HuGe Stripers!

[Adrian]

What a Day! We spent almost 2 hours looking for the right size Shad, we did manage to net a half dozen and set out for the coldest part of the lake. I scouted around about a mile stretch looking for signs. I saw a few arches hanging out around in a deep area near a hump that came up from 55' to 35' then up to about 14'. When I rolled over the 14' area I saw what looked like a Submarine on the Lowrance. It was 5:00 PM when I circled back around and we dropped the Shad down and rolled back over that sucker. As soon as we hit the 14' area, the first one Slammed it and started running. It took 140' of line out before my wife could get the rod out of the rod holder. After she landed hers it took about 1 minute before mine took off. It Was On!!! What a Blast... The smallest we caught was 45" and the biggest was 49". The scale I had on board only goes to 36 pounds, it was bottomed out and useless. Yes, we did throw them back in the water.


http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg582/adriandavidpayne/Huge-Stripers_zpsc4vcsi8o.jpg (http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/adriandavidpayne/media/Huge-Stripers_zpsc4vcsi8o.jpg.html)

[spottedbass]

:eek:

FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

[white95v6]

Wow awesome day.

[Adrian]

Thanks... I hear the TVA stopped generating when the water level went down so quickly after we pulled these out :)

[Dakota]

Dude that's awesome. Was that below OH dam?


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[Adrian]

No Dakota, I'm going to guess it's Lebanon...

[jaybird]

Holy Cows! Congrats. Those are awesome

[Buccaneer]

Great fish Adrian! Upstream from the 231 bridge? Are you picking these fish up on 2D sonar and if so do you run a Down Imaging unit also? Just wondering how a big fish looks on DI side by side with 2D arches when you roll over them, particularly when suspended.

[JKTrevecca]

Nice work Adrian. Those are HUGE for this time of year. They might be 50+ lbs in the spring.

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[Adrian]

Nice work Adrian. Those are HUGE for this time of year. They might be 50+ lbs in the spring.

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These Fish were much Heavier than the look on camera. I'm just really Strong! :)

[Adrian]

Great fish Adrian! Upstream from the 231 bridge? Are you picking these fish up on 2D sonar and if so do you run a Down Imaging unit also? Just wondering how a big fish looks on DI side by side with 2D arches when you roll over them, particularly when suspended.

I'm a 2D Sonar guy. I only check the SI/DI to see if I'm missing anything out to the side, but quickly go back to Sonar. I had been seeing a few bass & catfish along the way, but when the BIG one came up on the screen it was as big as a floating tree trunk. I should have screen captured it at the time, but I assumed it was just a Huge catfish.

[fairweatherfisherman]

Nice going man!!

[FloatNFish]

Nice fish! You fishing with Gizzards?

[Adrian]

Thanks Ya'll. Yes I was using about 9" gizzards.

[MNfisher]

That's what I'm talking about Adrian!! Heck yeah!


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[commdd]

really a great post!! congratulations, its takes a true expert to put those in the boat.

[massman]

very very nice fish them are sooooooo much fun we used to pound them kind up north in the big lakes only catch small ones down here when the time is right . but other than that great job to you both

[Adrian]

That's what I'm talking about Adrian!! Heck yeah!


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Bout Time! Now all I want to do is go back... This working is really getting in the way of my fishin' :)

[Adrian]

Thanks Commdd & Massman... Sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time. :)

[Shaugh]

I've been wishing I was you for years now. I see them on sonar... I try everything in the box and nothing.... maybe a small one once in a while.

I've never tried live 9" shad before.... is this my problem ? I have a small cast net.... could you please give us a play by play on how you find and catch them ? How do you get close enough to them to catch with a 6 ft net ?

I've been able to do it on the TN river, but it seems lake shad are smarter ?

