May / June 2017 Newsletter
In This Edition
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Club Board Members
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Committee Chairs
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Lake Clean-up
Cindy Turlington Club Photographer Bob Rowe Joe's Coffee Joe Wolf Christmas Party Rick Boettcher Tournaments Steve Nagel |
Upcoming Meetings & Events
Unless otherwise noted, Club meetings are held at 7 pm, the 1st Friday of each month at the Moneta Community Center - in the back-side, lower-level of the Pharmacy building on Rucker Rd, just off VA-122. Visitors and New Members are always welcome.
June Club Meeting - 6/2 - Weather permitting we will be tossing the cast-net, with members sharing their techniques for throwing the net - it's always good to learn new techniques. We'll also have some other hands-on activities if all goes well, and talk a little about summer fishing.
July Club Meeting - 7/7 - Topic TBD
August Club Meeting - 8/4 - Topic TBD - likely to be our annual Fish Fry
In-Water "Boat Show" - DATE TBD - We are still working to lock the date, but we are planning a in-water Boat show as we've done in years past - for on Saturday morning at Bridgewater - members will bring their striper boats and show off how they have it rigged to other members and the public. This is a great way to learn some new rigging tips as well as get some visibility for the Club
2017 Fun in the Sun Outing - We will again hold a "outing" event with some friendly fishing competition followed by a cook-out lunch. Watch for more details, but we are currently targeting mid-July or August.
June Club Meeting - 6/2 - Weather permitting we will be tossing the cast-net, with members sharing their techniques for throwing the net - it's always good to learn new techniques. We'll also have some other hands-on activities if all goes well, and talk a little about summer fishing.
July Club Meeting - 7/7 - Topic TBD
August Club Meeting - 8/4 - Topic TBD - likely to be our annual Fish Fry
In-Water "Boat Show" - DATE TBD - We are still working to lock the date, but we are planning a in-water Boat show as we've done in years past - for on Saturday morning at Bridgewater - members will bring their striper boats and show off how they have it rigged to other members and the public. This is a great way to learn some new rigging tips as well as get some visibility for the Club
2017 Fun in the Sun Outing - We will again hold a "outing" event with some friendly fishing competition followed by a cook-out lunch. Watch for more details, but we are currently targeting mid-July or August.
President's Corner
OK, so this newsletter is a few weeks overdue - its been a hectic time for me personally recently and I've just not had a chance to get to this on my to-do list. I am going to use my column this month to again make a plea again for one or more of the Club to step up to assist with the Newsletter - at least to help collect and prepare some content. As with anything in life, a little help makes task much easier..... I've now been solely editing the newsletter for four years now, with some time before that assisting Bob Rowe in creating content. I am sure Bob will say that having some help in just finding and preparing content makes the overall task much easier when it comes time to compile - so perhaps one or more of you would be willing to help in preparing an article or two a month, creating a meeting summary, etc..... Give it a thought - else we all may find these getting shorter and later in coming months.......
I would also very much like to hear from our members on what they want to see as topics on our monthly meetings - and step up to help run a topic, find & coordinate a speaker, etc. Nothing is worse than trying to put together a meeting program when there is very little to no feedback from the membership on what they want to hear about, or any feedback on the meetings we have held - at times its seems y'all just are looking for an excuse to slip away from the wife on Friday night and don't really care what we talk about ;) I don't think that's the case, but it would help to hear from you.
Fish On! - Mike Ward
I would also very much like to hear from our members on what they want to see as topics on our monthly meetings - and step up to help run a topic, find & coordinate a speaker, etc. Nothing is worse than trying to put together a meeting program when there is very little to no feedback from the membership on what they want to hear about, or any feedback on the meetings we have held - at times its seems y'all just are looking for an excuse to slip away from the wife on Friday night and don't really care what we talk about ;) I don't think that's the case, but it would help to hear from you.
Fish On! - Mike Ward
March / April Meeting Summary
In March we welcomed Dan Wilson, Biologist from DGIF to our meeting to provide his annual update on the fishery. The outlook was mixed, with data showing a strong forage population, but multiple back to back to back years of lower than desired stocking survival. It does not appear that there is a clear understanding of why this is the case, but due to the lower survival over the last few years, and the "dent" in the population that this will create, Dan has requested increased #s for the 2017 stocking.
April was our annual Swap Meet & Hot Dog supper. Participation in this event has continued to dwindle each year to the level that we will most likely not hold this again in the future - at least for some time.
April was our annual Swap Meet & Hot Dog supper. Participation in this event has continued to dwindle each year to the level that we will most likely not hold this again in the future - at least for some time.
