Ya Gotta Keep Movin'

There's a lot of good information in these posts below. Steelie hit it right on when he said about "with the high water you have to keep moving and don't always count on favorite spots". That's really the truth everywhere and not just the American.

Those stripers are schooling fish and they travel and move a lot all the time. Sometimes you can count on certain places to be productive, but NOT ALWAYS.

Wednesday I fished one of my favorite spots hard and landed only one small schoolie. One dink striper and that was it. Not even another grab or two to keep me awake.

The same day my buddy Jim and another friend hit a spot several miles downstream and got into them late in the afternoon. Not the usual time to start fishing.

Today Jim and I got an early start and hit several of our usual spots with nothing. Then we'd move and try another spot and still nothing. Then while drifting along a seldom productive wall we found them in fairly shallow water. First one, and then another, and then we'd go back to the top and start our drift over again. And it was a repeat after repeat. Several times we'd get a small grab and we'd pause without moving the fly and then a second grab moments later would come and get the hook-up.

Not sure if it was the same fish that hit the fly or one of several fish in the group. It didn't matter, we were getting grabs after grab in a place that we don't fish often. Along with four doubles we took 17 nice stripers this morning.

Then it was like JohnS and Andy said, about 9:30-10:00 they just quit. We made a couple more passes but they weren't there. Or were they there and the sun just got too bright for them. Whatever the case, they moved.

My other buddy Bill Siler and his friend fished the same general area this morning too and didn't get a single grab.

Go Figure ?

You just have to keep moving till you find them and hope the school stays around long enough for you to have some fun.

We sure did this morning :)
Tony

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony Buzolich

There's a lot of good information in these posts below. Steelie hit it right on when he said about "with the high water you have to keep moving and don't always count on favorite spots". That's really the truth everywhere and not just the American.

Those stripers are schooling fish and they travel and move a lot all the time. Sometimes you can count on certain places to be productive, but NOT ALWAYS.

Wednesday I fished one of my favorite spots hard and landed only one small schoolie. One dink striper and that was it. Not even another grab or two to keep me awake.

The same day my buddy Jim and another friend hit a spot several miles downstream and got into them late in the afternoon. Not the usual time to start fishing.

Today Jim and I got an early start and hit several of our usual spots with nothing. Then we'd move and try another spot and still nothing. Then while drifting along a seldom productive wall we found them in fairly shallow water. First one, and then another, and then we'd go back to the top and start our drift over again. And it was a repeat after repeat. Several times we'd get a small grab and we'd pause without moving the fly and then a second grab moments later would come and get the hook-up.

Not sure if it was the same fish that hit the fly or one of several fish in the group. It didn't matter, we were getting grabs after grab in a place that we don't fish often. Along with four doubles we took 17 nice stripers this morning.

Then it was like JohnS and Andy said, about 9:30-10:00 they just quit. We made a couple more passes but they weren't there. Or were they there and the sun just got too bright for them. Whatever the case, they moved.

My other buddy Bill Siler and his friend fished the same general area this morning too and didn't get a single grab.

Go Figure ?

You just have to keep moving till you find them and hope the school stays around long enough for you to have some fun.

We sure did this morning :)
Tony

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Glad to hear you had a good day with your companion and the fish, Tony :) As for finding stripers to play with... My fishing buddy and I call it RUN & GUN. Stripers are generally not shy nor too picky but as Ole Ted Wilson used to say, "You can't catch 'em if they 'aint there..." Keep moving until you get a grab and you'll usually find more than one willing fish around. Higher, colder water makes them want to chase less and when they do chase, it's often to the rod tip before they make the decision to grab or not grab so best to not give up on that strip haul (or plug retrieve in my case...). The rivers are dropping as of 24 hours ago... 11k at both Star Bend on the Feather and at the Fair Oaks Gauge on the American. It should be GAME ON!

Our little old (27 yrs) Forum is lucky to have guys like Tony and Steelies on it for really good advice.


I am old enough to have fished "near" Ted Wilson who was a true "Commando" angler.




We might have a few on here who are just too old and too beat up to fish anymore so they are enjoying it

and it can bring back old memories for them. At 78 I getting near that situation but not quite yet.



Newcomers to the Form and the Sport can ask questions and will usually get pretty good answers.


I check our Forum and Dan Blanton's Message Board twice a day, at least.


What are some of the other Forums/Message boards that you check daily?

I'm on Bassboatcentral quite a bit. There's close to 80 separate forums on there. The Lounge is worth the visit just for the entertainment value alone. The rest of the site is agreat resource for just about any type of boating question you might have.
I frequent Westernbass mainly for the classifieds even though I don't need a damn thing. As far as content goes it's pretty useless other than tournament results. Very little participation by members.