I decided to try the afternoon bite today since I have not had much luck in the morning. I fished from 1PM until dark. The bite was fairly slow but I caught fish from 1:30 until dark. I pulled a single U-Rig which was a 3 arm loaded up with 7 bucktails. The trailers were green on the outside and white on the inside. I managed to catch 7 stripes and had 3 green fish get on my lines. Most of the stripers were schoolies of around 4-5 lbs. I did catch 2 over 22 inches (about 8 or 9 lbs).

I fished a mid lake creek near the mouth. I found all of the fish on 30 ft bottom on points and humps. They were holding pretty tight to the bottom. I basically marked a waypoint on each school and trolled over them time and time again. I rarely caught fish on consecutive passes, but given 20 or 30 minutes found that they would bite again, so I would alternate between 3 schools of fish. Direction of the pass did not seem to matter.

I have found the members on this site to be very helpful, so I thought I would share some Lowrance screen shots as well, as they may spark some discussion and be helpful to others. All of these shots were from where I actually caught fish. Hope this helps.


Fish


Lowrance Pic


Lowrance Pic


Lowrance Pic


Lowrance Sonar Viewer



Lowrance Sonar Viewer

Good afternoon I would say! I've got to get one of those color jobs. Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Drooper

Ok - going to spark some discussions, at least I hope.

I think those pictures are all fish, not fish in/on brush, though the well defined pyramid shapes rasies some doubts.

Very good example of using your GPS/Chart/Fish finder effectivly in catch fish.

He describes at least three important items to successful U-RIG pulling - what are they?

Did you change the sensitivty in the Sonar View apps to help "clear" up the pictures.

gastratos how far back and at what speed where you pullingh your rigs? any help would be greatly appreciated... thanks ken harkins

Mikemad,
I tweaked the viewer a little to help clear it up, but it is a screen shot vs. a picture of the screen with a camera so it is very clear.


Ken,

The rig was 100'- 120' back. I caught 1 at 100 and I let it out 20 more, and never hit bottom while going over 26' bottoms and was catching fish so thats where I left it. I was idling at 2.5-3 MPH (GPS). My best guess at depth is that they were running at 20-22'. I actually saw every fish I caught on the Lowrance just before the bite. That was pretty cool!

yeah sounds lie one hell of a trip....congrats

Capt. Woody raises his hand...Ooooo..., ooo,ooo! Professor Mike, i would say he:
1. Concentrated on humps and points with 30 ft bottom or less..
2. He varied his speed/depth till he found the strike zone...
3. He went back to/rotated successful spots to try them again while paying attention to the "line of travel" as he went over the spots, which he said didn't seem to matter much...

Do I get a star sticker?

Thanks for the post and info Stratos man..

good trip.I NEED YO LEARN TO FISH WITH ONE OF THOSE RIGS.HAVE YOU LOST ALOT OF U RIGS? BY THE TIME YOU BY THE EXTRA JIGS YOU WILL HAVE 35 DOLLARS IN IT AND THATS A BIG CHANCE TO LOSE ONE. WILL ANYONE TAKE ME FISHING SO I CAN LEARN TO FISH WITH THESE RIGS? MY PHONE NUMBER IS 678 614 2576. I CAN GO NEXT SATURDAY MORNING OR EVENING. I CAN MEET ANYONE ON BROWNS BRIDGE ROAD OR EASTBANK BOAT RAMP.BY THE WAY,ROUGHLY WHAT AREA WAS YOU FISHING? NORTH OR SOUTH SIDE? HOPE TO HEAR FROM SOMEONE SOON. SEE YA ON THE POND

Woody, I was thinking the following.

1. Find the pattern - humps/points @ 30ft

2. Use your plotter/gps to mark the schools so you can return to them.

3. Give the fish a little break then return to them.

I'll give the star woody, just cause I like your new facial hair!

Jonford,

When I first started with the U-rigs 3 yrs ago, I was also concerned about losing them on a tree or the bottom when fishing Shallower depths.
I quickly learned how effective an Umbrella Rig Retriever can be.
It's saved me probably $500+ compared to replacing a lost U-Rig.
Certain times of the year, you have to troll the U-rig shallow to catch the fish and will get snagged periodically.
This is when the retriever is worth it's weight in GOLD.

Good fishing