Wateree 12-11-2020

Back after stripers this morning. Fished the same places as wed. using shinners & herring. Fished the channel edges out from colonels creek & down towards clearwater. At first stop, we set down rods at 12' & caught several stripers. Moved down stream about a mile & marked fish again. This time had to fish about 16' down. Caught several but after a while bite died.

Moved on down stream. By this time, sun was pretty bright so we set rods at 24 to 28'. Caught several to limit out & missed probally more than we caught.

Headed home about 1. Ended up catching 25 stripers. All were released today.

Overall, size was smaller than last trip but fun. Big fish was about 23".

Got to figure out why we are missing so many, especially the ones that put the rod tips in the water but come loose about 1/2 to the top. Still, its fun to watch the rods go down.

Got more bites on the herring but caught more on the shinners.

Nice work again. There are quite a bit of small ones this year. Years back most were larger than what I see now.

Charles Biggers, that must have been you I was watching catching and pitching stripers. Good for you!! We got a late start and didn't get set up till about 10.
We caught several and the short guy did get a fat 5lb blue cat. It was good to get back on the water, been since July and first time on Wateree since winter of 2019.
I did enjoy using my planer boards. Love to see them jerk across the water. All in all a great day to be on the water!! Other than Mama bear having to wake up before 8 on a Saturday.:witching

How are you fishing your planner boards??? I thought about putting some out with live bait & trolling but never got around to it. Wed, we did pull a rigs for a while but did not get any hits.

You are correct, its a lot of fun to watch the planner boards take off. We use them a lot trolling for cats.

ill have to send you a pic. best I've ever had and I've had them for several years. Lots of fun!!

Lots of those pull downs that are misses are those bigger white perch trying to eat those herring and shiners. I have caught quite a few jumbo white perch at Murrary fishing downlines for stripers. Try a smaller shiner and se what happens..

With small baits, you might want to try No 4 or No 6 treble hooks. May gut hook a few but hook up ratio prob go up. Just a suggestion. Thanks for report.

Mr. Charles tie on a new hook! I use a Mustad 1 ought circle hook for the live bait. Chin to top of nose. :cheers2