Susquehanna River Blue Cats and some Bonus Striper

My brother and I went out on the Susquehanna river Saturday morning.  The cats were a challenge on the fly rod as I had trouble getting the large chicken bait deep enough unless we were drifting with it.  Yes, I was using bait with a fly rod and sinking line.  I just wanted to catch some big blue cats and they are not receptive to the fly.  I managed to catch 3 or 4, 5-6 pounders in total on the 8wt though but none of the big ones.  We got into the stripers in one pool.  Saw the gulls working the surface and despite it being 1230pm, I caught 2 on my tied chartreuse and white deceiver after fishing most of the morning with the "game changer" fly I tied.  Lefty knew something about that fly!  It was a heck of a battle to catch a 22-inch striper on the 5 wt trout rod I can tell you!  

So, we limited out on stripers again.  I hooked up a nice sized (4 pound smallmouth as well I released).  Great fight again.

Then we were finishing up on the last deep hole before our take-out spot.  Chris was on the phone with his friend Dave giving him an update when a "big un" hit Chris's spin bait.  He was fighting that and I was trying to work the net free when another 5-6 pounder picked up my fly line on the 8 wt.  There we were spinning downstream with a double on each side of the canoe!  We managed to get both in the net without losing them. The cooler could fit no more fish at this point and we were done!

What a day.  I spend Sunday trimming and processing catfish for the freezer.  Had a great blackened striper lunch.  Yum.  What a time on the water.