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To all me LC fisher friends, can not get out there this weekend, so please post your results. Also, understand the weather is going to be a bit on the wet side. For me part, SM have been slow, as have the KY's. As far as the Stripers, only a few singles and one tinmers on points , Water temp[ stioll in the 60 degree range. As far as stripers, would still favor enterance to creek such as Indian and Outter, let your sonar be your guidel
Saturday got lucky and ran into a huge school deep maybe 60-80 ( can't exactly remember) three rods went down on shinners. That was about noon est. Marked a tons of active fish at 75-90 but some of those are catfish as I found out Sunday.
Sunday. Marking ton of fish same as above off north bank. One Striper and two cats. Both bit very every very very lightly. Had about 8 totally mangled baits. Many had the same distinctive cut behind the head on top down to about the spine.
Probably cats.
Do stripers mangle baits like that as a rule?
Sunday 15+ winds. Maybe more.
Caught alewives in 85' deep channel in creek. They came to light quick but would only netted about five at a time. Nice ones though.
Surface 67
[QUOTE=peter;550728]Saturday got lucky and ran into a huge school deep maybe 60-80 ( can't exactly remember) three rods went down on shinners. That was about noon est. Marked a tons of active fish at 75-90 but some of those are catfish as I found out Sunday.
Sunday. Marking ton of fish same as above off north bank. One Striper and two cats. Both bit very every very very lightly. Had about 8 totally mangled baits. Many had the same distinctive cut behind the head on top down to about the spine.
Probably cats.
Do stripers mangle baits like that as a rule?
Sunday 15+ winds. Maybe more.
Caught alewives in 85' deep channel in creek. They came to light quick but would only netted about five at a time. Nice ones though.
Surface 67[/QUOTE]
Peter probably Channel Cats as they will do that exact thing you were saying. There has been an explosion of Channel catfish in the lake the last couple of years as many are catching the heck out of them. Department even referred to it as an explosion on one of the call in's on Kentucky Afield.
This past Spring I was catching them on Cranks and jerkbaits while bass fishing...
[QUOTE="mhall;550732"] Peter probably Channel Cats as they will do that exact thing you were saying. There has been an explosion of Channel catfish in the lake the last couple of years as many are catching the heck out of them. Department even referred to it as an explosion on one of the call in's on Kentucky Afield.[/QUOTE]
Probably right. They were biting like cats. They sure looked like stripers on the graph moving and going up-and-down.
You know of any way to tell the difference on the graph?
I know early last summer when I was pulling planners shallow and they were messing with my boards I would have to move to another area.
Wondering if that's the case when you're 80 feet also?
I wouldn't think Channels would be 80 feet but Blue's and Flatheads might be. Walleye is also a distinct possibility as well....
[QUOTE=peter;550748]Probably right. They were biting like cats. They sure looked like stripers on the graph moving and going up-and-down.
You know of any way to tell the difference on the graph?
I know early last summer when I was pulling planners shallow and they were messing with my boards I would have to move to another area.
Wondering if that's the case when you're 80 feet also?[/QUOTE]
Peter, I can't really help with being able to tell the difference between catfish and stripers, but I do have a friend that fishes catfish tournaments and he claims that he can tell the difference. He says that fish finders react differently because some fish are scaled and others like catfish aren't. Supposedly it's the difference between scales reflecting and skin absorbing shows up on his fish finder. He is pretty successful on catching big catfish and nearly caught the state record hybrid striper in Ohio many years ago. I do respect his opinion. I hope others might have more knowledge about this and would like to impart some of that knowledge to the rest of us.
[QUOTE=mhall;550752]I wouldn't think Channels would be 80 feet but Blue's and Flatheads might be. Walleye is also a distinct possibility as well....[/QUOTE]
Yes Indeed, I have graphed and caught channel cats in Cumberland this fall as deep as 80 feet deep, nice sized ones , quite a few to be exact, the wife and I caught eight which was enough for a mess of fish for dinner with guest.
I've learned something new today. I've had some fish mess with my baits too but always thought it was gar. It seemed like they would grab the shad, then let go when they felt line tension or I tried to set the hook. I always thought it was gar because when this was happening I could visibly see the gar in the area. They scar up the baits real bad too.
Does anybody know the difference in a catfish bite like you're speaking about and a gar bite?
[QUOTE=boskeet;550760]I've learned something new today. I've had some fish mess with my baits too but always thought it was gar. It seemed like they would grab the shad, then let go when they felt line tension or I tried to set the hook. I always thought it was gar because when this was happening I could visibly see the gar in the area. They scar up the baits real bad too.
Does anybody know the difference in a catfish bite like you're speaking about and a gar bite?[/QUOTE]
Small stripers and bass do this quite a bit too. I usually think a bass is playing as a first thought. Sometimes I'm fooled when they mess around enough to hook up and it's a small striper. I can't tell for certain what is biting until they are on the hook. I can usually tell pretty easily after that.
[QUOTE=mhall;550752]I wouldn't think Channels would be 80 feet but Blue's and Flatheads might be. Walleye is also a distinct possibility as well....[/QUOTE]
The channels were definitely at 80'. We caught two at that depth. Surprised me! .. and also bummed me out. But I got over it in about half a second.
I didn't know walleyes went that deep.
Anybody know how deep gar will go?
For some reason I was thinking 30' or so.
[QUOTE=Mean Morone;550756]Peter, I can't really help with being able to tell the difference between catfish and stripers, but I do have a friend that fishes catfish tournaments and he claims that he can tell the difference. He says that fish finders react differently because some fish are scaled and others like catfish aren't. Supposedly it's the difference between scales reflecting and skin absorbing shows up on his fish finder. He is pretty successful on catching big catfish and nearly caught the state record hybrid striper in Ohio many years ago. I do respect his opinion. I hope others might have more knowledge about this and would like to impart some of that knowledge to the rest of us.[/QUOTE]
There is probably something to that. So would the sonar return be more or less of an echo?
I was thinking maybe their behavior. Do they stack? School tight or lose or at all? Move around much or just sit there? Like crappies stack sometimes (have to confirm that with Pappy though) I'm no expert. Hang near the bottom? Strippers do that too so that would not help.
They do bite differently but sometimes stripers bite like that too.
I will say that I was positive I was on top of stripers based on what they were doing based on my experience with this graph until we caught two cats. We caught a striper too there.
I have stalked gar before at 30' in the creek and hunted grass carp at night on the surface.
Maybe hunting would be better. You hopefully see what you are shooting at.