This year went by QUICK....
Moving into a new home and working two jobs does that I supposed... but even if the season isnt quite over.. Whats your favorite memories of the year?

My top 4 were

1. Catching 4+ times more keepers and larger keepers than last year

2. Getting hooked in the skull with a 7/0 hook and then denying medical care to continue fishing. Caught a tie for my biggest fish ever 10 mins later

3. My wife catching her first keeper on a med action fresh water pole.

4. At the beginning of the year getting virtually spooled because I got paged by work. I casted, got the page, called the attorney, and line started ripping. I tried walking the attorney thru his problem while trying to reel with one hand with drag screaming. I finally tell him I need to put him down for a sec, I do so and he must of hung up accidentally because two seconds later he calls back. All of a sudden, SNAP, and I lost 3/4 of my spool and a monster... I wanted to KEEL...

:D My three best moments this season are as follows with the first two at the top......when my youngest son Nathan caught his first surf keeper striped bass (picture is in last weeks and this weeks Fisherman magazine;) ) and when my oldest son Larry caught his first bluefish!(Me Proud Dad!) The other was when Slingah and I bumped into Slipknot and Bassmaster and we all hammered keeper size bass between 15-30 pounds all night long......the best part for me was it was my first time out with my home made needlefish and I caught 25 fish 15-25 pounds!:happy: Thank Gawd for that night cause' other than that mostly my season sucked fish wise!:( Had alot of fun though so thats good!:D:happy:

my fondest memory of the season was fishing with Blackeye at Point Judith light... he's standing on one rock, im on another... big rollers were coming in and we were into a nice pod of bass... I look over at him after a rouge wave came in and almost wiped me off the rock i was standing on, and all i see is 2 feet wiggleing around in the whitewater, korker spikes twinkling in the monlight... the rest of blackeye was totally submerged. Then the best part was watching him try to stand up as more waves kept knocking him down...... I'm laughing right now as i type this:hihi:

Finding an untouched stash of Habs needles in different flavors at tackle shop.

I did that too FWW!:D Hab's was there too!:D Can't beat fresh, un-fondled Habs Needlefish!:happy:

the night with BigFish, bassmaster & Slipknot did it for me...best nite out ever....

fishing with eben was quite an experience i'll never forget. :laughs:

6:00 am at the cribbins, stripers 10 lbs - 25lbs everywhere pounding pencils for about an hour:D

Not in order of importance

1. Brand New Lami 1084 custom built snapping like a twig on my 1st cast, eel hits the water, fish pounds it and fighting in a 25 lb bass with half a rod.

2. My 2 1/2 year old son catching his first bluefish and asking me everytime I leave the house DAD CAN WE GO FISHING?

Wow, that's a tough one. First would be May 24th at BALSTON IN MID=AFTERNOON. it was overcast and drizzly and the wind was southeast around 20knots. I was there with Stiffy and two other friends and we are catching the first fish of the year on the outer beach in Truro, all fish are 18 to 22 inches. I walk north past everyone and see a slew running hard south ( the tide was incoming) by the edge of the bowl by the High dune and no one is fishing it. I pop the brand new Tobimaru onto the corner of the bar and I see a large white flash and the new Loomis 8-1/2 footer goes hard over and the drag is screaming. Couple minutes later 24 pounds of bass is laying at my feet. No one else caught anything over twentyfour inches.

