Craig and Mike Rasmusson

Sunny and Windy, Water Temperature 58* and Clear.

I picked the guys up at High Point at 5:30 this morning hoping to catch bait before daylight.
The bait gods were with us today and we caught over 50 in about 5 or 6 throws. That enabled us to get a spread of baits out on the water at the crack of dawn early enough to beat some of the wind that has been blowing every day. I hadn't quite got all my boards out when the first Striper of the morning boiled a bait then hooked up for a brief moment. We got that rod in to change the bait and the one right next to it hookup up but 10 seconds later simply got off. Not a good start but at least we were getting hits. Instead of turning and going back I decided to just hold my course and put out my full spread. Lately it has not mattered where you fish, the most important factor to catching fish has been to stay away from boat traffic and keep out of the wind in order to keep your baits in the water column where the fish are holding. We caught 5 or 6 Stripers then the wind started howling again so I headed for a more protected area out of the gusting wind. Once I hit a calmer area and slowed the trolling motor down one of our free lines hooked up and Craig jumped on the rod. Next thing I knew the fish had pulled my tight drag out about 50 yards from where she originally hit. I cleared the back of the boat of rods that were out in order for Craig to fight the fish but it was too late, the fish had already got into one of our planner boards. Craig wrestled the fish from one side of our spread to the other, up under our boat to pulling out 30 to 40 more yards of drag. Craig's arms were on fire and he was ready to tap out but I got on him to keep doing exactly what he was doing, holding his rod high in the air, keeping the rod bent and not letting the line touch anything. Eventually the fish tired and Craig got the fish close enough to the boat for me to get a net under it. Craig was exhausted, the fish was HUGE and his father got it all on a video camera. We popped a couple of pictures and continued to try to fish the bank we were on. We caught a few more Stripers but the wind was getting worse and the 8 pounders they were reeling in just didn't seem to be much of a challenge any more. It was around 10 o'clock, Craig could not keep any more Stripers because he did not have much room in his freezer for fillets, they had conquered Lake Anna and were ready to go in and get the fish to a taxidermist. We went back to the marina and the fish pegged Carlos's scale. The fish was in excess of 21 pounds, a memory Craig and his Dad will never forget.