This rain, thunder and lightning finally let up so I went out for a little bit. Hit the first spot and walked up flow with my lure and finesse worked bait coming back down flow looking for some kitty's. Well I was getting hit like crazy and it felt like little striper hits. I switched hooks and was going to nail whatever it was cause I was curious. First cast and I'm working the bait bouncing it and drifting it and slowly dragging it and bam quick hit and quick swing and it is hooked. Just as I suspected. micro stripers. They were 6" to 8" long. I work the spot for about 30 minutes and I nail 2 dozen plus. All were released. I took pics of 2 and video of 1. Most were very chunky and somewhat round looking. They have plenty of food in the duct. 1 was very unique looking so I had to take a pic of him. Had a depression in the back. I have caught some 6lbers that looked like that before.
The bite seemed to just shut off (they probably moved) so I went to another spot. This time I wanted to see if these micros were there too in the same pattern I had figured out at the previous spot. Sure enough, first cast and I'm working the bait like a lure and fish on. Same size micros as the spot previous spot 6 miles away. I get 2 more at this spot and then it dies off again.
I was excited to see the micros. This means that there was a good spawn this spring and I caught the offspring to prove it. I bet the pattern I figured out at the location is the same everywhere. Might head out this afternoon and see if I can hit the pattern at different spots? I have a feeling this spawn is the start of an uptrend in stripers in the duct. It has cycled like this for a long time. When I saw micros like this last, a couple of years later it was awesome fishing for several years. DD make me happy but these micros made me just as happy for what is to come.