Striper fishing update

Went striper fishing yesterday morning and hooked up my first striper ever!

It took a lot of line from my reel but I knew it was a striper because of how it bent my rod tip all the way to the breaking point.

I was using a clear a just a bobber placed 3 feet from the lure which was a white 1/8 oz marabou jig.

He bent the hook a little and got off. I will keep you updated on when I get one reeled in.

Big Spot

Again out fishing around the diving seagulls at Holly Park for striper using my 3/8 oz bucktail. I picked up a few small thread fin shad on my lure so I knew I was in the school of baitfish.

I casted the bucktail out and started slow rolling it back with water temps in the high 40s and low 50s around lots of rock and deeper water I picked up a big spotted bass this morning. Check him out, he's been eating good!

Frigid Bass

Went out earlier today and was fishing around a lot of seagulls. I was actually fishing for striper using a Captain Mack's 3/8 oz buck tail jig in white. I casted it out on my Daiwa G shock rod and reel on 14 lb test berkley trilene line.

I was jigging it up off the bottom of a rock bed and then started pulling it up and slow rolling it through the water column when a spotted bass started stripping line off my reel.

I have never seen bass as active after a cold front like last night! Air temps today were in the 30s and water temps in the 40s and these bass where hitting topwater! They were chasing shad like I've never seen. These were no striper because they were barely hitting the top unlike a striper that makes the water explode when hitting topwater.

 Here are the results of my frigid cold temp fishing trip today with a buck tail jig.

Cut Bait

Fishing this morning in the cold windy conditions of Lake Lanier. Wind was at about 14 mph and the air temp was in the 40s.

Using trout on free lines first, meaning I just rigged up the trout on the hook and let it swim, well it tuckered out and died. So, I decided to cut it up into sections and use it for cut bait on the bottom.

For this I used my 1/2 oz Carolina rig setup for bass that I bought from Cabelas a while back. Thought this would be ok for weighting purposes. I tied that into the main line and then a 2 ft leader of my main line along with a 4/0 circle hook on the end with a sliced section of trout.

Let the bait sit after casting it a long distance and letting it fall a good 15 to 20 feet.

Well it wasn't a striper that picked it up and made my line strip off my reel it was this big catfish! Enjoy the pictures.

Getting Cold Outside

Well, it's December and the bass are getting ready to hit the Winter patterns. Right now they are still chasing baitfish but seem to be holding very shallow on rock. 

Today was a rainy day with winds from the West and dropping barometer. Great conditions for feeding bass. Didn't much like getting wet but I had on my insulated goretex Team Triton jacket so no problem with that.

Using a Rapala Husky Jerk 10 in a Tennessee shad color. It has 3 quality mustad number 4 treble hooks to help it suspend right where it needs to for the kill. I casted this one out on my 7' Berkley Lightning Rod on 8 lb test Berkley Solutions monofilament spooled on a Shimano 2500 spinning reel. 

I casted out around a rip rap wall where the park had built for people to walk next to the lake and view the scenery. I reeled it in causing it to dive down and let it sit for a few seconds. Then, I jerked it to make it rip through the water column and let it sit again while I reeled in the slack.

After my lure hit the rock and bounced off I felt a huge thump on my line and then it seemed like the fish took off with it! I thought i had hooked a baby striper the way the spotted bass attached this thing. I reeled him in but lot without a strong fight! Check him out and go get a Rapala Husky Jerk in your favorite baitfish color and get ready to reel, jerk, twitch, pause, and BOOM, catch that fish of a lifetime.

Jigs for Fall and Winter

Nothing tastes better to a bass than a crayfish and nothing emulates that than a jig! Jigs can be fished all year long with success. Above is a Bass Patrol 3/8 oz green pumpkin jig with a trimmed Creme black and blue craw trailer.

Other trailers that are natural and can be used include paca craws like the ones below along with worms and senkos.

The weight of jigs that I typically use is 1/4 to 1/2 oz. I also use a lot of football style jigs because there is a lot of rock around the places I fish. There is also clear water year around mostly so the other colors I use is green pumpkin blue like below in a 1/2 oz and a green pumpkin red in a 3/8 oz secondly.

More spinnerbaits

Went fishing again this morning in the cold Fall air. This time the water temps are at 70 and the water is turning over.

The transition is great no matter what the barometric pressure is reading. High pressure systems with wind out of the East doesn't deter the spinnerbait bite in the Fall! 

War Eagle spinnerbait in sexy shad with a double willow leaf blade setup is best around the mouths of creeks and around emergent and submergent vegetation. Try one burning it around this cover and see what happens!