Cumberland Striper/Sauger

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON May-15-06 AT 10:57AM (EST)[/font][p]Did a Striper trip Sat on the Cumberland River. We started before sunup with 10 wt fly rods and big streamers but we were unsuccessful. As the sun got high we decided to mess around with the Skipjack and Sauger. The Sauger bite was on and we landed rough estimate, about 100 of them in about four or five hours. Interestingly I was able to out fish the spin fishermen with my secret Sauger fly on a 7wt sink tip. At first we were casting to them, but after about 3hrs of casting 350 grain nonstop, I decided maybe trolling would work. It worked very well! This is the second or third time I have Sauger fished and I really enjoyed it. One guy who after watching us for a couple of hours came up to the boat and said he had been fishing for Sauger for 30 years and he had never seen anyone catch them on a fly rod before.

Later in the afternoon a large front approached and I told David we should start getting ready for Striper again, this time with bait. We caught skipjack of all sizes and preceded to the Striper hangouts.
First fish came only minutes after we started. It was an 18 Hybrid??? They don’t stock Hybrid in this section but they could/must have locked thru. The rest of the trip was fish after fish after fish and hit after boil after boil!!! All others boated were Stripers in the 20 to 25 pound range. There were two very large fish that we had on but one was able to pull a locked down drag until he got to the bank and broke my 50# like it was string. Another was on and also stripped a huge amount of drag when the hook came unbuttoned. Both were 40 or better.

We were not able to photograph several fish because I left my camera home and was using my emergency cardboard camera (reason for the crappy pics). I am guessing in all we had 10 to 12 Striper all in the 20 pound and up class and two bruisers who won the battle this time!

All fish were released unharmed except 8 Sauger.


Here is a link to the crappy pics.
[url]http://www.trophyfishingtn.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=25[/url]

Mike
TrophyFishingTN.Com

Hey, where were the sauger pictures? I'm curious about the water temp and depth for the sauger. Thanks.

Were you trolling with the fly? How deep?

Thanks for the update!!!!!!!!!!!

Uhhh I didn’t take any pics of the Sauger because I was using a cardboard throw away camera (left my Digital at home by mistake). I started out casting to them with a 7 wt and 350 grain sink tip, letting it sink then slow stripping it back with good results. After a few hours of that I got tired of casting and tried trolling. Trolling was the bomb! Water depth was about 7 to 13 feet. Water temps were 60 to 62 degrees. Fly was a about a #4 Clouser. Brass eyes Chartreuse top and white bottom.

I admit I don’t know much about Sauger but judging by the number of fish we caught and the number of keepers in the bunch I would say the min length needs to be lowered. I really did enjoy catching those little guys however. It’s kinda like Crappie fishing. They don’t put up a tremendous fight or anything but there is just something about it that’s fun.

Mike
TrophyFishingTN.Com

Thanks. A #4 Clouser, white/chartreuse - sounds like a good smallmouth bait. How much you figure that fly weighs using the brass eyes? Surely it was dragging the bottom? I've never caught sauger unless they were right on top of structure of some kind. Usually just the bottom!

Charlie the 350 grain sinktip line takes you to the bottom. You could use a foam floating fly and suspend it from the bottom however long your leader is if you wanted. But a weighted clouser will bounce along the bottom just like a jig. And yes it is a good Smallmouth fly and is what I had in mind when I tied them.

Mike
TrophyfishingTN.Com