Dale Welch- The Striper King
Why Depth Finders and Trolling Motors Spell Striper
Success
Editor’s Note: One day in 1988, Dale Welch of
Crane Hill, Alabama, a biomedical engineer in Birmingham,
left his job to go fishing and never returned. No, Welch
didn’t vanish. He discovered a new career and
a new life as a saltwater striper guide on Smith Lake.
Welch has guided for stripers longer than any other
guide on Smith Lake and has caught four Smith Lake records.
Today, we’ll learn some of Dale’s striper-fishing
tactics.
Besides having good, lively bait, a striper angler
needs an easy-to-read-and-understand, reliable depth
finder to catch stripers. Welch uses a Lowrence LMS-332C
depth finder.
“The reason I like this particular graph is that
the color scale enables me to distinguish fish from
engine noise, and I can determine the fish’s size,
depending on the color that appears on the unit,”
Welch explains. Welch’s sensitive graph even shows
the leads on his lines trolling in front of the boat,
and he can see the striper coming up to take his bait.
Because Welch uses his trolling motor to move the boat
along when he has his rod out, the striper appears as
a thick yellow to orange line coming up from the bottom,
depending on the s ize
of the fish, instead of a well-defined arch. Welch also
likes a Minn Kota trolling motor with auto-pilot steering,
which enables him to sit at the boat’s console
and operate the trolling motor without his having to
position himself be in the front of the boat and in
the way of the other anglers. “With the auto-pilot
feature, I only need one depth finder instead of two
to see the fish,” Welch explains. “Also,
by my being in the middle of the boat instead of the
front, then regardless of which rod gets a fish, I’m
close to my dip net, and the angler who has caught a
fish. I can help land the fish without running from
the front of the boat to the back or the back to front.”
Dale Welch remi nds
me of a smooth-running sewing machine. Years of experience
have taught him where the big stripers are in Smith
Lake, the baits they prefer to bite, the tackle and
equipment that’s best to catch them, and the time
of day that’s best to catch them to catch striped
bass at Smith Lake, I recommend you take a trip with
Dale Welch.
To schedule a striper fishing trip with Dale Welch,
contact him at: 7932 County Road 312, Crane Hill, AL
35053, (256) 737-0541, dwelch@hiwaay.net, www.alabamastriperfishing.com.
Tomorrow: How Dale Welch Became a Striper Guide on
Smith Lake and a Super Striper Recipe
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