# well fed stripers!



## fishallyear

went to my spot on blackwater again monday after work. stripers were busting everywhere! boated at least 9 before dark, and a couple of speckled trout too, all on topwater. cleaned the few stripers i kept for supper yesterday. found them all to be gorged on shad.. hope this keeps up all winter! ron


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## Garbo

Dang. 


On Second thought....It would have been cool if you would have put an old bent up Car Licence Plate under the shad in the picture. 



.


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## J Smithers

Man I think the term "gorged" is an understatement. Nice fish!!!


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## dabutcher

Great job on the stripers! What has been the average size of the fish and are stripers good to eat?


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## Boatjob1

Man did I read that wrong,, lolololololol... Sorry.... Nice catch....


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## fishallyear

dabutcher said:


> Great job on the stripers! What has been the average size of the fish and are stripers good to eat?


 Excellent eating! the ones i've been getting are all 18-22"... waitin 4 a good ol biggun now! 'course i'll take big ol goodern too (like 15-20lbs!)


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## CatHunter

i used to catch some nice stripers in a deep hole on black water right at the rivers bend before u go intoo the lake and take the cutt off up little blackwater


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## roanokeriverrunner

yeh the stripers are on the frenzy in blackwater theyve been bustin shad balls all week, its a great time of the year


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## fishn4fun

Is there an area that's kayak accessible to have a chance at a striper That's one of many on my bucket list


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## Bbagwell

Is that shad or Menhaden? Didnt think the shad were in any of these waters. Please correct me if im wrong. Been catching the devil out of them on Escambia lately, but i thought they were eatin the Menhaden.


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## nojerseydevil

I believe those are Menhaden, but some folks refer to pods of bait fish as Shad--just to make it easier on trying to ID the type of fish. 

NJD


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## fishallyear

Bbagwell said:


> Is that shad or Menhaden? Didnt think the shad were in any of these waters. Please correct me if im wrong. Been catching the devil out of them on Escambia lately, but i thought they were eatin the Menhaden.


 you're probably correct. they just look similar to a redeye shad lure, so shad stuck in my mind..


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## CatHunter

they are menhaden that migrate from the gulf


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## J rod

actually headed out to the gulf in the colder months to spawn. it's cool to me how so many of these fish mullet and flounder included spawn in the gulf the the larva find their way back inshore (sometimes 30 miles upriver) all after floating all around on currents in the gulf. guess it helps keep the genes diversified. definatly menhaden though, lots of folks call them LY's around here.


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## roanokeriverrunner

yeh they are menhaden im pretty sure, but a lot of people, including me just say shad, almost the same thing regardless the stripers wont care of their shad or menhaden i doubt they can tell the difference, except by taste maybe


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## Fish-n-Fur

roanokeriverrunner said:


> yeh they are menhaden im pretty sure, but a lot of people, including me just say shad, almost the same thing regardless the stripers wont care of their shad or menhaden i doubt they can tell the difference, except by taste maybe


only the ones that don't go to school....hardy har har


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## Amarillo Palmira

I believe that menhaden are members of the shad family. its my understanding though that Blackwater does not have a year around population of shad like does, say, Choctaw. Somebody please correct me if i'm wrong though. Thanks!


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## Corky

CatHunter said:


> i used to catch some nice stripers in a deep hole on black water right at the rivers bend before u go intoo the lake and take the cutt off up little blackwater


That's where I hit the jackpot 2 wks ago. They were biting like crazy. This last week . . . . not so much but after the great day 2 wks ago I'll be back out there again this weekend. :thumbup:


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## CatHunter

yes sir, bites going to be hot Sunday night, if u have never tried stripper fishing at night u should, all you need is a battery power light to keep in the water and they will swarm it, crappie too..0os iv said too much:whistling:


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## Emerald Ghost

J rod said:


> definatly menhaden though, lots of folks call them LY's around here.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for the clarification. We have always called the LY's


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## jstblsd

Very nice!!!


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## nathan70

LY's and menhaden are different.




roanokeriverrunner said:


> yeh they are menhaden im pretty sure, but a lot of people, including me just say shad, almost the same thing regardless the stripers wont care of their shad or menhaden i doubt they can tell the difference, except by taste maybe


http://www.otterpointcreek.org/images/uploaded/Fish%20Identification%20Tips.pdf


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## nathan70

Menhaden have spots and are more oily, alewives are more streanline. Same family though. Menhaden work better dead than alewives, due to the oil.


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## CatHunter

*There are herrings, shads, sardines and menhaden's all broken down into many different species so it gets kinda tricky if they all just look like little shinny bait fish to you.. you can just say(shad)

Atlantic Menhaden
*


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## nathan70

I know futher up in the bays I see more menhaden and out by pickens and the gulf way more ly's.


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## fsu alex

Yep they all look like fish to me


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