The Striper become one of my favorite fish species to target. The aggressive strike will knock the paint off of a lure, and the deceiving fight is always greater than the fish’s actual size. There is a salt water feeling about trolling for these great fish and the potential to catch a giant can be realized at a moments notice. Through the course of the winter, our striper fishing days on the Santee Cooper System have been met with low numbers in quantity, but some great size. Bryson Cobb now holds the largest fish record for my boat weighing a December striper at 17 pounds.
I was talking with Dale Lee, a co-worker from Florence, who invited me to join his striper fishing team, “Lucky Strikes.” He and the captain, Fowler Lane, have been fishing the Midland Striper Club tournaments for years and are trying to win Team of the Year this time around. Team of the year is determined by the boat that weighs in the greatest overall weight throughout the year’s 10 tournaments.
One of the first things Dale talked about was the severity of using the perfect bait. “The team with the bait has a real advantage” Dale explained. “People make up rumors and lie about where they find bait.”
We were sure to have plenty of bait. Fowler is the boat captain, and Dale has a 250 gallon tank on a flatbed trailer which keeps the bait alive for months at a time. Dollar bill sized shad are great for catching giant stripers, but a good amount of herring is also needed so that we do not pass up an opportunity on a smaller size striper.
The crew met a week early to gather bait and practice fishing to figure out where the fish might be. The fishing was tough and several competitors were on the water with us. From what we observed, nobody was catching any keepers. It was a good idea to fish a practice round because it gave us an idea of where the fish would not be during the tournament.
The tournament finally came around and I met Dale and Fowler at a lake house that we rented. It was right on the banks of Lake Murray, and Fowler’s boat was tied at the dock. We cooked rainbow trout for supper and Fowler showed me his chart to help orient me with the lake.
Saturday morning’s weather was supposed to be poor and we all wore full body rain suits. Fowler readied the boat while Dale and I transported bait from the tank to the boat. Once we were ready, team Lucky Strikes pushed away from the dock and was ready for action.
The tournament starts at 7, and since we were early, we had some time to ride around and mark fish on the depth finder. The fish were mostly close to the shore and we knew exactly where to start fishing. Dawn was breaking and the lake was decorated with navigation lights from other boats riding to their spots. As soon as the clock hit 7, we had lines in the water. The hooks, baited with live herring and shad, were all spread from each side of the boat and were set for different depths which allows us to cover more water while we are pulling bait.
It was not long before a rod tip bowed over and I took hold of the rod. With 12 lines in the water behind the boat, I was careful not to allow much freedom for the striper to swim as he pleased. It was not yet light out, but we could see swells where the fish had come close to surfacing. It looked like a toilet bowl flushing each time the striper brushed the surface and the entire crew was excited. Our first fish of the day was 24. (The smallest fish allowed to keep would be 21.)
We fished hard all day and the rain was thick. We caught plenty of small stripers but none were large enough to keep. Through process of elimination, we thoroughly fished our spots until we returned to where we had started. Each boat can only weigh two keepers, and we were anxious to land a second fish so that we could start the year in good standing.
As we were trolling along the bank, one of the planer boards jerked out of line and we had a fish on. I could tell by the way the fish pulled that it might be the one. Sure enough, the fish measured to be 22 inches.
The tournament was to end soon so we reeled in the lines and raced for the marina. Many other boats had crowded the docks and the crews were toting their fish in bags to have weighed. Some of the bags appeared to be heavy and everyone was trying to judge how they did based on the bags. Packing the striper’s mouth with ice is a great trick to gain a few ounces, but the man at the scales had seen this trick before and shook the fish upside down to remove the ice. It appeared that no giants were brought to the scales today, and the cumulative weight for the winning team was 17.5. Lucky Strikes placed 18th with 11.37 pounds. There are 9 tournaments remaining for the year and plenty of time to close the gap. It is always important to remember that at any second, a giant striper could make the mistake of taking the bait.
“The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions of hope.” —John Buchan
