the stripe type success @ last!

Well after along night and very little sleep decided to stick to the plan and hit the pipe in good ol' South Bound. Didn't get the early start I had hope for but was on the river at about 8 this mornin. Started throwin hatters but the river was so high and fast they were not swimmin to well so switched it up to a bomber green back w/silver sides. Casted my arm off tryin to cover as much ground as I could...was gettin tired so decided to fish a hole right in front of me like 10 yards away...casted just above the pipe and as it came over the pipe gave it a pull to get it to dig in and started a decent retrive due to the current. BAM! it was game on.....gotta say it was alittle irie watchin this big fish makin such a racket in the chocolate milk. Was scared excited and just plain pumped all at the same time. Fought it for what seemed like forever but was probably more like 10 to 15 minutes...It made some great runs and finally I coaxed it in to the shallow water. WOW! What a fight, drag screamin.....Ran into AndyS and Fasteddie29 also...always nice to meet guys from njf. Andy also had a nice one on up @ the falls but it took a run down stream and got caught up in some trees...we did our best to get it out with out lossin the fish. Waded down stream in between the trees to try to free it....felt the fished tail beat against my leg....startled the hell out of me...long story short, we lost the fish but save the plugg...

[AndyS]

CLASSIC morning on the river !!! I pull up and get a text photo of a nice striper from Maddhatterr as I was setting the parking brake. Got down to the falls and thought it was Bronzeback, nope, FASTEDDIE. Him and I fished the falls for a bit and headed down to the pipe to see Maddhatterr. Got down there and the Hatter was all smiles. EDDIE fished the pipe for a while and then we moved back up to the falls, we looked like soaked rats, pouring rain !
The 3 of us fished the falls for a bit and I got into a very nice fish. The fish started down river and I was running behind it falling on the rocks as I went. Hatterr was able to get down river and I handed him the rod as we went past each bunch of shrubs. We finally got to a point where the fish had buried itself in tree roots, I passed the rod tip to to Hatterr and he was able to grab the line from the other side of the shrub, no movement, so a quick tug and the fish was gone, then the plug floated to the surface. Both him and I felt the fish brush our legs, creepy to say the least. It's all good, we are going for the C&R anyway, but it would have been nice to see the fish. At present the river is raging, and I think it's may take a bit for it to calm down, but it's not gonna stop us from going !!! Love fishing big surf plugs in the river. I did find 1 tick crawling on me when I got home.

http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydro...phi&gage=bdkn4

[FASTEDDIE29]

Great catch Hatterr, cant wait to get my first RR Striper. Andy hooked into a monster in the raging waters. Depending on rain and water levels on the river Ill be there all week around 9 am. Great to see Andy and Maddhatter out there. Im going to put some time in this week!!!

[AndyS]

I went back at 1 in the afternoon and tried to fish the big run below Queens bridge but I was picking up too much grass on each throw so I packed it in, 5 mins. from my house so it's easy to run over there. I figure if the bass are at the falls and the pipe, they gotta be in Bound Brook and all the way down to Boyd Park and Johnson Park, I want to catch a bass at each location.
Leave the light stuff at home, these aren't stocked trout in the Musky, these are big strong stripers in very big water. Plan on donating a few plugs here and there also. This is some exciting fishing, so take the Raritan River challenge.

[bronzeback]

lol killer... gotta lov it

[ChaosStarter]

Originally Posted by AndyS

This is some exciting fishing, so take the Raritan River challenge.

No, don't take the challenge!!



(leave more for me )

Originally Posted by ChaosStarter

No, don't take the challenge!!



(leave more for me )

Plenty to go around....just gotta pay your dues and put your time......this was maybe my 11th or 12th trip....and it paid off for me finally. Seen them, heard of guys catchin them, knew someone who caught one but it took awhile for me to connect....gotta put your time in....this is fishin not catchin!!!!

[AndyS]

If muskies are fish of 10,000 casts, then Raritan river stripers are fish of 7,000 casts !!

[ChaosStarter]

Originally Posted by AndyS

If muskies are fish of 10,000 casts, then Raritan river stripers are fish of 7,000 casts !!

haha. Don't you guys worry, I've donated plenty to the lovely Raritan.