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Earn Your Stripers
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And they're everywhere on the East Coast, including the Chesapeake Bay, where they are more commonly called rockfish -- which is also what they are more often called when they turn up on your dinner plate. (The fish at Smith Mountain Lake are stocked annually.)
And so we waited, watching the planer boards and rod tips for movement.
Midway into another round of complaints about the cold -- early spring days are windy out on the lake -- we saw the back right planer board take off.
Wade jumped up and grabbed the rod from its rest, yanked it to set the hook in the fish's mouth and reeled it in, navigating carefully so as not to get tangled up in the other lines. And on the other end of the line -- an old shoe? stray curtain? Nah, it was a big-bellied striper. Keith pulled it into the boat with a net so we could get a closer look and take some measurements -- 27 inches, 8 1/2 pounds. We then released it back into the water, sending the fish off to get even fatter on someone else's bait. At that size, it wasn't exactly a record, but it had put up a good fight.
Had it been summer, when the warm temperatures and the diseases they foster would have made a just-caught fish's survival less likely anyway, we would have kept it, maybe even cooking it for dinner that evening. A few of the guides have arrangements to take your catch straight from the dock to Vieira's, where the chef will cook the striper and serve it family-style for your party.
With sundown approaching, the fishing would soon be picking up, but hours of cruising on the lake had left us cold and hungry. Fortunately, the fun at Smith Mountain Lake doesn't end at the docks. The cluster of towns near the marina boast a variety of restaurants, from informal coffeehouses to steakhouses. We chose Vieira's, next to the marina. Dinner and drinks at the bar -- along with some good-natured ribbing about how we were missing the peak fishing time -- capped off the day.
Early on, Keith had quipped that persistence was the best bait.
I guess next time we'll have to bring more bait.
