Stripers, Sauger, and Skipjack, Oh My!
- This topic has 11 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated May 26, 2006 at 7:42 pm by
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Hey guys –
I fished the Cumberland River with Mike Anderson (MikeA) yesterday.
Hey buddy glad to see you up and about. Without a doubt this is hard fishing that leaves you feeling rode hard and put up wet. I had to clean the boat, cooler, gear, etc, this morning so it was only 2/3 over for me last night.
We did fly fish most of the time and I only insisted in pulling out the gear so I could motivate Zach to keep casting. Nothing like seeing a Striper caught to get you motivated. I really wanted you to get one on the fly but it was a very slow day and I think you might have been doomed from the beginning. Last weekend they were standing in line to attack our baits. This weekend it was hard work to just get the two we caught. Not that a 24 and a 22 pound Striper is slacking.
In all we caught lots of fish on the fly including Sauger. Anybody who knows will tell you catching Sauger on the fly is something you won’t do everyday. We could have trolled up some Walleye in the channel I think but Zach is a die hard caster so I didn’t even mention it.
The whole day I was reminding Zach to throttle back and reserve some energy for the late evening bite. I have to commend him, he stood on that casting deck and threw 425 on a broomstick with a boat winch for a reel all day!I enjoyed it and great shots as usual.
Mike AndersonThanks Carter. Some of them look like I might have been smoking something when I tied them. I mostly just sit down with an image of what bait it is I’m trying to pattern and just start trying stuff. I waste alot of time and make some damned ugly flies. Your topwater suggestion is a good one. I wish I lived close enough to fish more often then I do.
Zach,
Why are you throwing such a big rod for those fish? That’s a 100 lb plus Tarpon stick! Are the flies just that heavy?The rod is technically a 10-13 weight, but the real reason I was throwing it and not the 10 weight TFO Saltwater I had on board was that I saw what that first 24 pound striper did to that heavy fiberglass trolling rod.
That 13 weight is pretty beastly. The river I guide on in Alaska isn’t incredibly wide and is full of snags. I’ve been using a 12 weight TiCr with a T-400 to wrestle them out of the wood.
I still haven’t broken the 20 pound mark on the fly yet, but here’s a pretty average king caught on conventional gear to show you what I’m up against. (If I recall correctly, this one weighed out at 29 lbs after she’d been bled out)
There’s nothing wrong with over-gunning as long as you can still manage to muster up enough energy to fight the fish after a few hours of casting.
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