Finally! My first Striper this year.

I have not done nearly as much Striper Fishing as I did last year because I have been doing a whole lot more Bass fishing, Large Mouth, Spotted Bass, Small Mouth, etc. Either on my own pounding the shore or fishing tournaments with the new Bass Club I joined this year.

I have only made a couple trips after work down to the river for Stripers with no success. Regardless, I decided to head out after work on Wednesday. You’ll never catch any unless you fish for em… The flows were really high Wednesday afternoon so fishing some of my usual spots was out. It did however feel really nice getting wet on the way to one of my spots. Well, last night I broke the pattern and hooked a real nice school sized Striper. I fished several spots before hooking this fish close to sunset. As usual, he came out of nowhere a really slammed my lure! Those hits are sometimes startling as was the case with this one. I had not felt that in a long time and was not ready. Ya know, your kinda relaxing, standing in the water, enjoying the sound of the river, the sun finally below the trees and no longer beating down, a cool breeze off the water, then all of a sudden BAM! On my 15lb test line, he pulled drag several times, ran in and out of the current, etc. What an awesome fight these fish put on! I finally managed to get him to shore only to notice that he was barley hooked. Barley worked this time!

I threw a few more casts and called it a nite. No sense in being greedy. According to recent reports, the population is waaaaay down this year so as always, I will practice good Catch & Release.. I hope everyone will do the same. With things being as tight as they are for me right now, slow work, etc. I will however take a few for table fair. But never a big one or females. (the big ones are usually female anyways)

See ya on the water…