Just want to say- since the water has cooled down, RELEASE THOSE BIGGER FISH IF YOU CAN. We need to get some 30-40 pounders again and they ain't gonna make it if they're in a frying pan. Wait 'till summer to keep these fish, let 'em eat and get fat now, while they can. We finally got our bait situation back to where it needs to be and the stripers are getting fat like they're supposed to be.

December has been great so far. The fish are still chomping on big bait and we've hit several decent busting schools. The fish have spread out from Lynville to Becky's but there are some larger concentrations forming. No massive schools, but small groups of fast moving fish. The jiggin' action has really picked up! Had several 10+ and 20+ fish days, as well as a couple of 30+ fish days.

The fish made us work on Dec 27. They would only chase our moneymakers, but they'd hit a fluke, so we had to jig these bad boys up. The fish all came off jigs and most were in the late afternoon.

Here's a young man who showed me how to jig a striper up on a fluke! Awesome fight on his light spinning rod and reel. The 2nd pic is of a striper that hit a freelined gizzard. This was the first slow day that we've had in December where we only got 5 in the boat. 4 from jiggin' and 1 on bait. Had right many short hits on gizzards that never got hooked up. It was still an awesome day on the lake.

A great day on the lake and a bunch of fish of caught and released. Awesome!

Another hot day of fishing in December.

Here's Toby wearin' em out.

Nov 23 - 26 - The bite has been great this whole week. We caught 10-27 stripers each day except on the 26th when we had a high pressure system move in. Still using big gizzards on floats and planers, and we've jigged up a couple on spoons too.

On this trip I had 2 young'ins and their parents who lasted the whole trip and didn't complain one bit about the cold. Oh yeah, it was 19 degrees!

_

Nov 22 - The fish are still biting pretty darn good. They've been hitting big gizzards on Floats and planers pulled in the main channel. The jiggin' bite still hasn't picked up yet.

Nov 18-21 Great bites in the morning and the evenings. On the 21rst, we had 12 in the boat before 8:00am and missed as many. The bite continued pretty steadily the rest of the day. We've been releasing all of the fish lately.

Nov 15. Went scouting to find some new schools since my other spots are getting crowded. Only had 1 bite, but it was a good one. 37 inches, and a little under 20 pounds. RELEASED

Nov 12-14 The bite is still good....

Nov 9-11 It's back on! A great early morning bite and then a deep jiggin' bite during the day. On the 10th, we caught another 15lber and three more 13lbers. Released all the fish, but regretfully we had to keep the 15lber, since it was gill hooked, I worked with it for about 20 minutes trying to revive it, but it just wouldn't come back. We've been catching most of the fish on spoons. 20+ fish on Thursday.......

October 29 - November 6 The fishing slowed down this week with the extreme high pressure and blue skies. We didn't get the numbers we were looking for, but we definitely got the sizes we were looking for with one 15lber, two 13lbers and most of the fish that we caught were 10-12lbs. Here's a couple of pics just from the weekend:

Nice Fish

October 25 - 28 - It's on! Busting fish in the evenings, planers in the morning. Better come on down soon and get into the action. We're pulling planers in the mornings and we've been seeing some impressive explosions with stripers just annihilating our big bait on the surface. After the sun gets high, we find deeper water and drop as many downlines as we can and wait for a school to come through and get multiple hookups. In the evenings we're pulling freelines pretty fast and keeping an eye out for busting stripers. Seriously, now's the time.

October 21 - 24 - The fall frenzy is finally here!!!! Come on down and let's get into some hard fighting stripers while it lasts!

October 14-20 - The fishing has slacked off lately, but this is expected when the fish are moving. There's been alot of upriver movement this past week and now the cooler weather is finally settling in. I'd suspect that this coming week, October 22-29, will be a really good week. I have some openings this coming week too, so come on and lets get into some busting stripers!

October 4-13 -Man, has the fishing been good lately. Many, many triple hookups with jiggin' on schools and live baiting has been good in the morning. The bigger fish have been showing up more now and we brought 2 to boat that were 36 inches. 90% of our stripers have been released, with 100% of stripers that have been jigged up. The water temps are dropping now finally and are 70-71 degrees. Busting stripers should show up any day now....

October 1-3 - The bite has been really good lately, except for October 1 when a big cold front pushed through. I've only seen 1 monster school lately, but I've seen a ton of smaller, compact schools which have been very active. Water temps haven't dropped alot yet, but hopefully this week we'll get some cooler weather in order to get these fish to start busting topwater more. Right now we're fishing all types of techniques from downlines, planers, freelines to jiggin' and castin'. The fish are just in all types of spots and depths.

Here's a triple that we had on Sunday October 2nd. 2 on flukes and 1 on live bait simultaneously.

September 23 - 27 - Man, did the bite get good quick! All of a sudden the stripers turned on and started eating the props off of the boat. We've been successful just targeting good points and if a school comes through, well, hang on, because all of the rods will double over. We've had several rainy, cloudy days and it dropped the water temps a couple degrees and the fish have really taken to it. All types of bait have been good lately including artificials.

Here's a nice fish that hit a light tackle jig during September

Chalk one up for the ol' jig

What can I say?

4lb bass on a fluke

September 22 - Went out this evening using artificials only and did really well. We bounced from point to point jiggin' and castin'. The fish started chomping at 30 foot depths, but slowly got shallower as the evening progressed. Great striper action on a peaceful September evening. Only saw 1 school, but we caught most of the individuals that we marked. Starting to see more and more swirls on the surface.....Come on October!

Fellow Striper Captain, Wendell Dudley. "Who needs umbrella rigs?"