Well, it’s been a crazy week with one troll motor going out and a second acting up with seals leaking and the 150 outboard running on three spark-plugs instead of six. Good timing, though, with the stripers up here by the dam we still were able to hit the hot spots, marking and catching fish from there to Starkey’s Marina.
Stripers and the bait were running down about 40 feet with some bait schools coming up between 18 to 22 feet. Night fishing in front of the dam buoys has put a few in the boat. Kirk Beasham from Allen, Texas, came out to fish 7 p.m. to midnight last Tuesday with his wife and son. This one here is one his son caught but I plumb got his name wrong. Thought it was Allen but that’s a town in Texas.
With this cool weather the water temp is dropping good and by the time this comes out they should be feeding closer to the surface. If you do find fish at 40 feet I have found out the bait, whether shad, perch, or big shiners, do better keeping the bait tank from 74° to 78° with the lake surface temp in mid-80s.
Hang your hook on rod holder, drop the line down to 20 feet with a 2 oz. barrel sinker above a 7-foot leader. With sinker down 20 feet, when you hook your bait it shoots down like a rocket through the hot surface water. If going to 40 ft., let them hold at 20 ft. a few minutes.
We also had a trip here at Holiday Island and did best trolling flikker shad down about 12 feet and caught a bunch of Kentucky Bass and some small walleye.
Now this week we got two new control boards on the big motor with all 6 plugs filtering, and UPS just brought me all my parts to get both trolling motors rebuilt by Tuesday. Nice cool weather, the fish and bait will be active and we have no trips booked till after the 1st since most schools have started back.
Get out and enjoy these cool days, fall’s just around the corner.
Robert Johnson fishofexcellence.com, (479) 253-2258