Stripers by the Hundreds

Some warmer temperatures gave George and I the opportunity to get out on the Housatonic yesterday looking to wake the schools of stripers from their many weeks-long slumber under the ice. Results were mixed though. Oh they were there alright.... hundreds upon hundreds, maybe thousands upon thousands of stripers are just hangin' out down there. Unfortunately, they just aren't very interested in eating right now. Certainly, guys are catching them. There were probably ten boats out there with us and some guys were catching pretty well, but it's not quite at the pace it can be under less frigid conditions over long periods such as what we've had this winter.

As it turned out, it was still a very rewarding day of learning. There's a great community of fisherman in the area. Lot's of nice guys willing to share their fishing experience if you're willing to listen. George and I had some great and informative conversations with Leon S., and I also met Louie and Mark, who asked what I was doing as I was dunking my camera into the depths tied to my fishing rod in an attempt to see what it looks like beneath the surface. Turns out that Louie invented a fishing weed guard that is pretty unique and he and Mark hooked me up with some samples as well as a 1/4 oz jig head that finally helped me catch a couple stripers for myself on a day when i wasn't having much success :)

You can check out Louie's site at www.slideoffweedguard.com

Speaking of dropping my camera into the depths, check out the footage I grabbed of the swarms of bass stacked just 15-25 feet below my yak.

It's a pretty incredible show down there. Hard to believe I could only manage to catch two of 'em yesterday. Maybe I should have spent less time playing with my camera...

Well, at least George stayed focused and grabbed this nice 26-incher 10 minutes before we left.

Until the next adventure...

Peace,
Jeff