Thread: Live Bait for Striper on High Rock

Originally Posted by cwright

Usually pull Pete's A rigs when striper fishing. Been wanting to get into the live bait a little so bought a new bait tank from Manard a few months ago. Also got a few new planer boards and a few more rods and reels. Haven't seen many pulling live bait on High Rock. Most of the ones I see are pulling a rigs or plugs or bucktails. Any tips on where to try, setups, and depths from some of you live baiters? I mostly fish around second creek and crane creek.

There are times that live bait is better. There are times when trolling is better. It just depends if you have a good idea of where the fish are and their movements. Trolling artificial baits will help you cover more ground. Live bait is more natural and will catch more and better quality fish at times.

If water is being let out of the dam any good hump or long point is a good place to live bait. Even "cut bait" is good in similar conditions. You want to be a couple feet off the bottom or on the bottom with cut bait. Usually one particular are of the hump will get more traffic than others. Use your depth finder to see which area does.

Free lining flats can work well with live bait or slow trolling live bait on flats.

Slow trolling with planer boards in shallow areas early morning is a good tactic. Especially when there are a few warm days with warm nights in the winter. Which we are about to experience in the coming days.

For the the guides that work HR, I'm not going to give out areas. They've put in the work to know the lake. Which is what really make much of the difference in catching fish or not catching fish. Maynard did an article for Carolina Sportsman a few years ago that covered some of the good Striper areas. I've seen it before on their website. Not sure if its still there or not but its a good read.

Having said all that....
It is difficult to catch stripers in HR after the water temp gets into the mid 40s and below with any method. Some of the threadfin shad are dying off and making it "easy pickings" for all the game fish in the lake. You can tell when this starts happening because the shad will move out of the creeks into the main body of the lake in large masses. If you've ever seen it, you know what I'm talking about. Hundreds of yards of shad tight together trying to find warmeth somewhere in the lake.

You can sometimes bounce a jig below the balls and pick up fish but there is dying bait everywhere.

Just my penny. Hope it helps.

Thanks Sundance. Manard is a great guy. Known him for several years now. I actually talked to him yesterday. He is taking me out if the water ever gets right. I learned a long time ago taking a good guide cuts down many hours of trial and error when you are trying to learn something new. Last time I was out the shad were still in the creeks along with the birds but that has been several weeks. Thanks again.

Originally Posted by cwright

Thanks Sundance. Manard is a great guy. Known him for several years now. I actually talked to him yesterday. He is taking me out if the water ever gets right. I learned a long time ago taking a good guide cuts down many hours of trial and error when you are trying to learn something new. Last time I was out the shad were still in the creeks along with the birds but that has been several weeks. Thanks again.

Maynard is definitely a great guy. I use his double rig on all my rods. His mini rigs are tough as well. Pete's are definitely winners too. Some people say you can't catch em on a U-Rig in HR. I just keep pulling them. You can't catch them on them, if you don't put them out in your spread.

Tight lines and good luck with the strips. Thanks for the info on the shad. I haven't been in a few weeks. Every time I've went to go it was raining and windy. Like someone else said, I can take the rain or the wind, but its hard to take both of them at the same time.

No doubt about it, High rock is the toughest lake in our area. If you can figure it out, do let me know the tricks! Lol
Everything you know about striper is polar opposite of what ive experienced on HR. I catch them best on bright sunny days vs overcast ones.

They migrate down lake like in any other lake this time of year. Id start at the double bouys and work south into panther creek, those mainlake humps and points all around.

Some of the bigger fish will go in the creeks as well. That will be a big problem for ya since you would have a hard time getting that pontoon under the bridges.

Its not a numbers fishery like badin, norman, ect ect BUT you stand a chance getting that 1 15lber+

This year is the first year ive seen a large class of 17-19 inch fish. That is good news for the fishery.

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Pete, I think those bright days work at HR because of the water clarity. They can just see better on bright days. Granted, I've had better luck with A-rigs and mini U-rigs in deeper water. 15 to 20 feet. Maybe just enough to see well without being too much. At least that's what my crazy mind tells me...

At least I feel a little better since everyone has trouble with them. Usually when I am fishing the same lake as Pete, I catch 2 and Pete catches 20 or 30. lol. And we are both pulling his rigs.