Mayhem on the Raritan, Stripers! 4-18/19

[FASTEDDIE29]

Hit the river yesterday late morning looking for anything that wanted to eat. It was cold and cloudy with a stiff wind coming out of the north. Jumped in the river with the waders on and man I could feel the toes getting cold instantly. Gotta role with the punches. Tossed around some plastics first with nobody home. Out of the corner of my eye I see a splash. Switched up to a small plug and cracked a nice Striper on the 2nd cast with the plug. It was a short about 22-24 inches. This would be the smallest fish of the outing. While releasing the fish I start seeing more topwater eruptions up and down river and 10 feet in front of where I’m standing. I put 2 and 2 together and figured I was surrounded by a freshwater blitz of STRIPERS, oh boyyyyyy. Started casting towards the circles and had hook ups almost every cast from 11am til noon. All fish were between 24-28 inches with 4 fish being 28-30 and one river beast at 34 or better. This is nuts I’m saying to myself. I can’t believe I’m landing all these fish on this rod. I was using my St. Croix ultra lite with a Shimano Stradic 1000 size reel, 5 lb. Power Pro mainline and 12 lb. Berkley Vanish leader. This set up is lighter than most 5 foot Trout rods. Haha, intense! There’s a lull in the action and then 30 minutes later it picks back up. These fish are demolishing river Herring or something on top. Cast to the explosion, hook up, repeat. I couldn’t believe the action I had on this cold day in April. Wound up landing about 20-25 fish total from 11am-2pm when all the life seemingly disappeared. What a crazy midday blitz! I was smiling ear to ear walking out of there. HELL YESSSSS!!!

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Decided to give it a go again today with some friends. We social distanced of course. As soon as we walk down we could see an explosion here and there but nothing ever developed. I got 2 more shorts around 24. Mikey got a nice keeper at 28. And this mystery dude that was down there managed a couple shorts as well. Wish we could’ve had yesterday’s action again. Lol! Can’t be greedy I guess. TIGHT LINEZ FELLAS!!!:D
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[thmyorke1]

Mmmm with all these spots closed, all these stripers really thought they could get away with entering the sweetwater zone without getting hooked? Nah! :D eddie on the meat! Yea buddy :D woohoo!

[deaone123]

Quality stripers the raritan always provides

[Skunk City]

Oh yesss, we like river bass 🤩

[Capt. Lou]

Day to remember , right place , right time! Nice 👍

[Lard Almighty]

A shame you couldn't save a few of those stripers for me. :D Great seeing you on The River, if the water can stay warm I'll be back again looking for some BRONZE!

[bunker dunker]

very very nice Eddie,got to luv the blitz

[Hookmanski]

So awesome man!!! I can't even imagine how crazy those fights must have been on that ultralight. Congrats on some awesome fish brother!!! :D

[AndyS]

I'm glowing !! Great report !

[bigfishy]

I'm glowing !! Great report !

You said it!!! Well done guyz!!

[JDTuna]

Awesome buddy. Quality stripes in the river! Best fight you can have with those fish!

[HBird11]

Damn‼️ That’s freakin killer!!! Awesome time with awesome fish!!! Congrats but I gotta tell ya reading your post didn’t help out my morale one bit! Lol just kidding. I wish I could be on the water looking for my first Striper of the year but unfortunately I had a major surgery last week that’s sidelined me for at least 6 weeks! Keep the fish pics coming so I know someone’s catching them in the rivers

[Pondhopper8]

Great day!!!!

[Detour66]

Awesome catch. Putting your time in and learning the river has paid off nicely! It's looks like you had a great time! congrats!