Striped Bass Belong In The Ocean!

 You know things are slow when 7 out of the 10 blog comments were about the blog title. It's 6:30, have had my first sip of the Perfect Manhattan and a couple handfuls of Act II's extra butter popcorn, (have paper towels in my lap to wipe the butter off my fingers before typing).

With an all day rain in the forecast, I thought it was a good time to spread a wheelbarrow full of topsoil on some of the bare spots from last years grub invasion and get them seeded. Finished up at 11:30, packed a lunch, and headed over to the BK. With last night's temp in the 50's and a cloudy rainy day in the forecast, the the water temp was not an issue.

The fishing -  Got a surprise when I walked out of the knotweed at my first stop on the BK, (a place where I rarely see anyone fishing), and there was a fisherman on the other side of the river. We exchanged waves and I left. Fished two pools without seeing a bug of any kind. Hooked two fish in the first pool and lost them both. The first fish, a good one, got tangled in a tree branch from the flood, (20,000 cfs about three weeks ago) and the hook ripped out. The second fish, a decent one, ate the fly and took off across stream, didn't go 10 feet before the hook came out. (it's a good thing I'm a slick fielder or I'd be back in the minor leagues with my current batting average). In the second pool I actually saw a rise, (the only one all afternoon that wasn't to my fly), but never had a fish even take a look at my fly.

Drove back to Hancock about 2:00 and decided to fish the BR. Chose a place below Stockport to see if there has been any fish movement back to home pools. In the hour and a half I fished, I again never saw a single bug or rise. Had three fish eat my fly without a moment's hesitation. Landed the first two, the first a fat 18 incher, the second went 13. Wading back to the car, a third fish ate the fly and took off downstream. With almost all of the flyline off the reel the fish came to the surface amidst three big splashy boils. The line then flew off the reel from an unstoppable force, then I could reel again, got maybe 25 feet of line back on the reel when there was another big boil, and I reeled in a line broken at the connection of 5x to the leader. Hopefully a Striped Bass big enough to eat a full grown rainbow will find a big Rapala too hard to resist.

Eagles and Striped Bass are top of the line predators, if they can catch fish on their own, (and they can), hats off to them, but it makes my blood boil when they wait for me to feed them!   

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