While traveling to Alabama for business, I had the opportunity to break away and fish Lake Martin with good friend Brian Smith and Jim Perimore (local bass guide). Since Brian had spent time with us out West, he wanted to treat me to southern Striper Bass fishing. Once we arrived at the dock early Saturday morning, I explained to Brian and Jim that I had never fished for Stripers. Jim explained we would target the fish a couple different ways – downriggers using a hyper action flash lure similar to an apex and live bait! Jim stepped on his 24ft. open guide boat rigged with full electronics, downriggers and most of all a sun top! Jim shared a couple of his secrets with us on how taking care of live bait to establish the right bacteria is key….
In Search of Striper
Secret Live Well
First Setup....
Now Jim is no ordinary guide, this guy hunts Stripers and can sniff them out with his trusted K9. Jim watches his Lowrance LCX19C sonar waiting for images representing holding Stripers at about 40 feet deep. From there he likes to drop a sinker with live bait to entice a bite. Once Jim sets us up for the first drop, we could watch Stripers swim up to the bait for a “drive by” Jim calls it! Bummer as we thought we would have our first strike well before the heat and humidity would play a factor.
Sonar Hunting....
K9 on Duty
Vacation Homes
Small Fixer Upper...
"FISH ON"
K9 on the Job!
1st Striper in the Boat!
Brian ended up fighting the fish for about five minutes before being netted. Once I got a close look at the large bass, I realized they look a lot like a monster shad with the chrome color of a salmon. All I could think was “what a cool species of fish”. Way to go Brian – we got the skunk off the boat!
Unfortunately the rest of the day proved to be a lot of trolling while observing Stripers “window shop” according to Jim. It seems these fish can be tricky to entice a bite! I want to say Jim and Brian were a pleasure to fish with while taking in the sites. Hats off to Jim for all the pointers as he shared his passion for Striper fishing. All I can say is I’ll be back for another try! Fishing is fishing and catching is catching! Thanks for the friendship guys while spending time pursuing the outdoors.
Headed back to the NW....