tween_the_banks
Senior Member
Well folks, I took this past Friday off to take a good friend down the river in hopes to put him on his first striper. Despite getting on the water a little later than usual (7:45) the morning seemed nearly perfect. There was a decent overcast and the wind was very mild. At about two hours in my friend landed a small spot and we both felt that things would start heating up. Well, unfortunately, it was another hour or so before we put another fish in the boat. My friend put spot #2 in the boat. It was equally small but it still boosted our hopes. At about 4-5 hours in, I had the pin in my trolling motor break on me. I was trolling over to the bank to free a jerk bait from a log when I hit a rock. I anchored down and apologized to my buddy and told him that I didn’t really have the tools I needed to fix it but that I was confident that it was possible. At about 30 mins into fixing the trolling motor (I was snipping a circle hook with a pair of pliers to make a new pin) I hear my buddy say quite in a pretty frantic voice “Sn-sn-sn-SNAKE!” Now I’ll be honest, I’m not a bit scared of snakes. Catching snakes is actually in my job description at work. But when I looked up, there was a snake every bit of 3 feet in length swimming right for our boat. I tried to lighten the situation by saying “I think it’s just a king snake.” Well king snake or not, we both got a little worried as it got within a foot of the boat. It became very clear very fast that the snake wanted to get into our boat. I dropped the trolling motor and reached for one of my fishing poles as the snake raised its head up to the side of my boat and started to come over the side. I stuck my rod tip under its head and tried to flick it out of the boat. The snake then started to slither up my pole. At this point, I won’t lie, I was starting to freak out a little. Finally I decided to get aggressive with it and starting flailing my rod. The snake shook loose and immediately curled up into the striking position on top on the water! I started encouraging it to the back of the boat with hickory wacks on its back. Finally it began swimming towards the back of the boat. I thought it would try to come in from the back of the boat but we were both happy to see it round the opposite side and proceed to the other bank. We sat around and talked about how crazy the whole experience was while I finished working on the trolling motor.
We fished hard for probably another two hours when I felt the boat rock really hard to my left. I turned around and the shift of weight was from my buddy setting the hook. I could tell right away that it was a striper. Drag immediately began stripping from his reel. I retrieved my swimbait and jumped on the trolling motor, which by this time had grown somewhat weak. I thought, by the sound of his reel, that he had at least a 10 lber on but I didn’t realize his drag was set as loose as it was. We both hollered when we finally saw the undeniable flash of silver in the water and I cut the boat away from the logs the fish was trying desperately to get under. I told my friend to tighten his drag but he was too caught up in the fight. “I can’t! Just get us away from these logs!” As he got the fish to the boat I heard a crack. The crack was then followed by a long stretch of cursing. The handle of his reel had broken in his hands! Luck for him, at this point the fish was beat. He pulled the rest of the line in by and and flopped the fish into the boat. It was a solid 7 lb fish and my friend couldn’t have been happier. We took pictures and pounded our fists and I told him that I was happy that he finally got him a river striper.
As we continued down river we began to hear the distant rumble of thunder. We both seemed to acknowledge it with silence, as if mentioning the weather heading our way would somehow confirm its existence. Despite our attempts to ignore it, however, the skies above us eventually grew black and the wind began to blow the almost powerless boat down river. “I’m glad it’s blowing towards home.” I said, breaking the silence.”
“Me too. Me too.” He said.
I had only enough juice in the battery to vaguely guide the boat in a broad direction when it started to spit rain. We kept casting. The fisherman in us both knew the change in weather, however dreary and doom-like, could likely turn the bite on. But the weather did not admire our perseverance and sent a bolt lightning across the sky above our heads that resembled a massive, dead oak tree. There was no pause between the strike and thunder. The storm was on us. We were in it. I looked for refuge along the bank but there was none. The lightning began picking up. It began to strike several times a minute and all I knew to do was hug the bank beneath the trees. Finally the bridge was in sight and I made the decision to abandon all ideas of finding safety on the bank. I turned to motor to five and pressed onward. Thankfully the wind stayed at our backs but it was giving us too much speed and it became clear that neither my motor, nor paddling would get us to the ramp. Without thinking I jumped into the water and to pull and swim the boat and my friend to the safety of the ramp. We pulled the boat far enough on to the ramp so that it wouldn’t float off down the river and hurried under the bridge.
