Did a couple of hours local AV duct quick hit last night with Ferno. Water flow was wide open. No weeds or moss. Fishing was tough. 1st spot nothing and ran into a few people that were there an hour trying but nothing for them either. I tried 3 different lures. Same results for Ferno. Moved onto 2nd spot and within a few minutes I had a willing participant and nailed it and landed it on the KPN. Tried for a awhile longer but nothing and went back to trying the usual different duct lures for nothing. Made a quick spot 3 stop and absolutely nothing there for either of us.

Since I still have a little meat left from the DD's last week, I was going to release the fish but it had really exerted itself. It was running pretty good and when I finally landed it, it went almost belly up. It came in at 26", about 7lbs. Stomach was empty but had two very small egg sacks forming.

It has been a long time since I fished the duct for stripers. Probably close to 3 months. I wanted to give my arm a rest and a chance to heal. It is getting better but pain is still there. Since I didn't want to push things, I took the spinning set up with a MH 7' rod. It's a good thing I did as you will later find out.

I get a call from ferno asking if I wanted to fish the duct a little after work. He has not gone out in the same time (about 3 months). We actually fished together last time too when we got the striper skunk but was the time I caught that large turtle. Anyway, I am all for it and we hit up east Palmdale section.

We were not next to a gate so I can't say exactly how high up it was but from my experienced flow detecting eye, I would say all the way up. Water was really moving fast. Some of the stringy weeds floating but not bad at all and very workable conditions. The sun was setting so the typical summer time duct surface breaking carp and catfish were out in mass. Even saw a huge goldfish (about 18").

We were working our KPN. I had the perch pattern on and ferno had the shad. after a few casts, I get a knock real close to the edge. It felt like my lure maybe bumped a carp. I keep casting and nothing. I change over to a fluke and work that for awhile and nothing. Ferno has moved down flow and is working his KPN. I make my way down flow too and he tells me that he felt the same knock. Keep walking and working and nothing. I make my way back up flow to where we started and I tie the KPN back on. I immediately start getting it knocked again. Maybe every 4 or 5 casts.? Ferno is now back too and is going to try a different lure. I get the bump again and right on the edge and this time I see mr stripey trailing my lure and do a 180 as he has run out of water real estate. I see the dirt stirred cloud and tell ferno that there is something here. I got a visual that it was a striper. He decides to keep the KPN on and starts casting. Within a few casts, he is hooked up. This fish was haulin butt and peeling his tight set drag like nothing. It goes up flow, down flow, towards the middle, down deep, up to the top and does a splash, left, right, up again and I make quick mention that it's a decent one from the swirl it mad on top. Ferno finally lands it. It was a very nice striper and 30" long and 12 pounds.

I now walk up flow a little bit and cast out. I get the bump again and go for hook set and my drag momentarily zzzzz's but no love. I have experienced this type of knock before but it is usually around the spring time when the perch are fat with babies in them. The stripers knock the lure thinking they are perch to squeeze the little guys out and eat them up. It is a very frustrating thing because they are not actually biting the lures and makes it hard to nail them. I keep casting and I finally get an actual hit. I set the hook and it is on. I was up flow from a ladder and buoy line and it immediately went down flow at full speed headed to the buoys. There was no stopping and no turning it. Drag screaming, arm pumping (this is why I am glad I had the spinning rod because my baitcaster would have set me back on the other arm healing for sure with this aggressive fish). My line is just about to rub the buoys and thankfully it dives deep so I don't rub on it. I am finally able to turn it and it starts screaming up flow now. Starts to come up but doesn't break surface. Decides to go back down deep again and full speed. Turns and is moving with the current again. It is shagging arse back towards the buoys. I force him up and breaks surface. We are both getting tired now. I get him in and it's another beauty. It was 29" long and 11lbs.

We keep working it and we both keep getting the knock close to the edge at times. I tried a slower retrieve, faster retrieve, pause and fall, retrieve and yoyo, everything. I could not get them to chew on it. This knock was always right at the edge about 3' feet away. It was now dark so I could not see anything follow.

Ferno casts out and gets a solid hit and hook up. He is battling the fish same as the other two. It seems to be another good one. He lands it and it is the smallest of the three at 28" and right at 10 pounds. We release this one because one fish each of this caliber is plenty to have a nice meal from.

We work it a little longer and I get one final edge knock that makes the drag screech when I tried to set the hook but no cigar. We make a bunch more casts but nothing. We call it a night.

All three fish that got hooked hit farther out near the middle and actually bit the lure. The distinct knockers following it in to the edge and then probably slapping the lure with the side of their face were just too smart for us. At least we beat the skunk and got on some quality AV fish close to home. The stomach was empty on the one ferno caught and the one I caught had a little bit of the stringy weeds in there with some partially digested small worms.

Well it was great to finally get out and nail some duct stripers and some quality stripers at that. I almost slipped up and took my Curado, which I know would have reinjured my arm and all my progress would have been voided. Ferno did offer to let me make a few casts with his Curado but I declined

My fish


Ferno's first fish


Ferno's second and released fish