Second was the first weekend in July. Race point was barren. No fish and a white dodge pick-up with New York plates was pulled up right to the edge above me and a guy and his wife were sharing a bottle of vino by a small open fire. Just me fishing and them enjoying a warm night on the beach. An hour into plugging the last of the outgoing with no results suddenly his truck high beams come on as he is putting out the fire and packing up to go. Fifteen minutes go by and his lights got the whole point and rip lit up and I am burning up now. I keep casting anyway. I had an Eelpunt 6 inch long Olive over silver needle on. I made a cast out, saw it land in the water and started to S-L-O-W-L-Y retrieve it. All of a sudden the water explodes in front of me about fifty feet from shore. 20 minutes later I revived an exhausted 47 inch bass I would estimate that went 40 pounds or better. All under the high beams of that dodge pick-up ( they came down to watch me land it) I only had two other hits that night fishing till sunrise and didn't hook either of those.:D

i remeber the night he told me that 1
my high lights where i ho'd a tadpole.
and at a pluggers bash I had some good ho'd plugs

fishing the canal tournament for the first time this year. First day I entered a 25.5 lb bass. The second day, I arrive at my destination thinking about my strategy for the morning and as I hop out of the truck and close the door I remember just as the door slams that I left my keys inside. Call AAA, they come in a 1.5 hours. Thinking I missed the best part of the current I proced to pole XXXXX, very first cast and I land a 23.5 lber. Later on I moved to pole XXXXX. Fish start breakinh out in front of me. 5 casts I landed a 36" 36" 37" and a 38". All were skinny and i didn't have any fish over 23lbs for the rest of tournament. :smash:

Best memory was finally meeting and fishing with JigMan and best night was a week later, truro area, mung was gone and big girls wanted to play:D
But the season is NOT over (for me) and who knows what's gonna happen next???? :) johnny

My best is taking my Son to the Ditch first day of vacation.We fished eels in the dark then plugs @ sun up then jigs afterwards.20 keepers in all count our biggest was @ 39".
When we were done, on my way back up the rocks I found a nice 1 1/2 # lobster in the rocks I dragged him out of his hole brought him home for breakfast.:D

That was my best day ever w/ my son:D
My Son caught this 36" on a plug. I was trying to teach him on how-to use plugs,needlees to say he caught on quick!!!


Nice thread Bjs


5/0

great photo 5/0:D

That is a GREAT picture!!! My favorites are meeting a lot of you guys and fishing with some on the beach. Big Fish calling me away from the tube and a Sox shellacking to have the best night in the surf of my season. Meeting some of the Plug ho s from here and gabbing building. THIS was the Best season of my life, bar none . Thanks to all! 'Specially John R for the medium that made it possible. PS....It ain't over either!;)

Watching Backbeach Jake put on a fishing clinic is up there also.....great time Fred!:btu:

5/0......very awesome picture of your son!:btu: :btu: :btu: :btu: :btu:

Like I said....fishing was awful most of the year, but if I sit back and think about it.....lots of fun and most of it with folks from this site!:happy:

Favorite memorie of the season...umm lets see....The Sox beating the Yankees and then winning it all...ohh.. you ment fishing...sorry..couldnt resist:happy:

Gotta agree with SKD! The Sox winning the series was #1 on the list of memories!

But as far as fishing memories go...........

Lets see...................

Well the three best memories were all while on Fishing Freaks boat!

1 trip out we fill the boat with cod and haddock!
another trip out we catch a few sharks as well as a bunch of ground fish
and finally the afternoon we went out for bass and had double hookups on every drift!

Mike can flat out put you on fish!!!!
He should seriously thinking about starting a charter business!!!!!!!!!!!!

dragging my 15.5 yr old fishing with me and after a few days trying he landed his first striper. a 18" striper.
biggest fish he has ever caught.
He is now hooked.

Now, if I can just track down a low pricetag boat that is large enough for 4 adults to go out in.

Getting a friends 9 year old daughter into a 3 hour bliz of schoolies. She did a number on them with a Wild-eye shad. To a #50lb girl those 15"-24" fish were like giants. She casts out and reels them in all by herself. The only worry was that the current would take her out to sea. She outfished her dad 5:1.

Best nights were seeing the good old days of 2-6 years ago for 3 days this fall. Gives me a little hope for next year.

