Deck mates Lynn Gregory and Mary Madden hauling in the next catch.

http://youtu.be/tNP7JJlBLUw

While releasing the1st striper of the day caught on a 2oz chartreuse and blue bucktail jig with a lemon ice paddle tail, the wind blew off Jimmy Duggan’s lucky fishing hat. We circled to get it and discovered a school of stripers holding at 20 to 30′. We marked the spot and continued trolling with our lead core, Big Mistake!

When we went back to that spot later, they were gone.

Lesson learned, again: never leave fish to find fish.

As Jim took the rod out of the holder he knew he had a big one on as he felt the fish shaking its head ripping off line with the clicker screaming. We turned the boat and headed toward the fish. With tree tops 20 feet below the boat Jim fought this striper for 15 minutes bending the Tiger stick almost in half crank after crank. We circled around the line several times right above the striper and managed to get him out of the tree for just a moment, then he went back in the tree breaking the 36lb Dacron line.

But we did catch fish today. We caught a three pound spot in the mouth of Bald Ridge creek and a six pounder almost to the mouth of Young Deer creek in the river channel pulling Lead Core 7 colors out. On into Young Deer creek we caught a 28″ striper right where two underwater points intersect. Jim got finned in the hand by the striper as we were putting it on the Seaqualizer and while moving the rod out of the way managed to stick the jig slightly into my hand. We gave each other the High Five with our bloody hands not realizing we became blood brothers forever.

Showing Glenn Cloud how to locate stripers was the easy part. Reeling them in took a lot of work. We started out pulling Lead Core and again fishing without live bait. Glenn reeled in an eight pounder, 210 feet from the boat and a 16 pounder, 240 feet from the boat. We tried Power Reeling in the wind with every sort and size of boat and jet ski buzzing all around us. We switched off to Umbrella Rigs but we were not near any humps. Finally it was time to head to Aqualand to meet with the others to share stories and pictures; and to have lunch at Pig Tales BBQ. The Mentoring was very rewarding, too.

Team Lanier laid down the law on Saturday in Shoal Creek boating a 30″ and a 29 1/2″ striper. Both were caught using lead core seven and eight colors out at 3.5 mph with 2 oz chipmunk jigs, 1 white jig with a white curly tail trailer and one chartreuse blue with a chartreuse paddle tail trailer. Mary Madden and Darrell Ford did a fine job fighting those fish that were 240′ out from the boat reeling for what seemed like forever.

My thrill came as it was my first time using a Sequalizer and it really worked great. We released both stripers in 50 feet of water and just before the target release depth, each striper came alive in the colder water and it felt like I was fighting the fish all over again; and then the line went limp as they swam off to be caught another day. GO TEAM LANIER! !

Team Lanier still managed to catch 5 stripers and a spotted bass Saturday keeping out of the way of the speed boats for charity. We fished in Flat Creek and Balus using downlines, lead core and power reeling. Mark Huffman, a new member with the Lanier Striper Club, was taking advantage of the club’s Mentoring program today fishing with Steve Scott. We had a blast. Mark said he learned a lot.

Go Team Lanier!!

IT’S RAINING TROUT
by Steve Scott

Years ago I went trout fishing with my buddy Dale to the Nottely river in North Georgia near Blairsville. We were standing in the river fishing upstream in about two feet of water under the Highway 180 bridge. From where we were standing the bridge about thirty-five feet was above us. We were catching good sized trout averaging about one trout every ten to fifteen minutes. These fish were about twelve to thirteen inches long and were a good size for this location. All of a sudden it was raining trout. A DNR truck had pulled up on the bridge and dumped several thousand trout down on us. It was truly an amazing sight. We have talked about that day for years.

Broken Rod
by Steve Scott

I was fishing the Toccoa River that runs beside Highway 60 in North Georgia and the fishing was really awesome that day as I caught over 100 trout in about 2 ½ hours catching and releasing. I was standing on the bank about ten feet below the road when I heard a car pull up. I turned to see that it was some local mountain folk checking me out to see if the fish were biting. There were two men and one woman in the car and I heard the woman tell to two guys to go stand beside me to see how I was catching fish after fish, literally ever cast brought in a trout of some size or another. After just a few minutes one of the men said that he knew why I was catching so many fish. He and the other man ran back to the car and told the woman that I was using a “broken rod”.
Years before I had a custom designed ultra light fishing rod built by my good friend Cal Parker, Jr. of Roswell Georgia. The design was that of a bait casting rod with the action of a spinning rod tip. The eyes start out at the handle normally for about 3 eyes then start to twist around the rod towards the tip until all of the eyes are on the bottom side of the rod just like a spinning rod. This allowed me to use a Zebco 33 reel with the sensitivity of a spinning rod. Hence the “broken rod”.
The reason why I was catching so many fish was because I think the day before, the DNR truck stocked this location and I was using my favorite bait, the cricket, seldom used by the locals who insist that corn is the bait for trout.

DON’T LET THE ICE PASS YOU BY
by Steve Scott

One very cold January morning many years ago my fishing buddy Dale & I decided to venture through the snow for some bass fishing at Lake Lanier. We launched our 12’ jon boat with a Honda 10hp four-stroke motor at Clark’s Bridge being the avid worm fishermen that we were. When we arrived we saw that the lake was completely frozen over bank to bank. We still backed down our trailer to the water’s edge and saw that the boat was sitting on top of the ice. As we both got into the boat, we did break through the ice. As we started to go upstream we realized that the boat was just sliding on top of the ice while the motor was cutting through. At one point as we were going about 5 miles an hour, a chunk of ice that was broken off by the motor actually went past us also sliding on top of the ice as we were moving ahead. We just started laughing.
Another good memory.
Another Fish Tale.

Pop
by Steve Scott

One day I was fishing Dick’s Creek below the cascade for some North Georgia Trout. It is very noisy there with the water crashing on the rocks. I decided to fish sitting down on one of the boulders just beside the right hand waterfall. It is very slippery on the way to this spot and you had to be very careful not to slip as you would plunge into a deep hole below loaded with years’ worth of snagged fishing lines and hooks. As I was being very careful I lost my footing on some loose slate and started to slide towards the doom. I immediately got down on all fours so that I would be closer to the boulder in hopes of snagging some part of it as I slid over the edge. I found myself literally hanging by my fingernails on a crack at the top’s edge. My body was glued to the face of the boulder and I was stable. I started shouting for anyone who could hear me over the noise of the pounding waters. I stayed in this position for what seemed a few minutes but apparently was only seconds. A couple of fishermen were at the top of the boulder looking over in fright. They asked what they could do. I told them to grab my fishing rod tip as I still had it in my hand. For a moment I thought I was saved. Then I heard a loud POP which was the sound a 2 piece rod makes when it comes apart. I started laughing as I slid into the water. I did not sink as the current is very strong there so it swept me about five feet downstream and I walked out on the lower rocks still laughing at the POP.