My boat's in the shop so I took my 12 yr old to the hooch yesterday evening to do some shore casting. Right at dusk things got very good-- he hooked a 13 lb striper casting a bomber A-- took a bit of help to turn it and convince it to come back upstream, but he did well. He was wetter than the fish from falling in the water several times from excitement and being yanked off his feet during the fight.You have to land a fish that big in running water to know what excitement truly means.

After we finally got that one in, it was Daddy's turn to cast the riffles with a large swim bait. Suddenly snagged a boulder....that started shaking its head and stripping line out into the fast water.

I just edited out a long, descriptive paragraph worthy of Skiffya-- but here's the bottom line: it was 38.5 inches, 27 lbs on a bathroom scale (and i normally like that scale--- it keeps me under 210), so it might have been a bit heavier.

I had to bring that one home to weigh it--- probably could have revived it, but i landed a hooch monster that size last year and have since wondered what it weighed (had estimated 30 lbs). So I ran it out of there before the locals noticed it (no need to advertise my spot) and drove home with the A/C blasting and my son's wide smile flashing in the headlights.

I'll consider any complaints/concerns about killing it later tonight while I dine on thick, lightly breaded and herb encrusted baked striper filets, washed down with several chilled sweetwater ales for my Father's day dinner tonight.....

I'll try to post some pix once i figure out how to do it

Way to go!! That sounds like an awesome time with your son! Congrats on the biggun as well. I think I can speak for all of us that we would love to see some pics.

Got some grainy ones from my cell phone, but my oldest son took some on his camera--- as soon as HIS weekend is over i'll get them out. I guess I have to sign up for an online photo album or something.
No one has been able to walk in the house without the younger one shoving the cell phone in their faces.....

man people sure are stingy with their spots on a 40,000 acre lake..nice find though

Excellent! I'm glad to hear someone else had striper for Dad's Day. Posting pics is easy once you got one right. www.photobucket.com is great for that.

Congratulations on a huge hooch stripe!!! I never would have expected it to get better than the 13-pounder your son fought in.

Ok-- finally figured this out-- I hope!
Note the proportionality--- Collin is 109 lbs, his fish was ~13--- I'm 200 lbs, and mine weighed 27.

[img]http://http://picasaweb.google.com/wormboy12/HoochStripes#5350526383539419602[/img]

Didn't work-- copied the url wrong or something, or maybe I need to upgrade to an IBM selectric for my web surfing
In any case-- here's the url
http://picasaweb.google.com/wormboy12/HoochStripes#5350526383539419602

Nice fish!!!! Thanks for the pic.
I right-clicked on the pic, then chose properties, then put the 'Location' in the [img]...[/img] tags for you:

Here you go. Those are some great looking fish.

Thanks guys--- had to be the shorts causing all the trouble; most sites wouldn't allow something that ugly to be posted.....

FYI--- NOW's the time to target them; from a bit above I-285 (cochran shoals) to the Rt 41 bridge. first and last light--- find a deep run near any shoal and cast 3 dozen times up and across the current and jig swimbaits/flukes or pump topwaters and/or hard plastics across and down with a wide swing at the end. For jigs, if you're not bumping rocks you aren't deep or weighted enough. If nothing hits move on.
What stinks is that you technically have to be off the Hooch at dark, so there's a narrow window between dusk and dark that's open to this kind of fishing. the good news is that these are the longest days of the year, so the timing might be right for a 6-9 pm window. We caught these right at last light, but saw a fellow catch a couple smaller ones (3-5 lbs) while it was still early/ good daylight on a fly rod. We gave up using fly rods for the bigger ones--- you will not turn them in the current with one of those, and leaders and the big flies are not cheap to buy or make.

They must move up into the shoals from deeper holes in the evening, so try brim or cut-bait in the deep spots during the day--- or bring a fly rod and catch some rainbow for bait! Tell the warden you tie all your trout flies on a bare 3/0 circle hook.......