# Black Water 12/4



## JD7.62 (Feb 13, 2008)

Ginzu, yakntat and I made a trip to Black Water this morning. Ginzu had fished it once, but YnT and I had never fished those waters.

Striper was our target. We met at 0500 and fished the Hwy 90 Bridge and train trussel with no luck. I had one good hit on a lipless crank bait but that was it. We worked our way down river some.

I caught a speck trolling so we circled back and threw jigs. We ended up with four keeper specks in that spot. We moved on and finally Ginzu hooks into what we came for, a striper! Fish wasnt huge but a keeper at 22 inches. Tide went slack about 0915 and other then a few short trout the bite died. 

It was beautiful out there today and we saw two bald eagles. Generally striper fishing is best on crappy weather days so we will give it a shot in conditions less ideal for us. Overall I was pleased with our performance, we are offshore guys and for us to fish new water inshore and come out with what we came for, Id consider that a success! Oh and I found me a nice new popper!


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## azevedo16 (Aug 18, 2010)

Nice!:thumbup:


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Nice fish Rob! Good report


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## LIM-IT-OUT (Aug 26, 2014)

its a beauty


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## MC Yak (Nov 16, 2014)

Nice.:thumbup:
I grew up fishing for stripers ( rockfish back home ). They loved fast moving water, structure & big bait back home.


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## Stressless (Oct 2, 2007)

As the weather and water get colder they'll push further into East River Bayou (East of the Powerlines) and up Blackwater. They concentrate on dock lights at night just like reds and trout. Caught them many times at the light. 

As far as size that's a nice sized, standard sized for a hybrid - from the pic it looks like the stripes are unbroken, a good sign that it's went full Striper.

Can't to get back from overseas and get salty. Tight lines guys.


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Good job!!!! Holy popper, they trying ta catch Moby Dick with that joker????


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## JD7.62 (Feb 13, 2008)

It was indeed a striper, not a hybrid. Ive caught tons of both back in KY. Im not sure how many hybrids FWC stock in BW, I know they stock Escambia pretty good though. 

The fish in our area are interesting. During the warmer months they go up stream and settle over cool springs as they can not tolerate warm waters. As it cools they come down river and into the bays to to gorge before it warms up and they have to go back up stream where they will rarely feed. 

As for the size of the popper, there are some good sized stripers in our area and a 20+ pound fish would have no problem hitting that thing! Ive got an idea I want to try for day time trolling the river, I hate fishing at night.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

I'd like to add that broken lines are not enough to distinguish a true striper from a hybrid. Plenty of Striper have broken lines, even large fish in the NE.


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## barefoot (Nov 3, 2011)

JD7.62 said:


> It was indeed a striper, not a hybrid. Ive caught tons of both back in KY. Im not sure how many hybrids FWC stock in BW, I know they stock Escambia pretty good though.
> 
> The fish in our area are interesting. During the warmer months they go up stream and settle over cool springs as they can not tolerate warm waters. As it cools they come down river and into the bays to to gorge before it warms up and they have to go back up stream where they will rarely feed.
> 
> As for the size of the popper, there are some good sized stripers in our area and a 20+ pound fish would have no problem hitting that thing! Ive got an idea I want to try for day time trolling the river, I hate fishing at night.


 Hey JD;

Good catch.

Pretty good analogy of our fish, but stripers do indeed eat and get caught all yr. round...I know a 16 yr. old who caught a 20+ off his dock in July last summer at daylight on top water.... his dock is in 6 ft. of water. Not common but it happens.


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## JD7.62 (Feb 13, 2008)

There are always exceptions to the rule, but I think we can all agree that they pretty much vanish during the warmer months.

The only other place in Florida were stripers are found, the Jacksonville area, the areas were they summer are well known. The fish go up the St. Johns and settle over some well known springs. I have a buddy who is a FWC biologist for the St. Johns River area and he said in one of those springs you can go up there and look down and see hundreds, if not thousands of them swimming in circles down there all summer long. That spring is closed for fishing though. Itd be awesome if one were to find where our striper hang out all summer!


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## JD7.62 (Feb 13, 2008)

In fact my buddy and I talked about this yesterday. We were talking about why the summer grounds for our fish are not as well known. We concluded that its perhaps because our rivers are deeper and move faster then the St. Johns. Maybe the fish spread out a bit more and are able to over summer in deeper bends and bottle necks up and down the rivers where the temps will be cooler and more dissolved oxygen is available. The St. Johns is rather sluggish and shallow so the fish are forced to congregate over the springs exclusively over there. Either way, its something cool to think about. They are a unique fish for the state of Florida thats for sure!


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## Bo Keifus (May 9, 2012)

My roommate has land right off the Chattahoochee in Ga. They've got 2 springs feeding a creek that feeds into the river and at the right time of year you can stand on their dock and see tons of striper in the spring. It's really cool to see, and you're right about them hardly ever eating


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## barefoot (Nov 3, 2011)

Well, I still disagree...fish have to eat all yr. long.

The great thing about America...we can have diff. opinion's...

I know men who do not post or use this forum in any way who target & catch stripers all yr. long. They hold up in these 40+ ft. deep holes in our rivers, but CAN be caught, on LARGE live bait, at night. 

Just because no one hears it or sees it on our forum, doesn't mean it 's not happening.
MOST people do not target stripers in the warmer months, hence the low catch/near catch reports.

They are a favorite target in the winter months because they are more visible in their feeding habits during cold months.


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