North Carolina Sportsman reported first: Lake Jocassee is known for large lake trout, great smallmouth and largemouth fishing, but anyone in the Upstate will tell you the lake does not have stripers. But Evans and Brent Lalas found out last week there was at least one. They found the 25.14-pound striper on January 28, while trolling for lake trout on Jocassee during a trout fishing tournament.
The father and son fishing team, who hail from Charlotte and Four Oaks, N.C., were fishing a “Dog Fight” tournament along with twenty-six other anglers. It was a bright and sunny day, and the Lalas team already had one good trout in the boat. They had just pulled out of the Three Rivers area and were trolling around the Jumping Off Rock area when the striper hit around 11:30 am. Could there be more stripers?
The team was fast trolling at about 3 miles per hour when the striper hit a two-inch custom made spoon. They were fishing two colors of 27-pound lead core line with an 8-pound fluorocarbon leader and a ball bearing swivel. The lure was running approximately 8 to 10 feet deep when the striper hit.
“We were running a light drag and when it hit, it screamed out about 200 yards of line,” Evans Lalas said. “We knew that is was a 20 plus pound trout.”
Evans Lalas handed the rod off to his son, Brent. Since they were running 14 lines, which consisted of in-line planer boards, downriggers, and divers, Evans Lalas started clearing lines for the fight. Luckily, the fish hit the shallowest running line. Read entire article here: http://www.carolinasportsman.com/details.php?id=13769