Stripers Heating Up in Balus Creek

LittleDrummerBoy

Senior Member
Launched at Balus Creek today around 3:30 PM. Picked up the first striper of the day still in the Balus Creek area before making the turn up Flat Creek. Precision trolling as usual - Michigan Stinger spoons 20 feet deep behind Walker Deeper divers. Marking most fish in 50-80 feet of water.

Trolling all the way up Flat Creek produced nothing but a couple dink spots, both on MI Stinger spoons, and one on the same color as the early striper. Lots of bait in the bay area at the upper end of Flat Creek, but not many fish of any size. I decided to make my way back to the Balus Creek area. Lots of nothing, so I headed further up the creek until the point of no return where I could barely turn the boat around trolling lures 50-100 feet back.

Heading back to the open Balus Bay type area near the boat ramp, I prayed for wisdom like James 1 talks about. I then decided to put out 6 MI Stinger spoons in colors identical or close to the ones that already produced fish today. By 7 PM, the sun was setting as I reached the area where I caught the first striper a few hours earlier. Bam! Fish on! Bam! Another fish on while still reeling the first one in. My first "double" on stipers. By the time I had them both in the boat, another boat had come into the spot where I had hooked up with them, so I trolled back as close as I could without getting uncomfortably close. Bam! The fourth striper of the day.

All of today's fish were on Michigan Stinger spoons with lots of orange. The last three minutes of the video show the double. I'm still working on the videography of fighting and landing fish while trolling. But I think the video gives the gist of how it goes.
 

Limitless

Senior Member
That's some neat stuff. I never thought about fishing spoons for Striper. I'm not very good at fresh water fishing but that technique makes a lot of sense - trolling a spoon that mimics natural baits and covering water. I've got to give that a shot. Thanks for the education!
 

LittleDrummerBoy

Senior Member
This video gives a lot more info on the technique. I was not very good at freshwater fishing before I got into trolling. Not only does trolling consistently produce fish, but it also affords a look so much water on the sonar in the process that I've become a better still fisherman also.

 
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