Member Catches
SMSC Members have been getting it done this Spring! It's great to be able to share and enjoy these images of others catching fish - please submit yours - you can post them to the Club Facebook page, or send them to [email protected].
2017 Fish Ladder
The fish ladder is shaping up with some outstanding catches this year - but there is a whole lot of year left for other great fish to be logged - bumping others around on the ladder. Keep the catches coming! The current standings as of 5/16 are:
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Tackle Tip for May - Thundersticks for the Night Bite
The night-time bite can be good in May - casting to the banks on dark nights, or on shaded banks. A go-to favorite lure is the Storm jointed Thunderstick. Cast these parallel to the banks and reel them as sllloooooowwww as you can - and then slow down some more. All the way to the boat. You'd be surprised how many striper will be holding up in one or two feet of water along the bank, crushing shad or alewife there to spawn.
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Fishing Outlook for May & June
May - fishing in May is driven by the spawn..... a large number of fish will run down to the lower ends of the lake with large schools being found around Craddock Creek, the Dam or near-by areas on the lower lake. The bite will also go from hot to dead depending on what the fish have on their mind at a given moment. Surfacing breaking is common and it is not unusual for live-bait to go untouched but top-water baits to get crushed. Not all fish go down however - some actually do what stripers should do and run up-river - so some will be found in the upper ends of the lake as well. Night fishing can be good also during this time - casting to the banks with Thundersticks or off deeper with F18's.
Once the fish let Nature run it's course, they will be hungry from all their "activity" and ready to feed - and start working back up the lake arms feeding - well that has been their "normal" pattern though in 2016 many fished stayed in the lower lake for quite some time - likely due to the abundance of bait on that end of the lake - we'll see this year..... often by Memorial Day they are back up around the Halesford Bridge or above - and equivalent on the Blackwater side.
In June, targeting main channel points in the mid-lake area is typically a good approach - with the fish roaming into some main creeks to feed early in the morning. Stoney Creek through Grimes (R32 - R39) area can be good during this time - and again the equivalent sections on the Blackwater. The water should not yet be so hot that the fish have pushed overly deep, so trolling or pulling light-lines and even free-line planers can be productive.
Once the fish let Nature run it's course, they will be hungry from all their "activity" and ready to feed - and start working back up the lake arms feeding - well that has been their "normal" pattern though in 2016 many fished stayed in the lower lake for quite some time - likely due to the abundance of bait on that end of the lake - we'll see this year..... often by Memorial Day they are back up around the Halesford Bridge or above - and equivalent on the Blackwater side.
In June, targeting main channel points in the mid-lake area is typically a good approach - with the fish roaming into some main creeks to feed early in the morning. Stoney Creek through Grimes (R32 - R39) area can be good during this time - and again the equivalent sections on the Blackwater. The water should not yet be so hot that the fish have pushed overly deep, so trolling or pulling light-lines and even free-line planers can be productive.
Fishing Report - Field Trip - 2/22/17
Weather: Fri - 60's with light winds; Sat - cloudy with occasional drizzle, wind 10-15 from the W - rising to 15-20 with gusts to 30 in afternoon then laid down about 5pm; Sunday, temps in the 40's to low 50's, partly cloudy, winds 5-10 from W
Water: 62-66; visibility of 1 - 5 feet
Techniques: Freeline planers (3-6) with alewifes, dollar-bill gizzards & mongo-gizzards; light-lines with ales, downlines with ales or small gizzards
Tyler, Brock & I were teaming up to fish the "Smith Mountain Lake Fishing Tournament" - a multi-species tourney with live-weigh-in. With water temps in the low to mid 60's and the protective slot of 30"-40" in place, we felt comfortable enough in fishing it and being able to keep a sub 30" striper in shape to release - and helped the low water temps would help those that did not know as much about how to take care of a striper....
Tyler and Brock hit the water around 5 on Fri on Brock's Sea Pro as I headed to our Striper Club Meeting - they were in search of bait and hoping to do some fishing. A big storm Thur night / Fri Am that dumped 2-3" of rain and sent a ton of muddy water and trash down the river into the lake caused a change in our plans / strategy. They were not able to do much with bait until after dark - I joined them about 9 and we hit lights tossing the net and occasionally tossed a Thunderstick at the banks until 2 am when we finally assembled a decent tank of bait - good mix of large to monster alewifes, maybe a dozen money-makers and 6 big gizzards.
We hit the water at first light and headed down the lake to some big fish grounds. We had a little bit of action, a few chases / rolls and a tug but could not get them to commit. We moved over to schoolie-land where some large schools have been roaming with a back-up strategy of trying to get a fish as close to 30" as we could.
