Michelle: Soon, Mike got a jumbo drum also. These fish really intrigue me. I drew two conclusions the first time I saw one....1 they are big...2..they are ugly! As I talked to Mike I learned about one of their interesting traits. He told me that they make a drumming noise from inside their body, hence the name Drum. He said that his dad told him about a time when a group of them got up under his boat and started drummin' away. Can you imagine what that would sound like?

Finally I hooked into a whopper myself. I was on the extreme side of excited. I just kept shouting IT'S BIG!!! Everybody stopped what they were doing to watch the riveting fishing action!

I was even more excited to see that I had landed my first Drum ever, and just when I thought it couldn't get any better - he drummed for me!!

Another fun fact that I learned about drums is that they actually have marble sized bony structures in their head called "head rocks". The purpose of these are to assist the fish in maintaining balance. Anglers occasionally collect these curious objects from larger specimens.

Kelley: Later in the day the stripe started to bite more and more. They are always fun to catch because they put up such a tremendous fight.

I bet this fish liked the smooch better than Michelle did...what do you think?

Michelle: My nephew Mason hadn't caught anything all day long. He didn't want to leave until he caught something too. Just as we were packing up to leave he hooked into a fighting striper. Atta boy Mason!

We just had to have one more photo of us with the prize of the day, Mikes big boy. We had such a thrilling day it's gonna be hard to top this one, but we sure will have fun trying!