My wife came and picked my friend up and I ended up staying under the bridge for nearly an hour watching over our equipment while the weather flashed and roared around me.
It was a surreal day on the water. It contained the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I should have had another paddle and I should have preserved more of my battery but considering it was my first real float with the water up (the dam is releasing only a moderate amount right now that raises the water approx 1-2 feet) I drained more battery than I thought trying to slow the float down.
Be careful folks. The weather can change very quickly. Remember to have adequate tools for equipment failure and don’t do as I did. If you start hearing the distant roars of thunder, don’t think about the fishing becoming more active; find a safe spot to get off the water or you’ll end up in the belly of the beast like we did.
We fished hard for probably another two hours when I felt the boat rock really hard to my left. I turned around and the shift of weight was from my buddy setting the hook. I could tell right away that it was a striper. Drag immediately began stripping from his reel. I retrieved my swimbait and jumped on the trolling motor, which by this time had grown somewhat weak. I thought, by the sound of his reel, that he had at least a 10 lber on but I didn’t realize his drag was set as loose as it was. We both hollered when we finally saw the undeniable flash of silver in the water and I cut the boat away from the logs the fish was trying desperately to get under. I told my friend to tighten his drag but he was too caught up in the fight. “I can’t! Just get us away from these logs!” As he got the fish to the boat I heard a crack. The crack was then followed by a long stretch of cursing. The handle of his reel had broken in his hands! Luck for him, at this point the fish was beat. He pulled the rest of the line in by and and flopped the fish into the boat. It was a solid 7 lb fish and my friend couldn’t have been happier. We took pictures and pounded our fists and I told him that I was happy that he finally got him a river striper.
As we continued down river we began to hear the distant rumble of thunder. We both seemed to acknowledge it with silence, as if mentioning the weather heading our way would somehow confirm its existence. Despite our attempts to ignore it, however, the skies above us eventually grew black and the wind began to blow the almost powerless boat down river. “I’m glad it’s blowing towards home.” I said, breaking the silence.”
“Me too. Me too.” He said.
I had only enough juice in the battery to vaguely guide the boat in a broad direction when it started to spit rain. We kept casting. The fisherman in us both knew the change in weather, however dreary and doom-like, could likely turn the bite on. But the weather did not admire our perseverance and sent a bolt lightning across the sky above our heads that resembled a massive, dead oak tree. There was no pause between the strike and thunder. The storm was on us. We were in it. I looked for refuge along the bank but there was none. The lightning began picking up. It began to strike several times a minute and all I knew to do was hug the bank beneath the trees. Finally the bridge was in sight and I made the decision to abandon all ideas of finding safety on the bank. I turned to motor to five and pressed onward. Thankfully the wind stayed at our backs but it was giving us too much speed and it became clear that neither my motor, nor paddling would get us to the ramp. Without thinking I jumped into the water and to pull and swim the boat and my friend to the safety of the ramp. We pulled the boat far enough on to the ramp so that it wouldn’t float off down the river and hurried under the bridge.
My wife came and picked my friend up and I ended up staying under the bridge for nearly an hour watching over our equipment while the weather flashed and roared around me.
It was a surreal day on the water. It contained the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I should have had another paddle and I should have preserved more of my battery but considering it was my first real float with the water up (the dam is releasing only a moderate amount right now that raises the water approx 1-2 feet) I drained more battery than I thought trying to slow the float down.
Be careful folks. The weather can change very quickly. Remember to have adequate tools for equipment failure and don’t do as I did. If you start hearing the distant roars of thunder, don’t think about the fishing becoming more active; find a safe spot to get off the water or you’ll end up in the belly of the beast like we did.
Glad you guys stayed safe and your buddy got a nice Stripe.
