Bait shop didn’t have the large Gizzard Shad I wanted to use up in the skinny water of the Chattahoochee River today. I had to settle for large Rainbow Trout 15” long. I also got a dozen and a half Blueback Herring and got a couple bags of ice to keep the trout at 55° in the bait tank. We stopped at Rabbittown for some nourishment on the way to the Clark’s Bridge ramp. When we came up on the ramp the area was closed due to a large scale regatta that was to take place this morning. Having no other choice we headed for Don Carter state park to launch the boat. Of course this put us way up the river from Clark’s Bridge. We launched and headed north. We put out a small spread including 2 of the large trout out on Planer Boards and a couple of unweighted Freelines with the Blueback Herring. After pulling only ten minutes the port side board went under. Dave grabbed the rod and started reeling like a fiend and pumping the rod. BIG MISTAKE. I tried shouting out commands but was too late. It had to be a big Striper to take that 15” trout. Lesson learned. We continued heading north. Water temperature was 84° and the average water depth was only 13’. Shortly after we started getting Stripers on our Freelines.

When we reached the rock wall it was time to either go on to Lula or turn back towards Clark’s Bridge and run our Lead Core lines in the 50’ depths. We chose the latter and pulled 2 two ounce Bucktail Jigs with Lime Ice paddle tails out 5 & 6 colors. This was a good bet as we got another Striper.

It was a short run with the Lead Core so we decided to go back to pulling boards and Freelines. Almost out of bait and a few rain clouds heading our way we decided to call it a day. We caught 5 Stripers today and had a lot of fun doing so.