Friday the 30th gave the kids a day off from school so with a nice forecast I decided to take the boys fishing on the skiff. I’d heard the stripers were going off at the Mann’s Harbor Bridge so we set out to see if this was true.

Before we left I stopped by the tackle shop to see if I needed anything and I asked about the stretch lure which I hadn’t used before. Sure enough they had one and they were happy to take my money.

The “stretch” should be called the “snag”. That thing would steer towards the bridge everytime while we were trolling. But just as we were turning around after our first pass we got a strike. The striper was a definitely a keeper and he was nice and fat. The boys were stoked.

We messed around for a while and the few boats that were there started to head in so we passed over the channel and got another strike. Again, another fat keeper. It seems the fish were hanging around the channel under the high span.

The boys were getting bored so we trolled east back towards the launch and we got another striper but he was he was too close to call without a tape measure so we threw him back. Try telling your 4 year-old that the 17″ fish is too small and you have to throw him back. That fish looked pretty big to him.

Once again another beautiful day on the Outer Banks.