New Hogan non-yak 8/22

Took the wife out on the b**t yesterday at hogan.

We landed two stripers trolling from 20-35ft deep on the wire by 8:30 (double hookup), and only one hit the rest of the day. marked tons of fish by the dam but nothing that wanted to bite.

Both were upriver towards the first buoy line in approx 50 feet of water.  Rolling chovies.  The smaller one was a 24inch male, larger a 26inch female.  probably in the 4-6lb range, healthy and clean but with nothing in their stomach.

Was really nice to have the wife fish with me though, better than fishing alone.  The lake lice took over around 11:30am and we were off by noon.  Boat ran well finally, thanks to new plugs. zoom zoom!

pics are at home and i'll post them up later. 

I've always wanted to hit Hogan but have never taken the time.  How exactly were you rolling your 'chovies?

just like rolling herring, hook in the nose, trailer treble hook in the back, slight enough bend to make er spin.  make sure the chovies are cold or else you're really just rolling a meatball.  using those tray chovies from FW means small hooks, size 6 octo up front and a size 8 treble in the rear.  

nice tight spirals when its rolling like me throwing a football...except without the lame ducky-ness.

i forgot my scents at home which i think would have helped us get more fish.  they were all over down there and tons of bait.  I bet during the weekdays in the evenings those stripers would be boiling all over the place.  problem is the stripers were pretty much DOA into the boat - tried to release but they just floated.  not sure if that's due to the warm water or depth or what.  we steamed up half the smaller one last night and it was pretty darned good asian style with green onions, cilantro, soy sauce.

the double was really fun though especially on light tackle, my wife was using my 7'0 UL shimano agility rod and I was using my new shimano talora 7'0 L - that rod is really nice, fishes like glass but is TC4 and has a lifetime over-the counter warranty.  thanks to yakhopper of course for that suggestion.

finally got my camera back..it was in my car, which was in the shop.

here's the pics

ben i recall the boat was under powered? was the solution new plugs?

Yes, new plugs. I was all ready to rebuild the carbs too. A little seafoam probably didn't hurt either.

Nice catch. The imfamous cookie cutter fish of hogan. How big where the shad in their stomachs?

-Brian G

WTG on the stripers Ben 

Jedmo

Wow, nice stripers.  Perfect size for BBQ stuffed with tomatoes,onions and lots of garlic.  WTG Ben!

Empty stomachs brian, surprising due to the amount of bait I saw on the ff.  I didn't see too many stripers crashing through that bait on the ff though so maybe they were waiting for evening.

Nice fish Ben!
Stripers digest food very quickly...they could've been gorging on shad and their stomachs w/b empty in a few hours.

PK, usually they are spitting up shad when you boat them.

-Brian G