Stripers on Lake Hartwell

I use to striper fish 2 to 3 times a week from nov to march several yrs ago until I got into catfishing and always thought catfish didnt bite good during the winter but have since found out different.

 

Yea, that is exactly what I'm doing, LOL. They are fun and I'm getting a lot of experience on the lake. I know the cats bite good year round and maybe this time next year I will be better prepared to find them. Come spring I will be back on the cats tails with decent results but for now I'm learning a whole other end of the lake that I'm unfamiliar with.

I'm glad you started this thread Steve like we talked about. We didn't wanna crowd the Hartwell thread with anymore Striper pic's.

I'm on them again tomorrow and maybe we can put up the 1st pic ; )

-Jim-


PS. I still catfish but I just fish...no catching goin on.

 

Yes I Fish for them quite often!! Here are two pics from sunday caught these along with many others not far from clemson. Lots of bait and schooling action right now. Go get 'em!! We caught our fish on small threadfins thatwe caught right on thespot using 1/4 mesh castnet.(the baits were small, but we caught largemouth,crappie,stripers and hybrid)

 

Sorry to post first read that part after I posted but it was a good idea!
Thanks for starting the thread!

 

that first one would have been bait for another day. would have had to put him in the bait tank.lol

 

A few of us went to Hartwell Thursday and landed 7 fish. It was cold, windy and it rained in the afternoon but the fish were out. In 22' of water the bait was so thick that the dept finder kept showing us at 9'. We had a lot of other hits all day and a few got off, I really don't think we lost any big one's. After using up 2.5 dozen herring we had to head home. We kinda kicked our selves in the rear later for not catching some shad earlier but we did good anyway.

All fish were weighed between 5 and 8lb and caught on Herring, no hits on the trout. Lots of stained water out there but at least it's going up noticeably.

Pic's are of Captain Jim, Darrly and I. It's also Darryl's first Hybrid and Striper.

http://imageigloo.com/images/2643100_1963.jpg

http://imageigloo.com/images/1214100_1961.jpg

http://imageigloo.com/images/6953100_1958.jpg

http://imageigloo.com/images/330100_1956.jpg

http://imageigloo.com/images/7004100_1954.jpg

http://imageigloo.com/images/3976100_1960.jpg



-Jim-

 

Nice catch guys!:wink: Were ya'll free lining or running planer boards?

 

We run 1 big float out 100' out the back with a live gizzard shad or trout..12" minimum, 2 free lines around 75' out the back, a planer board on each side that's down 20' and then at least 3 down rods on each side that are set at 14'. Then up front I drag my 2 cat rods for wishful thinking, LOL, we really go to fast to be catching the cats but I can't help but try. We also buy herring and we cast net threadfin shad. If you gut a Striper you will find them full of threadfin atm.

The planer boards have been doing great but we are in a situation that we have to make a lot of short passes in windy conditions to produce larger catches. Its just easier to use 2 boards until we make longer passes ; )

We watched two guides yesterday struggle out there. They had 4 people on each boat jigging their brains out and nothing. It got so bad the captains were also trying just to put their clients on fish. I felt bad for him really, I know the pressure was on him, in fact we kinda kept it quiet when we caught fish. Them people didn't need to see us catching all those fish, I hope they ended up catching something.

-Jim-

 

2/23/08

Jim, Steve and I headed out for a day of Striper fishing. The winds were out of the w @ 12mph..air temp was in the 20's, water temp was 49f, barometer was at 1022 and rising.

We set out 12 lines using Herring and trout then the Captain pretty much gave me control. He said today you tell me where and what you want to do......... Well let me tell you, I've been waiting for this moment for a long time now so I jumped at the opportunity. I had one rod and one only....the number 13# rod on the boat...lucky 13 ? The drift was set to where I could sneak my uno catfish rod out there. Within minutes a blue hit me, only a few lbs but a good sign. I re rigged and made another pass,,,suddenly my rod just started slamming like crazy..I made a mad dash and it was on. The guys were on it also, rods were coming in, flying over top of me...clearing the way. For around 10 minutes this fish fought and took line, I only had a #20 leader on so I had to play him good, finally he came in........ beautiful Hartwell Blue weighing #18.

Shortly after we had some major hits on the Striper rigs but they were knocking the herring slap off the hooks. If your Striper fishing I will warn ya now they are hitting short a lot so keep that in mind.

Steve had to head in so it was just Jim and I on the boat. Again he let me go where I wanted and we had no shortage on strikes. I think we counted 7 large fish lost, some we even saw up top and were 10# plus Stripers.

The day was coming to a end and asked Jim to make a right and make one pass along a spot I wanted to check. I'm glad we did ; ) I ended up pulling a 9lb Striper out.
In the end on my one cat rod alone I brought 4 cats in. On the striper rods I brought in two, the largest one was tipping 9lbs. Jim also brought in two beautiful Stripers one at 8lbs. The total was 4 cats and 4 Stripers. Everything were caught on large Herring, no hits on the trout.

I think yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I had patiently waited to do things my way and I'm so grateful Jim let me. It gave me the chance to show off my knowledge. I think I even might have a Striper man Catfishing now ; )~

I will have pic's up soon, the site is down atm : (


-Jim-

 

Here is a few pic's I took

18lb Blue Cat, 34" long
http://imageigloo.com/images/2338100_1991.jpg.

Captain Jim, 8lb Striper
http://imageigloo.com/images/2516100_1997.jpg

I think this Striper was 8 or 9lbs
http://imageigloo.com/images/6776100_1999.jpg

A almost pure white blue cat
http://imageigloo.com/images/2489100_1993.jpg

Marking fish
http://imageigloo.com/images/1665100_1996.jpg

All fish were Cpr'ed
http://imageigloo.com/images/9106100_1992.jpg

-Jim-

 

Nice fish Jimmy! That water looks like it has a good stain to it. Where are you guys buying your herring?

I think me and a couple other guys are heading out there tomorrow. It will be the first time I've been on the lake in a boat since August.

Anybody know if a 24 foot pontoon is ok to launch at Twin Lakes or Martin's Creek?

 

Talking about stripers hitting short, I have seen largemouths do that alot too on herring. Anyway, congrats on a great catch.

 

Congrats on some good fish.

 

We get bait from " The Bait Shop " if we buy it. If not I cast net them now. G'luck out there.

-Jim-

 

Congrats Jim! Good to hear that someone is catching'em. Thats a nice blue. I heard it feels good to to plan together and it work. I'm still trying to do it wrong!

 

Those fish are really stacked in there arent they Jimmy, nice catch!

 

Man whata a day. I think we had a total of 12 fish. I did break my Pb by 2 oz , a Blue Cat at 20.2oz and I also lost my Striper Pb at the boat, we had him in the net but he got out, we went at him again and as the net went down under him and hit him he spit the hook, he was too big for the net : ( I'm gonna have to humor myself and consider him caught to keep my sanity,lol. I think 3 or 4 fish might have been under #5 but the rest were bigger. I also lost a fish that was just giant, I never had a look but he took #50 braid off my reel like it was nothing, we were all freaking on whatever it was, if I had to guess he was a flathead. He hung me up finally after a long fight....gone.


I'm having trouble getting the pic's up again...sorry about that but we have plenty of them to show. I will get em up asap.


-Jim-


Berometer was rising
water temp/unknown
wind/ sw10 then none towards evening
bait/ bluebacks.....no hits on the trout. The big Striper I lost was caught on my cat rod using fresh killed herring,,,hmm
Water is still comng out of the creeks so the mud line was working its way out. We made a lot of passes on the edge of the clear water.