The Early Bird Gets the...

In this case, the answer is stripers.

Most anglers have pulled their share of early-morning starts to a fishing day, but Ron (below) and his son, Alex (right), launched out of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel this morning at 0245. That's a lot earlier than I consider getting started this time of year.

Only a little more than three hours later, Ron had landed 15 stripers, and Alex had caught about 7. Unfortunately, a lot of the fish were a little short--Ron had five that missed the mark by just a quarter-inch. However, they ended up with three keepers between them.

"It was a blast catching them," said Ron, "and they will be tasty!"