2009.06.24
Ashley Barton Weeks with a nice striper, proud dad
Ralph Barton sent in this great shot from a fishing trip he took with his daughter, Ashley Barton Weeks, and son Justin last night.
This trip was extra special, Ralph said, because 26-year-old Ashley was out of commission for a while battling -- and beating! -- some health issues and this was her first time back on the water.
Barton has been focusing on the night bite at Smith Mountain Lake and this trip was no different. Ashley's striper hit a slowly waked surface plug.
This wasn't the only "catch" of the night. Barton sent in another picture that I will post soon.
Thanks Mark for posting our fishing photo from last night. My BabyGirl is very happy..... she's ready to go back out fishing again this weekend!!
Comment by Ralph Barton — June 24, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
Nice job! I spent all sat night till 2:30 am watching alewives push up in the shallows but I left only for my buddies to say at 3:30am the stripers came up and they caught 4 nice ones!! Way to go Ashley!
Comment by Frank — June 24, 2009 @ 5:12 pm
Thanks for the comment Frank.
And yes, the feed has been going on much later than usual this year. We've been catching most of our fish around 1:00 AM till 3:00 AM. But I am still catching some fish earlier...... and sometimes the biggest ones can be had before the main feed starts. If the bait is there the gamefish are there too although they may be hanging out off the shore in deeper water. If the alewives are up I will sit off of deep points and work topwater plugs slowly from shallow water out to deep. Sometimes a lunker that's out there waiting for the main feed can't ressit coming up to get an early appetizer!!! I'm primarily a bass fisherman, I used to be big in the tournament thing but I gave that up so I could just "fun-fish! This year I've focused on stripers a lot since the people I've been taking want to catch something big. And it has been fun! Smith mountain Lake is loaded with nice fish! We've caught over 80 stripers since the "night-bite" started in April. We've also caught a lot of Lunker Largemouth and smallmouth Bass.
Get out there as much as you can in the next week or two.... the water is warming quickly and it won't be much lomnger before the bait won't come into the shallows.
Wishing Lots of Luck to all the Sportsmen and sportswomen out there
HAPPY FISHING !
Comment by Ralph Barton — June 25, 2009 @ 8:23 am
Way to go Ashley, its nice to see the ladies getting out there fishing & hunting, and a big congrats for a nice stripper, keep up the good work.
Comment by Joey — June 25, 2009 @ 10:05 am
From the smile on Ashley's face shows she will be tackling big Stripers for a long time to come, Way to go Ashley!!!
Bravo Zulu!!
Comment by Static Lines — June 25, 2009 @ 11:07 am
Way to go girl. Congrats.
Comment by arrow-only — June 26, 2009 @ 8:10 am