I’ve been trolling Moultrie for the past couple of weeks with a bit of success. I am new to it but I’ve boated at least a few fish per trip. Stretch 25’s in 30 to 40 feet of water have been working well for me. Last sunday I got on the water around daylight. It was chilly and a bit windy. I trolled the dam for about 2 hours without a hit, so I decided to head up the channel. I used my new navionics plus chip to find ledges and creek beds. I trolled for about 8 hours at various depths and covered most of the lower lake without a single hit. Around 430 in the evening I started to see people chasing birds. I trolled about 2 knots in the direction of the birds. Still no hits. I decided to avoid everyone else and just follow the ledge of the channel back down the lake. A few hundred yards in front of me was a huge flow of birds circling. I stayed on my course and continued to troll the ledge. All of a sudden one of my rods bend in half. I fought the fish while trying to keep the boat from going in circles and hitting my other line. My battle 6000 combo was straining, so I knew I had a good fish on. After a 10 minute battle, a huge face breaks the surface. This fish almost broke my net. I realized I couldn’t net it, so I struggled for the fish grips. After getting the grips on it I pulled it onto the deck. I realized only one treble hook was in its lip! It was a rough day on the water, but every second was worth it.
39 inches and about 30 pounds
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Nice one!! congratz! There used to be a guy that occasionally would post on here that did real well trolling those stretches there at night in the winter.
Very nice fish. Way to stick with it! I’d be proud to call that my personal best.
I’ve been a fan of Stretch lures for a long time. Great bait to troll. I like the 15’s, 20’s , and 25’s. Makes you cry when you lose one though. ($$$) Not as bad as some of those new giant spoons, but still expensive. I caught a 34" in the York River on a Blue/Silver 25 the last day of rockfish season (Jan 31st) up in Virginia. (I’d post the pic but it isn’t loading them this morning for some reason.)
Nice one for sure. I picked up a few on Wateree a few weeks back with a 25 but, nothing that size. I had better luck trolling the drop than chasing the birds too. Twice the bait came up where I was and the birds came to me and it was on. One that size is on my bucket list.
Congrats on landing such a beauty! I have been wanting to launch from the short stay to try trolling the ledges near pinopolis dam with some plastics. The plan is to use my Lowrance to try and locate the fish, got any advice? (200 Khz seems to give me the best returns) Was out around the holidays on the western side of Moultrie and had some luck finding some schools of bait in 15-25 ft holding some nice sized stripers and managed about 15.
Congrats on landing such a beauty! I have been wanting to launch from the short stay to try trolling the ledges near pinopolis dam with some plastics. The plan is to use my Lowrance to try and locate the fish, got any advice? (200 Khz seems to give me the best returns) Was out around the holidays on the western side of Moultrie and had some luck finding some schools of bait in 15-25 ft holding some nice sized stripers and managed about 15.
I have a lowrance elite 4 with down scan and chirp. My best advice is to find ledges that go from 30 feet to at least 35, preferably more. I have seen big schools on my down scan on ledges in 40 feet. Most people troll the dam, but I’ve noticed that when the bait isn’t there, chances are you won’t find any big fish. I don’t use plastics so I don’t have any advice on that one. I vary the depths on my deep diving lures depending on the depth of the stripers and bait. I usually stick with a stretch 25 or a rapala 30 foot diver. It’s all about covering a lot of water and varying speed and lures. I have done my best trolling 2.1 knots. I am sure this will change when the water temp gets colder. The majority of fish I caught have been on lures that look similar to shad.
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Thanks for the advice al8995. I’m running an Elite 4x HDI, it has dual freq sonar w/ downscan overlay, been very happy with it so far. Like I said, I’m new to trolling for striper, I’ve mostly fished with my Pop in the Delaware Bay and coastal Jersey shore/Cape May area before moving here. I’ll definitely try the ledges of the channel with some storm shad and paddle tail plastics, might even try an umbrella rig. Hope to see you out there!
Nice fish! Now you have the big one! I have never caught the big one but have caught around 60 stripers in one trip. My best is 27 inches. The 60 striper trip was in Nov. of 2009. The most epic day of fishing I have had. My arms were cramping up that night. Congratulations.
Very nice fish. Way to stick with it! I’d be proud to call that my personal best.
I’ve been a fan of Stretch lures for a long time. Great bait to troll. I like the 15’s, 20’s , and 25’s. Makes you cry when you lose one though. ($$$) Not as bad as some of those new giant spoons, but still expensive. I just caught a 34" in the York River on a Blue/Silver Stretch 25 the last day of rockfish season (Jan 31st) up in Virginia. (I’d post the pic but it isn’t loading them this morning for some reason.)</font id=“red”>
