03-26-2006, 11:20 AM
I think i know what that article is implying. I learned that last year at Willard bay in Utah. Well, i learned that smaller baits seemed to work real well when the fish first come out of their 'winter state'.
That 27lber that i caught a while back was caught on a 1/16 oz jig that was about 2" long. That is very small compared to what some folks suggest to use for catching stripers that size.
The other stripers that I have caught were mostly on small jigs as well. I'm guessing they may resemble small shad, or injured/wounded shad getting washed downstream on the bottom.
The steam plant has millions and millions of shad that hang out there. Some of the old-timers that i have talked too there say that when the shad are too thick it is very difficult to catch fish, as most of the fish are literally stuffed with shad.
Back to Willard...i caught a hybrid (or wiper) real early(spring) on a very small piece of carp meat. I was actually trying for catfish. Up at the fish cleaning station i was talking to another old-timer and he told me that wipers were caught very early on anything small. Then as other species spawned and the fry grew, your baits need to get bigger, since the primary forage fish are getting bigger. There was also a period sometime during mid-summer that another species in the same lake had a second spawn and folks were having better success by downsizing there presentations again.
i guess this all could be simplified by saying "match the hatch" [cool]
cyas
rc
That 27lber that i caught a while back was caught on a 1/16 oz jig that was about 2" long. That is very small compared to what some folks suggest to use for catching stripers that size.
The other stripers that I have caught were mostly on small jigs as well. I'm guessing they may resemble small shad, or injured/wounded shad getting washed downstream on the bottom.
The steam plant has millions and millions of shad that hang out there. Some of the old-timers that i have talked too there say that when the shad are too thick it is very difficult to catch fish, as most of the fish are literally stuffed with shad.
Back to Willard...i caught a hybrid (or wiper) real early(spring) on a very small piece of carp meat. I was actually trying for catfish. Up at the fish cleaning station i was talking to another old-timer and he told me that wipers were caught very early on anything small. Then as other species spawned and the fry grew, your baits need to get bigger, since the primary forage fish are getting bigger. There was also a period sometime during mid-summer that another species in the same lake had a second spawn and folks were having better success by downsizing there presentations again.
i guess this all could be simplified by saying "match the hatch" [cool]
cyas
rc