[Adrian]

Shaugh, as of late it's not been that difficult to find Shad until this week when they were a little deeper. BTW, I use a 6' also. I just go to a protected cove, usually right near the ramp. You have to be very quiet! I have a Motorguide Xi5 trolling motor that I replaced the 2 blade with a 3 blade prop. When I see them flicker, I try to get to about 30' from them as fast as I can then turn the trolling motor almost all the way off and wait for some more ripples, then attack. The Bigger ones are almost always holding on the edges of grass and around docks and you only get 2 or 3 at a time. It's best if the current is flowing into the cove and there's not much wind. I try not to look in places that are more than 4' deep. Be Quite & use your Eyes and Ears. Go on a calm day to boost your confidence :)

[FloatNFish]

I've been wishing I was you for years now. I see them on sonar... I try everything in the box and nothing.... maybe a small one once in a while.

I've never tried live 9" shad before.... is this my problem ? I have a small cast net.... could you please give us a play by play on how you find and catch them ? How do you get close enough to them to catch with a 6 ft net ?

I've been able to do it on the TN river, but it seems lake shad are smarter ?

Check the backs of creeks and coves right now. Look for schools of shad flipping on the surface and ease up on them with your trolling motor. The Gizzards I find tend to be closer to the bottom so learning what bait looks like on your graph is going to be your best bet. Let your net sink and close slowly around the bait on its own. If you jerk it shut you'll come up without any bait. A 6' net will work but bigger is better due to weight/sink rate. One disadvantage to the bigger net is the smaller threadfin get caught in the holes while trying to escape and can be a pain to pull them all through.

Here is what I throw:
https://www.memphisnet.net/product/3614/nets-cast-mono-menhaden

[FloatNFish]

Bout Time! Now all I want to do is go back... This working is really getting in the way of my fishin' :)

Work has put a serious damper on my fishing habit this year. Wish someone would just pay me to fish...

[Shaugh]

Thanks for the pointers... I'll keep hacking away at it, you can be sure of that.

On the subject of sonar, it's got to the point where I want to just turn it off. I feel like I don't trust it anymore, I've come up dry so many times... Somebody tell me what you see here... Normandy.....

http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q602/gumphaugh/IMG_0601_zps2d5y7fog.jpg

Tims Ford:
http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q602/gumphaugh/IMG_0575_zpsifx85hvn.jpg

[Adrian]

It looks like some panfish or bass around brush or stump.
Here's what a school of feeding stripers looks like. They were screen captures from my Lowrance.

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg582/adriandavidpayne/Screen%20Shot%202016-07-27%20at%201.45.53%20PM_zps9bbtwnlm.jpg (http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/adriandavidpayne/media/Screen%20Shot%202016-07-27%20at%201.45.53%20PM_zps9bbtwnlm.jpg.html)

http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg582/adriandavidpayne/shot11_zpsf491299d.png (http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/adriandavidpayne/media/shot11_zpsf491299d.png.html)

[Adrian]

When I see anything that looks like Spaghetti, I get all excited!

[aero320]

Great catch Adrian, thanks for sharing!

[unkangler]

These Fish were much Heavier than the look on camera. I'm just really Strong! :)

I've seen plenty of fish pictures in my day but you holding those two huge stripers is up there with the best. .... and I thought farmers carries were a hard exercise to do - those fish carries seem brutal :)

[Shaugh]

I've seen spaghetti.... but I always thought it was a bait school... so even those larger marks on my screens are not "big" fish ? This is exactly the education I need... thanks... What does a lone big striper look like ? I suspect my ideas about size are flat wrong....

[dcfisherman]

Adrian, that double striper pic has got to be one of the most epic fishing pictures I've seen. Awesome fish man!

[Adrian]

aero320, ukangler, dcfisherman. Thank you for commenting. Yes these things were extremely difficult to hoist up for a photo, and I broke one of my fish grippers and had to stick my hands in his mouth, which I have the scrapes to remind me. Luckily they were caught only 2 minutes apart so I could get them back in the water. My wife was holding the GoPro so I could get a video screen capture since I was on the clock. I'm also looking off in the distance because a Jet Ski was headed toward us :) Fun Times!

