way. This tip will increase your hook-up percentage by a bunch. Another advantage would be bigger stripers hitting the bream or perch during 5 and done time. Usually not smaller than 7 lbs.
Striperskiff, I neglected to mention that you will need a bigger hook than you use with herring. We never went smaller than a 3/0 wide gap bait hook. Also, hook the bream just behind the head, fairly shallow, and let him swim around behind the CR weight. The strikes are usually very light taps. Be alert and watch for this. Let the reel free spoolwith a light thumb on the spool (baitcasters are best for this) to keep it from backlashing when the striper stops to swallow the bream or perch. When it starts back moving set the hook … hard. Our best morning, years ago, was 5 stripers that went close to 40 lbs. total weight.
Thank You guys for all of the insight and tips as well as the offers to come aboard and ride, I appreciate all of it
@Fogman ~ I definitely will take you up on your offer and are looking in to the MSC as well. Thanks again
@Spoonmaster ~ I am going to take your advice on the MSC, thanks. And I guess I would be a Largemouth fisherman by default and may be just a touch more versed in that, but by no means tournament ready. As for the white perch, THAT sounds awesome and I would love to try it sometime. I assume it is seasonal as well?
@pattianne ~ I believe I have several of these “Fish Hunt” maps you speak of… Apparently those maps carry much greater information than just where the bars are on Lake Murray… LOL Thank you for the intel
@Murrymaker ~ wow… you have single handedly made me question my twenty some years of hunting experience…LOL Thank you for the response and the insight and the treasure map… However… if you are ever broke down or sinking and you send me this map to find you… look for the helicopters because by the time I figured this thing out… DiCaprio will have already been in a a movie about you! Guess I have my work cut out for me. haha
~Rob
quote:
Originally posted by MurrymakerGet ya a navionics app on your phone. Dont know which one lawcrusher bought, but it should only be 9.99!..look at it on your free time.
I stand corrected … it was $9.99 … there are/were two Navionics apps out there, but I think they pulled one after I bought both of them (figures) … just search Navionics in the Play Store and you’ll find what you need …
it’s my Wife’s fault we HAVE to fish now!!!
2005 Sea Pro 2100cc / Yamaha 150hp 4-Stroke
The white perch can USUALLY… be caught year round, but fall, winter and very early spring are USUALLY… best. That being said, A friend and I ried the largemouth and perch this morning with soso results. We only had 6 largemouth and 8 perch. That’s a pretty frustrating amount of perch considering that we fished the same areas that produced so well less than 2 weeks ago. Everything was moving too fast, chasing shad, to stay on top of them. Still, it was better than sitting and watching TV. Better luck next time.
Also, there seems to be a very early morning bite. Once it is over you might as well head for shore because the fish develop lockjaw and will not bite anything!!!
Spoon, get out the ultralights and a bucket of minnows. Drum on the boat and they’ll bite all day long:) I know that’s not your style or how you got to be the Spoonmaster! I agree that drowning minnows isn’t as much fun.
Xpress HB-22
175 Yammy Jammer
James,
My kids don’t seem to want to fish for striper anymore, 6 years old with little patients. I have never fished for anything on the lake but striper. They like pond fishing for bream and I would like to take them perch fishing but have no idea where or how. Can you help me out, pm would be fine.
Lakefan,
I would help you out here but I haven’t been on the lake in 3 weeks and wasn’t doing much better than you then. I plan on trying Saturday morning, probably going to look in deep water around spence/frey key/pine island. Key to success this time of year seems to be getting live bait down quick and changing them out often. I plan on trying out the splitshot technique Fogman posted above.
Wellcraft V-20 sportfish with a 200 Evinrude
Tom, I would fish at the Elbow and above if I were targetting perch. Look in 10-20 feet of water on points and backs of coves. Ultralights with 4 pound test and a splitshot or 2 a foot or so above a #4 Aberdeen should work well a couple cranks off the bottom with crappie minnows. They’ll appear on your graph just like a school of herring. Go get em!
Xpress HB-22
175 Yammy Jammer
Tom,
They are actually in front of my rental cottages, pretty heavy. But the schools are so thick, they look like a “2nd bottom” about 3 feet high.
Send me an e-mail if I can help.
Rick K
10-4 to Rick! Crystal Lake should be full of perch right now.
Xpress HB-22
175 Yammy Jammer
Rick/James,
Thanks for the help, I will check it out saturday
Wellcraft V-20 sportfish with a 200 Evinrude