nite bite cumberland

[Rob1678]

been doin it that way for years the lovely missus stripernut refuses to cast at night so i throw 20 or so alewives in the tank for her. she sits in the back of the boat and points the rod tip towards the bank with 25-30 feet of line out and a freeline 2 feet below the floater. like you she puts one of the glowstick bite indicators inside the white/flo orange styrofoam floater , it lights up crazy, it also acts as a great indicator of where the fish is when the fight is on, and helps guide the fish to the net when it gets to the boat.

big gizzards will catch a good flathead evry now and then too.

she has tried it 2 different nights this year with no luck though.....too many live shad !!! needle in a haystack

OK...Dumb Question. Why do you think the stripers go after the artificial with all the bait available. Like you said, a needle in a haystack for live bait, is it just the action and struggling of the crankbaits that cause the reaction bites?

[stripernut]

lol not a dumb question at all.....its just that my answer is probably dumb the only thing i can offer is...the artificial lure stands out, draws attention from the pack....not a good thing to do in the animal world.

the floater over the years has produced some monsters, alot of broken lines and alot of excitement, still waiting for it to work this year though and i ???THINK???? its because there is just so dang much bait.


hard to keep mama going at night whe she aint gettin bit, she would rather sit in the easy chair and watch planer boards during normal businness hours.

[fishincreek]

OK...Dumb Question. Why do you think the stripers go after the artificial with all the bait available. Like you said, a needle in a haystack for live bait, is it just the action and struggling of the crankbaits that cause the reaction bites?

Agree not a dumb question. That is where the search for fish comes in. I fished a couple of banks loaded with shad, but no apparent fish. Ran to banks with LESS bait working, (but right ON the bank) and heard fish in them. That is where fish were caught. And some of those banks were banks I had never fished before. It's a big game......... so enjoy it!!!

[stripernut]

couldnt agree more with fishincreek.....its about the chase. figuring out what,where,when and the one that almost never makes any sense at all is the "why" is the fun part.

here is the most important advice i can give....
stripers pop at two distinct times....when the shad are near the surface and when the grease is really hot!

[apb]

Agree on the artificals vs. live bait, artifical stands out. If you throw a live alewife at the bank, its going to do what the other alewifes are doing on the bank and blend in. Your lure acts like a wounded bait and moves off the bank. Easy target for a hungry striper.

On colors, I don't get too carried away at night. Stripers only see gray scale at night, so fancy color schemes really don't help out any. I've done just as well throwing one of my plugs that is just white primer as I have some of the fancier plugs that I've painted. Most of mine now are just plain white, white with red head, or solid black. The latter I throw on dark banks and dark nights. No need to get carried away. Pick up a couple so you have at least one spare. Yes, there are those occasional nights where color can matter, but 99.9% of the time, they don't seem to be too bothered by colors.

Gizz4, shallow for this time of year (deep in winter).

I also would not get carried away with buying every plug out there. You want something that wakes on top (red fin, thunder stick, both jointed), a subsurface plug (sliver, bomber A, Gizz), and a bucktail (3/8 oz with a spinner blade on it). You might try a couple different baits and find out what you have the most confidence in and go from there. I typically have two rods set up with plugs (surface and a subsurface) and one with a bucktail. Many nights I hardly pick up more than one rod for most of the night. Right now the stripers are targeting alewifes that are spawning on the banks. The most important thing is being able to consistantly put your lure in the strike zone (within 2 feet of the bank, the closer the better).

Andrew

[bsg2121]

Going to give it a try this weekend. Will post my report when I return. If you have any last minute updates it would be appreciated. Thanks for all the gret info!

BG

[thunderstorm]

Dad and a buddy went late Monday night and caught several small ones about 1/2 way back in the creek. Bite was between 2-4 AM Eastern on slivers & Long A's.

The wife and I decided to try the main lake Wed. night and the shad/fish were only active about 10 min where we were......blanked.

[stripernut]

We fished live bait tue night from midnight on. Had 16 short stripers 0 keepers. But we did manage 5 keeper walleye......supper was good at my house last night. heard very few shad and no stripers, i know they were there we caught em ...they wer 20-30 ft deep though. Fishrd live bait again last nigjt caught 11 - 5 keepers. No walleye. Didnt hear shad at all and only heard 2 splashes may have been carp . The night time plugging seems to ne winding down from what its been over tje last couple of minths. This weekend is tje donzi regatta at j-town so that migjt keep fish from feeding during the day and make em hungry at nigjt........or it may scare the heck out of em !

[thunderstorm]

Were you fishing the live bait the way you mentioned above?

Thanks,

[stripernut]

No, they really need to be on the bank pretty good for that to work, these fish are in the 20-30ft range, its downrods from now until oct ....at night that is

[thunderstorm]

Thanks. My wife is like yours....doesn't like casting all night.

Did you use lights to pull up bait and then fish or just locate em and drop to them?

Time of the night this usually works?

[stripernut]

Thanks. My wife is like yours....doesn't like casting all night.

Did you use lights to pull up bait and then fish or just locate em and drop to them?

Time of the night this usually works?

pm sent