# 12/3 Giant Striper !



## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

I don't know exactly how big he is yet...but BIG ! Of all days to leave my net at the house ! I think that I damn near had a heart attack ! My nerves are too shot to continue fishing ! Lol ....I'm just idling up the river on cloud 9 ! Some of ya'll have probably caught bigger ones...but this is my personal best striper ! I'll add more to the story later. Better pictures to come soon !









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## Achim2 (Apr 25, 2011)

Very impressive, congrats!


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## cody&ryand (Oct 3, 2007)

Very nice


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Well it's 23lbs.11ozs. ! I couldn't find a single trout this morning so I moved to a deeper spot that I saw that fellow catching reds at day before yesterday. My first cast I landed a nice 25 and a half inch redfish ! Awesome ! I fished a few more minutes and swapped to a larger grub with a chartreuse tail. I threw it at the bank and moved it about 2 feet and let it stop. I started to move it again and thought that I felt a bite but wasn't sure. I lifted the rod tip a little and there was resistance but it kinda felt like a snag. I set the hook anyway....and it was on ! We went from one side of the river to the other and back and forth several times. About 10 to 15 minutes into the fight I had convinced myself that it had to be a giant bull red ,and I considered just grabbing the spool and getting back to catching keeper reds. I didn't have a net with me anyways and figured that I probably wasn't going to be able to land it by myself and I wasn't going to keep a big red anyway. But for some reason I kept on . I at least wanted to see it. Finally....I got it to the top.....oh my God !....it's a striper ! No net ! I don't think that it would fit in the net anyway ! I got to touch it several times and it didn't like it ! Back to the bottom....oh my heart ! Fight it back up and get the lip...but it snatches free and zips out again ! Imagine Fred Sanford here ! I get it back up and get the lip again and dropped the rod and got the other hand in there and over the rail ! Thank you Jesus ! Fishing was over ....and I just idled back upriver for a bit to calm down. Awesome morning !









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## Boat-Dude (Sep 24, 2011)

WHoa!!! Dang nice haul Russ. Congratulations dude!


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## tiger297 (Jan 13, 2018)

Dude that is an awesome fish!


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## Joraca (Dec 29, 2007)

Beautiful fish!

What river?


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Perdido of all places. It hasn't been stocked with stripers in over 20 years. I guess that this one swam over from Escambia.


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Heck yeah!!! Awesome catch and leaving me a foot pic too!!!


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## Solace (Apr 23, 2009)

Impressive! Especially the pic with you holding the fish.


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## surfdwn (Sep 3, 2017)

How deep was the area that you caught him in? Great looking fish!


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## Strickly Fishin' (Sep 16, 2009)

Great report! Great pictures! 


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

surfdwn said:


> How deep was the area that you caught him in? Great looking fish!


 It grabbed the bait in 6' of water but it drops off real quick to 12' then goes to about 22' in short order.


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## SouthernAngler (Oct 5, 2007)

In the last picture that fish has Mona Lisa eyes. No matter how I look at it the fish appears to be alive staring back. Great fish!


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## jack2 (Mar 19, 2010)

got me nervous just reading that shit. woooow.

jack


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## surfdwn (Sep 3, 2017)

How deep was it where you caught the striper? Nice fish!


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## JoeyWelch (Sep 25, 2009)

Way to go Russ.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

A few more pictures









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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Double post...


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## lees way2 (Oct 7, 2007)

Thats the way to do that,Hot greese and no release. Good job Russ you are on fire


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Thanks everybody !


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## CalvinandHobbes (Jan 25, 2014)

Hell yeh! That is a nice one, I would have been ecstatic.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Yeah I was all cool, calm, and collected through out most of the fight when I thought that it was a bull red.....but as soon as I saw that it was a giant striper....the adrenaline and nerves kicked in. It's been a long time since a fish had me so excited and nervous. It was awesome !


