By
Water Temp: 68-74 F 
Striper fishing is HOT. There are thousands still to be caught in the 140-mile long main
channel and if that's not enough a few slurp boils are starting as well.
Dave Gundy and
family from
Dave Gundy's report sums up striper
fishing in the channel. "We had excellent striper
fishing right off the back of the houseboat in every spot we stopped between
Bullfrog and Dangling Rope."
That seems amazing but from Rock Creek to Bullfrog there are enough stripers to
make that statement true. The key habitat is the brushy flat edge of a cut,
cove or channel where water depth falls quickly from 20 to 40 feet. Graph that
40 foot contour line looking for resting striper schools on the bottom. When
the striper haystack is seen - STOP, CHUM AND CAST.
If the school of stripers sees the chum descending they will come off the
bottom to feed. The typical depth of feeding fish is the edge of visibility.
When the descending bait disappears from sight, stop it and wait for the hit.
Stripers are looking for food and are very aggressive. The logical thing to do
is cast anchovy pieces to the rising fish. That works great. But these
schooling fish will hit many other lures including plastic grubs and tubes,
spoons, hair jigs, even flies. When the school lights up throw everything in
the tackle box and let them pick out their favorite.
Channel hotspots include: the dam,
Slurp boils have been seen in
Typical Slurp
- Cast to the first fish on the left side to prevent spooking the school.
Slurps are slow moving
striper schools surface feeding on larval shad. Feeding often looks like a wind
riffle or a wake. On closer examination the riffle has a silver lining. The
surface commotion is small but stripers to 5-pounds are found feeding on shad
larvae. The trick is to find a lure that casts far enough to hit the slurp
before it sounds, but is small enough to mimic a one-inch larval shad. Perhaps
the best bait is silver Kastmaster or other small spoon. Let it sink a foot and
then retrieve quickly and erratically to excite schooling stripers. If a big
fish is in the slurp a topwater lure will draw him out. Be sure to cast just
beyond the lead fish for a quick hook up. Tossing the lure into the main body
of feeding fish will spook them and make them sound.
Bass are still biting on the terminal end of each reef or long rocky point.
Smallmouth bass from tiny to 3-pounds are hitting plastic tubes, grubs and
senkos. They can be readily located by trolling a shad rap or Wally diver along
the 10 to 15 foot breaking edge of main channel reefs. Find a pod of fish by
trolling a shad rap, then stop and cast plastic baits to catch a bunch.
Want Fish? We got 'Em.