Lake Wateree Striper

Hi all, I know the striper guys are pretty tight lipped but I'm looking for some nuggets of wisdom since it won't be long before it's cool enough for me to actually do some daytime fishing.

Where do I start for October Lake Wateree stripers? It's easy when they school up and bust shad in the creek mouths early mornings, but my boat (21' walk around Key West with a 225) is too big for a trolling motor so I feel limited. I can bump in and out of idle and probably stay in striper speed. I'll have to check the speed on my GPS again but it seemed a bit fast for catfish. Will that work with some downlines and one or two free lines, live shad, flourocarbon leaders, and a small hook through the nose fished around the marks?

Speaking of marks, where do I start looking?

Thanks fellas, hope you're all doing well!

One of my friends has a 21' CC Nauticraft with 135 on it. A 24volt Ipilot handles it like it was a Jon Boat. Just FYI.

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Originally Posted by SeaRay

One of my friends has a 21' CC Nauticraft with 135 on it. A 24volt Ipilot handles it like it was a Jon Boat. Just FYI.

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Mine is a walkaround so it has the high stainless railing and a very high bow so no way to mount it up there that I know of. It's an offshore boat but what can you do.

what can you do. :dono Buy another useful boat! :Rofl Had to do it :popcorn I don't go for stripers but once in a blue moon. I like catching them and they eat pretty good if you know how to fix them. Remus brings me one or two every so often. I know they are people on here that keep up with them daily. I hope you get an answer to you questions. Pm me if you do. :cheers2

I have striper fished my whole life and it can be done without a trolling motor but I really wouldn't want to. I pulled way way too many 28 pound anchors for my Daddy when I was a kid to ever go back to that. Plus, if the stripers are up schooling it's very very rude to run your big motor around them if other boats are fishing them. Most people don't mind at all if you ease in with a trolling motor. But you can absolutely mark a group of fish on a channel drop or end of a point and go up wind and ease out an anchor and drop shad down to them on down lines and catch a lot of fish. If you mark a lot of fish, don't be discouraged if they aren't there right away once you anchor. Give it a few minutes with your baits down and they will usually come in to investigate those struggling baits. A little chum and some light tapping helps a lot too. Some days tapping works some days it doesn't. I never do it if there are other boats close by, it actually seems to spread the fish out more. But I always chum a little if I'm down linning in one spot. In the cooler months you can also throw out a bait on a free line with just a hook and no weight. Try hooking it through the back closer to the tail and it will swim away from you keeping the line somewhat tighter. If you are anchored and throw out a free line that is nose hooked they just swim right back to you and tangle your other lines.

If I had the boat you described, I would figure out a way for a trolling motor to work, it would make a fine striper boat. We had a 23' Chris Craft cabin boat with a very high bow as a kid and we cut the bow rail and a trolling motor worked just fine. They make stainless bullet plugs that go in the ends of the bow rails once you cut them so it doesn't look bad at all. There are extremly long Autopilot trolling motors made these days that would work on your boat.

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Originally Posted by 91tiger

I have striper fished my whole life and it can be done without a trolling motor but I really wouldn't want to. I pulled way way too many 28 pound anchors for my Daddy when I was a kid to ever go back to that. Plus, if the stripers are up schooling it's very very rude to run your big motor around them if other boats are fishing them. Most people don't mind at all if you ease in with a trolling motor. But you can absolutely mark a group of fish on a channel drop or end of a point and go up wind and ease out an anchor and drop shad down to them on down lines and catch a lot of fish. If you mark a lot of fish, don't be discouraged if they aren't there right away once you anchor. Give it a few minutes with your baits down and they will usually come in to investigate those struggling baits. A little chum and some light tapping helps a lot too. Some days tapping works some days it doesn't. I never do it if there are other boats close by, it actually seems to spread the fish out more. But I always chum a little if I'm down linning in one spot. In the cooler months you can also throw out a bait on a free line with just a hook and no weight. Try hooking it through the back closer to the tail and it will swim away from you keeping the line somewhat tighter. If you are anchored and throw out a free line that is nose hooked they just swim right back to you and tangle your other lines.

If I had the boat you described, I would figure out a way for a trolling motor to work, it would make a fine striper boat. We had a 23' Chris Craft cabin boat with a very high bow as a kid and we cut the bow rail and a trolling motor worked just fine. They make stainless bullet plugs that go in the ends of the bow rails once you cut them so it doesn't look bad at all. There are extremly long Autopilot trolling motors made these days that would work on your boat.

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Hey thanks bud! Great info. Are you chumming with live shad or cut shad? Any idea where to start trying to mark them in October?

They have been schooling since mid july eating like crazy to try and stay alive in that hot water. been like that on Murray too. spend some time on the water and you will find them quickly or just follow the crowd.

I actually chum with both cut and live. Most people just chum with cut. But if you have enough bait and take 3 or 4 in a net and give the net a good squeeze enough to stun them without killing them and throw those in, they will thrash around and it can really bring them in.

I've never striper fished on Wateree. We used to drive over there to net gizzards to take back to Murray but that's my only experience on that lake. But if I was starting cold, I would be looking around where major creeks dump into the main lake. And as bioguy said, always be on the lookout for topwater activity and bird activity.

With your set up, you can also troll and do well many times of the year. Umbrella rigs work great, especially in the winter. The key is finding the right trolling speed and what depth your lures run at that speed. Depth control is crtical. I don't troll much at all these days but years ago when I did around 2.5 MPH seemed to be a really good speed. My boats would never idle that slow so I would take one or even two 5 gallon buckets and drop them in on a rope and tie them to the stern cleats. Just remebr to pull then in when you plane off...been there/done that. Captain Mack Farr down on Lake Lanier sells great umbrella rigs but he also has a speed and depth chart for his rigs that tells you how much line you need to let out at a particular speed that really does cut down on the learning curve substatially.

look into a engine mounted trolling motor, there are a few that will push a big boat pretty good..seen a pontoon boat once flying down a electric motor only lake, thought he had his gas motor going but it was a big engine mounted troller.