Charlie Gonzales invited me out to fish for Stripers today on the American. We started out working a rocky bank. A lot of casting and yakking. It was while doing this that Charlie pointed out a family of Otters a bit downstream of us. We continued casting and yakking, occaisionally looking at the Otters. They were making quite a commotion down there against the bank. Splashing around, making big waves, climbing out to eat their catch. A Great Blue Heron got in on it too.

We kept on casting where we were, looking at the ruckus and cracking jokes about Otters working bait balls and such, when the Otters moved off to mid stream and the splashes continued. A Great Blue Heron moved in and was eating away also.

It seems to have been a mutual feeding frenzy going on while we fished away just upstream. Otters, the GBH, and a bunch of big stripers, all going at these bait fish at the same time. I can only imagine what that must have looked like under water.

So, finally, we did get a clue and moved in ourselves. The main riot had subsided by now but the Heron would show us unerringly where the next one was going to happen.

Charlie did catch one on his topwater fly, a chicken sized Pole Dancer.
What a fish it was too.
The loudest, most violent take I'd ever seen. As the line from the Monty Python movie goes," I (almost) soiled my armor".
This was also a lesson in landing a striper, he had it to hand in under a minute. Charlie really put the screws, and a 10wt rod, to this fish. Pretty impressive. And this was no small fish either, 15+ on the Boga.

I had one grab but do to my lifetime of trout fishing I tried to set the hook as if a 'bow had just grabbed my dry fly. And I knew just as I raised the rod that I'd screwed up. Oh well, what'cha gonna do?
Here's Charlies fish, so far the biggest one I'd been close too.



That's a huge fly in there.



We worked that spot for a while longer, keeping an eye on our lucky heron, until Charlie tossed his chicken sized fly too close to it and it took off cursing at us.

Then we went off to a run that I'd hit several times but to no avail in my pram.

Man, what an education I got there. Turns out I'd been looking in all the wrong spots for these fish. I managed to drop another here but at least I'd done my part right this time.

Thanks Charlie, I think now I can dish out a little payback in my spot.

And I also know to watch out for Otters busting a bait ball.

Ed