Story One

I’m All Excited About Striper Fishing!

We launched from East Bank and started pulling lead right away. I put out one blue yellow 2oz bucktail with a white blue paddle tail 8 colors out and a white 2oz bucktail with a pink u-tail trailer 9 colors out. No luck in Shoal Creek from the Saddle Dike to SC8. We headed west across the lake to Young Deer Creek. Upon our arrival we found a flotilla of Striper boats in the mouth of Young Deer. I counted 15 boats. We had to stop when we saw the Stripers suspended at 80’ and dropped the Ben Parker with no success. We headed further into Young Deer and got our first Striper on the yellow blue jig but it got off trying to net him. At that point I changed out the white pink bucktail with another yellow blue bucktail with a blue white paddle tail since this is the one that got hit. Shortly after we managed to get a 28” Striper into the boat for pictures.

 We managed to get one Lead Core stuck in a tree and lost the leader trying to get it free. At this point we were down to one Lead Core setup. We headed for Six Mile Creek and were getting short bites probably because the Stripers could eat the large sized 2oz bucktail with the trailer. I saw my sister Lynn sitting in the mouth of Six Mile Creek so we went over to say hey and introduce Richard and Marty. She gave us 20’ of 20lb fluorocarbon line so we could get another Lead Core setup in the water. It was getting difficult to maintain a steady course with all of the boaters in the main channel so we decided to call it a day. After pulling Richard out of the water and getting his boat road ready I headed back to my car when my sister called and asked if I can help her get her boat out of the water at Charleston Park which was on the other side of the lake.

Story Two

Doubleheader!

After getting a Striper in on her own Downlining where we pulled up to her earlier.

Lynn decided to pull some Lead Core with a bucktail jig and a Ben Parker spoon. Mighty brave. She picked me up at East Bank park. We headed for Cocktail Cove hoping some Stripers got caught in the shallows in the back herded by the party boats. While we did see some Stripers corraled they didn’t want any Blueback Herring in the 82 degree surface temps. We left and headed to the Saddle Dike pulling lead starting at SC1. No luck all the way in. Turned left at the back to run along the back about 50’ out when we started seeing Stripers and got one Striper 26 3/4″.

We drilled that bank for a couple of hours getting hits but nothing to show for it. We pulled all the way back to East Bank park. Saw a few more just before the No Wake buoys but no takers on Bluebacks. I ended up fishing on two boats catching Stripers on each.