Herring Eaters

Tons of herring moved in at the area I fish on Lake Anna. Blueback herring make fish behave in very strange ways and today was no exception. I started off targeting some breaking fish that I assumed were stripers (what else would chase bait on the surface in 48 degree water, RIGHT?), throwing a 4" swing impact on a light jighead. Every time something thumped my swimbait I expected a nice little linesider, but every time I was shocked to see a green one on the end of my line. Today I kept a free lined herring behind my kayak at all times. It was so easy to net them that I couldn't pass up the opportunity. The free lined herring produced about half of my fish today.

Fish only fed during the first and last hour of daylight, something I wouldn't expect in the winter, but again these are herring eaters so they do what they want. I gave it my best during the mid day lull, and even though I could see them on my fishfinder, they were not interested in anything at all, even live herring. Fish started to pick up again in the evening though.

In the last 15 minutes of daylight it was like someone flipped a light switch and every striper in the area came to the surface for a couple of minutes. I landed 4 on the swimbait in 5 casts, then they were gone as quickly as they appeared. Ended the day with 24 largemouth, 4 stripers, and a channel cat for the icing on the cake. Exactly 80 largemouth this year so far...I may have a problem.