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Striped Bass Video

In the world of striped bass fly fishing, there are two different breeds of fish. Today I got the breed of fish that had eluded me for a long time. Fly fishing the rocks almost always produces nothing for me except for sore ankles, bloody knees and a tired mind. Today was expected to be no different from any other day I had fly fished the rocks. I expected no fish and was just going for the fun of it, and maybe the slight chance I would hook a nice fish. I made my way down to a nice part of the seemingly endless rock ledge. I looked down into the open ocean water and saw the deep hole where all seasoned striper fly fisherman would say "fish here". I threw out the heavy fly line and everything looked good. With the waves pushing my line towards me, faster then I wanted it to, I adjusted my retrieval rate till I regained control of the fly. "Finally," I said to myself. I could now feel my fly dragging through the water. Then, I saw it. My big Pollock fly that I had tied last year was gently gliding through the water. I felt like if a fish were to take, it would be now. And then it happened, a huge striper came out from under the ledge and inhaled my fly. I yelled to Jeremy and the fish just took off towards

another underwater ledge. I held onto the rod as hard as I could. I started to think to myself, "this fish is nice, but it isn't that nice...or is it?" Sure it looked big in the water but maybe I was just excited? All of the sudden the reel screamed, it screamed hard...into the backing hard. My heart was racing as the fish just went deeper and deeper down and out into the holes off the rock ledge where I was positioned. I didn't know what to do and I asked Jeremy for advice. "Reel!" he yelled. So I started ripping the line back on the reel. The fish got close and Jeremy helped me land the fish in one of the hairiest landing situations ever. Jeremy snapped some pictures and we sent the fish back to the rocks where it came from. Maybe the rocks arn't so bad after all.