by David FloydÂ
I booked a trip with professional striper guide Doug Youngblood on Lake Lanier and took one of my friends, Brady, and his twelve-year-old son and cancer patient, Ethan on Thursday, September 21st. We were enjoying a great day and had caught around 12-15 average size stripers when towards the end of the trip Ethan hooked a monster and the battle ensued for approximately 10-15 minutes with Ethan battling the fish all by himself with no physical assistance.
When we landed the fish you could have heard the celebration for miles around the lake as we were in awe at the size of fish this young man had caught by himself. It was weighed on the boat at 28 pounds and Doug stated that was the largest striper he had landed since December of last year. The lake record is close to 48 pounds. Trust me that 28 pound stripers are a very rare occurrence.
Doug does not normally advocate mounting fish but stated that this was a once in a lifetime fish and recommended that Brady and Ethan keep the goliath and have it mounted. I expected Ethan to beg his dad to keep and mount it, but he never spoke a word and after a few moments of contemplating, Brady said âLetâs let him goâ. We released the fish, but the goliath was worn out and floated belly up. Doug stated that was normal and it would likely revive itself in about five minutes and swim off.
We all found ourselves cheering the fish on in hopes that it would swim off and after five or six minutes we all began to get worried. At that time Brady said if it does not swim off soon he would take him and get him mounted as none of us were going to leave the fish floating in the water. A few minutes later the fish flipped over and shot to the bottom like it was shot out of a cannon. It seemed that Ethan was more excited about the fish surviving than the actual feat of catching such a trophy.  We celebrated again together and then Ethan went to the front of the boat and proceeded to dance in celebration. Priceless!
Ethan was diagnosed with cancer in March of this year and has been thru a tremendous amount of treatment over the last seven months. His prognosis is good and he has a very bright future in front of him.
It was the first time I had ever met Ethan and found him to be an extraordinary and well-mannered young man and truly feel blessed to be a part of the memories that were created during that 20-30 minute window.
I fish quite often and am 51 years old and feel quite confident that this will be the best fishing story that I will ever be a part of and share.