Sorry for the late report... I get lazy some times
, hopefully the detailed report will make up for my procrastination.
Based on Jason's (Lend-A-Fish) recomendations I booked a last minuite trip with John of Vegasfishing.com so I could get good striper fishing instruction before I drag my boat out. Me and a buddy met John at the Marina @ 5:30am just as he launched. After introductions, we were off in the dark for an 8 mile run to catch some live bait.
We made it to the wash at first light & John went to work casting net for bait. The guy really knows his stuff & can read the birds to knows just where to throw the net. After a few minuites of making bait (about 75+ pieces) with a full tutorial on finding the bait, we were off to try & find a surface bite. We searched for about an hour for large surface boils, while doing some casting on any small boils, but only had a single follower. The whole time John was running the boat with great mastery while making sure we were doing every thing right & keeping one eye on the sounder.
For the next hour or so, we only managed one small fish on a jig & a couple of fish on plastics, but nothing on the surface poppers. John decided to take us out to the deep channel (130+') & get some on live bait. The live bait action was pretty steady and in the next hour we picked up 6 or 7 fish in the 2-3lb range.
The entire time, John kept his eyes open looking for birds & other signs of fish. It was his sharp eyes and experience that told him something was about to happen about 1/2 mile to the south of us. The birds were starting to gather & circle, so we pulled up the baits & high tailed it to the area south, directly under the birds. There were alot of small (1lb +/-) stripers working the surface, but John knew that the larger fish were below (the Furuno confirmed this) so out came the jigs. Within a couple of minuites it was non stop action for my buddy & John on quality fish in the 4-5lb range, for some reason no matter how I retrieved, jigged, or dropped I could barley get bit let alone get anything to stick. Even though my line was dead, they were having double after double and it was alot of fun.
This action went on for about 45 miniutes with John following the fish on instinct using his remote control, auto pilot trolling motor. After the jig bite slowed we went back to live bait where I managed to scratch out a few more fish in the 3lb range and my buddy managed another 5 pounder.
It was starting to get real windy and the bite had died so John hesitantly called it a day only after we agreed. The ride back was uneventful as his 19' Stingray center console ate up the 3'-4' chop at 20+ knots.
While we were in the hot jig bite there was another guide fishing within 30 yards of us & had a couple of inexperienced fishermen on board. This guy was constanly deriding his clients and would get irritated every time he had to put down his pole to "guide" his clients, net fish or offer condescending advice. I was definatley glad we were on Johns boat as
he runs a top notch guide service, with a Stingray that is well outfitted for comfort as well as fishing. He has a great personality, lots of good stories and the patients to deal with kids and inexperienced newbies (my buddy doesn't have much fishing experience). He also has the tenacity, stamina and instinct to satisfy the most hardcore fishermen. All the while he did not show a hint of arrogance that so often accompanies the best guides/captians. The guy loves to fish and treats his clients with respect.
You may be able to find a cheaper guide service, but John is top notch. I'm almost positive we outfished everyone on the lake that day. We were not able to get that many pictures while fishing but here are a few for your viewing pleasure:
..Had some honey holes in that lake
. I've had some good days but never caught that many in one trip.
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