Banner day on Norman 1-26 SOLO, pair of double digit striper!

My friend backed out on me last minute last night. ill be danged if someone holds me back from fishing on a rare day off. as they say, some of the best days on the water are the ones your solo.

had boat in around 8am and started looking around. first stop yeilded a few hybrids, and a pile of bass. i mean a pile. anyone every caught 4 bass at once on an umbrella rig? i have photo proof.

Moved around and found the mother load. Doubles, triples, quads, and one time i had 5 rods going off at once. hybrids, perch and bass mix. some of the hybrids were pushing 20 inches....then it happened. Downrigger popped and the line was heading out of town....pick up the rod and weave between all the others and finally get settled in for the fight....then another leadcore doubles over with line peeling off (only done by a bigone!)

struggled getting the first one in the boat as it just stayed out of net range and i knew it was pushing my norman personal best....grab the second one, and it was over 10 lbs, but not quite the weight as #1. man doesnt get any better than that. I called it quits after that as i knew there was just no way i could do better. hit the road back at 2:00.

#1 weighted on my digital scale 13lbs 2oz and measured 33 3/4 inches. #2 was 10.6lbs and 32 1/4 inches.

Didnt quite get my norman personal best of 13lbs 4 oz but gave it a run for its money.

Once all said and told, i released dang near 15 hybrids, a pile of bass, and just these 2 striper. May have to try it again Thursday!
Solid Late January day. Ill post pics up once photobucket is back online. until then they are on my facebook page.

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...ps5ybde4d3.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...ps0uukyaps.jpg


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

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

Looking GOOD

That looks fun! Congrats.

looking good there , pete. One of these day, I'm gona have to come up there and fish for them hybrids!

Too Cool!

Nice pics! Love the quad!

That's beyond cool. We do a good bit of striper fishing in the ocean and in the Roanoke but I would love to hit Norman. May just plan a weekend trip soon.

Nice stripes. Norman must be loaded with bass, the only time I crappie fished it couldn't keep em off a jig. Did catch some hog crappies though. Congrats on the catch.

I have never seen an umbrella rig with spinner baits on it that is brilliant. What size arms are on the umbrella?

Great job Pete! Thank you for the report

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fliesforall

I have never seen an umbrella rig with spinner baits on it that is brilliant. What size arms are on the umbrella?

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Someone turned me on to the idea of using spinner baits. I laughed at the idea until i was getting tired of constantly replacing the shad bodies. gave it a try and it really works well. Once you put them in the water, they do not tangle up. The only con i have with using them is that if you hang a nice fish, they will bend figure 8's in those spinner bait wires!


Crappie Dan....The spotted bass are like pirhannas on lake norman. people do not keep many of them and they need to be thinned out! in my opinion they taste pretty good...if not better than crappie.

That is great. I had setup a rig with large willow blades on the inside position on double loop arms but I think this would work better. I have a mold for spinner baits so I could just make it in heavy wire with closed loops for the attachment point and it should be rock solid.

Looks like you had a fun fun day

Glad to see that you use umbrella rigs over there, we use them here on Lake Ouachita too. I had been going to try incorporating spinners into mine, but never though about complete spinnerbaits. I was going to try putting some big spinners on the inside 4 points of a 9 lure umbrella rig.

Way to go

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pete

Someone turned me on to the idea of using spinner baits. I laughed at the idea until i was getting tired of constantly replacing the shad bodies. gave it a try and it really works well. Once you put them in the water, they do not tangle up. The only con i have with using them is that if you hang a nice fish, they will bend figure 8's in those spinner bait wires!


Crappie Dan....The spotted bass are like pirhannas on lake norman. people do not keep many of them and they need to be thinned out! in my opinion they taste pretty good...if not better than crappie.

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Nothing like dropping the tailgate on your truck and start filleting bass at tournament weigh in at the boat ramp. LOL!! They want you to think they're not good to eat!

Them striper are some pretty fish. Nice work

Congrats Pete, great fish and pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want to continue catching double digit Stripers in LKN, might want to think about throwing the big ones back. Seeing how North Carolina isnt stocking them in there anymore. In a few years they are all going to be gone!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 32RACER

If you want to continue catching double digit Stripers in LKN, might want to think about throwing the big ones back. Seeing how North Carolina isnt stocking them in there anymore. In a few years they are all going to be gone!!

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Ive done my share of Catch and Release over the last several weeks AND over the last several 14+ years. Over the last 6 years i dont even feel bad about keeping my limit. Big or small. WHY? its just a matter of time before the "big ones" go belly up in the lake Norman annual summertime fish kill.

Nice job bud. That umbrella pic is awesome

Insane!!! Way to go.

Great catch Pete.

Wow,
double wow