DA HELLER STINGS A CHESAPEAKE BAY STRIPER!

Chris–here is a short story on the hog catch. I was in DC and planning to have a couple of meetings on the Thursday afternoon. My partner walks up and says that both of them are cancelled. Joking, I said that we ought to go fishing. He agrees of course. Rught then, another guy that I know pops up from behind the dividers on a cubicle and says “are you guys serious?” I looked at my buddy and we both say “hell yes.” Turns out that he has a 25 foot flats boat and lives on Chesapeak Bay.

We ran by the hotel, grabbed our stuffand made the one hour drive to the water. There is no rod limit so we are trolling 6 lines and looking for adult stripers that are moving across the bay to find tributaries to spawn in. Rick, the boat owner tells us to guess how much change he has in his pocket. I guess closest and he says that I get first fish. After about an hour and a half, a rod goes down and I grab it. I am using a pretty heavy rod with 60# spider wire–a bit of overkill in my mind. The fish does a great job and fights like a chinook. Lots of good sounding and a couple of major league runs. We land it and tape it. Beautiful fish and my first striper ever. Thirty eight inches and 22 pounds. The slot limit is 25-35″ and above 41″. We take the pics with a cell phone and release the fish. That was the only take down for the trip. Anyway, a great way to have to spend time when meetings get canelled. Dad