Wednesday, June 6, 2012

16 Hour Hunt

I have a serious problem, I am so addicted to fishing its bad for me haha. For about the 4th day in a row I'm up at 0400 in the morning and headed out the door to the AR to get the fish I have named "The Tank." She is about a 30lb Striper that has been taunting me for about a month now, but I'm gonna do what it takes to get her. Haven't been this determined about anything in a long time.

Picked up my buddy Ethan again and we were on the water on my toon by 0600. We ran around for a bit looking for school of shad to slam. I love fishing the AR for shad so much man. UL gear, crystal clear water, and these low water conditions make for some amazing sight fishing opportunities. We see shad swimming undernearth us right away, but we see them in these very tight schools of hundreds of fish like they are in a massive bait ball, we would cast into them and not a single one would bite. Then right as the school passes, there she is, "The Tank!" Hot on there asses she was following that school every time we saw them. We followed them for a while, but that school of shad was never sitting still and they wouldn't bite so we had to find some more shad.

We found a few area's where we could see the shad spread out throughout their lanes.


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Its hard to see in the picture I know, but if you can pick out the shadow's there are probably 30 shad in this picture.

Once we found them it was just a matter of putting a jig in front of them.

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I even got my first shad on my fly rod

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The shad bite was on fire and if we were just targeting shad the day could absolutely could not be going any better, but were not. We were after the small bait sized fish, but for the most part we were only landing 2+lb hens. Not wanting to deal with the long time it takes to fight one if we would see one grab out jig we would just wait for her to spit it so we didn't have to deal with the 5+mins it takes to land one of those hogs on UL gear. We see the small males that we want, but most of them aren't biting, . . . . why?

Then we see tank roll through and all of our shad we were slamming scatter and take off, oh thats why haha. Most of these shad are terrified. Along with tank we know about at least 4 other fish in the area ranging from 8-20lbs and all are on the prowl for food (again if this wasn't outcast I wouldn't be telling anyone this). I do get some bait sized ones eventually and throughout the day, mostly in the morning-early afternoon. I get 5 runs on a live shad. The first three, striper picked up the shad I grabbed the rod out of the rod holder, then the striper dropped it and never came back. Sorry, but at this point I'm not believing that you would wait for them to stop and them go on a second run, because this so called "second run" has not happened for me. The forth run striper picks it up, I grab my rod, he runs for 20 seconds, I slam the hook and come back with bite mark riddled shad. Another thing people have been telling me is I need a treble in the back of the shad, which I have been vetoing, because I believe that the striper could possibly feel the treble and drop it and trebles for bait fishing are just straight up evil to fish and I really don't want to end up killing an amazing fish like that. Plus I don't even have any trebles.

Frustration over ruled my thoughts though so I grabbed a popper that I never use and grabbed the treble off of a popper to add to my shad after missing my last fish. Later in the Early evening I see about a 10lb striper harassing my shad that I'm fighting on my fly rod, man if that bad boy grabbed my shad and I landed him on the fly rod like I did with my UL last year I would be ecstatic. Too bad I had a 3lb female on that was just too big for him. Shortly later though I got another bait fish out and had my fifth run off the day. Let him go for a bit, I set the hook . . . . . holy shit finally FISH ON!!!!!! . . . . . pop my leader breaks. FUCK!!!!!!!!!!! I fail at life, I'm a terrible fisherman, all that other crap, rage quit.

After that I sat there in grief for about 10 mins thinking wtf happened? all of my knots held, I don't remember any weak spots in my leader, maybe it just wasn't meant to be. stuck it out the rest of the day still killing the shad. I traded a few people off and on the toon to get some more people on some shad.

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Deni came out and slammed a few

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Adam came out and got on some as well.

Ethan hopped back on and we were trading off on slamming them shad on the fly. Ethan won the big fish award of the day with this 4 1/2 lb shad.

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Ethan had a striper pick his live shad up late in the evening, but it never took off with it. Off of the water at 2100. 16 hours on the water trying for "The Tank." Man what a day. I had my chances, but it just didn't happen. Hardly caring for the shad and throwing most away because they were too big, between Ethan and I we still landed around 100 shad just estimating on a number.

Disheartened and hating myself I still just have to keep trying. Till then maybe I need to upgrade my line or something I don't know we'll see.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

p.s. I takes a lot for my to get sun burnt since I've spent my whole life in the sun outside fishing, but I am pretty red at the moment from all the time in the sun. All worth it though.

