John's Journal...
Entry 150,
Day 3
FISHING FOR SALTWATER STRIPER AT WEISS LAKE WITH STEVE
POPE
How to Reel In the King
EDITOR'S
NOTE: Steve Pope from Centre, Alabama, guides for crappie from February
through the middle of May. During May through the hot time of the summer,
Pope guides for stripers or bluegills. I discovered on this striper trip
with Pope at Weiss Lake that you'll have exciting fun fishing for stripers.
On Friday of this week, Pope will give you the secret to cleaning, storing
and cooking stripers that will make you leave your crappie poles at home
and go out and buy striper tackle for these delicious stripers.
QUESTION: Steve, how are you finding these striper out
on Weiss Lake?
ANSWER: We fish in a place all the locals call the Cotton-Gin at the corner
of Pruitt's Island. This old underwater structure has scattered debris.
The striper are just holding over it, so you can catch them there most
of the time. The water around there is 22 to 25 feet deep, and we are
fishing between 10 and 13 feet. I usually can find out how deep the fish
are at by using a Humminbird depth finder because it draws a line and
tells me how deep the striper are.
QUESTION:
If you see that the fish are at 10-feet deep over a 20-foot bottom, how
do you know how much line to let out?
ANSWER: I have 2 feet of leader below the weight from the barrel swivel
to the hook. Therefore, if you put the slip lead on your line at the top
of the water, you already have 2 feet of leader under the water. The 2-foot
leader is at about the same depth as the transducer that's mounted on
the foot of my trolling motor. The distance from the level wind on my
reel to the first guide (eye) on my rod is almost exactly 2 feet. So,
if I put the lead at the surface of the water and pull the line from the
level wind on the reel to the first eye of the rod, you can let your line
down in 2-foot increments. With this system of measuring line and calculating
depth, you can put your bait in almost the exact depth where the depth
finder says the striper are holding.
QUESTION:
What kind of rod are you using?
ANSWER: I like to use a 7-foot Ugly Stik. They aren't cute, but they sure
are tough. I want a little backbone in my rod, but not a lot because these
striper are so powerful, they will physically pull the hooks right out
of their mouths. So I want a medium-action rod, and we are fishing with
100-pound-test SpiderWire.
QUESTION: What kind of reels are you using?
ANSWER: I use the Shakespeare Clicker type of bait-casting reel which
is important because I like to daydream. Then, when the clicker goes off,
I know a striper is there. The Shakespeare clicker is a great device that
I strongly recommend. It's not expensive -- $30-50.
QUESTION: What kind of line are you using?
ANSWER: The main line is SpiderWire, 100-pound-test. Then, I go to a barrel
swivel. Coming off the barrel swivel, I use 30 inches of fluorocarbon
leader. To the end of the leader, I tie a number 5-0-5-LO44FS. I want
a lot of shank on the hook so that I can try and get the shank out of
the fish's mouth on the leader so that its teeth don't wear on the leader.
QUESTION:
With what size live shad do you like to fish?
ANSWER: I prefer a 3- to 4-inch shad. Most striper fishermen choose a
6- or an 8-inch shad that will weigh about 1/2-pound. But I've found that
I get more bites and catch more fish on the smaller shad. I think the
smaller shad are easier for the stripers to catch and eat, and I believe
you get more bites on the smaller shad than the larger shad. If you fish
larger shad, you may get more runs where the striper takes the bait, but
you won't hook as many stripers as you will if you use the smaller shad.
For more information about striper fishing, call Steve
Pope at (256) 927-6617, e-mail him at
clp-pope@tds.net, or visit his Web
site, lakeweissguideservice.com.
His Web site has up-to-date weather for the lake as well as a photo gallery
of what Pope is catching at Weiss each day.
TOMORROW: WHY A FISHING BUDDY IS IMPERATIVE
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