Overboard Rod Found Half-Mile Away, 19-lb. Striper Still Attached!

With a 36-lb. striper already in the boat, all was going right for Team Skin Deep during a striper tournament at Lanier March 26, 2005.

Bryan Jenkins, his wife Anita, and their 17-year-old son Brandon needed a striper to fill out the team’s two-fish limit in North Georgia Fishing’s Big Money Striper Tournament. Victory, however, was ripped away when a striper yanked a rod-holder off the boat. Bryan watched his rod and reel disappear.

Later that morning, about a half-mile up the Chattahoochee River from where Bryan lost his rod, Johnny Walker and Terry Calder of Team Catch 22 saw a striper swirl on top several times, so they pitched a live shad toward the activity. When the line was reeled in, the hook had caught another fishing line.

Team Skin Deep and the 36-lb. striper that earned them Big Fish honors during a tournament when they also lost a rod and reel — and a 19-lb. striper — that was caught by another team.

“It felt like a fish was on it,” Johnny said. “I pulled the line and got the rod first, then I reeled in the fish.”

It was an 19-lb. striper… and Bryan’s rod and reel. Back at the weigh-in, the Jenkins family got their equipment back, and they also earned Big Fish honors for the 36-lb. striper.