Post by herchenx on Jan 9, 2012 12:18:39 GMT -5
Several folks have mentioned my fishing photo so I thought I'd post some of the pics from that trip.
A couple years ago we took a road trip from Colorado to Rhode Island to visit my brother and family.
While we were there I wanted to see what I could catch and we ended up fishing for Striped Bass (Stripers)
When I travel, I always watch for places to fish. I've fished my whole life and love it.
One of the things I often see is a bunch of folks fishing and NOBODY catching anything. I don't like to fish and not catch, so I usually try to do a little homework first.
I went to every tackle store along the Rhode Island coast and they all said the same thing: "Try this amazing $10 lure and you will catch them" - the only problem was that every $10 lure was different, so I figured the only catching would be me as a sucker.
I opted instead to go to WalMart and spend $10 on the giant rod-reel saltwater combo they were selling, $4 on 5" while soft rubber jig bodies, and another $3.50 on 1oz lead head jigs. I was out the door for less than $20.
We fished at night along a tidal river (where the ocean spills into an inland marsh through a pair of jetties, and a canal lined with rock to keep it from washing out)
We fished starting at high tide, when the water was slack, and fished until there was a pretty strong current headed out to sea.
Nothing was biting at first. We walked all the way out to the end of the jetties where the river met the open ocean. It was pitch black, and every wave was terrifying as it would come up nearly to where we were standing. We were probably 75 yards out from shore (I can't actually remember, it felt like a mile though) and the only light were our teeny LED head lamps.
After the water started moving out, I was reeling in my white jig and with the light from the headlamp I was able to see it in the water. Suddenly I saw a large silver flash right under the jig and nearly screamed.
I tossed it back out, slowed my retrieve a little and BAM I had a solid hook up.
I fought it for a few minutes and got it close to where I was, and realized I had a huge problem.
The fish was in the river, so the water was rushing by. The rock on top of the jetty was large boulders with flat tops, that were pretty solid and not slippery. The sloped sides of the jetty, however, were FREAKING SLIPPERY AS SNOT and I had no way to clamber down and get to the water to lift the fish out.
I tried hoisting it and SNAP! - there went the line, my jig and the big fish I had hooked.
I was fired up though. I hollered to my brother to slow down his retrieve and started re-rigging. I got my jig set up again and just as I tossed it out I heard the unmistakeable sound of line stripping off a reel. David yelled "John I think I have one" and I yelled back "Yeah I think you do"
I got my line back in and scrambled to where he was.
The line had not stopped stripping since he'd yelled so I reached over and tightened his drag so the fish wouldn't make it all the way to England.
He fought for another 15 minutes and we finally started seeing a huge silver mass in the water. Every time he would get it close though, it would double back and strip another 100 feet of line before it would get too tired and we'd bring it back.
He finally got it close and the fish was pretty worn out so I though I'd get it for him.
We ended up "walking" the fish back inland along the jetty about 200 yards before I found a place where I could get down to the water. We were completely inland at this point and the water was shallower and the waves weren't crashing so it was a lot easier to figure out what to do.
I've caught a lot of species of fish, but never a striper. I was about to stick my thumb in its mouth to lip it like we do bass here, but had a moment of panic as I realized that I didn't know for sure if it had big teeth or not.
I looked as best I could and it seemed pretty safe so I stuck my thumb in and found out it was OK. I lifted that big fish out of the water and handed it up to David. I'll never forget his reaction. He was so excited to have that monster fish, and to have been able to catch it himself he was almost giddy.
Here is David with his 36" inch striper:
We kept the fish and ate it a couple days later and it was delicious. We baked it with butter, pepper and lemon and one half on one filet fed 12 of us with leftovers.
We fished the next few days. Unfortunately that massive fish was David's only one, but I had better luck, ending up with a couple dozen. The smallest one I caught was 20" - which is bigger than most any fish I catch in Colorado, so it was a lot of fun.
Here are some pics of me with a couple others I kept, and one I tossed back:
One I tossed back:
They seem to run in late May for a week or so, along the atlantic coast from New Jersey up to Massachusetts. I think they run again in the fall.
