Sea monsters (aka stripers) roam the Florida Parishes rivers

Stripers migrate up the river from Lake Pontchartrain, and can make any hookset quite interesting.

Anadromous, sea-run stripers migrate up all the Florida Parish rivers, and can give you a sleigh ride — at least for a little while.
On my trip with Joe Lavigne, he saw something causing a ruckus on the surface, and paddled forward to investigate.
When we got there, we saw a massive strike on a 6-inch shad that was minding its own business on the surface.
“Stripers!” Lavigne said.
We made a cast or two across the area, but nothing struck. I turned my attention back to the river bank, made a cast and immediately hooked up with a 2 ½-pound Kentucky bass. I cranked hard on the fish to get it away from the cover, and it graciously agreed to resume the fight in the deeper part of the river.
The fish was powerful, but I soon had it under the boat, where I could see it near the bottom in the 5-foot depths.
The fish all of a sudden found a fresh burst of life, and in a split second, I could see why — a 30-pound striped bass was trying to turn my lunch into his lunch.
I thumbed my drag, and quickly hoisted the fish over the gunwale, much to the dismay of the giant striper.
“I’ve hooked a bunch of stripers in here,” Lavigne said. “You never land the big ones, but I’ve gotten some 4- and 5-pounders in the boat.”

Todd Masson

October 15, 2013 at 7:00 am Click to source