Ok, so here are the images we were seeing ALL DAY yesterday. We sent down artificials: rat-l-traps, red eye shad, spoons, umbrella rigs, several lipless and lipped shad deep divers… we struck out on shad, my usual magic with a cast net didn’t pan out… gotta get a faster sinker I think. On the third image we were in 65 ft of water but there were so many stripers the fish finder (LDS8) thought it was the bottom they were so thick… We went home skunked… what would you do here to get some of these in the boat?
Cried, cussed, thrown empty beer cans around the boat:wink: That’s a shame you couldn’t hook up. But you know their there and it’ll keep you going back:smiley:
I think I would have left and got some bait. Although I have been in fish like that and got skunked, very frustrating. I always struggled when the water dips down in the 40’s. I think if you had bait you would have at least caught a few.
dynamite?? bang stick ???–naw jus kidding !! that makes you wanna double check the graph to make sure its not stuck on simulator mode doesnt it!! odd in first pic how the fish were stacked above the bait? didnt really look like they were actively feeding
How fast was the boat moving in these shots?
Would have liked to seen some Downscan shots of these That werent overlayed. When fish are tightly packed in like the bottom pic they usually arent feeding some will but the majority are not.
Also without the overlay on you can see if you are directly over top of the fish or just off from them. If fish show up on 2D but not downscan you are not on top of them. Close but not on top and that can make a difference if the fish arnet real aggressive. Also you can can fine tune exactly where the fish are under your boat with sidescan. When sidescan is on sometimes marks will show up under the boat on one side and not the other. Then u know the fish are closer to either the left or right side. Talking about looking “under” the boat with side scan. Hope this makes since.
“All fisherman lie. And if they say otherwise, then they’re lying”
1 oz spoon fished vertically. if they were striper up in the water column like the first pic you would have a got a reaction bite with a spoon. you don’t always have to bump the bottom with a spoon, escecailly with these new hybrid casting/jigging spoons you can get great action suspended in the water. fish the spoon right under the transducer so you know exactly where the spoon and fish are and how the fish are reacting.
We were marking fish like this ALL DAY! We would switch to down image and we would see a lot of fish, especially the arches in the pix that have red in the top of the arch, they are in the arc of the transducer pretty good! We did not as much get a strike. We did not try big spoons, we did try 1/2 oz benders in silver and gold, fished em up, from the bottom up, and trolling or drifting through them… the boat idles at about 2-3mph a bit fast for cold weather I think. And casting my net… no bait fish in it at all! I think they just run out of it, hard to get them in 50’ maybe. Boy it was frustrating! And, we never anchored… the one we had was busted. We wanted to sit on top of some perch but not in the wind.
That is some precise FF control to know how far off the fish you are. I remember a while back a post about which nostril on the bait to run the hook through to get them to swim to the side you want. I just can’t remember if it was on the same side or opposites.
From the look of some of those marks and as stagnant as they are, I almost wonder if they could be gar. I have seen them bunch up like that before when I used to fish the lake some in the winter. Did you happen to be around the Gap/Billy Dreher Island area?
Gar come up to the surface to grab air once in awhile. I’ve never seen gar in a school like this. These were striper, I’ve seen them like this in warmer days and no problem catching… yesterday was just tough! Didn’t even get a strike. We were in the upper lake, and then down to and near Dreher later in the day.
Do you have a trolling motor? Could you sit in the same spot for 5 minutes or longer? The colder the water the more sluggish the fish tend to be. How many different colors and sizes of spoons did you drop into the fish? Normally I start with three or four different spoons tied on different rods and let the fish tell me what they will hit. I usually try to bump the spoons while sitting motionless over a school for atleast 5 minutes, no moving the boat at all. Sometimes it’s the only way to catch them in cold water. Also, in my limited experience with stripers, they will normally hit and/or eat live bait 10 times faster than the spoons. If they are actively feeding the spoons are a great bait. If not live bait on a downrod sitting right in their faces or slightly above them would be my first choice, and then it still might be tough to get a bite.
I’ve been in schooling stripers that stayed up long enough for me to throw almost every artificial in my tacklebox and never gotten a bite. Other days I’ve had them bust my clear Super Spooks as soon as they hit the water. Guess that’s why it’s called fishing instead of catching. Don’t give up. Keep trying different locations and fish the clearest warmest water you can find.
I would be below Bear creek if I were fishing tomorrow. Keep looking between there and the dam on the Chapin side of the lake until you find some actively feeding fish (gulls diving into the water are a great indicator). Stay over the fish for 10 minutes without moving the boat. Then start looking again, find more fish and give them 10 minutes. Repeat as needed until you find the hungry ones. Don’t spend too much time over fish that aren’t biting.
Gary and I encountered many screens like that during Saturday’s tournament. We would circle those big water areas, making a slow methodical pick. On downrods, we only caught small stripers and big white perch. All the keepers came on planers with around 30 feet of lead with splitshots. Only one time did we double up. Fishing was slow but entertaining enough.
I sure appreciate the ■■■■■■■■ guys. It’s like being locked out of a big party! We did not have an anchor so we had to drift. I’m sure if we had bait we would not be crying so much. We were on em for sure, just gotta do what you all say… keep at it!
So where are the big perch? I catch little ones a lot and use them for striper bait… just cut off their dorsal fin, hook em and send em down like herring. That works great in case you have not tried it.
