Photo Essay: Striper Snakebit

[Zach Matthews]

Well, guys, so far this year I’ve been snakebit on stripers. We really haven’t had great conditions yet; they’ve been acceptable at best due primarily to turbidity and generation. Essentially Tues-Fri floats are out on the present generation schedule. That leaves Sat, Sun and Mon. I have relationship obligations that I can’t blow off during that timeframe so I’m only fishing a couple times a week.

I have tied into I believe four fish so far this season. The first two I basically missed the set on and they came right off. That’s part of getting used to striper takes and I expected to miss a few. I’ve hooked the last two solidly, both times fishing with Scott Kitchens. Both have come unpinned.

Last night we floated and I got a proper sleigh ride. I hooked probably an 8-10 pounder out in the middle of a big open spot in the river. That fish absolutely towed me 50 yards right over into Scott, which sucks because of course it interrupts his fishing in a hot bite. Then, while we were working on getting disentangled, the fish dove into a logjam and basically tied me to a tree. I had him to the boat at the surface and he managed to tie me up on his final net run. So frustrating.

On the plus side at least I’m getting all the show, but hey, we come for the big finale right?

Scott knocked the skunk off on this junior woodchuck a couple days ago:

How’s y’all’s season going? My garden’s behind too!

We did manage to find one useful thing on our Sunday float:

Wild blueberries! They’re delicious and there’s a lot more where they came from.

I also figured out that you can float in to Canoe Restaurant.

They don’t mind.

And hey, they have an outdoor bar!

When I’m not failing to catch stripers, I’m getting talked into doing things like this by Andrew Wright and Thomas Nelson, who are certifiably crazy.

Zach

[David Anderson]

And they say red wine doesn’t go with fish…
Idiots..lol

Well at least the weather looks good Zach..

www.dsaphoto.com

A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.

[Alan Corbin]

Fun times on the river. Liked the video too. Never fished for stripers on a river, just tidal estuaries. Been out for stripers twice this season. Once for the Cheeky Schoolie tournament where we managed 16 fish between 2 of us all under 20″ from shore only. Last Sunday we paddled our kayaks out of Barnstable Harbor on the dropping tide and fished the flats and caught the incoming back in. We landed over 50 schoolies up to the low twenties. Great time on a fly rod. Hoping to get a “keeper” on the fly this year.
Looks like a fun time

[R Black]

I have been trying to learn stripers on what is a new lake for me. Last Tuesday evening I found lots of fish blitzing on a windblown shore.

Caught a number of dinks, landed a nice one of 8 to 10 lbs. Missed another nice one when it slashed at my popper but didn’t connect.

[steve gallas]

I used to fish for stripers between 11:00 pm and 3 or 4 am with a friend who was a Friends (Quaker ) minister. I think we went out that late so no one would hear him swear when he missed one . Virginia east coast fishing at it’s best.
Have fun with it.
Steve

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