Well today was the Lanier Striper Clubs Tournament that was postponed from last Saturday's Gail forces, and is expected to be a real shootout to the end.

Fished with Brett and Vic today and we started out shallow pulling 6 boards. Before we even had the second board out my outside big Gizzie got slammed twice, with no hook up. before we completed our Shrimp boat spread, the starboard planer board with a big Gizzie was underwater, and as Brett went to set the hook, it came back up. The Gizzie was slashed and bleeding, a clean kill for the Big Stripe.

This all happened in the first 10 minutes of the morning, and looked as though it would be a killer day. Then we see Don Brown and his brother James boat a double, not 150' from us. So then a few minutes later Brett's inside board goes off with a small Gizzard. I heard Brett say I don't think he is very big, so I head for the camera and net and 10 minutes later I am still waiting on the landing of this small fish...LOL the fish fought harder at the boat then the whole rest of the battle.

Brett finally gets the fish to the boat and Vic nets the 26 pound GIANT, and we think it is going to be on full tilt. To make a long story short, we could not get our second fish for most of the day. Now with 45 minutes left in the tourney it is decided that it is a shame to come back with one fish while having such a great first fish.

So we go hitting points with the U-rigs, looking for a reaction bite, since they are obviously not hitting. So with 10 minutes to go, I clip the last chance point and Bam! good fish on, pulling some drag and Vic lands a beautiful 16 or 17lb fish and somehow we pull off the win with 72 I/4 inches and big fish, with many thanks to my very competent crew.

It is always nice to pull off a win, but with the points championship almost over for the year, it was collapse time for me folks!!!

So after a fiery start there was a long dead spot in the rest of the day. Seems like everyone who caught fish today caught them very early and then lots of nothing. So if you choose to go out tomorrow, I would advise to be there early and fish hard. GOOD LUCK to all my fellow fishermen. Early and late are the ticket right now. My camera time is 1 hour fast. (Have not made the change since daylight savingtime)

Congrats on the win and nice fish. Next Sat you will stink up the boat. Good to see Vic back out there.

Way to go guys.

Thanks Clay! Nice seeing you out there today, I noticed you were ready for spider rigging those crappie.

That first fish doesn't look 26#, but it really was. After we measured and weighed the fish we were more concerned with getting her back in the water than getting the perfect picture.

Great report Dan. Congrats on the win.

Well done guys.Great day .Congratulations to you and also to Don

Good job Dan, Vic, and Brett on winning and Don getting on some fish. I saw Don but didn't get in the creek where Dan was. See you on the lake.

Congrats on the win and great fish. Dan you are breaking that new(to you) boat in with some big boys. We had a couple nice spots but skunked on the stripers in the Tournament.

We too had the same experience Saturday morning mid lake. However, we didn’t land anything. The fist 5-30 minutes of the day was insane. We had lines going off everywhere. Down lines, planners and free lines. Trout, gizzards, and BB’s equally. Then hours of boredom. Finally around 3:00 we hooked one on a split shot free lines. I’ve always thought “bs” to myself when people say stripers jump. But this fish jumped twice. Thrashing the gill plates like a little tarpon. It was pretty gnarly and made the tough day worth it.