For some of us we have called it quits, others still have a few more trips planned.

For those of you who have packed it up for the season, what was the most memorable moment this year?

Lets try to keep this thread going until all of the regulars here have stopped fishing, you never know who will pull a fat-so out of the salt.

I'll go first;

OK, so I can't pick just one!

Meetin Dave (BM) and Bruce (SlipKnot) at the ditch and being hijacked to Nausett Beach for the first time. What a place! So different from RI, and so beautiful. Well from what I could make out in the dark. And the critters they have down there....coyotes running around the beach, and striped kitty's too! Glad I made it that night. Turned out to be a good night for fishing, but I also gained to friends out of the deal as well. It did cost quote a few plugs....but we wont talk about that will we.

Barrington Beach / Rumstick Point
Never in my life have I seen so many birds and feeding fish in one place. As far as the eye could see, acres and acres of fish, and I have a witness...just whish I had a camera. Mother Nature is wonderfull!

SOL FLING/FLOP
Glad to have shown people our little state and hope they enjoyed it. Meeting Eye-ball and his Band of Gypsys (HAB and Sal) was more than rewarding. DO NOT EAT THE BLUEBERRIES!

You live in RI, how can you possibly be done yet?

Yeah, I here Im fishing saturday, Slip Tat am I or is it a rumor?

Still fishing,tonight one bluefish chop & one 34" fish switch to tautog in the bay next week , south shore good for 3 + weeks but I;ll limit it to daylight & running the beaches///////////////////

Well so far....(Hopefully there will be a couple of more times to get out and wet a line)
My favorite time this year was at the Vineyard staying with BC & FW...My son come over for part of the week which we spent on various beaches.....One night while bait fishing he got got a wicked hit...His pole bent in half...The look on his face was priceless.One I will never forget..He fought the fish for about 15 minutes and lost it...The swivel straightened out...I will never forget that look either....Priceless....These memories will last forever........:o

No where did it say I was done. I have been sick for a month, feel like death wrmed over, have a load of things I need to do around the house, haven't been home one weekend since MAY, and my wife doesn't know who I am....

I ain't done!

I had a great time at the 4 leg's I attended and have some new friends to fish with, assuming they meet the height restriction for my ride :).

I'd say the most memorable day has to be the day off Cohasset I got into that school of large. There's nothing like bringing in one teen-40 lber over the rail, especially when there are 12 chunkers achored up in a circle around you and they are just catching rats.

I'm digging out my warm clothes and preparing for the winter fishing, I'm a long way from done yet. I plan to catch a striper every month, just like I did last year....got a name to live up to you know :).

fri night before labor day...fishing my favorite east end ditch spot...kinda dead so i moved west to a spot i hadn't hit in a long time just for s&g's...glad i did...stuck 10 fish/2 missed on 12 casts on same jig till the fish ate the rubba off the jig...no mobys but the big fish topped out a little under 3'...i left cuz i got bored:eek: :eek:

only bad thing was noone was around to watch;)

sometimes, everything just clicks...:cool:

It ain't over YET :D :D ;) ;)

For me , the season highlite was the SB.com 4 leg tourney gatherings. Got to meet a lot of new people and got to talk to them while sharing food , etc. All 4 gatherings were great with the last attracting a lot of people. My pleasure to make so many new friends.

For fishing stuff , the Mystery tour with BC and FW and the night Smokey and I went out with Chet Hathaway aboard the Nor-easter stand out in my mind. I guess they stick out cause they were different.

Overall though , our normal friday night ritual of me and Smokey going plain old fishing is what I most look forward to. It may not be different like the charter or the Mystery tour but in all honesty I could live without the unusual (even though they were highpoints) but I would be very unhappy if I didn't have friday night fishing to look forward to every week.
One other big event this year was getting into rod building big time. I enjoy building rods and with all the tips I've gotten from Al Goldberg , Mike T and George at Murat's , I was able to really compress the learning curve and make some nice rods right away. My thanks to those guys.

What I missed most this year was fishing with Tim and Charlie. We got together lots two years ago and last year but this year , despite meeting up for breakfast at Quintals , we didn't get to actually fish together much. Hope we improve that next year.

Hey, I got a few Rhody trips left...Will be up there tonite till Friday...

I am still flinging on the north shore, but all schoolies in the suds over the past three weeks. (Did have one hook up last week that straightened out a 2/0 treble....never saw dat fish tho) My arsenal has been reduced to bare bones. Destroyed two Gab's on consecutive backcasts into some rocks on my backside.

A decent year over all, just not a great one. Five fish over 40" from shore! Even got one during a local tourney. Heaviest came in at 29 9.

So I still have goals to reach for in the future. Mebbe I can learn to fish smarter..... Just gotto heal up this shoulder.

....HEY!!...get off my rock!!!!......:cool:

Originally posted by Tattoo
No where did it say I was done. I have been sick for a month, feel like death wrmed over, have a load of things I need to do around the house, haven't been home one weekend since MAY, and my wife doesn't know who I am....

