Post by woodrow on May 10, 2016 13:10:45 GMT -5
Went up the lake from Richmond because it was the only chance I had to cut grass of which was about 14 days high. Got here @ 4pm Sunday and decided to take Monday morning off. Got at least 4 dozen ales from under the dock light @ 5am. Was at the dam By 6am. Only 1 boat who was hanging out near the left side at the log jam. I put out 2 down lines, 2 freelines and 2 planner boards. Made my way from R1 to the left side and then worked my way near the middle of the log jam. Fish were boiling everywhere in the dam area I was marking huge schools of bait and stripers no bites until I was about midways on logjam. I was getting ready to throw a broken back Rapala to breaking fish when al of a sudden I had 4 lines go down. I worked the first planner fish first, free line and down line and the other planner where left to fend on their own and fantastically all the fish stayed on. I put the first 27" in the boat and got the downline. I realized the was a lot more line out than the 20' depth I set it at. Immediately I knew this fish was big as he would take line at his own will and I fought hard to get it back. This fish acted like another I caught 10 years ago. He would only let me get him so close to the boat and then like a submarine he would swim along with the boat at trolling motor speed. When I would put pressure on him he would only give so much. I tightend the drag to put more on him .No good. I let the other fish that were still on go their merry way while I worked the big one. What felt like about 10 minutes of battle I decided to tighten the drag a little more to tire this fish out. Suddenly the rod which I had bent in half with pressure went straight and slack. What happened? I had just put new line on all my rods. It couldn't be another knot come undone could it? No, this time I put just too much on him and the hook pulled out of his mouth. Just too excited and stupid I had just tried to bull him in. First time I lost a big one this way. I usually have knots come undone or lines break. Another lesson learned. You must have exposure to big fish to get the experience to catch big fish. I did however did bring in the other 2 fish that stayed hooked the entire time. 3 out of 4 was not bad. 25 and 26". I proceeded to catch 8, all between 24-29". I left at 7:30 to get to work at noon in Richmond. I saw no one else catch fish and by 7:30 the was about 8-10 boats at the dam. I think they were all using artificials. 
