Labman, Nick/Riverpark, Stripers, 5/8/2011, Nauticman

[FishNews]

Well, the plan was to hit the dam early and get Pete a large striper. He thinks he is jinxed at catching stripers. Incidently, we were in the water when Drumking and Dr. Phil got to the ramp, but they beat us to the dam, lol. We basically watched Drumking catch fish for the first hour. He caught 6 of assorted species while we were wearing out our arms. <br /><br />Finally got some fish going around 8:15. First was a blue cat, then a nice white bass, and Pete finally got a small striper. My next was a large Drum, ugh! and then Pete hooked up with a drag burner that we were sure was a striper. It came unhooked after about a minute. So technically Pete caught a striper and lost a large one. Not the hoped for result. Around 8:45 I got a hit and the fish tore off about 80 yards of line going downstream before we got the motor going to follow it. Bad luck at the railroad bridge, fish went right, we went left and I had to slack the line as we turned back upstream and went around the other side of the piling. Finally got into open water and could relax a little. Got the fish up and got a big surprise, I had tail hooked a paddle fish of about 30# or so. I couldn't believe it. It had part of its bill roughly cut off. Got a picture and let it go. A smaller version of one I got at the nuke last year. Things slowed, so we tried some smallie spot and hooked another Drum of 20# +. Oh and Pete got a large drum too before we left the dam. That was enough for one day. Sorry we didn't get the big one in the boat Pete, maybe next time.<br /><br />Saw MrWhiskers at the ramp when we were loading up. Good to see you Michael and meet your Mom and Dad. I went home and took a nap.<br /><br />Regards, Labman