First stripers of the Year... Finally!

It’s amazing how good fishing can be a matter of perspective. When I was catching fish in November anything less than five or six fish was a slow night. Even then, I was lucky to find absolutely fantastic nights/days where catching fish was easy from start to finish. Even early this winter, all the guys fishing were catching ten to twenty fish.

The same was true this spring trout fishing. There were days when the trout would hit anything and catching them was just a matter of casting and reeling them in. Although I did blank once or twice in the spring, most of the time fishing was fantastic.

Two weeks ago before the freeze up I caught some nice brown trout. I went four straight days. I caught fish all four times without a skunking. Yet I did not kill them by any means. Those four days I caught 1,4,1,1. Not exactly lights out fishing. Yet I was very satisfied, and pleased with the results.

Since January 1, I have put in a lot of time chasing stripers. Tonight was my fourth night out. On Saturday, I fished almost three hours without a hit. I hadn’t even had a bump. I tried every lure that I use to catch wintertime stripers. Finally tonight I caught two fish. I had a hit about fifteen minutes after I started fishing. The next cast I caught a fish. It wasn’t huge, but hey, the monkey was off my back.  A few casts later I caught another. Both fish were caught on a 3 inch white triple ripple grub mounted on a 3/8 ounce jighead. So in the two hours I fished tonight I caught two fish and had two other hits. This would have been an awful night two months ago, tonight I was ecstatic to catch these fish…all a matter of perspective.