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All The Way From Iowa
Mike Walker
July 29, 2011
Smith Lake - Freshwater Fishing Report
Mike Walker on Smith Lake
July 27, 2011
I have been night fishing for most of the summer. Today I had the pleasure of having Tom and his two boys on the boat. They were from Iowa and passing through on their way to Georgia. We got a late start Tuesday morning and headed out of Ryan Creek Marina around 6:30. They were interested in catching some stripers, so we headed to our first spot. I decided that trolling and live bait would probably work best with a 4 and 7 year old aboard. So we started off using double bucktail jigs and made several passes with no luck. After a couple more passes and no hook up, I looked at them and said it's time to move. Within seconds of saying that Tom hooked up. As he reeled in the fish the line went tight. I could tell the fish wrapped him up. So I grabbed the rod to try to free the bait. I was about to break the line when it came free...good thing I didn't. As it came free I could feel that the fish was still there, so I handed the rod back to Tom. It was game on again and this time Tom won. As we worked the fish to the boat, I could see that he had doubled up. They weren't real big, but anytime you have two on it always feels bigger. After boating those and letting the kids get there first look at a striper, we started working that same area hoping to up the size. On our second pass one of the double rigs got hung. So I grabbed the rod for Tom and moved the boat so I could try to free the lures. With no luck I tightened the drag and started the boat, so I could break the line. Just when I thought it broke, the lures came free and that's when it happened. My rod doubled over, it was a monster! So I handed the rod to Tom and the fight began. As Tom started fighting this fish, I was looking at the rod. It was doubled over further than I've ever seen. I was sure the rod was going to snap. I could have loosened the drag but I wanted it tight so he could get the big fish away from cover. But after a minute of fighting the fish and only gaining a little if any, the stripe made another short run and wrapped him up. Needless to say we lost the fish. This had to be one of the biggest I've hooked in Smith. The weight and power this fish had was awesome. The boys put there rods up for a little bit after that with the youngest saying I don't want to catch a monster. Again most of our fish were caught in 30-45 feet of water. We caught all our fish within a minute ride of Big Bridge.
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Target Species:
stripers
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