Interesting thought about marking bait.

[zar2754]

i was just scanning some old threads buffing up on some knowledge, when i found one about running at slack tide if nnothing is biting.
and most people concured that if you dont mark bait or fish when they arrive at their spot, then the dont even bother to drop the hook.

however i like to think that fish and bait move location to location depending on tide , water flow, and other such conditions, so if you dont mark anything when you first arrive, who is to say they wont be there an hour or 2 later...? im mainly refering to striper fishing...

seems to me you can waist alot of time running and looking
rather than establishing a decent slick.. just throwing it out there, what do you guys think?

[SNAKE EYES]

i kind of think it depends how early in the season it is, just my thoughts it seems to e that early, like now, we tend to move around and search for fish, only because the concentration of them is n't there yet, now in 3 - 4 weeks its a different game, then i just go to gps #s and drop the hook when the desired location is reached. again not the only way to do it, just my way. good luck dave

[Darrin G. DGREENEMACHINE]

If you know what area of the bay and what kind of structure to fish for a time of the season and a certain tide, you will know the likely spots that the fish will be holding when you head out looking for them. With that knowledge if I don't see them I look at teh next appropriate spot, having planned my search in advance to take me to several spots in a short distance.

If you're going to go out and set up on one of the flats and use the slick to bring em in, then yes, you may accomplish that with patience. I never ever do that so my game is run and gun the types of proven structure I know will hold fish, until I find some that are willing to eat.

As for time I look at it like this... When I find the bite we will be limited out and releasing fish in a matter of 1 hour, so I don't worry about wasting time running, what I worry about is wasting time getting no bites, or a bite every two hours from a stray fish that happens to swim by.

Let's face it, anchor in 22-24 ft anywhere in the bay and you will probably catch a few fish eventually, but if you want to hit those 10+ fish days, you have to be more scientific and more aggressive.

As Dave said, just my opinion and my method.

But then I will drive 20 miles out of my way and take just as long as sitting in traffic, just so I'm not sitting in traffic. I guess I drink too much coffee.

[Fish-Head]

Ok I have a question when you all say "mark bait or fish" What does this mean do you see alot on your finder or just 1 or 2 and when you make a move is it a couple yards - couple hundred yards - or miles?

[zar2754]

marking bait is usually a school of bait,(they can be in any water column) or a couple or so "fish" marks on the finder, as far as moving, it may only be couple yards distance between an area not holding fish and one that is... so the choice of the distance you move is up to you, it is best to have a plan with specific spots you have in mind ahead of time. you cant just run about aimlessly looking for marks on the finder. you need to find spots on a chart, determine "what will most likely hold fish" and search those areas first...i am not one to rely on finder markings, hense the reason for this post!

[Fish-Head]

marking bait is usually a school of bait,(they can be in any water column) or a couple or so "fish" marks on the finder, as far as moving, it may only be couple yards distance between an area not holding fish and one that is... so the choice of the distance you move is up to you, it is best to have a plan with specific spots you have in mind ahead of time. you cant just run about aimlessly looking for marks on the finder. you need to find spots on a chart, determine "what will most likely hold fish" and search those areas first...i am not one to rely on finder markings, hense the reason for this post! When you pick specific spots what do you look for on the chart? Any large change in depth? what are the thinks I should look for to pick a good spot? when I get to the spot do you cruise around looking for anything?

[Darrin G. DGREENEMACHINE]

Ok I have a question when you all say "mark bait or fish" What does this mean do you see alot on your finder or just 1 or 2 and when you make a move is it a couple yards - couple hundred yards - or miles?

I have a cheap FF so the bait shows up as fuzz... I would like to see a continuous stream of fuzz but sometimes it is intermittant, and that is OK too with enought frequency.

I agree with zar that a move can be short or long, although when I say move I usually mean look at a new piece of structure. A few yards is covered when surveying a potential area to set up, so if I'm moving it's to another piece of structure entirely and usually that's 1-5 miles, depending where I am in the bay.

Sometimes the first spot is loaded and we just fish. My record is about 50 miles round trip in a day when we just couldn't seem to hook up consistantly.

