Iteresting experience this afternoon while fishing an outflow near a local river. I was standing on a bridge drifting chunks of herring into a fast-moving current. On my first drift as my chunk fell away from edge of the rip, bang I was on! After an initial brief run it became obvious I had hooked into a schoolie. Now we have all seen it before, you hook a fish and as you are bringing it in it has company, or an escort if you will. Most times it will be a similar sized fish or two that swims alongside your hooked fish. Well, the fish that I had hooked had an escort but it was not even close to similar in size! No, my 22 inch schoolie had one MAMMOTH cow of a striper swimming with it...... or was it STOCKING IT?! I stood and looked on in amazement, at first due the COW I was looking at and then.... only about 20 ft away from me, in less than 12ft of water, the big striper in one powerful motion turned and tried to EAT my schoolie! UNnFFFFFin'; believable!
She missed. She slowly slam away. I fished for another hour and every time I had a hit I imagined that huge fish was on.... but all I caught were a whole lot of (slowly retrieved:hihi: ) schoolies.
I know some of you guy have caught large with schoolies in their bellies but to have a birdseye view of one trying to eat a hooked one was really cool! :hihi:

that is awesome......

To see that happen live is great!

That musta been pretty chaweet to see something like that up close & I truely belive nothing beets "fresh" live linning :hihi:

5/0

i will be fishing said river tomorrow. :hidin:

will let you know if i find that girl.

awsome story!

WOW sounds like you had great time next time you get in that situation not that I'm an expert I would switch to a heavy weighted chunk to get down below the smaller fish where hopefully the COW is.
I do this in a Blitz on the outer portion have had some sucess, no bragging rights but I out there to have FUN no matter what
Link sr:cool:

I can imagine trying to explain to a game warden that "I swear, I wasn't using the small bass as bait! I had hooked the schoolie, and the bigger bass just inhaled it as I reeled it in!"

Just seeing a monster following your smaller catch is awe-inspiring as well as frustrating ("Why can't I catch THAT!")
I call them "escorts" and it's a blast if you are fishing with friends. When you see the "escorts", have you or your friend cast another line just behind the first one and have some more fun.
These escort fish are typically following the hooked fish because the hooked fish will either throw up the contents of their stomach to try to dislodge the hook, or they think that the hooked fish will drop whatever is causing the thrashing, thus giving them a chance to pick up some easy scraps either way.

Better luck next time, and try bigger chunks of bait.

KEWL! I seen that with my buddy Marvin on the boat last year at the Onset rip outside Widows Cove. I was tying a knot and he had a schoolie on, I was watching his fish about 10-15' from the boat and all of a sudden there was this dark area behind his fish and it turns into an EASY 50lb fish. We both saw it and both were speechless as it happened. The profile coming straight at the boat was over 12" tall and easily that wide. When it turned I darn near shat myself. We drifted that spot 20 more times with nothing over 15 lbs for the next few hours.

i will be fishing said river tomorrow. :hidin:

will let you know if i find that girl.

awsome story!

What'cha using for bait? :rotf2:

WOW sounds like you had great time next time you get in that situation not that I'm an expert I would switch to a heavy weighted chunk to get down below the smaller fish where hopefully the COW is.
I do this in a Blitz on the outer portion have had some sucess, no bragging rights but I out there to have FUN no matter what
Link sr:cool:

Tried to use heavier chunks and even a whole herring... the schoolies were dominant. Anyone make a "schoolie plug"?

KEWL! I seen that with my buddy Marvin on the boat last year at the Onset rip outside Widows Cove. I was tying a knot and he had a schoolie on, I was watching his fish about 10-15' from the boat and all of a sudden there was this dark area behind his fish and it turns into an EASY 50lb fish. We both saw it and both were speechless as it happened. The profile coming straight at the boat was over 12" tall and easily that wide. When it turned I darn near shat myself. We drifted that spot 20 more times with nothing over 15 lbs for the next few hours.

The fish was also extremely wide. When I first saw it I questioned if it even was a striper. Probably would have been tough to hook even if it had succeeded because the schoolie was hooked in roof of its mouth with no hook showing... :bo:

I too had that happen the last week in June at Napatree/sandy point-- my buddy cranked in a 18" schoolie caught on a tube and worm and a huge bass attacked it boatside--maybe 12-15 seconds of heart-stopping stuff--didn't hook up but we sure tried most of the morning.

. Anyone make a "schoolie plug"?

I just picked up one of the Big Wooden Pikies in baby Bass color...Hmmmm...

Had the same thing happen to me, while fishing under a bridge inlet. Using a schoolie rod, I hooked into a schoolie only to have a monster striper come up and approach, either looking for an easy meal or as its guardian.

Must have been quite a site.

I’m amazed by what the bigger fish eat. Big lobsters, blackfish, bluefish and even stripers. Makes even the biggest plugs I own look small. I haven’t seen it much myself (unfortunately) but I found a blue that was probably 20” long in a bass’s belly recently. Also got one with a pretty large lobster tail sticking out of its mouth. Night Tides (the book about Billy the Greek) gives some good accounts on what really big bass eat and how they’re different from the smaller fish.

in each of the last 2 falls i have caught a bass over 35 pounds with a 15-18 inch schoolie in their stomachs.