Can you spot these on a regular fishfinder not a flasher? What will I be looking for on the screen and what general areas. Trestle, Henderson Pt or Hibernia?

Larry I have not been jigging yet this year but anywhere from the Hybernia to the cut through should be good. I have a Hummingbird 200DX on my boat. It works ok but I think the flashers work best when looking for schooling fish. What I look for is two or three medium or large fish that pop up on the fish finder at once. then I slow up and look hard in that area. ususally if you find a school the fish finder will go black. If you are in 70 feet of water the fish finder will only read like 20 feet deep.

LarryW,
Schooling Stripers are unmistakable on SONAR. They appear very similar to the way Largemouth look when they're schooled up only bigger and usually a lot more of them in a school. I have some recordings that I converted to still images. Check out the Striper files.
http://webpages.charter.net/abshire5078/
As Keith said, sometimes the school is so large and thick with fish your screen will almost black out.

Thanks guys. We will see what I can find EARLY Saturday Morning

Hi Keith,
I'm a newbie to both this board and fishing at lake.
I now have a place right at the Hibernia ramp. Where is this "cut through" I've heard you mention along with others?
I've tried a couple times for stripers since I bought my place but so far no luck. I'm just trying to observe and learn.
thanks
Jerry

Jerry,
the cut through is at the mouth of Nutbush where Nutbush meets the river channel, dead north of where you're at beyond Henderson Point, look for a 1/4 acre island.
Ray

finsandgills, sorry for the delay in response. Ray is hooked you up with what you needed. I put in at Hibernia Sat morning and found a nice school of perch about 200 yard from the boat ramp. As for stripers I burned a tank of gas out. Looked from Henderson point all the way to Ivy Hill. never stopped the boat to jig.

There was a big school off Henderson Point early yesterday moring if the number of boats around was any indication. Heard lots of radio chatter and saw a several of the trollers boat fish. We poked around a bit jigging and marked scattered fish, but didn't hook up. Talked with NC Wildlife Officer, and he said they've been slaying them between Henderson Point and Hibernia, and expects them to keep moving down the lake towards Satterwhite. I'm a bass fisherman trying to transition over, and it's a whole new ball game that I obviously haven't figured out.

MarkA, Don't do it. I use to be a bass fisherman but the day I caught my first rock fish I gave up the bass fishing. I have not been bass fishing in 8 years and I use to love it. The key to striper fishing is go fishing, go fishing, go fishing and don't give up.

aint that the sometimes its like a job instead of fun.lol

Well if you think its hard catchin em from a boat you ought to try getting em from the shore! LOL Being shorebound I have had to travel to areas that have the fish when the fish are there. I guess thats just part of any fishing though. Im thinking of getting a remote control toy boat to carry my line out further and troll it around. Think thats feasable? HEHE My wife is gonna kill me! LMAO

I hear you on the keep fishing. And I've caught quite a few stripers, mostly lucking up when they broke near me when fishing for bass. And it's tough not to try for them when the ones I do catch are 10 - 13 lbs, not to mention the fact my wife and I both love to eat them. I just can't get into to the trolling scene, and with gas prices what they are, it's tough to ride around trying to find them to jig them up. I like to cast or actively fish, so dragging lines around is not my style, although from the other guys I talk to, that seems to be the way to go. Fishcrazy - why don't you give me a shout sometime and we'll see what we can do. It might be a little less tedious if I had somebody in the boat to shoot the breeze with - usually it's just me and the dog.

You're right about the gas prices. That has slowed me down alot. I think I might catch me a few bream at the dock and try it around Henderson point tomorrow afternoon.

MarkA That would be fun. We have been talking about going up to Kerr to camp some weekend soon but havent got to it yet. I will give you a call when we do and maybe we can hook up. I just bought a cast net to use over at Jordan tailrace to catch some shad with. The striper seem to like those much better than the large bass minnows I been trying to feed em. I just need to learn to throw the darn thing. Havent had much luck with that on my first attempt but surprisingly caught fish in spite of my poor net tossing ability.But it was a lot of fun and I think I got it now. I see some stripers caught almost every time I go there and just wish it was me doing the catching.HEHE

Fishcrazy - just say the word. I've got a net and can throw about half a**. It's a small one tho 3 1/2' radius, and I've been debating getting a bigger one. I usually just stock up when the butter bean shad are schooling and I can see to throw at them. I use them when just hanging at the house and fishing off the dock. Everything from cats to jacks to bass will eat them. The cats seem to like them better than chicken livers, and they aren't near as messy!

If you go to this site you can see a video that teaches you how to throw a cast net:
http://www.calusa.com/watchvideo.cfm?name=notrequired

The cheap nets you buy from places like Wal-Mart are not very good. I use the Bett's(OLD SALT) 8' , 3/8” square mesh, monofilament, 1 lb weight, cast net. They are about $45 at Bobcat's and cannot find them any cheaper on the web.

I find going in the back of coves in the shallow water, throwing blind, that is no shad jumping does as well as watching for them to jump. Most of the time the ones splashing around are 2-3 inches (Called Butterbeans). The bad news is you can tear up a net real easy.

anywhere near ivy hill boat ramp to get shad?

fishcrazy,

i know what you mean, im on the shore too over here on gaston theres not much shore access, that makes it very hard. by the way. theres a million stripers at the roanoke river tailrace right now. you cant keep them, but i dont care there a blast to catch. there running from 3-12 pounds mostly. thats great in my opinion. you should try it some time, its a hard walk down there though.

good luck