Thanks Slingah & Bigfish:D
My Son is hooked!he thinks it's the greatest to get up @ 02:00 & catch these awesome fish,he tells all of his Buddys @ school.His Buddys think IM like Super Dad!:musc:
O and one more thing, he loves to see the sun come up, he can't belive how fast it comes up.

5/0

Winning the Fish ON Striper Derby here in Western MA. Starting to fish with my dad again was pretty cool too.

Taking the boat from Boston to Race Point, catching a 40 lbs Tuna on the way, catching several nice bass at race point. Didnt get home to 2 am monday morning.

Fishing with my dad in the Boston Harbor Shoot out.

Over night shark expedition off of Stellwagon. That was lots of fun. Especialy watching Jaws on my portable dvd at 1 am in the morning. Catching my first blue shark was cool to.

My best day fishing was in June, fishing with my dad, and Gary Corsetti. It had been so long since my father and I enjoyed a day of fishing. We had a ball nailing large stripers, and then hunting down some good size fluke. My dad does'nt usually like boat fishing, he hates conventional reels. On the way home all he could talk about was how much fun he had, and how he could'nt wait to do it again.

Getting into a blitz with my 10 year old son. Mix of bass and blues and he thought his arms were gonna fall off. Got my best fish of the year that day too :D

Every time I was fortunate enough to go fishin //:rolleyes:

Although I got skunked more times then I wanna admit, I had great season....Many good memories

GOT A CHANCE TO GO AND FISH LAKE MICHIGAN WITH SON AND GOT LUCKY AND MANAGED TO CATCH 4 NICE SALMON.FISHING CT. AND RI. SHORES WITH SONS AND GETTING SOME BASS AND BLUES.ALWAYS SPECIAL WHEN YOU CAN FISH WITH FAMILY.

Making so many more lasting friendships with memebers of this board (thanks JohnR) and......

TUNA.

But then again the season ain't over yet.

Buildin a deck with Slip.then Catchin a 36#er off his rock.:rolleyes:

A two day period in September on a "beach between Truro and Chatham" where I had fish of all sizes in front of me all day. Wherever I went on this stretch of beach I was only a cast or two away from hooking up. Most fish in the mid-high twenties, but there were a bunch in the thirties as well. You know its an epic day when you are sitting on the beach watching the bass in the surf, but you need to take a break, rest your arms and back, and eat a sandwich before you go back at them..... I also remember bumping into the only other person I saw that day. He was fishing about 2 miles to my north. He must have been having the same kind of day because when we crossed paths we both spoke for a minute or two with perm-smiles on our faces. :D

I had alot of good moments this year. Aside from picking salt water fishin back up these are a few of my best memories I will take from this year..

1. My 5 yr old son casting out rubber on his own and catching his first bass all on his own..gives me chills still..:)

2.Catching my personal best linesider..35lbs at the ditch after I spent much of my day applying all the tips from my fellow boardies here. Hit the right current on the right end on the right moon and such and having it all pay off...(my sons fish meant so much more to me than this one though)

3. Gettin to meet a few other guys from this site, which was reassuring to me and my girl that I wasn't the only crazy obessed nonsleeper that talks fishin all the time....

I am looking forward to many more memories as well...Tight lines !

Getting to know and learn from all the guys who post here ,and meeting and talking to some special people who have helped me in more ways than they will ever know. Thank You:)

Teaching KLE how to fish the Ditch.

Taking my 5 year old to Chatham light at night.

Finding a new spot where the fish sit at your feet.

And it's a long way from over.

Originally posted by redlite
Making so many more lasting friendships with memebers of this board (thanks JohnR) and......

TUNA.

But then again the season ain't over yet.

That was prob ably my favorite night fishing this year - the bass was good too :rotf2: - So when we going again ?

5/0 - great pic!

