I was able to finish this June/July fishing binge off with a call to Dave (Gaspergou). He was able to meet me to search some water I've been wanting to explore for over 10 years. We loaded the Hog, and set off without any major expectations due to the high sun/high pressure cloudless day---it sure was gorgeous weather though.
About 40 minutes into the trip, drifting beside a narrow island channel, I clearly saw a big striper open its big white jaws and inhale my fly, spitting it out after a couple headshakes. "Striper!" I yelled, disgusted that I missed such a monster grab. We drifted down about 15 yards in the swift current, and I launched the fly back up to the same spot. Here he comes again...chasing, chasing....closer and closer until he's 2 ft boatside. I pause the fly, and GULP! He sucks the fly down and I've got this beast headshaking like a musky with my leader stripped to the guides. Freaking Incredibe Eat!!!
Chaos sets in as he races downstream...Dave hops to the bow, and we chase down the fish with the trolling motor, dodging logs, then finally anchoring in a slack eddy to net him.
I estimate he was about 18 lbs.
Now with the confidence of knowing these fish were present, we now got the boost of confidence to keep fishing hard the rest of the afternoon/evening. We wound up catching a few aggressive bonus bass that chased down the larger flies. Dave's gorgeous spotted bass had a wolf pack of several other spots follow him in..I hooked in to one of it's buddies, but it came unbuttoned.
We fished into dusk, without much more luck...but we found some great boulder-filled holes that looked promising. Many of these runs tested the Hog...I was sure glad to have the oars---they surely rescued us getting back down a rocky chute--when the trolling motor got overpowered by the current.
One spot in particular caught my eye on the boatride up, so after we drifted over it , we motored back upstream for a couple more casts in a large back current eddy.
My line got tight in the slack water beside the rushing current...I thought I was hung up, until the bottom started to move. When I saw this beast break the surface and start thrashing and headshaking in the clear water rapid, I couldn't believe it, "Good God! Look at this fish!" I kept repeating. If he would have broken off, I would have sworn he was well over 40 lbs. He would dig deep, then surface to give some massive head shakes , then disappear to the bottom again...just amazing to watch.
As I looked at the sweeping rocks and the strainer logs downstream, I didn't believe that we could land him. One downstream run, and we'd be chasing him into some water where I wouldn't want to test our safety. Luckily, he held in place in our current break charging back and forth, but never driving us back too far. Dave handled the boat like a champ circling us back around, so we could angle the fish downstream toward the boat but never moving us too far from the slack water.
The entire fight, I could feel the 25 lb fluoro maxed out on pull, and the fly line was vibrating in the moving water like a guitar string. The fish finally circled towards the boat, and after one close call with the anchor line, he surfaced, and Dave scooped him up in the musky net. Praise God. I felt so blessed to experience a moment like this.
We estimated him at about 30 lbs, matching my personal best on a fly. He revived quickly in the cold water, and gave me a nice splash with a swift tail-kick. After the nerves settled down a bit, it was time for a victory beer that Dave brought for the trip. Mighty fine IPA:
We fished well past dark, digging flies out of logjams, dodging a random Dobson Fly, and watching fireworks from the locals camping near the water. Dave moved a fish boatside at dusk, but unfortunately, no other fish were landed. We only encountered two striper bites that day, and those were our two fish landed.
We loaded up, and I drove home late that night, perfectly content that my striper craving had been thoroughly quenched. My ladies drove in last night, and it's great to have my family back home. Once life gets back to normal, I now feel that there are some trout and smallmouth to be pursued as the dog days of summer start settle in.
Travis
