The fishing gods were on my side yesterday, and I finally connected with my first striper. My buddy and I have been skunked several trips over the past year in search of striped bass, but all that changed when we ditched work yesterday and took his boat up the river that feeds a large lake nearby.
First things first - here’s the McFarland GTX 8’6” 8wt that I built a few months ago specifically with striped bass in mind. I’ve said it before, but I can’t believe how much line speed I can generate with this rod. The butt section is almost as thick as my thumb, and it came in handy when I needed to put the wood to the big striper yesterday. The second picture shows the GTX bent with the striper running upstream.
The fly - Galloup’s Bangtail T&A I tied with barred chartreuse on top and yellow on the bottom with a rust/red accent on the throat. This example shows the aftermath of the predatory striper thrashing the fly.
We floated by a few kayak anglers and one of the top local fishing guides, and the consensus was the stripers had already migrated several miles upstream to cooler water. As a backup plan, we were hoping for a few largemouth and/or spotted bass. I made a cast under a shady bank in about 3’ of stained water, and the striper turned on my fly more aggressively than I’ve ever seen. After an exciting fight with several runs and tightening the drag on the old Gunnison G-4, my friend got the net under this 31”er. I think we’re starting to crack the striper code, but I’ll need to go back to this section of river soon for confirmation.