Fish are active on topwater
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Shad removed from striper stomachs after yesterday’s fishing trip were small adults that can swim fast rather than larval fish that cannot swim well at all. When stripers pursue larval shad, they trap shad against the surface and slurp up the small shad. Anglers only see the striper mouth breaking the surface and perhaps a small wake created as stripers compete with one another to eat the most shad.
However, when shad are able to swim fast, stripers still try to trap them at the surface but the speed and activity are much greater. The surface feeding event is called a “boil” as individual stripers jump out of the water while chasing shad. When 10 to 50 stripers are seen jumping out of the water at the same time in a tight formation the feeding action can be seen from far away. These stripers are aggressive and can be caught by casting a surface lure or shallow running crankbait just beyond the action and retrieving it through the feeding school.
Since boil fishing is the most exciting type of angling experience performed in fresh water, we started out early yesterday to search for boils in the southern lake. Unfortunately, the sky was overcast and a breeze kept the surface stirred up and prevented stripers from finding shad schools and driving them to the surface. We left the ramp at dawn and three hours later had covered much water but had seen no boils. We caught an occasional striper or smallmouth bass while trolling and watching for surface action.
At 8 a.m., the breeze quit and the sun came out. Twenty minutes later, we saw the first boil break the surface about halfway back in the canyon. From 8:30 to 9:30, fishing was intense and very successful.