Wow! A 50-pound striper on a 2-pound line

[Spiel]

Wow! A 50-pound striper on a 2-pound line

 

Bill Cochran's Field Reports

Roanke Times

 

 

It can be challenging enough to land a 50-pound, 9-ounce striped bass on hefty tackle. But on 2-pound line? Unbelievable!

 

That is what Jim Sheffield of Richmond did Sunday morning, and his catch is a pending world record for 2-pound line, according to Dr. Julie Ball, an International Game Fish Association representative from Virginia Beach.

 

No stranger to light-tackle fishing, Sheffield, a member of the Virginia Angler’s Club, was out to break the current striper world record, which is 21 pounds, 7 ounces on 2-pound line. He didn’t just squeak by the record, “he blew it out of the water,” Ball said.

 

Sheffield was fishing out of Kiptopeke on the southern end of the Eastern Shore, where schools of huge stripers have been enticing anglers as the Dec. 31 season’s end approached.

 

The method Sheffield used was drifting an eel in less than 30 feet of water. He was fishing alone.

 

“When the fish took the eel at 9 a.m., he knew it was the one he was looking for,” said Ball.

 

The battle had its moments of high excitement. Like when a drifting Wal-Mart bag encompassed his cobweb-size line and when the line wrapped around his trim tabs and lower unit of his engine.

 

He followed the fish for about an hour, the last 20 minutes with only two clicks on his drag, he told Ball. When the fish turned belly up from fatigue he wrestled it into his boat.

 

Ball has begun the process of registering the catch for world-record status.