LKN January 17, 2009

[Mac-b]

A large striper tournament was held on Norman yesterday and some did not fare too well and some tore it up. Also, due to weather conditions, a lot of fellows had problems with their boat, bait tanks, etc.

The hot spot was Work Creek in the Davidson Creek area. One boat caught 20 some striper's from 7 until 11 AM, but these were not tournament size fish. The winning fish (6.1 pounds) came from the Camp Dogwood area and his kicker fish (5+pounds) from Mtn. Creek. Right after the fellow that won caught his kicker fish is when my youngster caught a nice striper.

I had a guide trip and could not join the fellows and a 14 year old lad on my boat caught a 6.4 pound striper, an event he will never forget. I informed him that if he had of been in the tournament he would have won some money. Man that got him excited, but not as much as bringing that nice fish in. He did a great job with a little supervision from you know who.

Additional fairly hot spots was from Marker 13 to 15, Stumpy Creek, Mtn. Creek and Skippers Creek.

The area that my client caught the nice fish was within sight of where WylieCat caught a 5.96 pound striper in January 08 to place him and myself in the money. The poundage to place this year was less than last year.

[deepwoods]

Mac
I am impressed with anyone that went out yesterday. I had to run my boat over to Tony's to put on a new gps/sonar and the temp reading was 11 degrees. This weather is tough on a boat.

[WylieCat]

I fished around LakeNormanBlues and his guide party and could not catch a fish. I saw the boat that was in the tournament catch an undersized fish, but I could not get a sniff. I lack the fine tuned mechanics that I need for striper fishing. Perhaps in time I could achieve that, but the bite and the pull of a big catfish always seems to draw me away.

The cold made for two days of challenging fishing. It was 12 degrees Friday morning and 14 on Saturday morning. We were lucky and had clear skys which made things much more tolerable once the sun was up.

In the end I remembered that I am a catfish man, and I got my annual winter striper bug out of my system. For me, striper fishing is fun when they are biting, but I don't like putting the time in to figure them out, especially on a lake as difficult as Norman. So, the striper rods are put away and I will return to my hunt for wintertime blues that are out there and biting.

[mudkip]

Sounds like LKN stripers are shrinking. When will the DNR gonna realize Wylie can grow 'em fat and sassy like Wateree does.

[07_hemi_thunderroad]

nice pics! thanks for the report!