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## jaster (Oct 7, 2007)

Hog right there


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## lettheairout (Mar 11, 2008)

Yup. It's getting to be that time of year to target them. They are a blast to catch. We release all the bigger fish just cause. The 18-22" fish taste the best. Did yours have a tag in it?

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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

No tag


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## Boat-Dude (Sep 24, 2011)

Tag said "LETS EAT!"


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

That is awesome, Russ! The biggest lake-bound striper in my home state of North Carolina came from lake Hiwassee, where no stripers had been stocked... it had made it in by coming downstream from another lake. The point is that once they are there, without a lot of competition, they can grow to enormous size. I would not be surprised if that fish was one of the stockers from 20 years ago, and you just finally found it! Either way, what an incredible catch! Way to go!

A bit more on the North Carolina record setting striper for those interested:

"The Georgia Department of Natural Resources stocks stripers upstream of Hiwassee in Nottely Reservoir," Wheeler says. "Occasionally a striper survives passing through Nottely Dam turbine or over the spillway and swims 13 miles down the Nottely to Hiwassee Reservoir."

https://www.fieldandstream.com/phot...ina-state-record-striped-bass-striper#page-14


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## Murphy's Law (Sep 27, 2007)

Damn nice fish ! I got a spot close to I10 on Blackwater that produce them like that. Only down side is its usually cold as hell when they are there biting. 

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## Desert Eagle (Apr 25, 2012)

EXTREMELY NICE STRIPER. I'll be hoping I can get some of them soon. Good job and nice postings as well...


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## Mouser (Oct 27, 2018)

I just started fishing brackish water around causeway in Alabama...how prevalent are Stripers in the tributaries of the Gulf and bays? I usually head up to Lake Martin this time of year to fish stripers so if there is a population of fish to target closer that would be great.


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## lettheairout (Mar 11, 2008)

Mouser said:


> I just started fishing brackish water around causeway in Alabama...how prevalent are Stripers in the tributaries of the Gulf and bays? I usually head up to Lake Martin this time of year to fish stripers so if there is a population of fish to target closer that would be great.


Nah stick to lake Martin. We've got some here. But takes lots of work to find them. Hit or miss some years. Colder the better. 

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## Desert Eagle (Apr 25, 2012)

lettheairout said:


> Nah stick to lake Martin. We've got some here. But takes lots of work to find them. Hit or miss some years. Colder the better.
> 
> Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk


Mostly true, I think. But I've caught some of my largest Stripers in March. Also, Stripers that spend time in brackish waters seem to have a better taste.


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## DAWGONIT (Jan 16, 2009)

WOW! thanks for sharing; catch 'em up.


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## KnotSure (Jul 8, 2017)

What a hoss, thats what I'm talking about! 
I know the feeling you describe, lol, nice "cardiac-catch"!


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Well, I was sitting around and got to thinking about stripers of the past and I decided to see what kind of photos that I could find of my past stripers. All that I could find was a couple of polaroids from the late 90's. I was wondering when I caught my last striper from perdido....it turns out it was in 1997 ! I don't know what year I caught the 12.9 lber....but the 19 lber.was in 1997. Thank goodness for smartphone cameras to capture all future catches. More better !









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## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

Awesome fish Russ, and a great story too. I couldn't log on when you caught it, but I could view posts but not add comments. Your story sounded awfully familiar; panic when I first see the fish, then wonder how in the hell I'm going to land it!

If you happen to hook one on a lure with treble hooks and you don't have a net and don't want to lip it with all those hooks shaking around, you can play the fish out and do a belly lift. Kinda tricky, but when you get the weight of the fish on your hand they usually stop the flop. Hopefully you'll get to try that soon! You seem to have a good address to go try.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Thanks Bodupp ! Stripers have become so scarce around my river that when I saw what it was, I nearly had a come undone ! Lol ! In fact they are so few that I believe that you could fish every day for a month for them and not catch a single one. But I kinda like catching them... so I might have to drag my boat to another one of our rivers that actually has a decent striper population.


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