I know some peole here have gotten some good fish already. I don't see anybody entering any fish though. What's the deal. I know slipknot got a good canal fish ? Damon got a good river fish. Anybody bother measuring to the fork and getting a signature from another member here?? If not , what are you waiting for. The prizes are very nice and there's no entry fee! :)

I got skunked on the 1st leg, but I guess the 21lb-0oz fish I weighed in last week at Belsons would count towards the year long. That fish was 39 inches, but I'm not sure it was fork measured if that matters, but I have an official slip.

If I could enter my fish I would. It was measured at the Sportsman's Den in Quincy, as a matter of fact they have a pcture up in their shop, and there is one on this site. Unfortunately I was on a charter boat, and not fishing with anyone on this site. I could get him to sign a form it that wa ok with you guys. It's my biggest fish ever.

JeffH and I will be on the cape for the next two weeks. One of us is bound to certify a fish for the other in that time. Will keep you posted

Yup, I was wondering when some of you would get around to mentioning some fish ;D ... The rules were pretty much set a few weeks back, all year long fish must be at least 40 inches in length to enter and that should be fork length. We have been going back and forth over if boat fish were to be included in the year long tourney but I never got a firm position on that from you people... I'm thinking yes but we never hammered that rule out - so whaddaya think?

Specialist - the Sportsman's Den is OK for a slip...

Good luck out on the outer Cape, wish I could go out and meet up with you guys...

The tourney slip links are on the tourne page here: http://www.striped-bass.com/sbtourney.shtml

I thought we said no on the boat fish till next year when we can give them a seperate category and seperate prizes?? ???

thats what I thought to ( what mike said ) !
if it changed ok by me . Ill be there this weekend so RI watch out !

Don't worry about me, because unless I can't revive one (like the 21 lber), I won't be entering it. I'd rather release my bigger breeding females, than win rod/reel combo. But if I can enter with catch & release, but it needs to be a member, looks like I'll have to send out some more invites. I keep tellling my friend Pete to register and get the minimum posts up, so we can verify each others catches.

Actually - you may be correct on that - I'll look through the older posts...

GS, you could probably twist my arm enough to come out with you again.

I've gotta get a closer look at your jerkbait technique. I was actually throwing one of your rigs with a fin-S, but could only manage a few quick hits with no hook-ups.

I've had good luck fishing those weightless in shallower water, in fact, its all their hitting at my ace schoolie spot. No poppers, no shads, nothin' but the fin-s and slug-o.

Anyways, thanks for letting us tag along on Saturday.

Schoolie - it's all in the touch! The plastic jerk bait is one thing but it's mostly the touch. I don't consider myself a slouch in getting those small fish but I fished his soft plastics probably 20-30% of the time that he did - I got 2 bumps and one of those turned out to be weeds... He got about 15-20 fish on the jerk baits. It was that decisive a difference and I'm extremely impressed. He also showed me the Owner hook of a jerkbait that got straightened the day before 8)

GS and everyone else, we did decide early on that this year would be shore only. The thread was here: http://65.2.162.230/cgi-bin/StriperTalk/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Read&BID=1&TID=6221&P=2&SID=26538 But I would recommend that anyone with a boat fish over 40 inches put in a slip as I may be able to add a boat division in the year long tourney as well - perhaps something like a boat rod or sumthin'

I've got the touch... I've been fishing plastics long before I hit saltwater (since I was 10). Plastic worms, grubs, jerkbaits. The species and terrain may have been different, but the techniques are very similar.

Its just a matter of tweaking the delivery. Getting to the right depth and keeping the lure in the strike zone, giving them the right speed, etc.

Got Stripers definitely has those fish wired and is deadly with his presentation. As far as artificials go, the jerkbaits definitely offer the most natural look and action.

That's why I want to fish with him again so I can thieve his technique!

Like someone putting 15 years into learning the most productive canal spots/tides, RI eel spots and the tides/wind directions that produce, those cape south shore night plug spots, I've spent 12 years developing the right baits, hooks, weighting method, presentations and yes the touch needed to make it all work. You guys saw the structure rich environment I fish, which lends it'self so well to my technique, which is primarily a shallow water tactic. Now shallow is relative, because some ledges I fish have 40 feet beside them, but I'm still working the upper 15 feet.

I've tried to teach many the same tactics, some have come close, others are still a far cry from perfecting it. The most important factor is time on the water, a committement to learning it (reads time) and experience. If you want to be good at this, or anything new for that matter, you have to be willing to spend the time. There are great rewards however, because I'm confident that if bass are about, I can coax them to hit when others can't.

Like anything else though, you must have the right tool for the job. This coming winter, I've got to put a couple more suitable spinning outfits together, ones my guests can use to give this a shot. Just so you know, my weapon of choice is a Lamiglass GW84ML, 7 foot graphite, 10-17 lb line rating, 3/8-3/4 oz lure rating, .530 butt and 5.5 tip and weighs only 2-3/4 oz. The other key is a smaller reel spooled with 30/6 spiderwire, other braids will work but it ABSOLUTELY MUST BE LIMP for this presentation to work well.

I've got the hooks, weighting and rigging methods shown on my articles board, along with pictures. Other than that I say time on the water, twitch-twitch-PAUSE repeat, twitch-twitch-PAUSE, repeat. Maybe very subtle just wrist action, or harder with the entire forearm, more twitches no pauses, longer pauses, moral is every day is different. You have to listen to what the fish are tellling you, because every day is different, the fish on each piece of structure might all react in a similar fashion; but completely different from the one 50 yards away.

I always pay very close attention to what I did when the hit came. Did I pause longer than usual, did I twitch 3 times then pause or was it 4, little things can make a big difference. Ok, I'm getting long, but maybe this will help. For you shore guys, I would really recommend this approach, because your typical water isn't that different from the depths I fish.

G.S. , one suggestion- get some stronger hooks! and don't bend them with pliers.

Saltheart, to answer your question- I was hoping for something bigger than 40" and 25 pounds. It should be easy to beat that this year. Anyway JPowers was with me when I caught it. I released it after reviving it.

I'll say it again, I was impressed with his success with that and with the those waters that he fishes. Gained much aditional knowledge of that area over what shore time and previously limited boat time had given me of that area...

Slipknot, have JPowers fill out the slip for you and put it in. It can only help. 40 inches & 25 pounds, right?

I'm going to go by a 2 week time limit from here out. Mention the fish's size and roughly where you caught it (no need to cough up a spot for Gusto) on the boards just after you get it and have the slip mailed to me (I'll give you my address in an e-mail), SIGNED :P :o ??? within 2 weeks... thanks...

Slipknot , as long as you have a fork length , you can enter it. Just get Jim to sign off. If he got a fork length on one of his fish you witnessed, he can enter them too.

Ok , so we are going to keep track of boat fish seperately and hopefully have a prize for them.

Glad to hear about the boat fish, I will try to be down saturday and bring a slip from sportsmans den. Just in case I don't make it saturday John could you shoot me an email with an address to where I could snail mail it.

Saltheart,
Do boat fish count?

Boat fish may count for a seperate boat only prize if (thats a big IFFF )we can come up with something for the prize. Originally we were going to wait till next year for a boat category but people might as well send in slips for boat fish but please specify its a boat fish. Fork length is needed.