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.

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Originally Posted by 91tiger

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.

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Didn't know they'd hit lures that fast! What time of year was this?

Actually it was right around now when I used to troll a good bit...August/September. They are doing pretty well on Hartwell trolling right now. The fish tend to spread out suspended this time of year and are prime for trolling if you can get a lure to the depth they are holding. Not sure if Wateree has lots of snags to worry about or not. Hartwell is a flooded forest so you have to be careful to not get too deep with your lures.

In the dead of winter is another good time to troll. 2 years ago when we had several days in the teens, I was out on Murray catching them pretty good jigging but I was marking a ton of fish suspended in the channel that didn't want to eat. Then a couple days later I heard about people catching big numbers on umbrella rigs in the same area. Looking in my fishing log for that weekend the water temps were down to 45 degrees. Not sure what speed to try to troll for the winter. Call Captain Mack, he can tell you exactly how to do it.

I'll have to look him up!

What kind of leader and hook do you like for live shad on down lines? Also what weight sinker usually holds it down good?

I use a 1.5 oz egg sinker for down lining. For leader it depends on the lake and size of fish. In lakes like the far upper end of Clarks Hill or Russell where there is really nasty cover and the chance of hooking a 50 pounder I use 25 pound leader. On Murray or the lower end of Clarks Hill where there are virtually no trees and the fish are rarely more than 10 pounds, I use 12 pound Flourocarbon leader. I've gotten stripers in these areas up to 36 pounds on the 12 pound leader, just have to be patient and have a good drag. For years I used Kale style hooks for down rods but I found the fish swallowed the hook more than 50% of the time. I do 99% catch and release and it wasn't right letting that many fish go with a hook in their throat. I'm sure plenty made it but plenty went to waste I would think. I mostly striper fish with lures casting and jigging these days but when I do live bait fish, I have fallen in love with the Owner Mutu Circle Hook (the light wire one). 90% of the fish are hooked in the top of the mouth. Don't jerk the rod out of the rod holder with them if you get a hit like you do with a Kale Hook. Instead the fish will hook itself or if you just give the reel a couple of smooth turns with it still in the rod holder it will hook them very nicely. For most herring I use the #1 size. It will look very small, but it works like a champ. Here is a key tip: The hooks will foul hook very active herring. To help cut down on that, get a bag of clear "earring backers" from the jewelry counter at Walmart. Thread them onto the hook about midway up the shank to keep the hook from turning on the herring. They have a hole through the center and are agrivating to thread onto the hook so do it ahead of time.

Good deal I love those hooks. Buy #4s by the 50 for surf fishing. How long are the leaders, usually? I have some 14# fluoro I'll use up. I don't think Wateree stripers get much above 10 lbs either. I'll check out the earring backers!

Some people like reallylong leaders, like 4 to 5 feet. I have seen an occasional day that thefish strongly preferred a long leader like that. But I prefer one from 18to 24 inches. My thought process is that bait is on a short leash andwill move around a lot more erratically. I notice my rod tips are jumpingaround from the bait action much more on a shorter leader than a longerone. I like to place my downrod baits a little above the level where thefish are showing up. In other words if I mark a group of fish at 30 feetI will put my down lines down to 25 feet or so. If fish are right on thebottom I drop the bait to the bottom and reel it up 3 to 5 turns.

I knowWateree has some massive catfish. I would also keep one rod rigged with acut bait in my spread as well. Stripers will hit it too.