# 12-23-07 cold blue strips



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

It was really cold this morning at 6:30, but things looked right for a killing below the dam. Warm December days mean stripers on the prowl, and there was still enough water to float the RedFin. With about 2 dz perch in the live well and several layers of clothes I paid my outrageous $ 6.00 to launch and asked the pretty young girl running the cash box if fishing was any good below the dam.
"Yesterday they caught alot of big stripers" she said. Enough said for me.
I had trouble at the ramp, lowering water levels left a big pad of mud right where my tires were after I launched. I called my son he sounded like he had not gone to sleep yet, but yeah he would come help me.
I knew it would take about 30 minuets so I hooked up a perch and sent it out where the 2 channels meet by the ramp. Twitch,...twitch,...BAM! It is a 20" striper. back I go with another perch and more confidence, twitch twitch,..BAM! I land three nice ones from the ramp before Lee gets there.
After getting the trailer out and motoring up to the gates I set out 2 anchors at the line. With 4 gates open it took about 50 yards before the anchors caught. I put out four rods with live perch and soon have a double striper on. I land them both fish and they are carbon copies of each of other, both of them 21".
I keep both for the limit and went out for fun with the biggest perch I had about 5' long. Pretty soon it hits paydirt with a monster 25" that was mean all of the way in and again at the boat.
It just kept on like that until I was low on perch and started cutting them for catfish. I kept catching big stripers along with big bluecats untill about noon. At the end of the day I had 4 blues from 5 to 8 lbs and caught and released 20 stripers over 20". It was pretty good. I will post pics later.
SS


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Some more pics of the day. The gates started off with 4 open and a good flow, the fish bit like crazy and after a while I noticed the current had slowed and so did the fishing. I looked back and saw only 2 gates open.One pic shows the old ramp with a 20' hole at end, another shows a tyipical fish for the day, fat chuncky and 23" long the biggest was 25" The old unusable boat ramp that has a 20" hole at the end of it is a place where crappie, and white bass hang out. The edges of the hole are good for catfish. especially if you can get anchored on the line and just away from the bank bombers and cast either direction up or downstream for whites and cats. One pic shows a sriper fighting hard at boat side, to do the one hand dip net is hard when they run under the boat.
I had to call my son again to come help me pull the RedFin out, actually I had to go to the other side to get loaded. By the time i was ready to leave (12:00) the ramp had another 5 feet of mud from the dropping river One pic shows how stripers always take a hard run whe they see the boat, big stripers fight hard especially at boat side.


----------



## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

Wow! What a trip SS! If they had left the gates alone I would have tried today after that report.


----------



## bueyescowboy (Apr 10, 2005)

That looks fun....I might be able to get my hands on a flat bottom boat. I know them stripers put on a good fight.


----------



## Buck1986 (Mar 28, 2006)

What dam?


----------



## johnny a (Jun 10, 2006)

That is a nice haul SS. I need to come up and fish with you until the beach front gets warm and we can get down to HI.


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Hey johnny a, good to hear from you. Sure let's hit the sand as soon as we can. In fact Bigfost and I have a trip planed for this week to McFaddin so I should have a good idea of how the big fish in the surf are acting. When you go surf fishing with him it is like getting spin off on your rods because the guy has some kind of mojo on those bull reds that brings them to his baits.
Buck1986, that post was from a recent trip below the Lake Livingston dam on the Trinity River. Here is a picture of a limit of white bass I caught last sping early in the run below the Livingston Dam. 
Say SaltH2OAsassin, I'm back, you want to go fishing? With luck there should be water enough below the dam to float my boat for a couple of weeks, if the rain keeps up. The stripers will be as good as they get for about another 3 weeks. Even if the water is low they will be there this time of year, they gotta do that thing.


----------



## surf-n-turf (Mar 19, 2005)

After checking out your thread, its going to be a toss up to make a trip to the lake or go hunting.
Just in case the lake wins out, where ya get the perch?


----------



## johnny a (Jun 10, 2006)

SS I have been on the boards but I havent been posting much. I have had a real bad itch to do some freshwater fishing. I have been heading out to a little lake near here. There are some big channel cats in there but not like it used to be. There is a park near here that is going to be stocking some rainbow trout Jan 8. I am going to be heading there alot. I grew up on trout and cat fishing.


----------



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

The perch came from a pond where I live, caught them with a perch trap.


----------



## SaltH2oAssassin (Jan 25, 2006)

Loy, good to see you out there fishing again. I need to meet up with you again and get into some of those stripers you are catching. LEt me know when the next time you plan to go out and I will ask for the day off and we can fish.


----------



## McBuck (Mar 24, 2006)

Way to go, SS! Sounds like a great trip with lots of excitement. Congrats!


----------