Fishing with redlite on the cape. Having him show me the ropes and introduce me to some of the heavy hitters down there. There was one night where we got into some good fish for a few hours. I got my personel best that night also. I am hoping my trip to B.I. this weekend will yield some LARGE.

catching schoolies swimming around in 6" of water in between patches of eel grass with freshwater poppers. it was like bone fishing. we were basically in someones front yard too, the people working in the garden watching us.:)

Watching lot of schoolies from 16 to 25in jumping in front, left & roght of me a on 1 1/2 ft of water near the shore line. That was heaven man I caught like 8 18-24" schoolie.

Not nearly done yet, but here are a few.1 Having 2 of my fishing buddies get surf 50's. 2 Beaching a 52in fish for a friend. 3 BI(even though the fishing stunk)4.Meeting and fishing with some great guys from this board. 5 Learning a whole new area to fish. 6 Seeing the smile on Barts face after catching his first 30lber. 7. Slamming lots of good fish on rubber.8 Getting my first VS....more to come.

Have a lot of good memories of the season, I have been lucky enough to crawl the rocks with some very good fisherman, and had a lot of laughs. I hope they learned something from me, as I have and continue to take alot out of these nights. Been a lot of fun, and hope to get to fish with or meet more of you in the future... Didnt hit any major fishing milestones this year (yet) but all in all its been a wierd, but decent season....

B

My best memories of this season, which is still going, are the new guys I have fished with. I have met a bunch of good fishermen on this site, some of whom I have had the pleasure of spending the wee hours with. I tend to get in a rut, either fishing alone or fishing with the same couple of guys that I have fished with for 20 years. This year I met new folks who have taught this old
b%$*#d a thing or 2.

Thanks to Bryan, Eben, John, Chris and of course the one and only Spence for some good night and lots of laughs. More to come I am certain.

My best memory was after trying to sell my boat to googhan after googhan just giving in and launching her. Going out to Block island in mid june and just crushing them. Live eels on tons of fish. I caught countless fish in the 15-20 pounds range and had to give up after my arm froze up. I never-ever in my life thought that I would get sick of reeling in these great fish..but that one time I did. Things have turned around money wise and I am keeping the boat. I love heading out of the Harbor and making the turn to the Ocean, breeze in my face, the motors purring..Surfrunner cutting through the waves like a scythe thru wheat. The sun rising out of ocean like a giant orange..I swear I can see a smile across her face. It is going to be a great day.:cool:

here's my three best memories this year:)

1) exactly 3.2 seconds before my port engine blew this spring:)

2)watching my son fight and land a shark 3x his weight{on a spinning reel}.

3) hearing the words "it's gonna be a girl":)

ohh yeah, stumbling onto this site too:)
mike

Originally posted by piemma
My best memories of this season, which is still going, are the new guys I have fished with.

you ol phart you :D Wait til the mink start runnin.. we missed the plover run this june, but you know how hard it is to keep a live plover on a hook-

Hey everyone listen up real good..... Piemma paints his plugs with MARTHA STEWART brand paints :rotfl:

Originally posted by Eben
you ol phart you :D Wait til the mink start runnin.. we missed the plover run this june, but you know how hard it is to keep a live plover on a hook-

Hey everyone listen up real good..... Piemma paints his plugs with MARTHA STEWART brand paints :rotfl:

haha..Piemma is this true? Martha would be so happy if she wasn't locked up!
:D

My favorite memories of this year have been the new friendships I have made, and Many people I have been able to fish with!:cool:

I think first is getting Mrs. Crafty into surfcasting after 25 years- I guess she figured if you get tired of beating 'em :smash:, join 'em :hihi:

The real capper was watching her get into a 6 hour non-stop blitz with me back in August and how she handled it like a veteran - I sure was proud of my bride! And needless to say, now she sees what all the fuss is about and she loves to go along.

Second is probably the memory of wading in a deep tide pool at 3 in the morning walking a low 30's bass around until she recovered enough to be released - and then watching her swim back through the gap in the rocks and into the big surf she came from.

