# Etowah river Stripers



## Alan Matthews (Jun 19, 2008)

Where is the best place to catch some stripers on the river and what are they hitting  New to striper fishing need info thanks


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## Dirk (Jun 19, 2008)

*Etowah stripers*

Stripers can be caught right now on the E anywhere from Rome to the Allatoona dam, and above Allatoona from Ballground to just below Dahlonega. As far as the BEST place to catch them, well I doubt anyone will tell you that. Not to mention that all of us might consider different places the best. Live gizzard shad is the best GA summer bait for river stripers in my opinion. Threadfins, shiners, and bream will also usually work. Here is a nice one caught this morning on a big gizzard shad.







On the Etowah in the summer look for cold water (< 72 degrees) that is 4+ feet deep and there is likely a striper around between now and September. Either cast a shad to them or float it down to them under a balloon or float. The one in the picture above came on a gizzard shad 4 feet under a balloon floated down over an 8 foot deep hole. If you catch any please release them if they are big, so they can get bigger. Here is a short video of the release of the fish above. Good Luck. Dirk


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## CardsFan (Jun 19, 2008)

Good grief, Dirk.  That is a monster


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## brett30030 (Jun 19, 2008)

Very nice fish Dirk, I'd love to see some vids of the jet boat running the river.


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## Dirk (Jun 19, 2008)

*videos*

Brett, I will try to remember to make some next trip. I which I had a picture of my boat up on this huge stump I accidentally rammed today. 90% of the boat was out of the water as after it dented the front in the boat went all the way up on it and almost submerged my motor...   Here is the new beauty mark on my jetboat... 






This was my wifes first trip in my jetboat as she doesn't like to fish much. After the stump incident it may be a few more years before I get her to go with me again...


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## kscoggins (Jun 19, 2008)

Dirk you are HARDCORE.  Nice jumbo striper, the huge rocks looks cool, looks kinda like the background of pics you have had in the past.  Too bad about your wife, thats the luck though, something bad will happen when you finally get them out there.

Edited to remove typing around the censor.


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## CardsFan (Jun 19, 2008)

Ouch, Dirk!  That's exaclty what I'm afraid of.

We had a scare Saturday heading up a narrow river.  I picked the wrong side of the island and trees were blocking our path at the top of the chute.  I had to shut down - no room to turn - and skidded to a stop on gravel.   Julie and I had to get out and push the boat off the shoal and barely had enough water to float it and turn it around.  Thankfully there was a few feet of 2 foot depth to get back on plane and get over the stumps limbs just under the surface.

When we got back below the island we turned around and headed up the _right _side of the island.  That's my brilliant deductive reasoning kicking in. 

We got up to the start of the challenging part of the river but the temps were way to warm, so we caught our losses and headed downriver to a more promising spot, and caught some decent fish (for a change).  Biggest was 14#

BTW, Julie managed to NOT step on the bag of chips behind her


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## kscoggins (Jun 19, 2008)

Lee you ain't got to worry about dents man, your rig will slide right over it(or come to a halt)  Not sure what the temps were when you went but a month ago they were hovering just under 70 deg in the am and lower 70s after the heat.  I'm sure they jumped up in the last few weeks but if I am guessing right on the river you are on, there are 2 or 3 springs I have found scattered on that river, although some are about 10 river miles or so upstream  Actually last year once the lake was down I found a big rock on the right side of the river that was exposed because of low water, it had a pretty strong flow of COLD water out of it.  Right now it is well hidden underneath.  Good luck to you guys.


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## CardsFan (Jun 19, 2008)

Kevin, the gravel and stumps I'm not worried about - it's getting completely stuck and those danged rocks that can jump out right in front of you!

Winching the boat off a shoal is a slow and un-fun experience 

The temps were in the upper 70's up where we were - not conducive to a big fish bite.  But maybe the cool nights this week have helped.

We've gone way up the river with Cy and Tony Hughes over the years, but we haven't made it up that far by ourselves in the jet - _yet_.

We did hit a rock pretty hard below the bridge last year.  I thought for sure I put a good dent in the hull.  Checked it later at the ramp and the only damage was a few "pig tail" UHMW shavings


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## Cy Grajcar (Jun 20, 2008)

NICE FISH DIRK!!!  Looks like you need to take your boat to the dentist though.    You bent them teeth up good.    Hope to get out there with ya soon.  Cy


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## James Vincent (Jun 20, 2008)

Ok, Dirk next time film the fight in that narrow water instead of the release. Sorry about the boat


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## Cletus T. (Jun 20, 2008)

Very nice stripe and one heck of a pic!!!  The background with the rocks make it look like it should be in a Calendar somewhere...say for the month of May in a fishing calendar.

Great fish...great shot...thanks for sharing!!!


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## jbl_78143 (Jul 22, 2011)

Dirk,
I know exactly where your standing with that big stripe. Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it to us.


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## Dirk (Jul 22, 2011)

That would be best I think as that is not a very large area for much fishing pressure.  I can't believe you dug this post up from 3 years ago... I showed too much in my pictures back then.  That might be a decent place to fish though, at certain times of year at least.   I haven't been able to fish much this summer and and my jetboat hasn't touched the water in a month or 2. 

Good luck if you try to get em too eat, as they get pretty finicky this late in the summer at that spot (and most rivers in GA that are up over 70 degrees water temp). Right at dawn these mountain fed rivers are coldest, and that is when the biggunz might bite. I have caught some good ones on the E, but I have been skunked quite a bit too. 

You made my day reviving this post though, as even though I dented my boat and scared my wife to death, it was a great day and awesome to land a fish that big in that skinny water.


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