Chesapeake Light Tackle

There is nothing quite like catching a big striper on top-water. I’ll never forget my first top-water explosion. I was twelve years old, walking the muddy banks of the Holston River in Eastern Tennessee with my father. The lure tied onto my fiberglass rod and Mitchell 300 reel was a wooden Chugger Spook. In my over-sized rubber boots, I was having a hard time keeping up.

“Check your drag,” Dad commanded from his vantage point just below a large set of shoals. “Now, cast right into the “V” where the water runs through and start jerking.” As instructed, I reared back and slung my rod as hard as I could. I overshot the target and landed my lure upstream of the shoal. “Just let her drift down and pop it along,” he said.

Nothing in my limited experience of bank-side pan fishing could’ve prepared me for what happened next. The swift current pulled the chugger quickly down the rip and I popped it a few times along the way. Suddenly, the water blew up as if someone had thrown a hand grenade. A jolt of adrenalin shot though my arms as I felt the line tighten and heard the drag scream. Read More!