Stripers....So far So Good!

More Really Good than anything else......so far i had the best April ever (10 fish), caught Neversink Jimmy his first Hudson River linesider
, had my highest ever single day catch (14 - last Friday), haven't been skunked in 10 trips and it looks like my 25 lb'er from Friday may have earned me braggin rights in our little contest here for this past weekend...i have a ****ty pic i'll post but my buddy took a better one with his camera and i'll have him send it and post it as well.
 
So far it's 30 fish in the boat and it's 5/4.
 
Got 14 in that brutal south wind last friday....5 or 6 small ones but the rest were nice with a couple over 20 lbs and the one that had to go 25..it was a solid 37 plus inches...we were almost the only ones out but could drift against the wind in my 12' boat with the 48" drift sock i kept from my 28'er........i would never have even tried except my buddy from college was in town..glad we did...he was with me years ago and we boated 11 and both felt that year was a little more impressive with bigger fish but this was a close second.
 
I figured i would hammer em Saturday AM but only managed 3 then 2 on Sunday...i blamed it on the boat traffic but there was no traffice today and i struggled for a lone fish...nice one though...36" and around 20 lbs or so....big fat female released to lay her eggs!
 
Anyway....i've always dreamt of the elusive 100 fish season.....best ever was in the 60 's one year...maybe this will be it!

You, my friend, can sure hammer on those Stripers!!! 
 
It's pretty awesome to hear everyone saying how poor they do on the Hudson for Stripers (like me all last season), only to know a handful of you guys in the 'Club' who seem to slay them at will!!!  AWESOME!!!
 
I think 100 is a pretty reasonable goal for ya' this season!  With the time you put in and the big numbers you throw up on the board, with a lengthy season you'll hit it in no time!!!
 
What do you think Brian?  Do you know anyone in your circle who has landed so many?
 
You boys are the masters of the resource- pound 'em up!!!!  And Ship, do you want to borrow my camera for awhile?  I won't need it until the weekend of the 15th when I head north...  A guy catching so many pigs deserves a device capable of taking some good photos!  The camera phone is better than nothing, but with the way some of those silver monsters look, you should get a few choice shots for posterity!!!

pretty straightforward on the drifting technique.............i put my rod at water level and free spool it to the the bottom.......pick it up and put it in the rod holder which raises the rod tip about 3 feet and the sinker jumps up to 3' off the bottom....with the 3' leader that herring is swimming right on the bottom...............put the clicker on but don't engage the reel

watch your depthfinder and adjust as needed.....if you bump up 2' in depth don't worry about it cuz you still have a foot to spare.....if the depth drops down and stays deeper then let a little more line out

i start up by the dam and drift south....sometimes i hit em way up north...other times way down past 378......just drift till you get into em.

if you find a section with some action then fire the motor up and go back north of that area and drift it again.......obviously try to drive way out and around your drift so you don't drive right over them and scatter the school

we fished tuesday and had one little guy at anchor.........started our drift and 1/2 mile downriver we got a double when we drifted over the fish!