What a fun 2 days of striper fishing on Lanier with some of the greatest guys ever. On Fri. fished with Maitland LaForce who lives on the lake and his nephew Joel Sherry from Denver CO. Maitland has fished with us several times and is looking forward to catching a big striper on a flyrod which we plan to do soon. We set out a spread of planer boards, flat lines and downlines and had several pulldowns and bait killers. Finally Joel landed a beautiful 9# striper on an inside planer board with medium trout. Moved to another mid lake creek and Maitland caught a beautiful 21# striper on a flat lined medium trout on an open faced spinning reel. Quite a battle to watch on light gear.
On Sat. 2/18 had an unbelievable experience fishing with Jason Jolly a fantastic Marine tank gunner home on leave from Afghanistan. He was joined by his uncle Scott Berry who has fished with us several times before. My nephew Bryan English from Blairsville was assisting me and he was in total awe listening to the experiences Jason shared with us about the Marines and his training and missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thanks Jason for all you do to keep us safe so we can enjoy our great sport. We again put out a spread consisting of 4 planer boards 2 flat lines and 1 downline. We used bluebacks on the downline and medium trout and gizzard shad on the others. Jason caught his first striper and even being a tough Marine had a battle with a beautiful 26# monster caught on a medium trout on an outside near the bank planer board. Fish went flying up the creek and then turned and came straight toward the boat. After playing him like the pro that he is he brought him to the boat and Bryan netted him with picture perfect results. Had numerous other pulldowns and Jason only landed one other 7# large mouth. Couldn't ask for a better two days with the best guys ever. Will attempt to post pictures and if unsuccessful will e-mail them to my good friend Dan Duncan who I spoke with several times on the lake today and it was great to see his team win the LLSC tourney. Maybe I should have pulled some u-rigs lake Dan did on his second fish.

Woody, it was great hearing from you againand what a great way to take care of the people who have givin so much to take care of us.