[Adrian]

I've seen spaghetti.... but I always thought it was a bait school... so even those larger marks on my screens are not "big" fish ? This is exactly the education I need... thanks... What does a lone big striper look like ? I suspect my ideas about size are flat wrong....

On my Lowrance, Big fish show up as Big arches if they are suspended. Like a Mustache. I don't know exactly how the Garmin works, but if I saw your pic on my screen, I would assume they were probably Crappie or Bass. I can usually tell the approximate weight of the fish by the return I'm getting from the sonar. The stripers rarely show up by themselves, & when I see the spaghetti, they are probably feeding, then I look at the width of the lines. In both the Sonar pics I posted, those were schools of about 12-20 pounders, I know that because we caught several. But the Fish in the Photos I posted were Massive on the sonar. I seriously thought they were 50lb catfish. I was too busy reeling in 2 at a time to get a screen capture. I wish I would have. BTW, the arch in the middle of your 1st sonar capture looks like a catfish. It would be a 5-10 on my Lowrance. You can tell the catfish by the Orange body that tapers down to a thin Black tail. Again, I can only say for certain what is happening on my Lowrance Touch. Because I usually take a picture of the screen and then the fish once I reel him in. Hope this helps.

Here's an Example:


http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg582/adriandavidpayne/Sonar%20Catfish_zpsyoq9khg0.jpg (http://s1245.photobucket.com/user/adriandavidpayne/media/Sonar%20Catfish_zpsyoq9khg0.jpg.html)

[agelesssone]

A tip on bait catching.
When a cold front comes through, the bait will normally head out of the shallows and into deeper water.

I had been catching bait at the mouth of Barton's creek from 4-8 FOW. After the cold front, there were no flips in the shallows, any flips there were, were out over the channel. Moved out to 19-21 FOW and found the bait stacked out there.

Coupla throws and I had all the bait I could hope to use in a day.

Another tip....get a net with 5/8 mesh. That way, the smaller baits can escape the net and not get hung by the gills, resulting in you having to pick the little ones out piece by piece. Can be very time consuming.

Most nets you buy at Academy or Bass Pro stores are 3/8 mesh. I order mine from Memphisnetandtwine.com. You can get any size net or mesh from them.

I have a 6', multifilament, quarter inch mesh for catching creek minnows, a 7', three eights mesh net for smaller threadfins, and a 7', five eights mesh net for the larger baits I use in the summer.

I also have an 8', pound and a half per ft 3/8 mesh for catching bait deeper than 20 ft.

I've had people tell me you can't catch bait that's deeper than 12 ft. BS! I've caught them as deep as 27 ft.

And Adrian is right about bigger gizzards hanging around the weedbed edges....unless a cold front is sitting on you. Then, look deep. If the bait is suspended mid depths or higher in the water column, it's probably small bait.The bigger ones tend to hang toward the bottom.

Good luck!

[Dakota]

What's the best and safest ramp to use out by 231 Lebanon area? Unfortunately we all have to think about safety first at these ramps now days more than ever before.


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[Adrian]

What's the best and safest ramp to use out by 231 Lebanon area? Unfortunately we all have to think about safety first at these ramps now days more than ever before.

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Hunter's Point is fine. Good thing about it is, you'll probably only have to go to cedar creek for bait. That's not too far from your Beeping Horn in the case of a smash and grab. I go back to the truck with the Gun in my hand no matter where I am these days.

[thehick176]

I put in at Barton's creek ramp on Coles Ferry all the time and have never had a problem. There is no dock at that ramp though, just a heads up. There is a ramp at the 231 bridge as well, I have put in there a dozen times or so and haven't had any issues.

[Dakota]

Thanks looks like a good dock too from google. I've fished cedar creek right by hunters point in a bass tournament some time ago. Ran up there from flippers. I live in Mt Juliet so that's an easy drive for me.


