Fall striper season on Norris is wrapping up

[scat]

It seems that things are different every year. We started in mid July with the peak in early to mid September. We caught a bunch of fish but nothing as heavy as in past years. Had several doubles. Now that can get exciting, having 2 good sized fish on the hook from the rear of the boat and nearly 300 ft of line out on each one. Surprisingly, only a couple of doubles got tangled. I lost a reel full of 36lb lead core braid and a $25 lure to a monster. When it struck, the reel started screaming and I threw the boat in neutral while simultaneously adjusting the drag. All of a sudden all was quiet and I had about 50 ft of line left on the reel snapped off. The same thing happened to one of the other guys. I've already upgraded to 45lb braid so I'll be ready for next year.

We had some unwanted excitement when a pontoon trolling behind us was ran over from rear to front by a wake boat. Nobody was seriously injured so God was watching over us.

[FLTENNHUNTER1]

Sounds exciting. I never have caught one. Did you post the pictures somewhere else of the accident? Sounds familiar.

[scat]

I have 1 pic of the scene. We were in my bass boat tied up to the damaged pontoon. You can see the furniture and side wall in the water.

20210813_221803.jpg (520.94 KiB) Viewed 527 times

[caretaker]

That trolling for the stripe is a lot of fun. Haven't done it several years. Use to with my Dad and his fishing buddy back when I could get off from work. Sadly time marches on. Dad's fishing buddy passed away and Dad lost interest. Now I have a tackle box full of redfin's and very little knowledge of how to use them. Dad passed away in March at the young &tender age of 93. Hopefully Mike243 and I can put them to use with that old boat I bought off you.

[scat]

That trolling for the stripe is a lot of fun. Haven't done it several years. Use to with my Dad and his fishing buddy back when I could get off from work. Sadly time marches on. Dad's fishing buddy passed away and Dad lost interest. Now I have a tackle box full of redfin's and very little knowledge of how to use them. Dad passed away in March at the young &tender age of 93. Hopefully Mike243 and I can put them to use with that old boat I bought off you.

A life long friend did it since the 80's with downriggers but there are new methods. We use lead core braid that has a predetermined sink rate at a given speed. We use 9" Grandma lures at 2.5 mph with 250 ft of line out puts our lure approx 35 ft deep. If the fish are below 45ft, we refer to them as having lockjaw because they won't bite. I caught a bunch in that little flat bottom. I take my bass boat if we plan to run way up the lake to different areas but primarily use my old pontoon because we can lounge around in comfortable chairs. They both run the right speed in gear at idle. You and Mike need to go with me next year. We usually fish 8pm til midnight.

[caretaker]

Sounds good to me hopefully we can take you up on the offer.