Since Sunday I have put in 21 hours on the river looking for a big striper. Not a nice striper, not a good striper, not a 35 incher... I'm looking for a big striper. I'm looking for a striper that is so big most would assume would have to be caught on conventional tackle. I'm looking for a striper so big and old it has eaten a few of it's great grandchildren. I'm looking for that one fish that to most would be considered a once in a life time fly rod striper. I will catch it on my own terms, in my own water, and only after I have earned it, and then I'll try to do it again.
This doesn't happen without hard work and effort. So I've been putting the time in. It has kept me away from some really good spring fishing, though I have not let it keep me away from my work and obligations. 21 hours this week. That's mostly in the dark, some in the rain, some in the kayak, mostly without a fish on the end of my line. Because big fish don't run with the numbers. If I'm catching 15 inchers, I'm probably not in the best spot and I'll move somewhere where I'm catching almost nothing instead.
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| There's a 20lb striper in this photo. |
The herring run this week was exceptional, about as good as I've ever seen it. Thick schools filled in the riffles and occupied the slicks behind boulders during the day, then dropped back at dusk to spawn with striped bass and osprey converging to feast.
The amount of life other than these species is staggering. Much of the non anadromous or catadromous species are here to feed on the eggs of the herring or do spawning of their own. Spottail shiners, tesselated darters, rock bass, redbreast sunfish, bluegill, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, channel catfish, white catfish, walleye, bowfin, common carp, banded killifish... it's a really who's who of Connecticut fish species
Though a few of the convergers are species that I have not yet caught, the stripers are what draw me here. At 12:30am on Friday I came tight to the largest fish I'd catch this week, though, regrettably, not the biggest I hooked. Stripers don't often jump during the fight, but if they do it is shortly after the hook set. This one jumped three times, making me believe I had hooked a large brown.
That was a nice fish. But it isn't the fish. Whether that will happen during this herring run remains to be seen, but I am determined to make it happen before December.
Do you throw any eel patterns? Seems to be preferred night time meal once the baitfish stop running as much.
ReplyDeleteI do. My preferred is a black flatwing with 6 really long, soft hackles and a big deer hair head. I'll be doing some experimenting with rattles in them this summer.
DeleteWow, I see fish everywhere. You did catch some good stripers, but as you said, the best is yet to come.
ReplyDeleteTie, fish, write, conserve and photo on...
Such is the nature of a herring run. This is probably less than a tenth the number of historical highs though.
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