Swimbait Striper After Work

The river water was swift, off color and full of trash with the churning turbines and the day's mini deluge; conditions less than ideal.  Never-the-less, I decided to wet-wade the river at one of my favorite locations with the goal of helping my friend land both his first striped bass and first shoal bass.  Picking our way through the shoals, we climbed, vaulted, slipped, tripped and shimmied our way across, over, and sometimes under the treacherous ledges and shelves.  Working swift, shoal waters is risky business rewarding wade fishermen with cuts, contusions, and ice cold nether regions.  We probed all of the likely pushwater, riffles, runs, and eddies without reward.  The flats that usually held feeding shoalies were equally barren.  Finally, I found reward in the fading twilight.  A deep cut in the shoal waters, an eight foot gash littered with submerged boulders, held one, lone hungry alpha-predator.  A fifteen pound cruise missile launched itself into my swimbait and detonated upon impact.  I buttoned down the drag and laid into my rod with all my might.  If I couldn't turn the fish, then it would either run with the current and spool my reel or break the line on a sharp, ledge rock.  Pumping the rod and taking up any conceded slack, I slowly worked the fish across three different eddies and into a swift, shallow flat.  Striped Bass always have a reserve tank of energy, so I backed off my drag and let her run and pull drag in the shallows until she could be brought to hand.  I wish every work day ended like this!