Big Fish were had by ALL last night ( the two of us fishing)

I went fishing for holdovers Friday night. It was my third time this week. On Tuesday we caught over forty fish. On Wednesday I did not even bump the bottom. Not a fish to be had. I didn’t even see a rat or rabbit. Both of which I see ALL the Time. The wind turned north and maybe it turned off the fishing. Interestingly, I had my best nights last year when the wind was from that direction. You just can’t predict what winter stripers will do, where they will be, or if they are hungry.

So I went Friday night. When I got there Dave had been fishing for a little while. He caught a couple. On my first cast I hooked a fish that felt pretty big. After I hooked it Dave said “I should warn you, they have been good size tonight” He was right. This fish was large enough that when he offered to get the bridge net out of his truck, I said “Yes, please”

Between my line and his help, I caught what was about a keeper size striper. We didn’t measure it so it could have been 28 inches but if I had to guess, I’d say it was just under. Fat and healthy, it was though (Yoda). I left my small camera at home so it got released without a picture.

We each caught a couple more, but fishing wasn’t hot and heavy. They were all good sized though. I caught a couple 22, 23 inches but they were averaging over twenty five inches. Dave hooked into a nice fish and after a couple minutes and having his landing net handy he landed a monster. In terms of length, he both estimated it about 31 inches. It was ridiculously chunky. Dave, who has caught tens of thousands of stripers more than me guessed it was 15-16 pounds. I would concur. When we got it in, a light bulb went off that I had my big camera in the car. I ran up to get it. The batteries were almost dead, but I managed to take four pictures before they died completely.

 Although we both only caught four fish a piece it was nice knowing we were casting to very healthy keepers. Sure as hell beat wrapping Christmas presents!!!