Dale Welch- The Striper King
Angling with The Striper King
Editor’s
Note: One day in 1988, Dale Welch of Crane Hill, Alabama,
a biomedical engineer in Birmingham, left his job to
go fishing and never returned. No, Welch didn’t
vanish. He discovered a new career and a new life as
a saltwater striper guide on Smith Lake. Welch has guided
for stripers longer than any other guide on Smith Lake
and has caught four Smith Lake records. Today, we’ll
learn some of Dale’s striper-fishing tactics.
“Fish on,” Dale Welch yelled. “Get
him, Sarah! Pull the rod out of the rod holder and start
pumping and winding.” As Sarah Hart of Vestavia,
Alabama, picked up the 6-foot medium-to-heavy-action
rod and tried to take up line, the monofilament ran
off her reel, sounding like a long-tailed cat getting
its tail squished under a rocking chair. When Hart gained
line, the striper would run, bowing the rod and forcing
Hart up on her tip-toes like a small child on a seesaw
just as the board started to rise. Welch instructed,
“When that striper takes line, don’t reel.
As soon as it stops taking line, pump up on the rod
and take
up slack as you lower the rod.”
Hart knew she had her hands full with this 15-pound
fierce-fighting striper, the biggest fish she’d
ever caught. When Hart spotted a huge, dark shadow rising
from the depths of Smith Lake, she hardly could believe
that she had such a large striper on her line. Welch
looked for his over-sized net as the big fish came closer
to the surface and coached Hart into reeling in the
large striper. All smiles when she landed the striper,
Hart showed-off the big striper for the camera. From
daylight until 8 am, we caught and released three stripers
that weighed from 12- to 15-pounds each, and one spotted
bass that weighed 4-1/2- pounds. Smith Lake draws Alabama
fishermen to it like a magnet because of the possibility
of their catching a 40-or a 50-pound striped bass.
“When I decided to become a striper guide back
in 1988, I thought there might be a lot of Alabama
fishermen who would love the opportunity to catch fish
as big as they could catch at the Gulf of Mexico without
traveling there,” Welch says. Time has proved
Welch’s assumption correct. He may guide as many
as 250 days some years for stripers at Smith Lake and
catches big saltwater stripers all year, every year.
“The stripers show up at different places at various
times of the year, and I don’t know why,”
Welch explains. “But I know where I always can
find them because I’ve kept a log of where they
are each time of year. Smith Lake is a great home for
the Gulf Coast strain of saltwater striper because it’s
so deep. Even in the hottest summer months, we still
catch stripers.”
Welch’s Striper Recipe:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut striper filets into steaks (white meat only). Sprinkle
each steak with Lemon Pepper (liberally), seasoned salt
(to taste), onion or garlic salt (to taste), Cajun seasoning
(if you like the flavor, to taste). Place steaks in
a buttered Pyrex dish placing a teaspoon of butter on
top of each. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven.
Place a tablespoon of ranch dressing (or your favorite
dressing) on top of each steak and place into the oven
for 5 more minutes and remove.
Tomorrow: Where We Caught ‘Em, and the History
of Stripers in Smith Lake
To schedule a striper fishing trip with Dale Welch,
contact him at: 7932 County Road 312, Crane Hill, AL
35053, (256) 737-0541, dwelch@hiwaay.net,
www.alabamastriperfishing.com.
Tomorrow: Where We Caught ‘Em, and the History
of Stripers in Smith Lake
|