Spring fishing is here and the striper bite is getting fired up. Your best technique for April will be Captain Mack’s Perfect Planer Boards and flatlines. These will help you catch the most fish. The recent rains and cold weather have put us a few weeks behind where we were last year which means a good pre spawn, open-water bite that will continue into April. Your best bait choices in April will be herring of any size and small to medium shad. Make sure you match your hook size to your bait size. Fish herring on a No. 1 or No. 2 Gamakatsu octopus circle, small shad on a 1/0 and medium gizzards on a 4/0 or 5/0 circle. Smaller hooks will keep your herring and small shad viable longer since they won’t get weighed down with having to lug around a big chunk of steel. Place your bait 50 to 100 feet out, clip on your Perfect Planer and run your outside set of boards 70 feet from boat. Repeat the process with the inside set of boards, but only run the boards 35 feet away from the boat. Flatlines are next. Run these 75 to 125 feet behind the boat without any weight, and then the second set of flatlines 50 to 75 feet back with a 3/16-oz. worm weight inline above the swivel. These will ride below the first set and stay clear of the longer lines. We expect a lot of fish up both river arms as the mud clears toward the middle to end April, as well as northern creeks like Thompson, Taylor, Wahoo, Ada, Gainesville and Little River. The beginning of April will have fish still roaming over deep water in the middle of most creeks and mid-lake river channels. As month continues and the water temps warm up into the mid 60s, the fish will move to the 15- to 30-foot deep points and humps throughout the lake. This will be the start of our top water artificial bite and time to tie on a Zara Spook, Chug Bug, Gunfish or Captain Mack’s Mini Mack. As you ease around these areas with your live bait spread out the back of the boat, you can make long casts from the front of the boat to these spots and pick up a few extra fish. Get out there and catch ’em up. Remember that Easter is about our Living Savior that could not be held by the grave, not bunnies.”
Call us today to book your Striper Experience at 678-300-4865!