Made it to the lake for the first time in a while fished for 2 hrs caught 7 stripper and two gar saw lots of small fish busting but other boats would push them down as soon as they came up
I went out last night too. Put lines in about 7:30. Had ten in the boat by 9:30. Eight were keepers. Had three in the ten pound range. I had multiple fish on four times. Only kept the two that were caught deep. I actually caught four on freelines. Continued to fish until about 12:30 and only caught two more.
all of our fish came on the free lines baits
what kind of structure/bottom depth ?
off spence in 100-120
we went out saturday morning, trolling bucktail umbrellas. this was my first time with this setup combining leadcore and umbrellas, so we were a little unsure on depth, resulting in a couple snags and a lost umbrella. However, we marked fish at 80-100 on the rivers side of Spence all day. Only pulled in 1 keeper though.
I like trolling, but gonna have to break down and buy a couple downriggers so I KNOW that i am at 80 feet next time.
Fish seemed to be in the 150 to 160 foot area. When I went shallower, there was less fish. No fish at all in water less than 120’ for me. Even though I was reading fish deep, they seemed to only hit 25’ or less. I put the keep alive bait system on my homemade bait tank. Made a huge difference, healthy bait works much better.
I have seen fish 80-100ft but they always seemed to be inactive. I’ve never caught anything that deep. I like to see them 25ft or less. However I usually see them and catch them at 40ft. Funny thing is that people from NC are bent on trolling. My favorite thing is to catch them schooling.
magnawake
where is Spence??? Having a hard time finding on map???
Does anyone use lights at night to attract bait fish?? Does this really work??? I have seen this work on Lake Moultrie but the water is only 55–70’ deep…not sure if this would help in water as deep as you are talking…
There were schooling fish last night. I was suprised to see that this late in the year. Seemed like mostly small ones though.
I am not from NC but I just enjoy trolling the most for some reason, and actually prefer it even if it is not the preferable method at the time. I guess it is because i love deep sea fishing and trolling for striper is very similar…
quote:
Originally posted by SanteeCarlwhere is Spence??? Having a hard time finding on map???
Does anyone use lights at night to attract bait fish?? Does this really work??? I have seen this work on Lake Moultrie but the water is only 55–70’ deep…not sure if this would help in water as deep as you are talking…
Four Island cluster towards the dam, one big island and three smaller ones. Download the newest google earth and check it out, it labels Jim Spence Islands.
We caught five but only one keeper on Sat. morning. Fished from 6:00 a, to 3:00 pm with no strikes after 10:00 am. All fish around the towers with no sight of schoolers
Hey what weight sinker do you guys use and what is the draw back when you are just drifting say by the towers? I see most if not all boats with trollers.
I will try back out there tomorrow evening. I heard the bite is a bit better at night/evening
Yeah I drove by in my truck on the Dam Sat. Whew, Yall looked like cord wood stacked around the towers. I dont like trolling. If I know there’s fish underneath my boat, I turn the motor off and drop lines down in front of them. Most all the guides drop down lines as well. Each to his own though. On the flip side, I have casted for trout and didnt do to well, then cranked up and trolled and tore them up. The reason is, I couldnt really pin point where the trout were holding up.
I usually use a 1 oz egg weight (I think). It’s just heavy enough to keep the herrin below the boat. When I peel line off my reel, it goes down pretty fast. Hope that helps. Others might have better ideas. I dont think there is a draw back to drifting near the towers. The fish always are moving in and out, so when you drift, your bait looks like its swimming. IMO
Magnawake
I troll with the motor set pretty slow. Just enought to put a slight angle on the downlines and keep the boat going the way I want it. I use 1.5oz or 1 oz. It depends how fast I am moving and how deep they are.
I’M GOING TO TRY TONIGHT WHEN I GET OFF WORK. HOPEFULLY BE ON THE WATER BY 1145. ALL MY HERRING DIED FROM THIS MORNING SO I GUESS I WILL BE USING CUT BAIT.
I FORGOT TO MENTION I WAS ALMOST RUN DOWN BY A STRIPER GUIDE THIS MORNING. HE FINALLY SAW ME AT THE LAST SECOND AND SLOWED DOWN. HE STILL WENT WITHIN 5’ OF ME AND LOOKED AT ME LIKE IT WAS MY FAULT. USUALLY DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE GUIDES BUT THIS REALLY GOT UNDER MY SKIN. TOTAL LACK OF RESPECT AND COMMON COURTESY.