Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2014 22:32:22 GMT -5
Had two areas of focus today. Started at area 1 this morning pulling our new rigs (No Circles) hooking the bait through the mouth and then the nostril. Had a bunch of interested observers but no commits. I was eagerly awaiting my chance to swing for the fence but only had my hands close to the rod connected to a jittery bait. Thus we moved to area 2 and immediately started catching the typical 10-12 pound class fish that this area seems to be holding. And wow does setting the hook feel great! Had a number of misses though and am thinking I have a long way to go to get the hang of jaw-ripping hook sets.
We knew we could catch these all day long so we decided to hit a point close to area 1 with bait and anchor lock for awhile to discuss strategy and eat lunch. Well of course a beautiful school then came through and we nailed a few with down-line mongos and I caught my all-time largest vertical-jig striper at 13 pounds! On light tackle, this was a freaking blast!!
So then we started our approach back to area 1, the place where the big boys gave us a whipping yesterday. And as we approached, we had a blast doing the planer board bop. We almost welcomed snags as we bopped our planers off everything on the bank. The picture below shows me right after grabbing the rod out of the holder and sinking the line low to get it under the trees. If you look closely, you will see that we were rewarded with an explosive strike.
BOP BOP SPLASH!
Then a lull came and as the adrenaline and laughter slowed, we started to discuss calling it a day. But the striper gods had other plans and pretty much right as we were almost mentally starting to pack it up, the action picked up again. Well....might as well keep on swinging. With each new fish came renewed energy and a new round of philosophical humor. And as the day winded down, we noticed we still had a decent amount of bait. Thus, we deployed a full spread and headed into the sunset.
And then it came, a pull back on board 4, bank side. I then grabbed the pole and yanked it with everything I had. Unfortunately, our extended net we now use as our sign that the CAWWWW BOAT IS FISHING did get in the way of my swing. But I set dat hook!
And after a nice battle we landed a 38 inch, 19 pound beauty.
Being much longer than all the other fatties we caught this week, I had to think she was a solid 20 pound plus. But I measured her twice and she was 19. Obviously this fish wasn't as fat as most of the fish in this area and I'm not sure why. But I am glad to report that she swam away with vigor after biting the living hell out of my fingers. OH TRUST ME, her jaw hurts more than my hand!
So I finished this day with saying bye to my friend and breaking the remaining pieces of my back to catch 14 mongos for some guys staying at Campers right now who are too old to catch mongos under these conditions. Yet they were catching stripers when I was fishing for bluegills, so it was the least I could do.
No more net for me for awhile. Tomorrow, I just wanna jig and go home to my family.
We knew we could catch these all day long so we decided to hit a point close to area 1 with bait and anchor lock for awhile to discuss strategy and eat lunch. Well of course a beautiful school then came through and we nailed a few with down-line mongos and I caught my all-time largest vertical-jig striper at 13 pounds! On light tackle, this was a freaking blast!!
So then we started our approach back to area 1, the place where the big boys gave us a whipping yesterday. And as we approached, we had a blast doing the planer board bop. We almost welcomed snags as we bopped our planers off everything on the bank. The picture below shows me right after grabbing the rod out of the holder and sinking the line low to get it under the trees. If you look closely, you will see that we were rewarded with an explosive strike.
BOP BOP SPLASH!
Then a lull came and as the adrenaline and laughter slowed, we started to discuss calling it a day. But the striper gods had other plans and pretty much right as we were almost mentally starting to pack it up, the action picked up again. Well....might as well keep on swinging. With each new fish came renewed energy and a new round of philosophical humor. And as the day winded down, we noticed we still had a decent amount of bait. Thus, we deployed a full spread and headed into the sunset.
And then it came, a pull back on board 4, bank side. I then grabbed the pole and yanked it with everything I had. Unfortunately, our extended net we now use as our sign that the CAWWWW BOAT IS FISHING did get in the way of my swing. But I set dat hook!
And after a nice battle we landed a 38 inch, 19 pound beauty.
Being much longer than all the other fatties we caught this week, I had to think she was a solid 20 pound plus. But I measured her twice and she was 19. Obviously this fish wasn't as fat as most of the fish in this area and I'm not sure why. But I am glad to report that she swam away with vigor after biting the living hell out of my fingers. OH TRUST ME, her jaw hurts more than my hand!
So I finished this day with saying bye to my friend and breaking the remaining pieces of my back to catch 14 mongos for some guys staying at Campers right now who are too old to catch mongos under these conditions. Yet they were catching stripers when I was fishing for bluegills, so it was the least I could do.
No more net for me for awhile. Tomorrow, I just wanna jig and go home to my family.