We were looking around one cove when all of a sudden stripers came up and started breaking right in front of us. Brock and I both grabbed casting rods and started throwing - he hooked up on the 1st cast - I had one hit and miss - then knock my Thunderstruck 3' of of the water but not connect. I did finally connect on one but they were all 6 lb fish which we knew were not worth checking in. They went down almost as quick as they came up. We saw them come up later aways away from us and we could not get there in time - but fortunately we ran right over them marking them on sonar and they came up all around us again. We picked up several more casting and on downrods - but all on the smaller side.
They went back down and we pulled over towards the side of the cove to hit some points - we had almost gotten back out to the mouth of the cove when we had a bank-side board near a dock get hit but missed the hook-up. A moment later the deeper side board took off and Tyler was by the rod and went to work - landing what would turn out to be a $1000 fish.
At first glance we thought it was over 30", but when we got it on our measuring board it was just under - so we decided to pull in and make the run up the other side of the lake to the weigh-in point. We were VERY thankful we were in Brock's deep-V center console as the wind was tough and crossing some of the bigger water on the lower lakes had some decent waves rolling. The fish went in the bait tank with its mouth near the venturi output and I made sure it stayed right-side up on the trip. It was checked in at 29 7/8" and weighed at 10.89 lbs - Tyler released it dock-side and she swam off to grow and be caught again. That put us on the top of the board around 10:30a on Saturday - 25 1/2 hours to go....
Water: 62-66; visibility of 1 - 5 feet
Techniques: Freeline planers (3-6) with alewifes, dollar-bill gizzards & mongo-gizzards; light-lines with ales, downlines with ales or small gizzards
Tyler, Brock & I were teaming up to fish the "Smith Mountain Lake Fishing Tournament" - a multi-species tourney with live-weigh-in. With water temps in the low to mid 60's and the protective slot of 30"-40" in place, we felt comfortable enough in fishing it and being able to keep a sub 30" striper in shape to release - and helped the low water temps would help those that did not know as much about how to take care of a striper....
Tyler and Brock hit the water around 5 on Fri on Brock's Sea Pro as I headed to our Striper Club Meeting - they were in search of bait and hoping to do some fishing. A big storm Thur night / Fri Am that dumped 2-3" of rain and sent a ton of muddy water and trash down the river into the lake caused a change in our plans / strategy. They were not able to do much with bait until after dark - I joined them about 9 and we hit lights tossing the net and occasionally tossed a Thunderstick at the banks until 2 am when we finally assembled a decent tank of bait - good mix of large to monster alewifes, maybe a dozen money-makers and 6 big gizzards.
We hit the water at first light and headed down the lake to some big fish grounds. We had a little bit of action, a few chases / rolls and a tug but could not get them to commit. We moved over to schoolie-land where some large schools have been roaming with a back-up strategy of trying to get a fish as close to 30" as we could.
We were looking around one cove when all of a sudden stripers came up and started breaking right in front of us. Brock and I both grabbed casting rods and started throwing - he hooked up on the 1st cast - I had one hit and miss - then knock my Thunderstruck 3' of of the water but not connect. I did finally connect on one but they were all 6 lb fish which we knew were not worth checking in. They went down almost as quick as they came up. We saw them come up later aways away from us and we could not get there in time - but fortunately we ran right over them marking them on sonar and they came up all around us again. We picked up several more casting and on downrods - but all on the smaller side.
They went back down and we pulled over towards the side of the cove to hit some points - we had almost gotten back out to the mouth of the cove when we had a bank-side board near a dock get hit but missed the hook-up. A moment later the deeper side board took off and Tyler was by the rod and went to work - landing what would turn out to be a $1000 fish.
At first glance we thought it was over 30", but when we got it on our measuring board it was just under - so we decided to pull in and make the run up the other side of the lake to the weigh-in point. We were VERY thankful we were in Brock's deep-V center console as the wind was tough and crossing some of the bigger water on the lower lakes had some decent waves rolling. The fish went in the bait tank with its mouth near the venturi output and I made sure it stayed right-side up on the trip. It was checked in at 29 7/8" and weighed at 10.89 lbs - Tyler released it dock-side and she swam off to grow and be caught again. That put us on the top of the board around 10:30a on Saturday - 25 1/2 hours to go....
