NEAR WORLD RECORD STRIPERS!!! 2011 started out as a rough Trophy season. After days of waiting around at the hotel for decent weather, and numerous "touch and go" trips in between sloppy conditions, we found ourselves smack dab in Trophy Heaven.
This is the first time I brought my two boys to the Chesapeake in December for the Cow Striper run. We were lucky enough to squeeze the trip in between two small craft advisories and fish in flat calm conditions. I was fishing with good friend and old NSBA buddy, Dewayne Lambe. We started the day by setting our spread of 10 rods right on top of the school of a lifetime. We barely had time to get all of the rods out when we heard the first drag sing, then the second. The 50 pound plus fish struck the two outside planer rods which were at least 200 feet away from each other. This gave us any idea of the size school we were dealing with. 13 year old Michael was up first, I strapped the belt on him and he set the rod into gimbal pin just in time to hear the second screamer. 11 year old Jonathan grabbed the rod, but the belt was in use, so he had to "gut" it out!
Both fish were big, taking huge amounts of line from the spools set at 7-8 pounds of drag with 30lb mono, with the fish 100 feet away at strike, and another 100 stripped away, they were both in for a battle. I don't know if they could have got it done without the ACCURATE 50N 2-speed reels. If you have never used a 2-speed before, the biggest advantage is being able to down-shift to the incredibly powerful 3:1 ratio gear. In this gear, the boys only had to hold the rod tips high and slowly crank whenever the fish were not draining line. NO NEED TO PUMP AND TAKE!
These 2 boys have played tackle football for more than half of their lives, but there is no way they could have conquered more than one of these beasts with a traditional single speed reel, especially with a high speed reel. There is just no way. Twenty minutes of Pump and Take would have done them in.
The first two fish weighed in at 52 and 57 pounds! If caught just one year earlier, or weighed just a few lbs more this year, they BOTH would have had new all tackle IGFA World Records in Junior and Small Fry divisions! BUT, the day wasn't over yet, the boys went on to catch another half dozen cows EACH over the next few hours, the smallest being a 40 pounder. Dewayne capped the day off with a 56 pounder, just before we went in with an empty live well.
These days are a gift, fishing with a good friend can make it special, but watching your Sons do what nearly EVERY professional Striper fisherman in world has only dreamed of doing, truly makes it a treasure.
I'm sure it will be quite a few years before my Boys realize what they have done, but I realize right now that it could NOT have been done without the ACCURATE 2-SPEEDS!
Thanks again Accurate!
Please watch the video from that day on You Tube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w84Bo51rhU&feature=channel_video_title
