Cland Striper Report 5/21

[striperwiper]

I stayed on a houseboat in Faubush creek Sunday night through Tuesday night. Fished some at night and some in day, midcreek mainly in the big bend back to where the creek splits into Bee Lick. Fish were everywhere at night. Unfortunately, I didn't start fishing until 2 am and the bite ended around 4:30 (had to sleep sometime). Not too many big explosions, more of the pop or sucking sounds which I thought were mainly walleye but I never caught a single eye. Fish mainly came on Bomber Long A worked very slow on surface, some on sliver and one on Gizz4. Nothing huge but even a 10 pounder blowin up on you 5 feet from the boat will your knees weak. Not for the faint of heart. Love the lake being down but I still managed to get hung up. Missed a lot of fish. Caught some on shad early morn and late evening freelining.

I know the stripes aren't supposed to come around the light, but Monday night there was a boat with lights out that lit up the whole area that I fished. Didn't bother the stripes, caught em all around these guys.

One other note, I went to the back of the creek to cast net for gizzards (got nothing but threadfins) but every other cast would produce two or three keeper size crappies in the net just in case anybody is looking for them, I put them all back. They were in less than 10 feet of water and some as shallow as 4 feet!

I just pray these fish can survive the warmer months. Anybody have a feel for whether it was a normal spring for rainfall or was it wetter than usual?

[adam7456]

I know the stripes aren't supposed to come around the light, but Monday night there was a boat with lights out that lit up the whole area that I fished. Didn't bother the stripes, caught em all around these guys.

I've caught stripers around lights too; however, during my last trip the moon was out and every little curve in the bank that was in the shadow had a striper hiding in it that would either hit or blow up multiple times at our lures. It was like clock work and was very predictable. So while they might not be scared away from small lights, they like the shadows much better.

Anybody have a feel for whether it was a normal spring for rainfall or was it wetter than usual?

I don't have the rainfall numbers but we did not get the usual spring rains that we normally get. In fact the grass is starting to dry out and turn brown already! I also heard the news warning of a possible drought coming. Both of those are good news for the fish. They were worried the large spring rains would fill the lake with warmer less oxygenated water and cause them to pull the lake hard which causing the habitat to become even worse because they would be pulling the middle layer of cooler oxygen rich water. That has not happend.