Clinch Monsters
 

After some trout fishing yesterday on the Clinch with Shawn we motored past an enormous herd of HUGE stripers; not a small one in the bunch, most easily 30 inch and some nearly 50 inches long.

I hope to be back next Saturday with the appropriate Fly Gear, Boat, and enormous flies.

Until then it will be difficult to sleep without dreaming about them. I have caught zillions of stripers in New England waters but they were all sea run fish in the rivers. I so want to hook-up with a totally salt-free striper.

Just be sure to slit their stomachs prior to release. Benchmade makes a nifty blade called a Rescue hook, run into their anus and zip it to their gill plates. They won't go far...

Well there were hundreds of them so I doubt it possible to catch them all. There did not appear to be any shortage of trout around.

Hundreds?...

Question...

I had heard that the stripers stocked in the lakes around here are sterile. Is this true? Is it possible that the stripers are making a spawning run up the tailwater?

I have fished for them on the lakes, but as far as the habits of stripers I am completely unfamiliar with.

They are not sterile, but from what I have read the requirements for them to successfully spawn do not exist here and thus the reason they have to be stocked in order to sustain the population.

You must have not seen the movie Jurassic Park then! :biggrin:

Thank heavens, I was discouraged. I have been killing them off and felt for a moment like they were spawning from the gravel.