Heading down to Melton Hill on Friday for a Saturday Striper Charter. Heard that November is a good time of year with the water cooling and shad schooling near steam plants. Was told this is when they target the bigger fish. Has anyone else done this? Hoping for a good day and would like to hear from people that have had good/bad experiences.
Only caught one on saturday. My buddy managed to grab it. Went 41" and 40 lbs. wish I had pulled one in too but catching the 20" skipjack sure was fun too. Fished Fort Loudon and Tellico.
That was him. He was great I'll fish with/recommend him anytime. Conditions weren't ideal for bait or stripers but he worked his butt off to make it happen.
We go to either Norris or Cherokee, and always use Ezell Cox, from Tazewell. I got this one in Norris, it is 49.5" long, wouldn't fit in the cooler or live well so we wrapped it in a wet towel and about 4hrs after I caught it weighed in at 49 lbs and some change.
Thats an absolute hog. I've fished Norris but found most guys are just spider rigging for shoolies with 4 inch baits. We were ballooning 20' gizzard shad the entire time and had one downrigged as well (no blues unfortunately). We let this girl swim to reproduce another day as Brycen was adamant about it. From talking with him he said these lakes tend to hold bigger fish and he prefers to fish them because you don't have people limiting out on 30' fish every time they go. He also told us that while this was a good fish there are a lot of bigger fish where we were and the marks we were seeing seemed to prove it.
When we go we typically keep a few fish for the table and release most, I did keep this one it is in my man cave, I also skinned it that day to be mounted and kept the meat.
Unfortunately that is what many striper guide services are all about.
Nancy Guide Service on Lake Cumberland is notorious for this. Pick you up, fish for 1 1/2 to 2 hours if you are lucky. Limit out on small fish and whiz you back to the dock - done for the day. Meanwhile you have traveled several hours to get there, stayed at a motel overnight, and have one booked for that night also anticipating a full day on the water.
I finally got smart. Bought me some lead core line, a bunch of hair jigs with large twister tail grub trailers and started catching all of the smaller stripers, with an occasional good one, that I wanted.
I am totally convinced that striper fishing is not as tough as the guides want you to think it is. Planer boards, balloons, down-riggers - mostly all show. If you do not own your own boat you are at a disadvantage. HOWEVER, if you own a boat, do some tinkering around, learn the drill and go catch yourself some stripers. With that being said, I do agree that "sometimes" live bait will outcatch hair jigs, but you will still catch some by slow trolling hair jigs on lead core line.
We used to hammer them just casting bucktail jigs with trailers at Cumberland.
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