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New member from Lewis Smith Lake in Cullman AL.

8K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  donnajimhutchens 
#1 ·
Wow. Looks like I'm the first to post here in some time. My name is Jon Grigsby and I recently moved to Smith Lake and have landed my first big stripe about a week ago. I was just north of Goat Island on a large flat east of the channel in about 30 feet. There were huge balls of shad being pushed around by schools of what looked like footballs on my down scan. I used a 4" spoon to vertical jig as the wind pushed me over the shad school. It only took about a minute to have one hooked up and taking line. About 12 minutes later, he was at the boat. Then the fun started... I didn't bring my net. When I tried to lip him, I got a feel for how heavy he actually was and could not get a good grip on him. I grabbed the line and tried to lift him out of the water into the boat but the line cut into my hand. No easy way to get him out of the water.... Oh well. I snapped a picture to show later and used my pliers to release him for another day.

I'm definitely hooked on hunting these fish. Nothing else in freshwater has ever been as much fun to catch. I realized I need some better gear for landing big ones like this one. A grabber with built in scales would be nice and are on my Christmas wish list. Since then, I have spent three days out there trying for a repeat but not having any luck. I can locate the fish. Large mouth look like rice on the down scan and the stripe look like footballs. The problem is getting them to bite. I have read just about all I can find online about techniques and gear, watched all the videos I could find on youtube with freshwater stripe fishing to see how others are getting it done. My next logical step is to take a guided fishing trip with one of the local stripe guides... It will be $400 well spent for an education on how to do it.

I am here to hopefully find others in my area who may want to do some fishing with me going after stripe. To learn from those in my area who may be having better luck or have more skill...

I am pretty sure this stripe would go close to 25+ pounds. That is a 4" spoon in its lip for scale...


I have tried vertical jigging near schools of swarming shad, down line fishing with live shad, and topwater with a 4" shad topwater lure. I had one hit the topwater twice on a single retrieve but did not get him hooked. I have had several bump the spoon but not take it. I am sure its my technique or a lack of it. Any help or info on what is working would be great.
 
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#2 ·
I am having luck using a half ounce bucktail jig, locating a couple of stripe on sonar then casting past. The first was about 12 pounds on the south west end of Goat Island. The second was on the west side of the island and was like hooking the bumper of a passing truck. After a minute, he broke my line and was gone. Time to upgrade line.

Now I'm looking for a good stripe recipe...
 
#4 ·
I have lived on Smith Lake about 20 years but moved to Vinemont. Never fished for stripe until after I moved. What a mistake. Love it. I did use a guide service out of Duncan Marina but am just now trying to get a grip on stripe fishing in Goat Island area. I will be giving it a try today. I will be trying a Berkley choppo, the 3/4 oz white buck tail, Zorro spook and couple other things.. let's see what happens today. Jim Hutchens
 
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