The Last Striper of 2017

This past Saturday we hit the Dog Island beaches between the three points over a 55’ bottom. The air temp was 45° with the water temperature at 51.8°. It was the outside Planer Board that got hit with the 12” Gizzard Shad and a stinger hook in the Vent. Weighing only 8 lbs this 25 ½” Striper swam toward the boat only to dive under when it got close enough to be seen. Darin had reeled in the inside Planer Board but it had already crossed the rod with the Striper that Dale was reeling in. Dale was near the front of the boat with Darin to his left. I grabbed the net and dipped it into the water trying to reach the Striper that went under the boat. There wasn’t much room to maneuver as Darin was basically pinned between Dale and myself being caught in the arm of his coat by a Mini Mack that was hanging low in the rod holder. I finally got the Striper into the boat for measurements and pictures.

Earlier that morning we ran into Capt. Mack at the bait shop. We chatted a few minutes and he advised us to use his Mini Mack in the back of Shoal Creek by the boat ramp and surrounding area. We launched at East Bank Park and headed to our tip from the guide. When we arrived there was already one boat trolling with more boats coming in. We did not see any diving birds but did see a few bait balls but no Stripers to be found. We left after trolling for about an hour and headed to SC8 to pull a chartreuse/white jigged Umbrella Rig over the three humps on our way to Dog Island. As we approached the island another Striper boat followed us in and tried to hog us out by moving in front of us but eventually gave up as I held my ground so to speak. They finally left. Nothing on our first pass because we were not positioned in the right place to begin pulling bait between the points. We turned around at the far right point and went back across the pocket following the deep-shallow contour lines adjacent to our trail coming in when the outside Planer Board got hit. We thought we were on them but no other takers for the next hour or so. We left Dog Island and headed across to Sunset Cove for a look. Nothing there. We then went all the way around Lake Lanier Islands to Cocktail Cove but it too was barren of bait and Stripers. We went a little further around the main island to a multitude of reef poles near the Tiki Huts and resumed our spread of Planer Boards and Diagonal Bobbers. Water temperature was 53.5°. Again there was activity on the outside Planer Board. A 4 pound Spotted Bass took the medium Trout and Darin brought him in for pictures.