Rick and I Slay'em!

Rick and I had a decent Thursday afternoon landing over 15 fish in about 6 hours. We could have caught more but I was doing a lot of "experimenting" which basically means "not catching fish". I like to do this when we get on a consistent pattern that's working; use one rod to get the bite and the other to try things you thought might work but need to know the fish are biting to test your theory. Well, I got to test a lot of "theories" Thursday afternoon  and for the most part, none of them panned out. Fortunately I was able to do well jigging and boated a couple  including this solid 12 lb'er.

The good news is the fish are starting to get out over the main channel which means the trolling bite is on! Rick and I were able to get "in the zone" which means we were able to get bit on most every pass even though we weren't seeing many fish on the screen. And when these fish hit, they would take off ripping the leadcore off our spools causing my Diawa's to "scream"! These fish were biting shallow, right at the thermocline, and would make a mad dash for the trees down deep once hooked. Fortunately we didn't loose any to the timber though the big fish of the day came close to getting us snagged. Here's Rick with the "catch of the day" for this trip; a hefty 16 lb'er.

By dinner time we had enough and called it a day. This trip was good for numbers and all signs are pointing to it getting even better. The key "changes" happening right now include the following:

1) The massive quantity of bait we've been seeing for the past month is finally getting well above the thermocline. It's also grouping up so there aren't so many schools scattered all over the water column. This means it will become a lot more work for the Stripers to feed. Indirectly, this helps my type of fishing; trolling and jigging. As the bait moves up above the thermocline, the Stripers are a lot more willing to feed on my artificials that I can present "below" the thermocline. For the past two months, I've been pulling lures through thousands – I mean MILLIONS – of tiny bait fish (which, for some reason, have been overly abundant this summer). This supply of bait has made it so much tougher for anyone fishing lures (…like me…). The end result has been a slower than normal May, June and July; the last two years the bait has all but dried up by July making the artificial lure action a lot more productive compared to this year. Finally I'm seeing some signs of the bait not being so overly abundant which again, will allow us to get more bites so this will improve the action for sure.

2) The surface temps are finally breaching 85 degrees. During the last few years, I've learned the best summertime action seems to happen once the surface temps get over 85. I don't know for sure but it just seems the thermocline really sets up when the temps are at 86-87 and this "ceiling" over the Stripers makes it easier to figure out the "pattern" they're on. This is typically from August through September and into October. Last year (2008) we got ripped off because of Hurricanes which hit us in mid September. They caused the thermocline to scramble and break up and though the fishing was still Ok for the later half of September, it wasn't nearly as good as it was in 2006 or 2007. Based on the lack of "hurricanes" we've had come our way thus far in 2009, I'm expecting the summer pattern to last through September and carry into October.

3) The fish are finally moving to the main channel and deep water. To me, this is the final ingredient needed to get the "summer time bite" into full swing! Once I start seeing fish out in the this deep water, I'll start catching them there consistently. This means more fish but more importantly, more BIG fish!  Tuesday was the first day I marked fish in this deep water and sure enough, I was able to catch some via the deep troll and while down-line jigging. Today was more of the same and it will only get better.

Lastly, the summertime "schools" of Stripers will soon be filling my fish finders screens. Once all the fish are forced to the Southside of the lake, into the deep water and contained in a limited amout of water that has a very distinct ceiling over it, the fishing will get as easy as you'll ever see on Lanier. Don't get me wrong; it's still quite a challenge to boat these fish but the limited amount of water to search makes your effort that much more productive and why I love the summer time on Lanier!