March 2023 Striper Fishing

[wkelly]

OUCH!! Sorry to hear-- I've notice a lot of stuff floating since the lake came up. I might start collecting the dock floats I kept seeing on the lake-- they run ~$500 each if still in good shape!!
Hope all works out with your lower unit and good luck when back on the water.

[keywest]

Picked it up on Wednesday or Thursday and put it on last night. Could not get cotter pin back in prop nut. That was biggest issue so it was rather easy. Swapped out water pump housing and new pump kit so I'm good to go to 100 hours. Need to test it with muffs at home and then it won't be long before I'm back on the hunt for stripers.

[wkelly]

Takes a bit of courage to reinstall a lower unit-- getting things aligned can be tricky, although there are some good Youtubes out there...like there are for pretty much everything.
Do it yourself repairs is the only thing social media got right.

[keywest]

When I started farming for wildlife I quickly realized I better learn how to repair basic stuff because I tore some stuff up. It was a sharp learning curve. Owning a boat is the same thing as a tractor and equipment. Always something to fix. You think we're all good now after just doing the last repair and then something else breaks, goes bad, needs replaced, or done came loose. And a fair amount of basic maintenance. I think the biggest issue with fixing stuff is getting the bolts off. Like you said, there are plenty of YouTube videos which is always my first reference. I watch as many as possible and then take the best tips from each. I only had a lower unit off one time before and it was on a 25 Evinrude. We replaced the water pump. It was a valuable experience along with the carburetor rebuild we did on it at the same time. Amazing what a rebuild will do when it is needed. Also cheap and easy to do on small motors. It's usually about having the right tools and getting the bolts off. The savings are worth it as long as you know what is wrong or you are just doing routine maintenance. I saved about $400 labor on this job and only purchased $27 worth of tools. The biggest thing I learned from this adventure was when you are running up the river in the dark and thick fog after a few inches of rain through the night, you just better wait for daylight because you can't go slow enough.

Hopefully I will have a fish report after Saturday.

[BigBait]

Anyone fishing the Outdoor Dream Foundation tourney out of Big Oaks tomorrow? Not really a tournament but rather to make kids forget about their struggles in life for a day. See you boys on the water.

[keywest]

Anyone fishing the Outdoor Dream Foundation tourney out of Big Oaks tomorrow? Not really a tournament but rather to make kids forget about their struggles in life for a day. See you boys on the water.

I will be fishing solo out of Twin Lakes. Good luck. i hope your boat has a great day. It would be nice to participate in the future.

[Magoo5]

Seems to be a good bit of floating debris around these days. Hate that happened to keywest. I had a little different experience this past weekend trolling for Stripers. I put a few in the boat early morning ( released all of them ) and then hooked something that fought a little different than a striper. Felt like it had some weight but didn't put up too much of a fight. Got it to the boat and netted it. See the attached photo for the first Walleye ( pretty sure it is a Walleye ) I have caught or even heard of anyone catching in Hartwell. Anybody ever caught one ?walleye.jpg

[keywest]

Yeah, that's a walleye. Hope you didn't lip him to get him in the boat. Not sure what I would do, but they are one of the best tasting fish out there. GA DNR tried several years stocking them in Hartwell as well as a few other lakes. I think that program is long over but the hold overs are out there and a few must still be producing some offspring. I ran into a guide that strickly went for walleyes but he was not targeting them on Hartwell and he wasn't from around here either. He fished out of a like a 16 foot v-bottom Lund. Not much of a boat. He has some videos on the internet. I bet is you googled upstate walleye guide, you would find him.

Good news on the boat. Back in working order with a new LU and prop. Fished this past weekend in Coneross. Lots of boats on Saturday, almost no boats on Sunday. I think the fish are quickly moving out of coneross for deeper cooler waters. Didn't catch much to speak of. A real mixed bag of hybrids and spotted bass. Sunday was filled with pull downs and nothing to show. Moved away from the pull downs and it was hard to find a fish. Time to head down the lake.

Good luck all.

[wesh9999]

I've caught 3 walleye over the past few years trolling deep plugs in late spring or early summer on the Tugaloo a couple of miles down from the I-85 bridge. I've heard that there aren't many in the lake but that they do spawn way up by the Yonah dam in the spring. They are great eating fish. Definitely watch out for sharp gill plates, dorsal spines, and nasty teeth when handling them.

[keywest]

Yonah dam was one of the lakes GA DNR stocked with walleyes for a few year back in the early 2000's.

Headed out this weekend for some lined fish. Hope to have a good report on Monday.