Travis, Michael and Tommy

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010: Sunny, Water Temperature 44* and Clear.
Got out on the water just before daylight and set out a spread of a dozen boards, a bobber and a downline. We attempted to work a shallow flat first and gradually work deeper as the fish pulled off the bank but as it sometimes happens, there were no fish shallow. We worked the area for an hour or so and decided to move on. We went across the lake and pulled some 15 foot humps next to 45 foot flats. We worked that area for 20 minutes and got punked so we got the baits in and took off for another area. We worked downlines for 45 minutes over fish but they did not want our offerings so we moved again with intentions of pulling boards over 10 to 3o foot flats and humps. As we pulled up on the first 15 foot flat 4 out of 6 boards on the shallow side got busted. We landed the fish and wanted to turn around and hit it again but another boat saw what we did and beat us to it so we continued our pull. We made our way up to a point and saw fish on the Lowrance and started taking hits over 24 foot of water , wanted to turn on them but we were busted by a fisherman nearby , he pulled right over to where he saw us catch the fish and proceeded to hook up. I had one more flat to hit so we worked over to it, 2 boards on the inside went off. Travis and Tommy reeled these fish in and we looked up and a troller in a bass boat was headed right for us. I told the guys to watch this, he is so stupid he is trolling umbrella rigs right up on a 6 foot flat. Before they got to us less than 40 yards away all there lines hung up, ruining that flat for our fishing so we moved on. [Hate the weekend traffic] We went and hit an area nearby and popped a couple of fish but it was now 12:10 and Brian had to get off the water by 12:30. He said lets go hit an area that looked good earlier in the day for 10 minutes so we got the lines in and took off. We pulled up to the spot , puts some lines out and within 5 minutes Travis took a hit but it got off. Five seconds later my grandson Michael hooked up and we knew this is what we came for. The hog took him to the back of the boat, got tied into 2 other rods, I cut them off and the fish took him right back to the front of the boat. Michael fought the fish like a champ and gave it everything he had. About 8 to 10 minutes had elapsed by the time we could see the fish and Mikes arms were on fire! He had wanted to pass the fish off to me but my deal with him has always been if he gets a fish on he has to fight it to the end. He continued to battle the Striper, he hurt so bad tears started dripping down his face. Brian was videoing the whole fight and got some great footage. I finally got the fish in the net and Michael had boated a 34 1/2 inch 18 pound Striper, his largest to date. We popped a couple of pictures and released the fish but it was wore out from the long battle with Michael. We put it in my bait tank and Tommy worked on reviving it for about 5 minutes on the way back to the ramp and when we got to the ramp Brian got in the water and gave it 10 more minutes of resuscitation but after all of our efforts the fish would not stay upright so we ended up keeping the fish. Brian is holding Michael's fish for him, Mike had no strength left to do it himself. Needless to say Brian was a little late getting back home to his wife Melissa, but he had a good excuse. Today we caught 20 fish and released 8 to fight again...... Anthony was out today and caught a nice stringer of fish with a friend of his but after seeing Mike's fish he wasn't too excited about getting a picture for the journal, he elected to pass on the picture but is going out tomorrow to try and show Mike up.