I've been wanting to try stripe fishing on Smith Lake for several years now. Finally decided to splurge a little and make it happen as a treat for my birthday this year. Kept two of my younguns out of school for the day and we had a blast. Put several nice stripers in the boat and missed/had several others pop off and even managed one big bonus gar. The kids loved seeing that thing. We went with Mike Perry (Stripemaster's Guide Service) based on Outdoorobsession's glowing reviews. I couldn't have been more impressed. The guy knows the lake and works really hard to find fish and put them in the boat, but more importantly he treated us like family and was super patient and gracious with the kids. That means a lot. I'm already looking at the calendar for openings to book our next trip.

Awesome

Cool

Man, Im glad yall had a great trip. That alligator gar is sweet.

We had one swim right up to the boat a few days ago but didnt catch him. Really cool pics.

Im glad Mike treated you right. He loves taking women and kids and has a great demeanor no doubt.

Glad it worked out for yall! Thanks for posting it up. My wife loved seeing that gar and your kids. She really liked your daughter was out in a dress too. She thinks your kids are cute!

ODO

Longnose gar, not an alligator gar

Thanks...heck I just want to catch one!

Haha thanks. They thought the gar was the coolest part of the whole day. My daughter asked if I could get that gar pic framed and hang it up in her room. She's too funny. She's always in a dress but doesn't mind getting her hands dirty...She'll climb stuff, wrestle the boys, handle a gar, and catch snakes...all in a cute little sundress.

Honestly, what I appreciated more than anything was how Mike treated the kids. They're good kids but like any other little ones they're full of energy and questions and after hours on the water he showed zero sign of shortness or exasperation. Really good guy.

They're cool fish. We shoot a ton of them with our bows in the summertime. Supposedly they actually eat pretty good but I have never tried one.

Looks like a great time!

Awesome congrats on a fun trip

Nice

Looks like an awesome trip!

Great longnose. Those definitely are fun to catch and shoot (bowfishing).

I've never thought about Smith as a bowfishing lake but with its depth and clear water, I'll bet it's pretty good.

The kids loved it. I've hooked a bunch and caught several on noodles but that was only my 2nd on rod and reel. Fun stuff.

Great smiles in those pics. So how do you pull off a visor and not a hat with that shiny dome Inquiring........aka soon to be bald guy asking.

Easy - cloudy day.

Does he do catch and release or can you keep them? Those stripe are actually good eating. We filet them then cut it into steaks and toss them on the grill with some blackened seasoning and butter.

I believe you can keep them. I just didn’t feel like fooling with keeping them on ice, transporting, cleaning, cooking, etc. I was feeling pretty lazy that day. 🙂