Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Jiggin' for bats 8/30/2014

August 30, 2014

Welcome back to the Steeler Fishin' Blog everyone!  I'm sure you will enjoy this newest next post.

It was Saturday night and the plan was to hit Beltzville for some striper fishing.  We launched from the main ramp around 11:00PM and headed to our normal sweet spots.  However, only 2 largemouth bass decided to join us for a little CPR (catch - photo - release).  Water temperatures hovered between 74-75 degrees and water clarity was tough to determine as it was darker than Dikembe Mutombo out there.  Around 3:15AM I was ready to pack it in.  I was literally casting and falling asleep while my lure sat at the bottom of the lake.  I deserve a pass though as it was our first week back in school with students.  I'm not used to waking up at 5:30AM and heading into work!  I know ... BOO HOO!

Did I mention we spent 4 hours "ducking and weaving" from the killer bats?  The bats followed us around the lake and were nose diving at us.  It was insane!  I actually had one bat that flew into my line and became entangled momentarily.  It was quite interesting to say the least.

Anyway, we are quite the dedicated fishermen and rather than packing it in decided to put the trolling motor on "automatic anchor" and take a quick power nap.   Three hours later :) we awoke and started chucking lures again.  NOTHING!  NADA!  Time to head home.  It was about 6:35AM and we were cruising back to the ramp when all hell broke loose.  I kid you not ... the entire lake erupted.  Schools of stripers were breaking the surface everywhere.  Chad connected first with 4 stripers in about as many casts.

We picked a school of fish and spent the next 4 hours chasing them from one end of the lake to the other.  Talk about fun .... It didn't take us long to figure out what these guys wanted.  FISH ON!  


We found a school of 30 plus inch stripers and you can see why the smiles were "ear to ear!"




This frenzy was so incredible we were waving other boats over to us.  At one point, we had 5 other boats with us.  All of us had a pod of stripers circled.  It was like fishing into a pond.  We offered everyone advice on what to throw and after catching his first-ever striper, one guy yells out loud "I could kiss you right now!  All the boats got a nice chuckle out of that one.  Hey, glad to help!  

It's tough to get all the boats in the frame but this should help you paint that "mental picture!"


 

This was the smallest striper caught!  Yes, we are spoiled!  



           

I had to show the "incidental" largemouth bass.  There was one more but not sure where that picture is?  Maybe I will edit this post later?  Probably not though ... this is about stripers!  Haha!  In total, our count ended at 17 stripers.  We don't believe this whatsoever.  We were chucking fish back in so quick because this was an opportunity we couldn't miss.  Heck, there were many similar fish we didn't take a picture of.  Great day on the water!  Still not sure why they call it the "Dead Sea?'  

Thanks for visiting my blog!  Until next time ....