We moved back up the lake and hit a couple of spots inside creeks to see if we could find some other fish for Brock or I to measure in to get additional places on the board (the tourney is a "individual" format) - or hopefully for a 40"+ fish - but we didn't get any sniffs. We took a lunch break, which turned into a nap break as the wind had turned on crazy blowing 15-20 with 30-35 mph gusts and headed back out about 5pm when the wind had laid down. We hit a few more creeks till dark but had no more action as the skies cleared and the cooler temps were settling in.
We were still holding 1st at 9pm on Sat but decided we better head out on Sunday AM in case someone managed to pull in a heavier fish or find a 40"+ - or to try and secure one or two more spots. We should have stayed in bed. It was low 40's and a little wind and sunny skies - and a dead bite. We had one or two half-hearted rolls at best - probably more just bored baits - but we fished sun-up till 9am or so when we headed back to the slip to clean up, go get some breakfast and get over to the check-in with plenty of time to spare.
One more striper came to the scales just as we arrived at the check-in, causing some stress, but it was a smaller one that didn't make the board. Our Sat AM fish had held and Tyler was presented with the honors for 1st place in the Striped Bass category.
Good way to close out a hard weekend of fishing - 9 fish on Sat AM with over 1/2 of those coming from casting to breaking fish - always a blast, even if they are not huge fish. Was fun to get to be on the other side of the tournament game again for me - had a good time with the guys and the win was a bonus!
We were still holding 1st at 9pm on Sat but decided we better head out on Sunday AM in case someone managed to pull in a heavier fish or find a 40"+ - or to try and secure one or two more spots. We should have stayed in bed. It was low 40's and a little wind and sunny skies - and a dead bite. We had one or two half-hearted rolls at best - probably more just bored baits - but we fished sun-up till 9am or so when we headed back to the slip to clean up, go get some breakfast and get over to the check-in with plenty of time to spare.
One more striper came to the scales just as we arrived at the check-in, causing some stress, but it was a smaller one that didn't make the board. Our Sat AM fish had held and Tyler was presented with the honors for 1st place in the Striped Bass category.
Good way to close out a hard weekend of fishing - 9 fish on Sat AM with over 1/2 of those coming from casting to breaking fish - always a blast, even if they are not huge fish. Was fun to get to be on the other side of the tournament game again for me - had a good time with the guys and the win was a bonus!
Tackle Tip for June - Light Lines
As the striper begin to make their way back up the river (and down from the top ends) arms post-spawn, they will start to move a little deeper as the water temperature warms. As we enter June the surface temps will be warming but not all that deep it is still a comfortable temperature for the striper.
In early/mid June, light-lines can be especially productive. A light-line is nothing more than an over-sized "Carolina Rig" - that is a hook (I typically use J / Octopus style hooks on my light-lines), a 4'-6' fluorocarbon leader, swivel, then a bead and a 1/8 to 1/2 oz egg weight on the main mono line - with 1/4 or 3/8 being most common in the June timeframe. Running the light-line about 50' behind the boat, pulling it at 0.7 mph will get it down round 20'.... give or take. You can also run these behind planers, perhaps not with 50', but with less light / more weight - or vary your weights to cover a range of depths to see what is working best that day.
One other tip - when running lines of different weights - if approx the same distance from the boat, run your heaviest weighted lines to the forward of the boat and reduce weights as your rods approach the rear of the boat - this will help prevent them from tangling on each other.
In early/mid June, light-lines can be especially productive. A light-line is nothing more than an over-sized "Carolina Rig" - that is a hook (I typically use J / Octopus style hooks on my light-lines), a 4'-6' fluorocarbon leader, swivel, then a bead and a 1/8 to 1/2 oz egg weight on the main mono line - with 1/4 or 3/8 being most common in the June timeframe. Running the light-line about 50' behind the boat, pulling it at 0.7 mph will get it down round 20'.... give or take. You can also run these behind planers, perhaps not with 50', but with less light / more weight - or vary your weights to cover a range of depths to see what is working best that day.
One other tip - when running lines of different weights - if approx the same distance from the boat, run your heaviest weighted lines to the forward of the boat and reduce weights as your rods approach the rear of the boat - this will help prevent them from tangling on each other.
Please Support our Club Sponsors & Advertisers
Our Club Sponsors and Advertisers provide a valuable support to the Smith Mountain Striper Club and our membership. When in need of goods or services, please give our sponsors consideration and also let them know that you appreciate their support of the Club.
Smith Mountain Striper Club members receive a 10% Discount
Call or e-mail for details. [email protected] / (304) 928-7653 www.rockcreekplaners.com/planer-boards/ |
Check us out on the net at www.castnets.com or call us at (800) 332-6387 ext. 100 and tell them you a member of the Smith Mountain Striper Club to order your nets and receive a 50% discount of list prices.
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