Third's gotta be fishing with Uncle Zeke and sight-casting for tog in the Spring and using slip-floats like it was a trout outing - man, it still makes me laugh :rotf2: because it worked so well -

Thinking back on it, yeah, the numbers were off but it was still a season with good times and some really good memories to take a little sting out of the winter -

Eben you are a dead man. I tell you one secret and you blab to everyone. Just so everyone know, yes I did paint a big Danny with Martha Stewart Crab Apple Green. It is a great color but I didn't think the secret would get out so soon. BTW, it looks like it holds up real well in the suds.

:hihi: well shoot, you just gave away the color!

does that felon make a mink brown? its almost time:)

I saw a mink this morning at the Fire Beach. Are they black with a white strip?

Piemma. Mckenna told me his secret strick to scenting sluggos:hihi:

Paul;
Thats why I didnt tell eben that secret color on my needles :D :D :D :D

Here is my favorite moment this season...it occured about 6:00am in the beginning of Oct. Little guy catches his first "big one".

My fav. memory was the feeling I had before the season started....sad but true. I personnally had a bad year, but I guess my fav. memory was going to the outer cape beaches, I had a great time being out there. I will be back out there next season for sure.

Boat fish may not count, but this is one of my top memories of the season, getting the lil woman her first bass, and on a plug no less....

http://www.striped-bass.com/StriperTalk/showthread.php?threadid=18317

I know they are ONLY BOAT FISH, but the night out catching my first 3 keepers aboard the LUV LEE....thanks Mike.

Originally posted by Raider Ronnie
My favorite memories of this year have been the new friendships I have made, and Many people I have been able to fish with!:cool:

I have to second Ronnie....I met some really great people this year. It was great fishing with theFishingFreak, Bil 'n' Jules, realecstasy, fishaddict, Beetle, and meeting so many others. I am glad, I am finally starting to attend the msba meetings, a great place to put faces with the names.

-IWK

Originally posted by bud8fan
Gotta agree with SKD! The Sox winning the series was #1 on the list of memories!

But as far as fishing memories go...........

Lets see...................

Well the three best memories were all while on Fishing Freaks boat!

1 trip out we fill the boat with cod and haddock!
another trip out we catch a few sharks as well as a bunch of ground fish
and finally the afternoon we went out for bass and had double hookups on every drift!

Mike can flat out put you on fish!!!!
He should seriously thinking about starting a charter business!!!!!!!!!!!!


Second that....Capt Mike should be doing charters instead of helping all of us less capable fisherman find the fish for free. A great debt of gratitude to Capt Mike.

fishing memories this year were all good but the top 3 are....

1...My virgin trip to Montauk and the adventure while there that no doubt, changed me yet again (going back in two weeks)

2...2nd Place shore fly rod Striper in the MV Derby and all that it took to get it

3...building a Canal bike and doing a lot of learning the ditch

fishing memories this year were all good but the top 3 are....

1...My virgin trip to Montauk and the adventure while there that no doubt, changed me yet again (going back in two weeks)

2...2nd Place shore fly rod Striper in the MV Derby and all that it took to get it

3...building a Canal bike and doing a lot of learning the ditch

This mako almost but NOT jumping into my cockpit in the Monster Shark tournament. (sorry picture to large, but I think you guys have seen it).

I cant remember that far back ! I do know I fished and caught fish but thats it .

#1 Night fishing all by myself in September & constantly hitting 30" + stripers. I had to take my rig out of the water just to rest for 5 min & have a cup of coffee.
#2 My personal best 39" - first lil cow that didn't break off cuz the drag was to tight. I fought her till she was pooped out & let her go. It was the first time I felt like an actual "fisherman" & not a hammerhead.
#3 Fishing with my older brother (after 10 years of him not fishing. ) His ear to ear grins and laughter as he caught 20" schoolies brought back all the good times fishing as kids.

I'd like to thank you all as I have been reading your tips and learned most of what I know "online" here and at other sites. Not only have you made me a better fisherman but a better man as well.

Thank you

Nice post.:)