10-25-2010, 12:21 AM
Friday evening decided to give Willow a shot. Invited a new striper fisherman(Eric) I had recently met for his 1st trip to the river on a boat. Went down to Monkey Hole and began trolling. 4th pass while going against current I landed a 9LBer on the 12" rainbow ac plug. Fish spun my line around a submerged tree branch in about 15' of water. Got directly above the fish and the tree branch and was able to shine a light down and actually see the fish and lure down there and felt pretty hopeless. Finally took another pole and tied off a large cheap heavy swim bait and dropped it down on top of the fish and was able to hook my plug. I pulled up while Eric released the other line and was able to to get my string to spin around the branch and it let my pull in the fish and lure into my net. Great save!!!
After that battle, we continued to work the Monkey Hole for hours. I let Eric use the 12" rainbow pattern and he only had one hit in that area. We started our way back upstream and not even 3 bends north of Monkey Hole, Eric landed a 14LB monster, it wasn't real happy to be caught and didn't show any signs of giving up but it ended up in the net nevertheless. All in all, great trip on the river for me! Attaching a cell phone pic of the 14LB'er.
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After that battle, we continued to work the Monkey Hole for hours. I let Eric use the 12" rainbow pattern and he only had one hit in that area. We started our way back upstream and not even 3 bends north of Monkey Hole, Eric landed a 14LB monster, it wasn't real happy to be caught and didn't show any signs of giving up but it ended up in the net nevertheless. All in all, great trip on the river for me! Attaching a cell phone pic of the 14LB'er.
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