Well, trying to understand Lake Anna and striper fishing is best illustrated by reading http://mccotterslakeanna.com/lake.htm Don't think additional information about this lake is practical or needed. The professional guides seem to be top notch on this lake, well worth a charter.
Finding http://va-outdoors.com/forum.php was a heaven sent encounter and opens contact with the fishermen of Lake Anna.
During the interim, I'm still trying to learn cast net for bait. Unsual lake as the private side is much warmer than the public side and the alewife cold kill doesn't happen on the private side, maybe. Rumor is that the private side will have more bait, blueback, gizzard, threadfin, and alewife. I think this means that the peanuts will be transferred from the private side to the public side at Dike III. Not sure why any sane striped bass would ever leave the damm area where the water temp, oxygen, and bait are in such abundance. Gotta be some monsters roaming the deep!
And so it goes for now, Feb 2, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Saturday, February 1, 2014
How to toss a cast net . . .
OK, likely I got most of my facts wrong about Lake Anna, but do have time to make adjustments. The cast net is critical for my striper fishing success. Given my lower back and left shoulder rotator cuff problems, I've decided to toss using a lefty technique http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=
The 5 gallon tub has a small amount of lake water and a cup of rock salt. The baits I catch are dropped in the tub until I get time to sort them. The salt begins the hardening so they can survive in my bait tank. My partner Bill employs a 4 foot green fluorescent lamp to gather baits before daylight. On Kerr, the Nutbush Bridge provides high current water that seems to attract baits before daybreak. I need to find out if Dike III has a similiar attraction to baits. In March on Smith Mountain Lake, the alewifes and thinfin were attracted to dock lights and the gizzards were in the back of coves.
I prep my tank with a couple cups of rock salt and a handfull of calcium chloride. Some source told me that the calcium chloride helps the baits respiration? My Creek Bank tank is quite old and I've learned where/how to get suitable filter media. I usually over load my tank and also must run an air stone. At 30 gallons, I'm very limited for numbers of baits when and if I can net them. Hmmm, I think I need a bigger boat and a 50 gallon bait tank! At times, I try service station shiners, but I've seen how distasteful the stripers are to digest them. Watched the stripers on my sonar rise off the bottom to the baits and then settle back to the bottom. So, they are my last resort.
I also use Shad Keeper and an antifoam. Never really liked the nonfatskim milk for the purpose. I do try to change the water as needed to keep the baits lively and also use frozen quart bottles of water to cool the tank water at times. Sometimes, it is just a bag of ice from the service station . . .
When I can't get bait, I visit one of the several groceries in NC that sell shad. Greg Patterson is the man that does the work. Yet, at $10-12 a dozen, this method for bait is limited by my wallet.
I'm supposing that there is a thermocline on Lake Anna? Much of the year on Kerr, the stripers are locked in above 30 foot depth and summer at least 10 feet down. My productive spots are sometimes where the bottom rises to 30 feet with holes where the stripers do their thing.
The reports I read for Feb 1, 2014 indicate that the shad kill is underway due to the cold. Think most all fish are sluggish and just sit on the bottom and wait for the dying shad to drift in the current to their open mouths. Hard to encourage 'em to take a frisky shad that they have to work for? Not sure how long this situation lasts, but other reads mention that striper fishing picks up about the beginning of March.
I learned that wipers (white bass) are being stocked in Lake Anna. Also, I think huge stocks of stripers. Wonder if it will result like in Kerr that there were too many hungry fish that limited growth of all. But, Kerr has that nasty gill maggot . . .
Guess I better get with some exercise or I'll never get the net cast over baits.
The 5 gallon tub has a small amount of lake water and a cup of rock salt. The baits I catch are dropped in the tub until I get time to sort them. The salt begins the hardening so they can survive in my bait tank. My partner Bill employs a 4 foot green fluorescent lamp to gather baits before daylight. On Kerr, the Nutbush Bridge provides high current water that seems to attract baits before daybreak. I need to find out if Dike III has a similiar attraction to baits. In March on Smith Mountain Lake, the alewifes and thinfin were attracted to dock lights and the gizzards were in the back of coves.
I prep my tank with a couple cups of rock salt and a handfull of calcium chloride. Some source told me that the calcium chloride helps the baits respiration? My Creek Bank tank is quite old and I've learned where/how to get suitable filter media. I usually over load my tank and also must run an air stone. At 30 gallons, I'm very limited for numbers of baits when and if I can net them. Hmmm, I think I need a bigger boat and a 50 gallon bait tank! At times, I try service station shiners, but I've seen how distasteful the stripers are to digest them. Watched the stripers on my sonar rise off the bottom to the baits and then settle back to the bottom. So, they are my last resort.
I also use Shad Keeper and an antifoam. Never really liked the nonfatskim milk for the purpose. I do try to change the water as needed to keep the baits lively and also use frozen quart bottles of water to cool the tank water at times. Sometimes, it is just a bag of ice from the service station . . .
When I can't get bait, I visit one of the several groceries in NC that sell shad. Greg Patterson is the man that does the work. Yet, at $10-12 a dozen, this method for bait is limited by my wallet.
I'm supposing that there is a thermocline on Lake Anna? Much of the year on Kerr, the stripers are locked in above 30 foot depth and summer at least 10 feet down. My productive spots are sometimes where the bottom rises to 30 feet with holes where the stripers do their thing.
The reports I read for Feb 1, 2014 indicate that the shad kill is underway due to the cold. Think most all fish are sluggish and just sit on the bottom and wait for the dying shad to drift in the current to their open mouths. Hard to encourage 'em to take a frisky shad that they have to work for? Not sure how long this situation lasts, but other reads mention that striper fishing picks up about the beginning of March.
I learned that wipers (white bass) are being stocked in Lake Anna. Also, I think huge stocks of stripers. Wonder if it will result like in Kerr that there were too many hungry fish that limited growth of all. But, Kerr has that nasty gill maggot . . .
Guess I better get with some exercise or I'll never get the net cast over baits.
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