The History:

Many years ago I would tag along with my Dad and his work buddies striper fishing on Cumberland. There were many late nights, often falling asleep in the bow listening to waves lap at the hull of the boat. Once I even fell asleep running the trolling motor and drove us all into a cove of driftwood and garbage, as my Dad and his buddies dozed also. Fog had rolled in making the spotlight completely useless. After some debate on whether we were on the right or left side of the creek arm, we managed to untangle the mess I had us in and get pointed back to the ramp.

Then there was the time five of us went fishing in a regular cab pickup. It was a nice summer ride down in the bed of the truck, back when doing such a thing was considered normal. But, the ride back in a terrible thunderstorm wasn't as pleasant. Staying as close to the cab as possible so the rain blew over me and using the spare tire as a pillow, I actually slept most of the way home.

The big fish fries with all the striper you could possibly eat are another fond memory. I still remember leaving my Dads friends house absolutely miserable I had ate so much, while trying to remember the guitar chords he had taught me after dinner. There was only one problem with all the striper trips, stories, and fish fries...I actually had never caught one.

Then one late night, out with just my Dad in our boat it finally happened. I caught my first striper! It was only 13lb and didn't compare to some of the pictures I had seen of my Dad and his buddies fish, but it was finally my first fish. I remember having quite a bit of trouble getting the fish in, since at the time I was a very scrawny 12 or 13 year old. I had never caught a fish that size, or pulled that hard, and I was hooked. Dad realized what the "little" fish meant to me and actually had it mounted. Due to health issues and other crap life tends to deal out, shortly after that fish, Dad sold his boat and I didn't fish for striper many more times. Fast forward 28 years and that fish was my only striper until this past Saturday night.

My wife and son loves to fish, and while I like it too, I have never been very good at it. Fishing and hunting are the same to me, it's more about getting out than actually catching/killing something. I can fish all day or night and never catch anything and I'm fine with it. I just love being in the woods or on the water. After owning an open bow runabout that is not designed in the least bit for fishing for 14 years, I decided to buy a fishing boat and pursue fishing more seriously this spring. As soon as I put the down payment to hold the boat, those old striper trip memories started floating back up. I just had to figure out striper fishing and get my wife and son to catch one.

...To be continued
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