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A few weekends ago, I was walking to one of my CT River spots at about 4:30 AM. I walked by two guys and asked if things were happening. (it was still dark)I heard a younger voice retort "what's your last name?" Thinking it was one of my students by the oddity of the question, I replied, "what's your first name?" Then I heard "Is that you Mr. Bombardier? It's me Norberto!". He was with his dad that didn't speak any English. He told me he had been fishing up and down the bank all night since 10:00PM with no fish. I asked him about school as he transferred from Holyoke to Longmeadow the prior year. He informed me he was still at it and actually had some career goals which are rare for a inner city young teen. Now mind you, this student for the two prior Springs always used to tell me how many stripers that he caught and how big they were (never showed me a pic though). I told him how happy I was he was still in school and made my way about 50 yards down from them where I knew a few fish would be hanging in a pocket. At this point it was bright enough for us to see each other and I immediately buttoned into a teenish pound fish, then a 20#, then another 20. He then came over with his dad to hot box my spot. They only had one 5 ft stout jigging rod between the two of them. The dad was throwing a soft plastic. I landed one more fish and then told Norberto, if I hooked another he could bring it in. A few casts later I was tight into what felt like a fish in the upper teens. I handed him the rod which went immediately under his armpit for the beginning of an awkward fight. I tried to coach him to put the rod between his legs and not give it any slack. As he got the fish close to shore (my drag was tight) the fish gave it's last burst, almost pulled Norberto in, rolled and came unbuttoned. I talked to him about what he could have done differently, casted back out, and was into a reel good fish in about five minutes. I handed him the rod and he ended up landing a 26# fish. The funny part of the story is after he landed it, he screamed "my first striper ever!" Then he looked at me and said "yeah, I was lying to you all of those times at school" He said he would remember the day the rest of his life and thanked me. I told him the best thanks I could get was if he finished school and get the RN job he was planning on pursuing. His dad took pictures through the whole event.
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