I invited John S to join me for a shot at the tail end of the fall striper bite.
I'm glad he accepted.
We launched shortly after dawn and began working the areas that have been producing fish over the last few weeks.
Schools of bunker were everywhere, and the ospreys were on the hunt. Rather than live lining bait, we stuck to artificial bunker imitations instead.
Unfortunately, the cold rain on Thursday has colored and cooled the water and definitely has shut down the bass bite significantly.

We had to really grind out there to get bit but we did, and managed 3 nice keepers to 25 lbs on the trip. Everybody we knew, or talked to on the water, found it to be a slow morning so we felt fortunate to have the action that we did.
The weather was almost too nice- but it sure felt good to be fishing on such a beautiful fall day.

I always enjoy John's company and he definitely is another one of the CTF good guys. Thanks for coming along John! This is proof you can catch fish other than crappie and breeder rainbow trout!







The 25 lber had 2 bunker in her gut when I cleaned her and she still crushed my plug. Bunker are like potato chips to striped bass...

Nice trip gentlemen. And JohnS, my grandpa wants his boots back.

Congrats guys!

Rumor has it John prefished the area the night before.

I took a page out of Paul D.'s book and cut some leaky waders down to where they weren't leaking. perfect boots for being a ho. I know they are not GQ material but neither am I ... ( Except for Ice fishing maybe ).

Thanks again Jon, I had a great time being net man. The night before showed more activity but less results.

I am stubborn....but not stupid...the pencil popper that worked the night before, was useless today. I got on board finally after a couple half assed blow ups on the plug I was throwing ...Tall1 took pity on me and tossed over a home made plug that had better action than my store bought
$ 22.00 piece of junk, as fate would have it....I hooked up.

I give you credit Jon, you were meticulous on your fishing approach.

The fish that you caught were good enough reason for me being there and I am glad I got to witness it first hand. Awesome takes!! You ever get a chance to fish with Big Jon...do it he's a class act for sure! The laughs are the icing on the cake.