How I Caught the 40 Pound Plus Striper
It all started on a blue bird day on March 16, 2006 about 3:30 in the afternoon. The sun was bright and not a cloud in the sky. The wind was blowing from the south at 15 mph, the air temperature was in the 60s, the water temperature was 57 degrees, and clear, down lake from muddy water.
My son, Mike and I had been watching the sonar and we marked several schools of shad but they didn’t have anything feeding on them. We then noticed the seagulls we feeding quite aggressively in certain areas on the north banks of Melton Hill Reservoir. We slowly moved into the area they were feeding most aggressively and observed on the sonar, tight balls of shad with large fish beneath them. Because of the wind and we wanted to reduce the disturbance in our fishing area, we anchored in 25 feet of water. We also made sure we had maximum casting range 360 degrees around the boat.
Knowing the shad were being forced to the surface by feeding fish through the observance of the seagulls, we began throwing large deep running crank baits in the areas where the gulls were feeding because of the wind and waves between 1 and 2 feet, we could not see any activity on the surface. The reason I throw large crank baits that situation is, one it is a big target for feeding fish. Secondly, because most of them float and I will make short jerks and stops near the surface to get the fish close to the surface. I will do that action two or three times then crank the lure deep to travel under or through the school of shad.
This was this action I was using when I caught this monster. I was using a 7 foot medium heavy rod with 20 lb. braided line. My cast was at maximum distance with that lure and rod combination. The lure no sooner hit the water and I just jerked the first jerk and this fish hit it like a freight train. I set the hook and reared back on my rod and was set for the fight of my life. I kept my rod between the 11 and 12 o’clock position with heavy drag set on the reel. The fish headed for deep water and spooled my line to the point where I could see the knot, where I tied the line to the spool, coming into view on my reel. I was definitely freaking out when I saw that but the fish slowed its run and I got to reel in enough line to continue the fight. The fish made three deepwater runs then as it got near the boat, it made three or four more runs but they weren’t as violent as the first three runs. This continued for about twenty minutes until Mike could reach down and grab her and lift her into the boat. This was my best freshwater fight I ever had.
One final note, I released the fish and she swam straight down. We fished the area for a while longer with two more hits but no more catches. We also was looking to see if that fish came up again, it didn’t, so people she is still in there along with some very large friends.
Greg Goodwin
Tournament Director
fishknoxville.com
Email greg@fishknoxville.com
Let us take you out to get some of these outstanding fighting stripers.
Contact: Captain Chris Goodwin at fishknoxville.com 865-300-6943 or on the web captainchris@fishknoxville.com
