Captains Blog: Wednesday November 8, 2006
(Okay I borrowed that from Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. I'm the Administrator...I can do stuff like that)
B. Everette Jordan Lake
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You know, it is never easy to find the right combination of time off work, an opening in our family schedule and favorable weather conditions at the coast for some saltwater fishing. Thus I only make about 4-5 trips to the coast each year at this point in our lives. So I started looking at freshwater options that are closer to home and potentially more doable. As a result I went fishing for Striped Bass for the first time on Wednesday morning. I had booked a charter with Capt. Troy Roberson of Striper-Sniper.com a couple months back and have been anxiously awaiting the opportunity to learn how to catch this beautiful fish of the freshwater variety.

It had rained hard most of the day on Tuesday and into Tuesday night. I awoke around 4:30 Wednesday morning to the steady patter of a slow rain but started gathering my stuff in hopes that the weatherman's forecast that the rain would subside and temperature's would reach a high of around 68, would actually come to pass. I met Capt. Troy at the boat ramp on Jordan Lake a couple minutes past 6AM. It was very cloudy, the sun had not started to climb over the trees yet and the temperature was surprisingly warm. We launched Troy's 19' Key West bay boat and moved about 20 yards or so to the bridge looking for bait. The shad were popping the top of the water and it only took a couple of casts by Capt. Troy with his 10' cast net to put about 75-80 lively shad in the bait well.

We headed out of Beaver Creek across the lake and dropped our first lines about 6:45 or so. Capt. Troy has a great system of judging how deep his lines are deployed and we promptly had six baitcasters rigged and lines in the water within a very short time. Troy placed two lines forward at about 14' water depth, two lines mid-ship at 16' an two aft at 18'. We were marking bait and fish in no time.

Capt. Troy had fished the day before in the hard rain and boated 12 stripers that day. We were hopeful that we could match that number. It is hard to remember now as the day elapsed so quickly, but I think we had the first 6 lb. striper in the boat within 15 minutes of putting lines in the water. At one point we had four fish on at once and it was a fun watching Capt. Troy contort and twist trying to hand me another rod while he netted another fish. I wish we'd had a video camera cause it would have been good television! We caught one after another all in the 6-9 lb. range.

We had boated over a dozen fish when Troy asked me what I thought of Striper fishing on Jordan Lake. I was hooked and he was reeling me in! With Capt. Troy's expertise we had the pleasure of boating 31 stripers that day! We caught 28 of them with live bait then switched over to trolling with plastics and picked up three more. We lost two at the boat and missed a couple more hookups, but all in all one fine day of fishing.

In fact, I think it was the best day of fishing I've had in a long time. We practically had the lake to ourselves. There was the occassional bald eagle, gull and blue heron circling above. And as the fog lifted and we caught a glimpse of the fall treeline around Jordan Lake, I was impressed once again with the magnificient beauty of God's creation.
I felt blessed to be there at that moment taking it in. It was not only the number of fish that we caught, nor the action they provided, but the experience of making a new friend in the process.

If you are interested in learning to catch Striped Bass at Lake Jordan be sure to contact Capt. Troy Roberson of Striper-Sniper.com. Cause he's the man! Capt. Troy Roberson has agreed to serve as a moderator of our Freshwater and Saltwater Striper forums, s if you're interested in Striped Bass/Rockfish/Striper fishing posta note in one of those forums to get a thread started!

BTW, yes I kept four fish because not only had I never caught a Striper before, but I had never tasted one either. I cooked the first one on the grill last night. Thumbs up! - NCangler