# Stripers,, Rainbows, Squealing women, and Codwrinkle on the Tallapoosa



## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

My BFF, Terri (Jackback), has been pestering me to take her striper fishing for her birthday. Well hell, her birthday was back in November, so I guess I put her off long enough. The Codwrinkle wanted to go, but he wanted to take his boat and follow us around, so I said "come on".

It's been almost a year since I've had to throw a castnet for shad, and it still hurts like I remember. I unlimber the net and find out the raccoons have chewed my only net all to hell. I guess they like the fishy smell or something. They even chewed through 5 of the braille lines, the rotten little shits. So the first hour was me bitching and repairing the net. Finally, somewhere around 6:00 PM and two thunderstorms later, I had 6 big gizzard shad and was nearing the death threshold. So we rounded up Capt. Cod and ran the river up to the "cool zone". 

As I'm putting out the second bait, I feel a thump and come tight to the first striper of the year. Terri fights him like a pro, squealing the whole time. I dip up the 8 pounder and I hear Codwrinkle holler, "That didn't take long!" (He's never been striper fishing)

Put the baits out again and don't go 20 yards and Terri's squealing again. Above the sound of the squeals I can hear drag screaming louder than Terri. "Uh oh, Terri, I'm afraid you've hooked THE BIG ONE!"

Girl can squeal y'all. She's winding like hell but I'm still hearing drag pulling. 120 yards behind the boat I see a big ol' tail blowing water out of the river. Terri saw it, too, and she mixed some bad words in with her squeals. After one heck of a fight, she has the fish boatside and I slip the net under him. End of squeals. Begining of lots of OMG's. Photos aplenty. Capt Cod comes over and snaps a few pics. "That was a helluva fight, girl.", said Codwrinkle. "I had more fun watching than if I'd caught it!"

Terri said, "Look at the rainbow!" A big double rainbow stretched across the river below us. Capt. Cod said Terri had already found her pot of gold.

She managed to catch two more stripers before dark, and Cod lost two large spotted bass at boatside while trolling a crankbait beside us.

At the ramp taking out, we talked to a man with a shirtless 9 year old boy. The man said he heard all the squealing from a half mile downriver. The boy wanted to see Terri's fish and when she showed him - HE started squealing. "Hey, lady, I'll trade you my dog for that fish." Terri said she didn't want to take his dog. "OK, I'll trade you my sister! She's older than me, but not by much."

Helluva day.

First pic is Terri's first fish with Codwrinkle in the background. Then a couple of shots of Big Boy.


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## submariner (Oct 2, 2007)

nice fish thanks for sharing


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

Nice. What part of the river? Downstream of Thurlow?

We're headed to fish the Tallapoosa this morning from Kayaks. Well, not the Tallapoosa, but Yates on the poosa. I'm trying to figure out how to catch Yellow Perch. I cant seem to find the little buggers... Today, it's on!!!


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## jcoss15 (Oct 11, 2010)

Wow, that's a stud!!


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

DANG, bigger then the boat in the pic at least!!! hahaha Fine stripe!!!


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## olegator (Dec 6, 2014)

That fish woulda made a grown man squeal.....nice pics.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

NoMoSurf said:


> Nice. What part of the river? Downstream of Thurlow?
> 
> We're headed to fish the Tallapoosa this morning from Kayaks. Well, not the Tallapoosa, but Yates on the poosa. I'm trying to figure out how to catch Yellow Perch. I cant seem to find the little buggers... Today, it's on!!!


We were on Yates, better known locally as the Middle Pond.

We catch a few yellow perch in the spring while crappie fishing, but don't have a clue where they go in summer. Thurlow is supposed to have a bunch in it.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Jason said:


> DANG, bigger then the boat in the pic at least!!! hahaha Fine stripe!!!


Here's one just for you Jason:


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

Bodupp said:


> We were on Yates, better known locally as the Middle Pond.
> 
> We catch a few yellow perch in the spring while crappie fishing, but don't have a clue where they go in summer. Thurlow is supposed to have a bunch in it.


We fished Thurlow last weekend... Got nothing...

We fished Yates this morning.... One decent sized Red Breasted Sunfish about noon. There was a dude coming off the water as we were putting in that gave us two Stud shellcrackers. So at least we have dinner. haha

We were fishing from kayaks, I slowly ran over a bunch of treetops with the downscan fishfinder. There were bream or crappie stacked like firewood in the 8-10ft depth range. But I couldn't get them to hit anything. I bet a jighead with a small minnow would work well after sundown or just after sunrise.
I also ran over a huge school of something in about 30ft of water just outside a creek mouth. I'm figuring a school of stripes. I lost em before I could get anything down to them though. Not that i would have been able to do anything with them. I was outfitted for perch/bream.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Some fine stripers there, Bodupp !


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## The Real Amarillo Palmira (Jun 29, 2016)

Oh, those are nice stripers! I went up to Tennessee two weeks ago to striper fish with a guide. Unfortunately we blanked so he gave me a rain check for another day. Not his fault, he's a top rated guide. I learned some new tactics from him that I am going to apply here this winter.

Thanks for your report. 

name change due to hack: Formerly Amarillo Palmira but now the Real Amarillo Palmira


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

The Real Amarillo Palmira said:


> Oh, those are nice stripers! I went up to Tennessee two weeks ago to striper fish with a guide. Unfortunately we blanked so he gave me a rain check for another day. Not his fault, he's a top rated guide. I learned some new tactics from him that I am going to apply here this winter.
> 
> Thanks for your report.
> 
> name change due to hack: Formerly Amarillo Palmira but now the Real Amarillo Palmira


Back when I did some guiding, that was my biggest worry - that someone would drive a long way to fish with me and I didn't produce. Thankfully, it never happened, but came close a few times. A guide can do the best rigging, catch and keep the best baits lively, put you where the stripers have always been, but he can't turn a bluebird day into overcast, and he can't control the current or lack of it in the river. Tough job sometimes.

BTW, Tennessee is the land of the giants!


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## floorman1 (Jan 10, 2012)

Where's the best place to net some shad around here bodupp.


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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

floorman1 said:


> Where's the best place to net some shad around here bodupp.


Around here for me is the Montgomery area, and I'm assuming that's where you're talking about.

I like catching my shad where I'm gonna be fishing, and that's not always easy. There are places on the Alabama river that are loaded with shad, but to fish where the most and biggest stripers are requires putting the boat in the Alabama, catching bait, taking out, etc. and shad don't transport well, at least in my experience. It can be done, but it's a hassel.

I guess to answer your question, the best place I know is upriver from the Marina in Montgomery where the treated effluent from the sewage plant pours into the river. Tons of shad there, attracted to the doodoo water. For obvious reasons, I don't like throwing the net there since I put the lead line of the net in my mouth. I've done it, out of desperation, but I had to gargle with beer between throws.

If you do transport your shad, use lots of salt in your tank. It helps them calm down and also rebuilds their slime coat lost to the cast net. I'll use about two pounds of salt in my 30 gallon tank.


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