“Bringing Back Memories”     Hello everyone!  My name is David Osborne (StriperGuy).  I wanted to drop you a few lines and hopefully bring back some great memories for a lot of people.  Does everyone remember when, where, why and how they got “hooked” on stripers?  Well, I sure do.  Let me tell you a little story of mine.  About 9 years ago, during the month of April on a warm, cloudy night fishing on beautiful Cherokee Lake.  My wife, Lisa and I and two of our friends went crappie fishing on their pontoon boat.  We launched just before dark at Churchhouse point near Rogersville.  We traveled across the lake, anchored down and began a very serious night of fishing.  We were all armed with our trusty Zebco 33’s, a few light action spinning outfits, a whole lot of small minnows and loaded with high hopes.  The little $99.00 Humminbird kept our full attention because it told us that there was enough fish under the boat so that no matter where or how deep you put a bait out, “something” was gonna eat it, even if it was a bare hook!  Hum, guess the fish just weren't  hungry, the fish were safe for now.  Along about 1:00 am a terrible thunderstorm hit.  We pulled up anchor, headed for the bank and each of us snuggled up to take a nap and wait out the storm, determined to fish, one way or another.  About 4:30 or 5:00 am, I awoke with blurry visions of “huge” crappie in my still very sleepy eyes.  After making lots of noise to wake everyone else up and begging to go back over where “all” those fish were at, then promising everyone that they would bite now for sure, we headed back over to our little honey hole.   We anchored down once again, this was going to be it, I just knew it!  Sure enough, all those fish were still there, running across the screen in all directions, just begging to be caught and believe it or not, I did manage to catch a catfish.  Everyone's spirits just soared!  Well, at least they had quit snoring!  Why can't everyone understand that if you don't trip over at least two sleeping women and turn over at least one tackle box while trying to land a huge 3 lb catfish, that your doing something wrong?  Anyway, daylight finally comes and everyone is up, awake and wet from sleeping on the floor of the boat.  Strange that no one cared about my catfish, even though I did.  I just knew that there was more to follow that one.  The day broke cloudy and calm.  Did I say calm?  Just then someone asked, “what are all those little fish jumping on the bank for”?  Someone else said, “I think those are called shad”.  Next question was, “what's a shad”?  Those little fish jumping up in the rocks.  Duh!! Then, it happened!  Suddenly, the water began exploding all around us.  There were these sucking noises and water splashing all around the boat.  Huge lake creatures were attacking us from all sides.  No one moved a muscle.  Suddenly, my wife's crappie rod went flying over the side of the boat (what's a rod holder?)  Imagine that.  No way that little minnow had that much horsepower.  But “what” could it be?  Luckily, her rod got stuck in the side of the boat railing and she saved it.  Then, the fight was on!  WOW, we had Moby Dick or Jaws or Loch Nest on the other end of this little spinning rod.  After much effort and excitement, everyone just stared in awe as I netted this “huge” beautiful fish and it had lines running the entire length of its body.  What was it?  None of us knew.  Then another rod in the front of the boat went scooting across the floor.  Our friend, Larry, managed to step on the handle of it before it went sailing overboard.   This fish was even bigger, it just had to be some kind of record or something.  Then, it was over.  We sat there for 3 more hours with nothing happening and decided to give up.  Even though I didn't catch either of those fish, I knew I had to learn more about them.  My wife's fish weighed 7 lbs. and Larry's weighed 9 lbs.  Real trophies, by anyone's standards!  Sure did beat the heck out of a 3 lb catfish.  To end this long story, let me say that we have learned a lot more about these magnificent fish.  Our knowledge comes from the best in the business, all of our friends.  Shortly after this trip we bought a boat, a camper, several good rods and reels and became dedicated striper chasers.  Does that sound familiar to any of you?  If it does, please share your memories with us.  I’m sure everyone would enjoy them.  Thanks for taking the time to read this.  Let's go fishin!
“Catch that striper fever!”
Your friend, StriperGuy
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