Made it out yesterday to the Clinton Lake spillway for my first local fishing trip of 2017. Was hoping for a fair hooked gizzard shad for my lifelist, but the only one I caught was snagged in the side. Been trying to get one of these hooked in the mouth for seven years!
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Since the shad weren't biting, I switched to a heavy inline spinner. I had to clean algae off it after every cast, but eventually I got a solid hit from a hybrid striped bass. I've caught a few over the years, but I had never photographed one. Was glad to get a nice example of one showing the broken stripes.
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Snagged a silver carp that nearly spooled me, but I didn't take a photo of it. Several hours went by without a fish, and then I got a good THUMP and had a short but spirited fight with this guy. 7.5 lbs on 6 lb line!
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I had been there for quite a while, so I opted to end on a high note and leave right after catching the second fish. A buddy invited me over to have tacos for dinner, and I volunteered my catch to have them be fish tacos. I only cooked up half the fish and it easily fed five people. Those tacos were good!
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On the 6lb test, impressive. Ive always used that as a the impressive benchmark to myself, when the fish weight is more than the pound test rating of the line or leader, I'm impressed. I realize a fish weighs about zero in the water so the correlation is flawed but still....
JOE
PS: how's the so cal employment offer lookin ?
That's a chunky fish!
: LONGCAST JOE April 02, 2017, 01:37:59 p
PS: how's the so cal employment offer lookin ?
Still waiting to hear back. I think I was the first person they interviewed, so it might be a while.
Beautiful Hybrid! I caught an 11 pounder many many moons ago back in PA and that thing kicked my butt on the 8#. That is a VERY impressive catch boss! Beautiful!
(What, are you too good now than to take any pics of silver carp!?!? LOLOLOLOL)
Haha, in Illinois you're asking for abuse if you post pics of yourself proudly holding up an Asian carp. I posted the silver carp photo below on facebook last year and had a bunch of guys jump on me for releasing it. They called the DNR and reported me (nothing came of it).
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2841/33652078246_d0a1fec0ee_c.jpg)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2931/32850135914_a04f8a84cf_c.jpg)