Saturday morning the alarm clock went off to me seriously thinking about hitting snooze and rolling back over to sleep. With the temperature in the high 20s overnight, I figured it was going to be a day a paddling and looking for a bite or two. Earlier in the week the temperature was in the 70s and a cold front like that always seems to mean bad fishing for me. Instead I picked my spot and headed to it.

After sitting at the boat ramp until first light I figured I’d start what I thought was going be an uneventful day for me. Boy was a wrong. After getting to my spot and setting up my cameras I started fishing. On my third cast a hooked into a nice striper or Rock Fish here in Tennessee. At this point I got some good video and pictures figuring my day wasn’t a total loss. Not long after that I hooked into another striper and realized in the excitement of the first fish I forgot to video it. Never mind I still got pictures but I made sure I had the video going for the third striper. Thinking this is the best day I’ve had striper fishing I was happy to ride the rest of the morning out and watch the deer on the shore and listen to the turkeys gobble. About that time a saw a striper break on the opposite bank from me. My thought was why not paddle over and try to see if it would bite. Sure enough my second cast hooked my biggest striper to date. Once again I missed the video but got pictures. At this point I wanted to see if I could catch any bass. I tried this for a bit until the thought of the big fish made me put down my bass rod and try for another bite from something bigger.

While I was trying for a bass another kayaker had came into the area. I was trying to give him some space so maybe he’d hook into something. I tried an area a little farther out from normal and started casting. Pretty soon I got a good hit and the fight was on. This fish pulled me around for a while until I final got him in the net. After some help with pictures from the other kayaker I was once again amazed at how great this day was. My fifth striper was again a personal best but the day was early so I kept going. After a few moments of daydreaming of the day so far I was snapped back to the moment by a fish I knew was big.

After five striper that all where good fish the sixth one pulled me on a true sleigh ride. This fish would not show itself. The other fish would come up and splash during the fight and give me a look at what I had. This one just kept pulling and doing what it wanted. After a great fight I finally got a chance to see it and realized this one was by far a personal best. I was so excited and clumsy I dropped my net in the water when the fish decided to take one last run. Lucky for me the net didn’t sink quickly and I had time to kick it close enough to the kayak that I got my paddle to catch it. Now back in control I netted what ended up being a 42″ monster.

I can not remember ever having a day of fishing so great. I ended up with six striper for the day. Three of them would have been personal best. Fishing from my NuCanoe Frontier 12 gave me lots of room to carry my equipment and get some great video and pictures for the day. The stability allowed me to reach over and grab all of the fish without feeling uneasy. I also got some great pictures standing with the monster last fish. My NuCanoe Frontier is made for big fish and I never once felt uncomfortable in the sub freezing temps on the water thanks to the stability. If you are looking for a NuCanoe, Caney Fork Outdoors will be happy to let you test one out and maybe I’ll catch up with you on the water chasing some fish. Below is a video I put together for the day. I hope you enjoy.