Lake Juliette Record Striped Bass

His job may have taken him to Tennessee, but Tim Adrien, formerly of Macon, still makes it back to Lake Juliette several times a year in search of trophy stripers.

On March 23, 2000, all the miles driven and long hours of fishing paid off for Tim in the form of a 40-lb., 8-oz., striper that is the new lake record. Tim’s monster fish surpasses the old record of 37 pounds set by James Borders Jr. in 1994.

Tim was fishing one of his favorite holes and had caught several smaller stripers, shoal and largemouth bass when he decided to switch from his heavy-duty baitcasters to spinning rods.

“I had been catching a lot of smaller fish that day—15, 16, 17 pounds—and those fish are a lot of fun to catch on a spinning rod,” Tim said. “I really wasn’t expecting to catch that big fish. When he hit it, he was headed for the hills. As soon as I picked up the rod I said to my fishing buddy in another boat that this might be trouble.”

Tim Adrien, of Gray, Tennessee holds the new Lake Juliette record striper. The fish weighed 40-lbs., 8-ozs and fell for a down-lined live bait.

The big striper nailed a live bait Tim had out on a down line set around 20 feet. The fish took 150 yards of line before Tim was finally able to get back to his motor, get it started and head down the lake after the fish. Twenty long minutes later, Tim had finally tired the giant out and regained the 200 yards of line the fish stripped from his reel.

“I had to use both hands to lift him into the boat,” Tim said. “The hook just fell out of his mouth. I knew when I saw the fish he was the lake record. I know the record holder, and I knew the record was around 37 pounds, but didn’t really set out to break the record.”

But Tim does like to catch big stripers and Juliette is one of his favorite lakes.

“Over the last five years the lake has gotten better and better,” Tim said. “(Fisheries) has done a great job of getting the population back in there.”

Most anglers would be satisfied with a lake record, but Tim has several others he hopes to beat. His son Ben, also an avid striper fisherman, holds the family record with a 43-pounder he caught in Tennessee.