Crystal and I had made plans to spend the weekend in Knoxville with friends...and I made the proposal that if I was going to miss out on April fishing for time with friends, I should atleast get to have Friday evening and Sat and Sun morning to sneak off for my fix on the Holston.
Right on schedule...the Hybrid run was on!!! I've been chasing this run(and have missed out) for the past 14 years.
I eased into the wide riffle of waist deep water with the sun sinking on Friday evening....watching the gathering crowd of 15 or so anglers on the opposite bank all throwing topwater plugs. My striper fever was furious, and I had slipped up and down muddy banks to be the only one on my side of the river. Ten casts into the shoal--Big fish on---10 minute fight--came off
I lost about 5 more on swim baits, and a couple even snapped me off
After fishing the previous night and losing over 15 walleye in VA(some of them HUGE)---I had the funk baad! and I couldn't shake it off.
Now about 200 yards waded out from the bank in some deeper spooky water...the fish started to break on a row of sunken trees on the channel just within my casting range. The crowd on the far bank couldn't cast to the trees like I could, and every minute or so there were a series of boils and viscious splashes--but none were interested in my perfectly cast large plugs. After a while, the far bank boys were hooking up--and I noticed they were using smaller baits than me. My truck was a quarter mile away, and there was no way I'd make it back before the sun set--to get my smaller topwater plugs.
I watched BUST! SPLASH! and BOIL! for the last half hour of daylight and NO takes on all my frantic casts.
My heart now sunk as I knew it was getting time to go. It was already dangerous for me to have waded out so far...but now it was almost too dark to see. For my last few casts, I tied on a black Striper Strike (still thinking I was casting to large Rockfish)... My brother Jay had borrowed this bait a few seasons back and caught some great stripers on it. My last cast hit the water, then BOOM!
I had an explosion on my down stream swing.
Immediately I started fighting current and wading back toward the bank, stumbling in the chest deep water and praying that I wouldn't have to swim in the dark.
The rod stayed bent, and the pull stayed heavy...I just knew I had hung that monster striper that I had been chasing. After several minutes of peeling out line and carefully wading back..I made it to the bank and pumped heavy on the heavy action bait caster to heave the trophy fish in.
The boil in the glare of moonlight was huge as the fish neared me.
I prepared myself for a giant water zebra and this is what I found:
Not quite the 40 pounder I was expecting, but it sure gave me a thrill. Now, as I headed for the truck, I was pumped to return at daybreak for round two....this time armed with a little smaller baits
Travis