A couple years ago we took a road trip from Colorado to Rhode Island to visit my brother and family.
While we were there I wanted to see what I could catch and we ended up fishing for Striped Bass (Stripers)
When I travel, I always watch for places to fish. I've fished my whole life and love it.
One of the things I often see is a bunch of folks fishing and NOBODY catching anything. I don't like to fish and not catch, so I usually try to do a little homework first.
I went to every tackle store along the Rhode Island coast and they all said the same thing: "Try this amazing $10 lure and you will catch them" - the only problem was that every $10 lure was different, so I figured the only catching would be me as a sucker.
I opted instead to go to WalMart and spend $10 on the giant rod-reel saltwater combo they were selling, $4 on 5" while soft rubber jig bodies, and another $3.50 on 1oz lead head jigs. I was out the door for less than $20.
We fished at night along a tidal river (where the ocean spills into an inland marsh through a pair of jetties, and a canal lined with rock to keep it from washing out)
We fished starting at high tide, when the water was slack, and fished until there was a pretty strong current headed out to sea.
Nothing was biting at first. We walked all the way out to the end of the jetties where the river met the open ocean. It was pitch black, and every wave was terrifying as it would come up nearly to where we were standing. We were probably 75 yards out from shore (I can't actually remember, it felt like a mile though) and the only light were our teeny LED head lamps.
After the water started moving out, I was reeling in my white jig and with the light from the headlamp I was able to see it in the water. Suddenly I saw a large silver flash right under the jig and nearly screamed.
I tossed it back out, slowed my retrieve a little and BAM I had a solid hook up.
I fought it for a few minutes and got it close to where I was, and realized I had a huge problem.
The fish was in the river, so the water was rushing by. The rock on top of the jetty was large boulders with flat tops, that were pretty solid and not slippery. The sloped sides of the jetty, however, were FREAKING SLIPPERY AS SNOT and I had no way to clamber down and get to the water to lift the fish out.
I tried hoisting it and SNAP! - there went the line, my jig and the big fish I had hooked.
I was fired up though. I hollered to my brother to slow down his retrieve and started re-rigging. I got my jig set up again and just as I tossed it out I heard the unmistakeable sound of line stripping off a reel. David yelled "John I think I have one" and I yelled back "Yeah I think you do"
I got my line back in and scrambled to where he was.
The line had not stopped stripping since he'd yelled so I reached over and tightened his drag so the fish wouldn't make it all the way to England.
He fought for another 15 minutes and we finally started seeing a huge silver mass in the water. Every time he would get it close though, it would double back and strip another 100 feet of line before it would get too tired and we'd bring it back.
He finally got it close and the fish was pretty worn out so I though I'd get it for him.
We ended up "walking" the fish back inland along the jetty about 200 yards before I found a place where I could get down to the water. We were completely inland at this point and the water was shallower and the waves weren't crashing so it was a lot easier to figure out what to do.
I've caught a lot of species of fish, but never a striper. I was about to stick my thumb in its mouth to lip it like we do bass here, but had a moment of panic as I realized that I didn't know for sure if it had big teeth or not.
I looked as best I could and it seemed pretty safe so I stuck my thumb in and found out it was OK. I lifted that big fish out of the water and handed it up to David. I'll never forget his reaction. He was so excited to have that monster fish, and to have been able to catch it himself he was almost giddy.
Here is David with his 36" inch striper:
We kept the fish and ate it a couple days later and it was delicious. We baked it with butter, pepper and lemon and one half on one filet fed 12 of us with leftovers.
We fished the next few days. Unfortunately that massive fish was David's only one, but I had better luck, ending up with a couple dozen. The smallest one I caught was 20" - which is bigger than most any fish I catch in Colorado, so it was a lot of fun.
Here are some pics of me with a couple others I kept, and one I tossed back:
One I tossed back:
They seem to run in late May for a week or so, along the atlantic coast from New Jersey up to Massachusetts. I think they run again in the fall.
