More OH striper and cats

[Jim]

Hi all,

Fished Old Hickory for a few hours today and the stripers and cats are still biting real well. Hit a few different places in the mid lake section and found fish on all of them. The stripers were between 27 and 34 inches and very healthy. All were released.



I also got into the catfish with this flathead monster giving me a great fight. I dragged him out of a snag and the leader was really scraped up. Lucky it held, but fluorocarbon leader material is super tough and I needed it today.



This same pattern has held for the last few weeks and here is what the stripers look like on the depthfinder. I have been finding them near holes with 50+ ft of water usually holding on the edge of deep dropoffs about 20 to 30 ft down.



After a few hours fishing, I met my wife and son for a boat ride. He had a good time and kept asking me to "Go faster Daddy!"


Great day on the water,
Jim

[MNfisher]

OH MY GOSH!!! I WANT A BOAT SOOOO BAD!!! Still looking forward to tangling with my first striper that is over a pound!!! Great post and great catches!!!

[master_cat]

man i mainly fish for catfish and u kick my but

[nofish]

What are you using for bait ? Live shad, bluegill, skipjack? Just came across this post and I happen to be off today Im going to go give it a shot.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by nofish

What are you using for bait ? Live shad, bluegill, skipjack? Just came across this post and I happen to be off today Im going to go give it a shot.

Big gizzard shad on a downline setup.

[Cornbread]

Very nice, especially the graph photo. A graph like that will make you stare the rod tip off.

Good job Jim.Those big cats love big live bait. I have seen big cats school with stripers and catch both most time I fish for one or the other.

[adawes11]

jim, where do you get the gizzard shad for bait? do you net them or can you get them somewhere else.

[Travis C.]

Nice looking fish Jim.

Did you finish your light setup?

[Alphahawk]

Very nice fish. When I had a boat....about 11 years ago.....would see that same display at Pickwick waiting for the Stripers to come up.



Regards

[Jim]

Originally Posted by adawes11

jim, where do you get the gizzard shad for bait? do you net them or can you get them somewhere else.

I catch them with a cast net. It is sometimes the hardest part of the fishing trip. Other times it is one cast and all the shad you want.

Here is a medium size gizzard shad.



Keeping them alive is a whole other problem. You need to have a good bait well with filtration to keep them lively.

Jim

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Travis C.

Nice looking fish Jim.

Did you finish your light setup?

I will start a different post and put some pics in it. Thanks for the reminder. I learned a lot about night lighting for fishing.

Jim

[Dakota]

Jim, If i put them in a 5 gallon bucket with and oxygenator will they stay alive?? What do you suggest? Netting some last weekend and it was tough to keep them alive. They die in the corner of my live well.

Originally Posted by Jim

I catch them with a cast net. It is sometimes the hardest part of the fishing trip. Other times it is one cast and all the shad you want.

Here is a medium size gizzard shad.



Keeping them alive is a whole other problem. You need to have a good bait well with filtration to keep them lively.

Jim

[Jim]

Dakota,

A 5 gallon bucket will work OK for a few big shad or more small ones and the air will definitely help, but the shad foul the water fast so filtration or water changes are needed. This is especially true with gizzard shad. I try not to use them unless I have to as they are tough to keep.

I have gone through a bunch of different bait tanks. I used to use the square ones in my boat, but they are not good except in the winter. I think I can keep about 4 big shad alive in one for about 4 hours before they are completely beat up. I have a pump on the livewell that I can run on a timer and it has to run almost continuously to keep them alive. It works for threadfin shad OK, if the water is not too warm.

Corners in a livewell are not good for shad as they get caught in them easily and struggle a lot. This leads to more stress, higher oxygen demands, bruised up noses, and more fouling. A red nose on a shad is a sure sign of a stressed bait and one that will not be very lively.

My current shad tank is a big bucket (20 gallons I think) from tractor supply, wrapped with insulation, and a wood lid. I put a recirculating pump on it and a homemade filter. I have a second pump that I can pump water into or out of the lake/tank for water changes.

Without the filter, 12 shad lasted about 4 hours at most. Now they are doing great after 4 hours. Big improvement. Adding salt to the water also helps the shad a bunch. I put a cup in to start and less after water changes. The salt helps with stress and the slime coat on the shad.

The other good thing about the shad tank bucket is that I can remove it from the boat when not livebait fishing, so it doesn't use up all the floor space.

You can buy super nice shad live wells for $300, but I am way to cheap for that If I was a guide or only fished stripers, it may be the way to go, but for the limited number of live bait striper trips each year, the bucket works fine.

My latest project is building tuna tubes for holding skipjack. If I can get this to work, it will be great for trophy striper. Still in the planning stages, but I don't really need them for another month or so.

Jim

[Dakota]

Thanks for the good info. If I could ever take a look at that set up that would be awesome. QUOTE=Jim;17724]Dakota,

A 5 gallon bucket will work OK for a few big shad or more small ones and the air will definitely help, but the shad foul the water fast so filtration or water changes are needed. This is especially true with gizzard shad. I try not to use them unless I have to as they are tough to keep.

I have gone through a bunch of different bait tanks. I used to use the square ones in my boat, but they are not good except in the winter. I think I can keep about 4 big shad alive in one for about 4 hours before they are completely beat up. I have a pump on the livewell that I can run on a timer and it has to run almost continuously to keep them alive. It works for threadfin shad OK, if the water is not too warm.

Corners in a livewell are not good for shad as they get caught in them easily and struggle a lot. This leads to more stress, higher oxygen demands, bruised up noses, and more fouling. A red nose on a shad is a sure sign of a stressed bait and one that will not be very lively.

My current shad tank is a big bucket (20 gallons I think) from tractor supply, wrapped with insulation, and a wood lid. I put a recirculating pump on it and a homemade filter. I have a second pump that I can pump water into or out of the lake/tank for water changes.

Without the filter, 12 shad lasted about 4 hours at most. Now they are doing great after 4 hours. Big improvement. Adding salt to the water also helps the shad a bunch. I put a cup in to start and less after water changes. The salt helps with stress and the slime coat on the shad.

The other good thing about the shad tank bucket is that I can remove it from the boat when not livebait fishing, so it doesn't use up all the floor space.

You can buy super nice shad live wells for $300, but I am way to cheap for that If I was a guide or only fished stripers, it may be the way to go, but for the limited number of live bait striper trips each year, the bucket works fine.

My latest project is building tuna tubes for holding skipjack. If I can get this to work, it will be great for trophy striper. Still in the planning stages, but I don't really need them for another month or so.

Jim[/QUOTE]