Tony Buzolich
06-10-2007, 08:22 AM
ANSWER: When the fish you're fishing for becomes the bait for bigger fish.
The other night my wife and I again decided to have dinner on the river and do a little shad fishing at the same time. We got on the water about 6:30PM and anchored in our favorite spot just below the rapids at Shanghai Bend. We proceeded to fish taking a few between eating our meal as things started out a bit slow.
As the evening wore on fishing picked up with chartruse/white being the color of choice.
About 8:45PM my wife says "How about one more and we call it a night?" Just about then I get another grab and start playing the last shad of the evening.
A moment in to the fight and this shad REALLY goes crazy, going airbourne and diving and darting in every dirction. Yaaaa, a real fighter I thought. About then my old Crown II clicker with absolutely NO drag screems and my knuckles start getting slapped big time. :shock:
"Geez, what have I got here?" and I have to palm the spool to try and slow things down. I gain a little line, but then another sudden run and there goes the knuckle busting again.
This new kind of fight lasts only a few moments and the line goes slack but still feels kind of heavy.
I can now reel in easily and find only a completely dead shad on the end of my line. A hen, about 3 pounds. Scales torn and missing in several places with a completely broken gill plate.
She had become dinner for one hungry striper. She became the bait.
You hear about this happening often when fishing for shad but until it actually happens to you it's hard to describe just how strong and violent some of these big stripers can be.
TONY
www.feather-river-fly.com
The other night my wife and I again decided to have dinner on the river and do a little shad fishing at the same time. We got on the water about 6:30PM and anchored in our favorite spot just below the rapids at Shanghai Bend. We proceeded to fish taking a few between eating our meal as things started out a bit slow.
As the evening wore on fishing picked up with chartruse/white being the color of choice.
About 8:45PM my wife says "How about one more and we call it a night?" Just about then I get another grab and start playing the last shad of the evening.
A moment in to the fight and this shad REALLY goes crazy, going airbourne and diving and darting in every dirction. Yaaaa, a real fighter I thought. About then my old Crown II clicker with absolutely NO drag screems and my knuckles start getting slapped big time. :shock:
"Geez, what have I got here?" and I have to palm the spool to try and slow things down. I gain a little line, but then another sudden run and there goes the knuckle busting again.
This new kind of fight lasts only a few moments and the line goes slack but still feels kind of heavy.
I can now reel in easily and find only a completely dead shad on the end of my line. A hen, about 3 pounds. Scales torn and missing in several places with a completely broken gill plate.
She had become dinner for one hungry striper. She became the bait.
You hear about this happening often when fishing for shad but until it actually happens to you it's hard to describe just how strong and violent some of these big stripers can be.
TONY
www.feather-river-fly.com