I never caught a 50 lb striper, but we got a 66 lber!
During the month of November, I have fished 21 out of the 1st 25 days. I fished 1 day in the rips and all others chunking up the bay. The rips did not seem to have the quality fish that they should hold and the number of legal fish there seemed to be small so I figured that we should fish up the bay. I believe I was right. I have a few pics of some of the trips such as this one
Mighty happy folks! Another trip looked like this
Needlesss to say, they were happy. Another trip ended up in this fashion.
We have had a load of really nice fish as you can see. Many fish were over 40 lbs. with a load of 20-40 lb. fish. Remarkably, I have only had 6 throwbacks this month.
There are several trips that I have posted previously and some that I do not have the pics for but I guess that it does not get much better than yesterday. I had a group of guys headed up by Joe Gutowski from Delaware. Joe was a part of a great overnight tuna trip last Summer and we looked forward to a good trip on Friday. We were not disappointed. It started off a bit rough and we sat alongside the wind in the sea while the incoming tide flowed in. i told the guys that any fish we caught on the incoming would be a bonus. We caught 2 bonus fish, one of which was a short. I mentioned that since we had some fish on the incoming, the ebb should be gangbusters. It was. As the tide started to ebb, the bass started to bite. Everyone had at least 1 fish except for Mike Mc Call. Now mike not only was the only one without a fish, but he had never even caught a striper in his life. That changed dramatically when the #4 rod dipped and the line screamed off. Those Quantum Cabo trolling reels have about as good a drag as I have ever seen. The fish grabbed a chunk, took off and slugged it out as she swam up alongside the Free Spirit, then made a dive under the boat. We were able to guide her out the back and around to the other side . I said to Mike," That's a good fish." Truer words were never spoken. After 10 minutes of back and forth the sinker appeared and I grabbed my big net to do my thing. Then the fish rolled up to the surface. I took one look, threw down the net and grabbed my gaff. That was the biggest striper I have ever seen! She slid up toward the transom and I slid the gaff into her and started to lift her into the boat. Holy cow! I need 2 hands and it took 2 tries to get her over the transom. As she hit the deck, everyone was stunned. Finally someone said,"Wow"! I guess that about said it all. I told Mike that it was the biggest bass I had caught on the new boat , and, as a matter of fact I had never caught one bigger. We slid the tape down her side-54". BIG MAMMA! I grabbed my new Lipper 60 tool that weighs up to 60 lbs. and when I lifted the fish, the tool bottomed out! Oh Baby! After a load of way to goes and attaboys we slipped her into the 156 qt cooler and we could not close the lid. Her tail stuck out 8 inches but that was fine with me. We did catch a few more bass and some blues finally ending up with 9 bass- three of which we released, and more blues than we needed. At the dock, she caused quite a stir but I trucked the fish over to Jim's Tackle where Matt hung her on the scales. 66 lbs.
It was the biggest bass that Jim's has ever weighed! Oh Yeh! We snapped some pics and i was afraid that we were going to cause some traffic accidents as folks drove by and never looked ahead but rather at the fish. Back at the dock, we did take a group shot and that was the end of another memorable day.
By the way, one of the other fish was 38 lbs but who can tell with that monster in the group. One thing really struck me. It is impossible to figure where the big ones will be caught. I have been all over the bay as I am sure many have and I don't believe you can figure anything out. You basically have to find fish on your sounder, and that Raymarine unit i run can't be beat. I can run along at 18 knots and still see the fish as clear as a bell. i see them, drop the hook, and set out the baits. It works all over the bay. You don't have to go where everyone else is to catch fish. I am really glad to see fish on the finder when I see no other boats. Of course, one of the problems with this fishing is that folks figure that since you are a charter boat, there must be fish there and jump all over you. i stopped at a place I seldom fish this morning and set up. Within 1/2 hr. there were 12 boats surrounding our boat some so close that you could hear them talking. Nobody seems to care about whether they are affecting your ability to fish because of their location and the fact that you were there first doesn't matter. Doing this guarantees that nobody will catch fish. Today, I finally gave up, pulled the anchor and went looking for my marks. I got away a bit, saw some fish, and ended up with 6 nice bass and several big blues. Just something to think about.
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I never caught anything bigger than a 48 lber. Congrats to you and the crew. How long was that fish?