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[agelesssone]

Cedar Creek on the right, upstream for bait.
Go to the first little cut on the left (another mile or so) we call that the duck blind cove cause there is a duck blind 100 yds upstream from it.
Next cove on the left about another mile or so, called the shad factory for obvious reasons.

[Dakota]

Cedar Creek on the right, upstream for bait.

Go to the first little cut on the left (another mile or so) we call that the duck blind cove cause there is a duck blind 100 yds upstream from it.

Next cove on the left about another mile or so, called the shad factory for obvious reasons.



Good info thanks Merv.


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[Shaugh]

Adrian,
Thanks for the pointers. I can see from your graph that I've been misinterpreting mine pretty badly. I guess I was comparing arch size to the depth scale. It explains a lot... the stump for example.... I noticed that bottom formations always seemed huge ... I had been trying to image how that stump could be 10 feet across !...

It's amazing how much you can learn from somebody that actually knows what he's doing...:o (and has the pictures to prove it).

[Mike Mofield]

Great tips guys, always wondered what I was seeing on my Hummingbird.
Please keep the tips and pics coming!!
Good health to you TK!!

[Brian37075]

Could some one use artificial bait and have a slim chance of catching a fish like that? If someone could use artificial bait what you recommend? How do you hook the shad you use for bait, thru the top back or lip of the shad. You've got me curious haven't ever caught nothing like that.

[Adrian]

Could some one use artificial bait and have a slim chance of catching a fish like that? If someone could use artificial bait what you recommend? How do you hook the shad you use for bait, thru the top back or lip of the shad. You've got me curious haven't ever caught nothing like that.


Millions have been caught on artificial baits, like A-Rigs with Flukes & various swim baits, hair jigs, spoons, topwater, etc, anything shad like :) That's just not how I choose to do it. I prefer to find and ambush. Trolling is extremely effective, but just not my thing.

How I hook the shad: 1st off, I use 80lb braid to a swivel then to 40lb fluorocarbon leader with a 5/0 circle hook. With gizzards 5" or more, I put the hook in one nostril and out the other. For the thread fins, I hook them behind the dorsal fin. Not too scientific. I just find 'em, anchor the trolling motor, & drop the line. BTW, like Merv said, the bite has been late. These that we caught were at 5:00. Good Luck!

[StriperFan]

Epic! Been out of the loop for a minute. First post I've seen in a month and a half and WOW. Went yesterday and couldn't get a bite (didn't even mark any), but lots of bait. Congrats

[StriperFan]

Could some one use artificial bait and have a slim chance of catching a fish like that? If someone could use artificial bait what you recommend? How do you hook the shad you use for bait, thru the top back or lip of the shad. You've got me curious haven't ever caught nothing like that.
I've seen a few caught and caught quite a few on artificials, the Striper Strike popper is great when they are very active on the surface. A redfin is a good topwater and a more stealthy approach. If conditions are not right for topwater or they have gone down, throw a storm swimbait 4 or 6" shad or slugo on a 3/4oz jighead.

[Mike Anderson]

Could some one use artificial bait and have a slim chance of catching a fish like that? If someone could use artificial bait what you recommend? How do you hook the shad you use for bait, thru the top back or lip of the shad. You've got me curious haven't ever caught nothing like that.

I've caught more on the fly then I ever did on bait. No more spitting nasty net water and picking shad scales off for me. Lol.

[Adrian]

Epic! Been out of the loop for a minute. First post I've seen in a month and a half and WOW. Went yesterday and couldn't get a bite (didn't even mark any), but lots of bait. Congrats

I hear ya. This year has been WEIRD! So much bait, so many finicky eaters, so many suspended fish, so much north wind, so little current. I can't wait till next year. These fish just ain't where they're supposed to be :) I'll be trying again tomorrow...

[unkangler]

Adrian, that double striper pic has got to be one of the most epic fishing pictures I've seen. Awesome fish man!

I agree , .. that pic should be on the cover of "fishing in Tennessee". ..