Striper Fishin' the Clinch

Today I had the good fortune to take Jack Britt and Dan Hurst striper fishing on the Clinch River from 7:00 a.m. to ~12:00 noon.  We were also joined by some of our other good buddies, Charlie Shields, Stuart Row, and Stuart's son Ben - they fished from Charlie's Ranger.  We concentrated on the same general areas that I had been finding fish in the past few weeks, but since it was the morning and Melton Hill Dam wasn't generating we were in a very different situation.  I got good sized (6 - 8") gizzard shad minnows for bait up on the flat between the Hwy 70 and I-40 bridges.  We fished a couple of hours with no action and then decided to run up the river and try some other spots I had luck with in previous outings. Just as we were ready to head up river we checked in with Stu and Sir Charles and noticed Stu was hung (or at least I thought he was judging by his rod being doubled over to a non-moving object), as we got closer we realized the non-moving object was beginning to slowly budge.  As the fight ensued we each speculated as to what the monster may be...water soaked log? a turtle? possibly - if he's lucky a drum? - well as usual I was shown up and to the water surface came a beautiful 18 lb flathead cat!

After all this excitement we continued up river and here in a minute the river started flowing, and Dan caught a nice 11 lb striper up around the Gallaher Bridge on the flat near the Clinch River Breeder Reactor Site.  I was hopeful that the fish would turn on, but it wasn't meant to be today.  We ran back down river again and finished out the day where we started out, and Jack's patience finally paid off with a small blue cat and a beautiful 18" sauger - which turned out to be my lunch!  One extra added treat was that we saw a mature bald eagle fly down to the water surface and pick up a dead fish (probably one of ours).  This happened on two different occassions this afternoon and got to get a terrific view of him - really a beautiful and majestic creature.  Overall, it was another great day on the water spent with two of the guys I admire most.