Warm Creek Striper Fishing, Feb 27, 2019

Status
Not open for further replies.
Fursniper

Fursniper

Well-Known Member
Went to Warm Creek to specifically fish for stripers. Fished for 3 hours from 1pm to 4pm with 2 people in the boat. Caught 6 stripers in good condition and they were found between 60-80 feet deep. We went to the back of Warm Creek and started fishing about 1/4 mile from the floating restroom where the water depth was 60 feet. We did not try fishing shallower than 60 feet. Technique was to zigzag east and west working our way to deeper water using the sonar to locate resting schools of stripers on the bottom. The sonar was setup to display a split screen with traditional sonar showing the entire water column and downscan imaging zoomed in on the bottom. Finding stripers resting on the bottom was easy and we found about 6 groups of fish. When a school was located, spot lock was engaged to electronically anchor the boat directly over the school. One ounce spoons were then sent to the bottom, the spoons were bounced off the bottom, and stripers were immediately caught.

Here's the problem we had. We could only catch 1 or 2 stripers and then the whole school would leave. No feeding frenzy occurred. Once we caught a fish or 2 they acted like they were being harassed and abandoned the area. Most of the fish we caught were snagged. Caught one by the pectoral fin and others had the hook on the outside of their mouth. Either we were snagging the fish or they were swatting our spoons.

Any suggestions on how to catch more than 1 or 2 fish when a school is found? Should we be chumming or is that not necessary?

Here a picture of our catch today:

 
Last edited:
I have found that when stripers are "finicky" if I speed reel (as fast as I can crank the reel) from the bottom up say 20 feet then stop fall back to the bottom and repeat. This really seems to help activate the school. I have had stripers follow my spoon all the way up to the surface and still no takers. However, persistence usually pays off. Seems like after a while they just can't resist or take the chance that another fish will catch the shad and the hook ups begin. Other days it's just like they all get together and say we are all fasting today in hopes if finding our dear friend Susan who was last seen under a boat holding that old man Wimmer..
 
Littlesaltwash said:
Fursniper, with the split screen was it easier to locate with the down imaging or the sonar?
Click to expand...
Both, the traditional sonar made it easier to find the humps and the dowscan verified what the humps were. I had the traditional sonar set to view the water column from the surface to the bottom. The hump on the bottom was subtle and unless the fish were off the bottom, the fish traces were not obvious, especially when the hump was 75 feet deep. I had the downscan imaging zoomed into the bottom so it automatically adjusted for depth and only showed the upper 10-20 feet above the bottom. The downscan would show what the hump was and stripers were displayed as a cluster of red circles and cylinders. When the spoons were sent down, the fish would disperse, and the fish traces became easier to see with the traditional sonar. The downscan screen became completely filled with what looked like a cluster of red worms.

The trick is having the downscan zoomed into the bottom. This magnifies the size of the red circles (which are fish) so when a striper school is detected, it looks like a pile of basketballs on the bottom instead of a bunch of marbles which are harder to detect.
 
Last edited:
Fursniper said:
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll be going out again this Friday to try it again.
Click to expand...

Great report and good luck tomorrow. The only difference with the first school we found in Warm Creek last trip and the many schools you chased is that our schooling fish all had shad in their stomachs. That means shad were close by or in the memory bank of the school fish. They saw our spoons and it signaled shad to them so they actively responded. Your schools obviously had been searching for forage without success and their short-term memory banks were devoid of shad.

If you find a school that is avoiding spoons then it is best to chum (feed them) and let them respond to your food as a school. Get the school lit up and you can catch a bunch.

I usually take bait with me so I will have the option of catching fish that are not responding to spoons (shad). Then I often move around as you did to find an active school hoping for the best. It is not often I actually deploy chum which means its OK for me to have a low catch fishing trip. I am usually investigating how fish are reacting and responding so no catch for me is a valid observation.

On a brighter note I am very impressed with your graphing abilities and how well you discovered the schools that were there even if they didn't respond. That tells me I should check out Gunsight, Padre or beyond on my next trip to see if there are active schools available.
 
wayne gustaveson said:
I have better pictures than this on my home computer but you can get an idea of what to look for by looking at the the regular graph on the left and the downscan on the right. Working together these two images confirm fish ID.


View attachment 4155
Click to expand...
Wayne those fish look like they are ready to go. Do you have any split screen of fish resting on the bottom. I usually look for separation from the bottom.
 
Ron McKinney said:
Wayne those fish look like they are ready to go. Do you have any split screen of fish resting on the bottom. I usually look for separation from the bottom.
Click to expand...

It is really hard to pick up the camera, instead of the fishing rod when a potential school we have been looking for suddenly appears on the bottom. I do have some pics at home and will try to load them this afternoon.
 
Thanks for posting the graphs Wayne.

We returned to Warm Creek today (Friday) armed with anchovies for chumming. We went to the same areas we found them 2 days ago and could not find any striper schools resting on the bottom. We expanded the search area and looked at depths from 50 to 120 feet deep adjacent to where they were before. We were still unable to find where they had relocated. We also went to Gunsight and we were unsuccessful finding schools there.

Overall, we spent 3 hours (12:30 to 3:30pm) looking for striper schools resting on the bottom and could not find any. So we struck out today and did not catch any stripers. :( I'm wondering what others are finding.
 
Last edited:
Fursniper said:
Thanks for posting the graphs Wayne. What we did differently is having the downscan zoomed into bottom to only show the upper 10-20 feet above the bottom. This makes the red circles appear larger so its like looking for basketballs instead of golf balls on the bottom. When we encountered a school, it was obvious.

We returned to Warm Creek today (Friday) armed with anchovies for chumming. We went to the same areas and could not find any striper schools resting on the bottom. We were also unable to find where the stripers had relocated. Also went to Gunsight and we were unsuccessful finding schools there. Overall, we spent 3 hours of effort looking for striper schools resting on the bottom and could not find any. So we struck out today and did not catch any stripers. :( Two days ago they were there and today nothing. I'm wondering what others are finding.
Click to expand...

I will head out early next week looking for details to post in my first weekly fish report of the year which should be published on March 6th. I hope I can find the pattern but March is an interesting month when it comes to finding fish.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top