Well, another fairly successful fishing weekend at LP fishing off the back of the Desert Mariah compliments of Rimrock and Goldcup. I caught several stripers over 5 lbs and some over 6. How did I catch them? A familiar question that I tried to explain to others not 20 feet away. Why do I catch them? Maybe this will help others by detailing some of the things gleaned from this month's trips:1. Observation- With 8 poles in the water no one was catching fish or getting bites. We were all using anchovie pieces with fairly light jig heads. We had shad schools from the surface down to 45 feet. The shad were "rolling" sideways but not real active on the surface. Stripers were in 45 to 65 feet getting them. The fish finder was showing the big boys at 75 to 95 feet below.
2. Solution- Change!!!! I tied on a heavier jig head (3/8-1/2 oz) with a heavy wire hook. Use a full anchovie. I thread the hook initially through the side of the gill plate right behind the eye and then back through the body up closer to the back ( it is meatier and stays ion the hook better). The hook point needs to be exposed. I check the balance of the bait in the water briefly. The anchovie is looking sideways. It needed to be horizontal not hanging vertically. I drop it down to 80 feet gently to keep the bait in the original position. An occaisional gentle up and down motion and side to side slow move with the pole seemed to trigger a bite. It's not going to be fast action that works. The water is too cold, the bait is not fast moving. I tried to mimic the baitfish.
3. Equipment- I fished out of the back of my boat tied to the houseboat stern. This alowed better subtle action just with the rocking of the smaller boat. The house boat is fairly stable and deadsticking wasn't providing that up and down motion.
Pole and reel- I was using a 7 foot rod with a line counter reel. The reel needs to be "full" of line to accurately count down the exact depth. I had on 17 lb flurocarbon line.
Fish finder- I have a Lowrance 332c. I put it on 4X Zoom and watch my bait relative to the fish. If the school or fish moves up or down I chased it with the bait. These are finicky, fish they are full of shad, I tried to just get a reaction bite as there was an abundance of shad.
Jig heads- I bought some "stout" heavy lead jig heads and painted them myself with green glow paint from Sportsmans Warehouse. I painted black eyes in them. I regularly "charge the glow" under a flashlight.
So to summarize, it's the little things that seem to work for tight lipped stripers. The bites weren't fast but keep changing and trying stuff til something works. Hope this helps. Good luck.
Kbass
