Curse the striper gods

[snapper30]

I have been searching for a week, with fresh caught shad in my boat, for anything that resembles a striper school on the north end of the lake. And tonight, within 10 min of catching fresh shad, I stumble across a great school of at least 100 + stripers holding in an area no bigger than a football field. I sat on top with bait, dragged through them, jigged, and finnally after 3 hours of live shad infront of there face I trolled unbrella rigs through them for another 45 min with not a single bite!!!

The striper gods can deal a dirty hand!

[peter]

I have been searching for a week, with fresh caught shad in my boat, for anything that resembles a striper school on the north end of the lake. And tonight, within 10 min of catching fresh shad, I stumble across a great school of at least 100 + stripers holding in an area no bigger than a football field. I sat on top with bait, dragged through them, jigged, and finnally after 3 hours of live shad infront of there face I trolled unbrella rigs through them for another 45 min with not a single bite!!!

The striper gods can deal a dirty hand!

I heard that. Im way up greasy. Chasing gar I think. Some sounded like stripers though. Saw one that was definitely brown.

[MTaylor]

We are going to try to be on the lake by 3:30 and give it a try this afternoon

[JUSTINHALL]

Don't feel bad I got my butt kicked this weekend too. Fished all day Friday and caught 1 drum first thing in the morning and that was it. Couldn't find any jumps morning or evening and just could not make a striper bite for nothing. Fish Sat until around 3:30 and no jumps no takers again. I believe I could have found the jumps Sat evening but the guys with me, had enough of the cold and wanted to go in so we took a blank for the weekend.
Just have to lick my wounds and try it again this evening.
The full moon and cold front really putting a dampening on the stripers.

[kentuckykingfisher]

I got to fish Sunday. One keeper and one short. Never saw any jumps all morning either. We ran into several schools of stripers but no takers. Overall it was a tough cold day on the water.

[Lowerider]

Fog was thick Friday and Saturday morning. Lucked out and found a couple of good schools jumping Friday morning and managed a few. Small red fin worked best. Ripped a blade bait and buck tail through them a few times with no luck.

Went back with my 83 yr old grandma Saturday morning and they didn't come up as good. Only got one before it ended but was thrilled to put her on a fish. Nothing but a catfish 50 ft on down line Sunday morning.

Everyone I talked to struggled. Local guide said he could only get 2 on good bait and that was when the screen was blacked out.

They are keying in on tiny bait. Bellies full of them.

[peter]

Fog was thick Friday and Saturday morning. Lucked out and found a couple of good schools jumping Friday morning and managed a few. Small red fin worked best. Ripped a blade bait and buck tail through them a few times with no luck.

Went back with my 83 yr old grandma Saturday morning and they didn't come up as good. Only got one before it ended but was thrilled to put her on a fish. Nothing but a catfish 50 ft on down line Sunday morning.

Everyone I talked to struggled. Local guide said he could only get 2 on good bait and that was when the screen was blacked out.

They are keying in on tiny bait. Bellies full of them.

Small bait:

Had heard that abut the tiny bait so I included some crappie minnows in my shinner purchase just to play with it some.

Ended up netting some "sort of small" threadfins on the surface between first light and sunrise and used them instead. Never mustered the energy to switch out to the minnows plus I had settled into fishing in the wrong place and had to be gone by 9 that morning.

Thanks for the info.

[elnutsmalljaws]

Maybe it is relevant, maybe not, but a few years back I used to Striper fish Cumberland. There was one year where the Stripers wanted the small Shiners and Smallmouth wanted the big Shiners. It was so defined that I would seperate the shiners into seperate parts of my livewell for Stripers and Smallies. Drag a big Shiner on a board forever and nothing. Flip a small Shiner up on a point for a Smallie and nothing. Switch the baits and hang on tight

[stripernut1]

a hungry striper will eat....a lockjaw striper will not.

on that same note, my wife and i sat in the slip at jtown marina on sunday enjoying a picnic, beautiful fall day to say the least. in 1 1/2 hrs we watched 3 different groups come to the cleaning station and clean a total of 18 stripers. none of these folks were guides, 2 of the groups caught them on live bait, one group caught them on topwater.

friday and saturday were on fire for the guides, sunday was very tough.....go figure. monday was on fire again for a couple of guide boats.....once again, go figure.

as long as we continue to fish we will occasionally get our dose of humility, figuring out why this happens is why i keep going, i do enjoy the challenge.

[mhall]

a hungry striper will eat....a lockjaw striper will not.

on that same note, my wife and i sat in the slip at jtown marina on sunday enjoying a picnic, beautiful fall day to say the least. in 1 1/2 hrs we watched 3 different groups come to the cleaning station and clean a total of 18 stripers. none of these folks were guides, 2 of the groups caught them on live bait, one group caught them on topwater.

friday and saturday were on fire for the guides, sunday was very tough.....go figure. monday was on fire again for a couple of guide boats.....once again, go figure.

as long as we continue to fish we will occasionally get our dose of humility, figuring out why this happens is why i keep going, i do enjoy the challenge.

One of the best and true posts I have read on here in a very long time, lol...
Humility indeed....and being in the right place at the right time is priceless no matter who you are....

[stripernut1]

i am very good at getting half of it right "right place WRONG time" ! i had a great time yesterday watching dead water....its still better than a trip to the dentist office !

[MTaylor]

We couldn't get a single hit on any of the small baits on Sunday. Switched to BIG baits and it was on...funny thing is that the fish we cleaned were full of small shad, but hammered the big baits. Go figure....striper fishing drives me crazy.