We started that day up near flat top and worked our way (running and fishing) all the way down accross the shoe and the punk grounds, to where the 60 and the 20 meet (20 miles form the original location). I was following a radio report from luv2fish, but I wasn't going to run over potentially productive water at 30 kts trying to get to him. We looked at every likely hole along the way and fished a couple of them before we finally made it down to where he was. We never did find him because cells weren't working and he wasn't going to announce his numbers on he air (understandable), and we ran past him, but we found some dirty water full of bunker and caught our 6 fish limit in about half a hour. With that we headed home at 3 pm. His report just got me running south that day and by searching we found our own fish.

The above is just an extreme example of what I have done on a calm day to find fish for my crew. I don't believe in waiting them out. I know where to look on a given tide direction and I keep searching until I find them.

[Darrin G. DGREENEMACHINE]

When you pick specific spots what do you look for on the chart? Any large change in depth? what are the thinks I should look for to pick a good spot? when I get to the spot do you cruise around looking for anything?

Won't be too specific here or you will be next to me all of the time. I use the chart more than the average guy and don't have "proven spots" except a few. Fish could be anywhere in the bay but usually I want...

18-30+ feet of water in a short distance
tide flowing down hill or paralell to the structure
few if any boats so you usually don't seem much of me
clean water unless it's dirty and loaded with bait

but if you're marking fish in 25 f of water and you can find a flat spot 25 ft deep and away form the crowd,with deep water nearby, you can bring them to you with a chum/chunk slick

so jus depends on what you like to do, there are many methods and philosophies to catching these fish since they are just eating machines when they are in they bay

[Fish-Head]

When you say structure do you mean lumps and drops or something else? Maybe I just dont know what a true structure is.

[Darrin G. DGREENEMACHINE]

When you say structure do you mean lumps and drops or something else? Maybe I just dont know what a true structure is.

humps, drops, rubble on the bottom, lighthouse structure....

humps and drops are the primary DB structure though

[Hurry Sundown]

i have a garmin gps fishfinder 492 and when we arrive at the area we set our fish alarm for big fish and go real slow .we dont like the alarms on long just for the hook .then we turn off the alarm sometimes its works and sometimes it doesnt but when it does look out.ill try anything but yes once you find a hot spot stay there until fish leave.it is best to find these fish at slack tide.or just before.also if you can just get a couple of markings thats ok when the tide starts to go you should be ready with rods with fresh bait on .last weekend we caught all our stripers when the tide just started to move out.

[DEEP POCKETS]

If you know what area of the bay and what kind of structure to fish for a time of the season and a certain tide, you will know the likely spots that the fish will be holding when you head out looking for them. With that knowledge if I don't see them I look at teh next appropriate spot, having planned my search in advance to take me to several spots in a short distance.

If you're going to go out and set up on one of the flats and use the slick to bring em in, then yes, you may accomplish that with patience. I never ever do that so my game is run and gun the types of proven structure I know will hold fish, until I find some that are willing to eat.

As for time I look at it like this... When I find the bite we will be limited out and releasing fish in a matter of 1 hour, so I don't worry about wasting time running, what I worry about is wasting time getting no bites, or a bite every two hours from a stray fish that happens to swim by.

Let's face it, anchor in 22-24 ft anywhere in the bay and you will probably catch a few fish eventually, but if you want to hit those 10+ fish days, you have to be more scientific and more aggressive.

As Dave said, just my opinion and my method.

But then I will drive 20 miles out of my way and take just as long as sitting in traffic, just so I'm not sitting in traffic. I guess I drink too much coffee.

I see the colder weather has really got you going this morning Darrin:D Striper fever is kicking in...lol

Learned alot from your post and reinforced the idea that there are different ways to catch stripers while chunking the bay, run and gun and fish different pieces of structure depending on marking bait/ tide direction or throw the hook in a proven spot and chunk your arse off and wait em out. I'd like to try your method one of these days, let me know if you ever need to fill a spot and we'll compare notes;) :)