That brings me to the first stop on this journey...
To truly appreciate that adventure that the 3 of us embarked on you must first understand our sleeping arrangements for the night prior...We stayed at the Motel 8 right off 400 near the lake. It seemed nice enough when we checked in (nice enough for a cheap motel) and then we reached our room. The room had 2 queens so we had to get a roll away bed for me to sleep on. Dad and Dicky are fairly large gentlemen and snuggling in a queen with a big dude is really not my style. When the roll away arrived the first thing I noticed was that where the mattress meets at the top when folded, it was tied together with a trash bag twisted into a rope...really?...No worries though, it's whatever. I unfold the mattress and lay it out to realize that the bed will not fold completely. Awesome. Not really feeling like waking up unable to move I took the mattress off the frame and pushed the frame into the corner. The floor it is. I'm stretching out the blanket when I notice what appears to be a cigar burn straight through the blanket. Again...awesome...I lay down (right by the air conditioner) and when I turn to face the wall I notice the outlet where the air conditioner is plugged in has scorch marks coming up from the outlet...REALLY??? An electrical fire 5 feet from my head? This was sure to be a long night.
Believe it or not I slept fairly well and woke up a little early to log on to my computer and run a report for work. We left the motel and went to Big D's Bar-B-Que at the suggestion of our guide for breakfast. I know what you're thinking...and we were thinking the same thing. Bar-B-Que for breakfast? Well we went in when they opened to try one of there supposedly famous breakfast biscuits and man were we surprised. Those were the best biscuits I think I have ever had in my entire life. If you are in the Lake Lanier area you MUST stop by Big D's for breakfast.
We made it to the water and met the guide as the sun was coming up and were very hopeful. We were a little unsure of how successful the trip would be because it had been a full moon the night before and we were scared the fished had stayed up all night gorging.
We pulled into the first cove, let out the lines and right away started getting chased by what appeared to be some large fish. No hook ups though so we moved on. A little later I grabbed a spinning rod with a large top water bait (I can't remember the name) and started casting while we trolled. I caught a couple small bass throughout the day but nothing huge to speak of.
The day wasn't going so well after 3 different spots and no hook ups. Then finally one of the rods dropped HARD. Dicky grabbed the rod (beating my dad to the back of the boat lol) and the fight was on. After what seemed like an eternity of fighting he landed a very nice 15lb Stripe.
Lots more fishing and not much more action. We were nearing the end of our trip and pulled into one last cove to try our luck there. Little did we know that we would see something in that cove that I have never witnessed before in my life. As we trolled we got a swirl on one of the herring so we stopped to give him a chance at it. We could see the bait in the water near the surface and then we saw it. A Striper came to the surface and was so full already that head could barely move his head on the fish much less open his mouth. He hung around for probably 10 minutes playing with the bait and never taking it. It was incredible. He eventually gave up on it, but we were astonished at how many lethargic runs he made at it without ever even opening his mouth!
Finally on one of our last passes a rod went down heavy again and this time dad grabbed the rod (after threatening Dicky ha ha). The fish fought hard. I mean really hard. So hard it kind of felt like a Largemouth. And as a matter of fact that's what it was. If memory serves he weighed in right around 8 lbs. and had a mouth so big you could fit your entire fist in his mouth.
Well no big ones for me, but it was a great trip full of excellent memories none the less. To me this is what fishing is all about. It's about good people having a good time and HOPEFULLY catching fish. I think the fish are a bonus. I wouldn't trade these kinds of memories for anything in the world. What do your memories look like?
Let's go fishing!
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