Picture perfect half day chasing striper.

Was a perfect morning for it. lots of topwater activity with fish swirling, and first time ever ive ever seen shad spraying on top of the water jumping like you see Mullet do at the coast.

From 730-1230 put about 15 striper in the boat, 1 perch that I thought was the next state record, but came up 3oz short, and a 50lb blue that ate my 6lb downrigger ball. cant make that up. Thats a first for me.

Been playing a ton of catch and release lately, but kept a limit of 23-25 inch fish today.

Again all on leadcore, downriggers and my A-rigs. No need for that fancy live bait!
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...pskepvn1um.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...psrho0rzhb.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...ps1sj0iv0s.jpg

Great looking catch. Nothing wrong with keeping some. I have had my downrigger ball get hit by a fish but never had one hold on.

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Originally Posted by madmax

Great looking catch. Nothing wrong with keeping some. I have had my downrigger ball get hit by a fish but never had one hold on.

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I dont think it really held on. I believe that it couldnt get it out of his mouth once he realized it wasnt a easy meal!

I want to be just like Pete when I grow up. lol. Great job buddy.

Nice catch!
I was just curious how do you fish without a downrigger. If I reeled A-rig in fast, I watched a fish chasing my lure close to my boat. I usually keep a retrieve-stop motion to keep my rig to strike zone, but with a limit success.

Pete is trolling. I use the rigs he makes as well and prefer to troll over live bait any day. I can use 3/8 oz jigs on the 4 outside arms and a 1 oz bucktail on the center and get between 24 and 28 foot deep trolling at about 2.5 mph, but I run a lot of line behind the boat. You can put those on led core and get between 5 and 6 feet per color at that speed. Pete loves his downriggers. I have them, but would rather pull regular or lead core if possible.

pretty much what Craig just said. i use leadcore which keeps it down. also ive found that 1.8-2.2MPH seems to be prime. you can catch them faster, but i have not had much luck fishing them slower.

If you use striaght mono, you will have better luck with than the leadcore method fishing in shallower water (10-20ft). I personally like lighter jigheads (1/8-1/4oz) the heavier i am sure work just fine, but this is just what i have always used.
Like he said, i love my downriggers. some day they outperform, some days its the other way around. here lately its been about 50/50.