4/8 - Capture the Action or Die

[Deleted]

Arrived early this morning (3am) with "Bufords" dancing in my head and a "crack addict" like need to capture underwater footage of a big fish attacking my mongo and getting pulled into my boat.

Had a great tip of where the bait was holding. WAS... I believe the sudden WT rise has now officially made mongo hunting tough! I actually saw 70 degrees today in a few spots!

By 9am, I had 10 fatties in the tank but we all know that ain't enough! Especially when you still have at least 100 more throws in ya! So then this voice started to talk to me. It was Happy Camper.

If you got enough to fish, go fish..the bait will probably be easier in the afternoon anyway!  

He just kept saying it, and the voice got louder with each painful throw that came up empty.

So finally I said. "Alright Happy Camper...you win.. I'm going fishing!"  

I did have one Buford that I was excited to put to work!



Hmm...nothing even pecked at him! I did catch 4 fish though but none of them were on my water wolf line and I was out of bait.

So me and my rope burned fingers went on a hunt. And this hunt sucked! 4 miles down, 3 miles back up, 6 miles down....ehhhhh!

Finally ...I found a creek that was doing the flipper dance and the adrenaline made me believe that I still had some skin on my fingers to throw BIG T. So I did...and I caught a tank full of goodies!

So as I then made my way back to my fishing location, I get a text from MWard that appeared to be some type of weather warning! It was all MWuuurd official looking too. Scary! Then my wife texted me and said it looked like Armageddon outside her window!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  MUST GET THE FOOTAGE!!

SO then God texted me!




And you know something... the only person I listened to on this day was Happy Camper! In other words, I fought my way through that storm and when it finally subsided, the fishing turned on magnificently. I am not sure how many I caught, but it was a lot. More importantly, this 15 pound beauty decided that he wanted to be the next movie star in a StripedYam film.



And the SD card that has this video is right next to me!  Coming soon....

[Jason54]

I Can't wait to see it! Great report!

[Happy Camper]

Any text from GOD should override anything I have to say,that said I have spent a few hours of my life under a marina deck or a couple times on someones dock I didn't know trying to text him back,(pucker factor).Glad you got your fish and footage,cant wait to see it.

[seajay]

Sounds like you had a stellar trip ! I can't wait for the video!! I will have the popcorn ready !!

[Deleted]

Apr 9, 2015 20:02:41 GMT -5 seajay said:

Sounds like you had a stellar trip ! I can't wait for the video!! I will have the popcorn ready !!

Unfortunately, the catching footage came after a storm towards evening. The picture is tough. I can't top my last video as of now. I need a sunny day and clearer water.

I do have some fantastic data though that can be found via a frame by frame analysis. The frames have proven that what I was interpreting as attacks from the side were just stun attacks. The open mouth was not necessarily an eating posture. It was a weapon like a billy club. The data shows that once the shad is stunned, the striper will come in to eat at an angle where the shad is head first. This has to occur in that split second (lightning fast) before the planer board starts to pull on the shad again. The line and the shad are both limp.

I even have a few frames showing a striper coming in and eating the shad tail first and spitting it back out. The shad then revives and the stunning process starts again.

Finally, I have data that shows that stripers seem to work together to kill and eat. One will stun and another will come in to eat it.

It's freaking crazy to see this on camera and to think about what the fisherman is doing. Maybe eating a sandwich... Texting... Whatever. Oblivious.

I know many already knew all of this but I tend to keep an open mind until I prove the truth to myself. And I still need some clearer footage... But the 8 hours from a few days ago showed repeating behavior and helped me interpret what I was seeing from my first series of videos.

[seajay]

That is just awesome yam! I can't wait until you get some clear spectacular footage.