Been fishing on murray for about 5 yrs I used to catch fish but now I just suck at it using downlines marking plenty of fish was out today for 7 hrs only caught 2 watched people all around me catch fish saw one boat get about 30 I am about to give up
Thank you Murraymaker
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This is what I was seeing on the sonar
My first experience fishing live bait for stripers was many years ago. I fished with a classmate who’s father was a guide on Murray at the time. We’d catch a bunch bream about as big as three fingers with flyrods and drift or downrod them off of points and in creek runs in water between 30’ and 65’ deep in the lower lake. That worked well until the water heated up and then we’d stop trying to find them. I think the technique would still work with the better electronics we have now.
That setup will still catch stripers but it’s a little more involved than fishing live herring. Usually, when a striper picks up a bream it will run between 10 and 30 yards without swallowing the bream. Then it will stop, somehow turn the bream and swallow it head first (or atleast that’s what appears to happen). Once we learned to let the striper stop before we set the hook we were much more consistent hooking the fish. Also, we learned to hook the bream very shallow, betweem the head and backfin. One good thing about using live bream for bait was that they seemed to live a long time. Another good thing was that we seldom caught a striper under 7 pounds. That’s also when I started preferring baitcasting rods because they let the line free spool better than my old spinning gear when the stripers picked up a bream and were making their first run. If the line didn’t come off the spool very smoothly the stripers would drop the bream. I know stripers like herring better, but if you have time I think it’s still OK to use legally caught bream for bait. You might not catch as many fish but will most likely catch bigger fish.
I don’t fish any live bait in the summer these days, but typically, fishing deep about this time, they wont last long on the hook.
Better off fishing 1 or 2 rods and changing bait often than having 5 or 6 dead baits sitting down there.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
DF90 Suzuki
Ko4zb… It gets a bit harder into late summer around now. I fished the Towers Sunday in that storm (lucky it was just for a few minutes) and the bite was slow. marked a lot of fish and seems like when we caught fish there would be schools coming thru the area. Probably slow due to the crappy weather. But the fish are scattered right now and smarter then in early summer so you have to chase them down. moving your boat a couple of feet at a time makes a huge difference following bait balls. Lastly I try and keep my Herring as lively as possible. weak baits just don’t produce. try keeping a couple of frozen bottles of water in the boat to put in your bait tank to keep your bait tank water down.
I wish I had a simple answer for you. Catching stripers is a function of a myriad of factors-- location, leader length, sinker size, hook size, chumming, drumming, etc. I cannot disagree with any of the replies on this thread. One thing I would do is find fish as far away from other boats as possible. If you’re close enough to see what another boat is doing, you’re probably too close. Several boats in an area with chirping sonar can shut off the bite for most of the boats.
James “Captain Fog” Lindler
Team Hardcore
Xpress HB-22
F150 4 Stroke Yammy Jammer
For guide service, search fogmanfisheries on Facebook.
So chirp sonar is no good? what size hooks are best? I have 2 sonar units on the boat maybe having them both on is chasing them away
I think Fog is just talking about getting around a ton of other boats. Several boats over a 150 yard area all dangling down lines and drumming on their hulls can definately shut the bite down. I’ve never seen sonar actually make a difference but Fog may have. I run two units all the time and catch plenty on artificial (casting, jigging and power reeling). I do think the trolling motors can spook them at times. There are many days I have to jig off the back of my boat and kill them and can’t get a bite up front. I also don’t like boats graphing right by me at all. That shuts it down real fast. Even though i hate bass boats buzzing me, it doesn’t seem to impact the bite very much when the fish are deeper. But a boat iddiling by close is another matter.
One thing I would recomend is not spending a ton of time in one spot. If the fish don’t slam the bait pretty quickly after getting on them, I would look for some that will. Just put a couple of rods down right beside each other and see what happens. No action, keep looking. Sure there are plenty of times that you have to wait a spot out and they will suddenly turn on. But I would rather go find a group of fish that are active when I find them. Honestly I can usually tell when I see the fish on the depthfinder when we first mark them if they are going to be on or not. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of times I can’t immediately find that obvious active group and just stop on less active looking groups hoping I can trigger them. There are also times the fish won’t let you drive over them. They run out from under you before you can mark them. Earlier this summer if I just marked two or three fish in a tight group I would always stop and start jigging and a suddenly the whole depthfinder would light up with fish running in.
So chirp sonar is no good? what size hooks are best?
That’s right Chip. 1 or 2 sonar pinging and chirping in a confined area do not pose a problem. A cluster of boats does. Back in the day of using anchors instead of spot lock, we would tie several boats together to the lead boat that found the fish. As long as everyone except the lead boat turned off their electronics, everyone would catch. That’s my main evidence supporting my opinion.
James “Captain Fog” Lindler
Team Hardcore
Xpress HB-22
F150 4 Stroke Yammy Jammer
For guide service, search fogmanfisheries on Facebook.
I use #2 and #1 Owner Mutus with the 3-5 inch herring we’re getting right now. Don’t know if they’re the best, but they work for us.
James “Captain Fog” Lindler
Team Hardcore
Xpress HB-22
F150 4 Stroke Yammy Jammer
For guide service, search fogmanfisheries on Facebook.