Monday, June 4, 2012

The Striper Quest Continues

Been fishing for shad these past couple of mornings. Sunday morning 6/3/12 I picked up Ethan and we took off and got on the water around 0500. First couple of cast Ethan slams his first shad of the morning.


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And for the first few hours of the morning the shad bite was just on fire.

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Bendo all morning, Shad pull hard!

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You all know what I'm really after though, but all morning we were busting some nice sized males and even bigger females. No good bait sized fish yet.

Then around 0730 Ethan and I double up and I get the fish I need.

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Fish must have been only 8 inches long, perfect striper candy.

I threw him out there and waited. Shortly later after trying on every outing for the past month I finally get a pick up. I let him run and run and recently people have told me that I need to wait until the fish stops till I set the hook, so I waited till my line stopped running, I set the hook, but it turned out the striper dropped my shad and was gone. Damn, opportunity lost.

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This was my shad after the striper took off with him.

Knowing I did something wrong I asked the one person I know who has done this successfully a few times, Guppy. He told me to set the hook roughly 30 seconds after the start of the run.

We caught a few shad after my run, but my striper never came back. Ethan and I landed roughly 15 shad each by 0930. Had to leave to go to work.

Next day I had to get back out to get another shot at that striper. Picked up Ethan again and got to the ramp around 0430 today. Brought the pontoon out today to maybe get in some better lanes for a better shot at the striper. We ran around looking for shad though first. Took a little bit, but we crossed right over the top off of a school a couple hundred shad and we saw about a 30lb striper right on their asses. Dropped anchor and threw out jigs out. The water was only about 3ft deep so we could see everything that was around. School of shad would come by, we would drop out jigs in front of them and watch them slam the jigs it was a load of fun.

Ethan got a bait sized fish first though, he hooked him up threw him out and man it was a matter of about 30 seconds before that momma striper picked him up and it was on. Ethan just said oh yea here we go, I looked over he slammed the hook and we got a fish on!!!

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We pulled anchor and got ready for the chase. The fish runs all the way across the river and then a fisherman's worst feeling ever, Ethan's line snapped. NOOO!!!! man another opportunity lost. Ethan sat down in aw for about 30 mins unable to function because of the shock of losing that fish. after a while he got back up though and we were back on the shad looking for a second chance. Because we were sight fishing and all we wanted was that striper we would watch big female shad grab our jigs and not set the hook because we simply did not want to deal with the long fight they would put up right now we only wanted bait.

I got one around 12 inches. A little big but I need to get a bait out there. After I dropped him out I moved the toon back and forth across the river to cover as much water as possible. Sure enough I got picked up, but he only ran for about 5 seconds and dropped my shad. Don't know why but that was it. We had live shad out for the rest of the morning. Had to leave at 0930.

I'm getting closer and closer to getting that striper. Its gonna happen soon I've got a feeling.

Till Then Guys
Mark

Friday, June 1, 2012

Morning AR outing 6/1/12

Had to get some fishing in today, met up with my buddy Ethan and took off for the AR in search of some fish that pull hard. First stop was below Howe Ave. @ 0500. Looking for that early morning top water striper bite. We saw a few thrashes on the water, but nothing was touching our plugs. I switched over to a swimbait for one good tap, but it didn't stick. Nothing happened after that, so we took off for Rossmoor to chase some silver bullets. Once we get on the spot I'm rigging up my live bait rig to get it ready and Ethan runs down to the water and hooks up while I'm still setting up.


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First shad of the day.

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Shortly later Ethan and I get on a double!

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Ethan's fish was small enough for bait so I threw him out to give it another shot. While I was doing my thing Ethan kept slaying.

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Man he is killing em! While I was watching him slay the shad I got a sweet video of him fighting one with the hookset and everything, but man uploading videos is just not something I can figure out. I'll get it up here for you guys as soon as I can.

After trying for the striper for over an hour I gave it up and went back to shad. With the remaining time I had left I managed to hook into and lose 3 more fish. No more landed though. Ethan and I both had work at 1200 so around 0930 we decided we had enough fun this morning and walked out.

Someone was so kind enough to leave me a grocery bag on the fence for me to make it easier to carry all of their crap out for them.

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Will be back out soon to slam the shad and maybe get that striper soon them



Till Next Time Guys
Mark