I ain't done!

Sorry, I took this as you being done.

"For those of you who have packed it up for the season, what was the most memorable moment this year? "
"I'll go first;"

end quote.

I guess you don't have any more memorable moments :(

Sorry to hear you've been so sick. see a doc. that ain't good. And take the wifey out for dinner will ya

Bristol narrows
April 28th 2:00pm in the afternoon with my first fish of the season 34" striper 16lbs later that night i released a 32" bass for my second striper of the season 2 fish 2 keepers.

Bristol Harbor
Sun going down tried the mill gut stream after a heavy rainwith an out going tide. Threw on a small 3/4oz gags popper and caught 27 schoolie bass between 17" and 27" and 1 keeper at 30"

Upper Bay
From mid august till 2nd week of october catching blues everyday with my light tackle rod from 6lb blues all the way to 14lbs with an occasional schoolie bass.

Broken Bridge Portsmouth
Fighting my biggest tautog ever getting me stuck in the rocks after giving up and trying to snap my line feeling the fish still there and knowing he was a big one. 23" 8.5lbs personal record.

Colt state park
Plugging for blues and watching as my friend throws back a skip jack only for a 20 to 25lb striper come out of 12inches of water 3 feet from shore eat it. bringing in my plug the same fish hit my plug than he shook his head and spit it back at me. I stood there for an hour plugging hoping he would return :( The same nite fishing the current at CSP having a fish almost spool me before spitting out my hook while chunkin with pogys. I didnt even get a chance to turn him he just pulled and didnt stop. Settled for a 36" 18lb bass later in the nite.:)

Charlestown breachway
It was my first time fishing there and it felt foreign to me. But i watched the other guys and got in the rotation and started slinging my eel. I watched as guys around me brought in keeper bass to 42" and 15lb blues. I didn't catch anything that nite but i was surprised on how many keepers came from that one spot ill be spending some time there next season.

Colt state Park/boat ramp
I caught 3 rare fish i never seen before after searching the internet i found out that i had caught my first lesser amberjack.


MY biggest change this season was using soft plastic baits i wouldn't even give them a look before this season, but it outfishes everything in my tackle box for schoolie bass. Now I have a couple of boxes dedicated just to plastics.

Where is this "broken" bridge in portsmouth you refer to? Stone Bridge?

BC & I Had a fantastic season this year.

May was a blast with some of you and the mystery trips, Mid May bluefish heaven with my family, what an awesome week. Over 1000 blues and about 400 bassaroonies. We had a ball. GS even got in on a little action down there with us. It's funny how pozest some people get while kicking the crap out of some fishies!!!!

End of June Mackerel & Bass heaven. Got my biggest bass ever in my life at 36 1/2 lbs & a 12 lb 14 oz blue and won the MSBA tournament, who would have thought, next week caugth a 33 lb bass and we had one day we caught over 40 fish that all were in the 25 lb class range. It was 10 days of schyco fishing and I loved every minute of it. Best fishing I have ever experienced in my life.
Especially hooking up 2, 150 lb bluefin tuna on my boat bass rod with 20 lb test line, what a rush, smokin!!!!!!!

Shore fishing in mid summer was definatley off the mark, but that is fishing.

Then there was my adventure fishing the Situate area with Turbo Bob!!! Pollock heaven, nobody did it better, face it GS. I am the Pollock Queen.

Having Jenn & the hubby out for a day on the boat, we had alot of fun didn't we sh## Bag!!!

Great time on MV with all of our friends, not as many fish as last year, but the fishing commerauderie & food can't be beat!!! You go D.O.S.K.!!!!!

And now we are into cod fishing and kickin there butt, never did this until this year and we are having a ball, the only problem is when I am trying to reel in a 14 oz jig and laughin so hard I can't reel it up, OMG they are heavy!!!!!

All I can say is there is nothin better than fishing with friends like all of you and having a great time, hopefully next year we will be able to do the flings with SB.com We really would have enjoyed that this year, just couldn't work it in to the schedule. I also really missed spending time on the surf with JohnR and Schoolie Monster, that definatley will have to change next year.

Life is Good!!!!

Two words for you, braid and trolling motor. I say that because, I'd routinely catch cod 4 miles off the North River every summer, with 2 oz smilling bills tipped with mackeral strips. The water depth out there is about 60-75 feet and seems you mentioned 50. Two main reasons, 30/6 spiderwire is small diameter and the trolling motor helps control your drift and allow less weight. What's up for the weekend girl, you guys doing your Cod fishing again? I'm up in the air, but leaning towards the Thames, should still have some nice fish...not just the rat holdovers.

Hey GS, yes if the weather is good, we will be doing the jiggin thing on Sunday, whats up on your schedule. Got any free time this week, maybe I'll take you for a ride on the Alternative for some cod baby!!!!!

Meeting all the guys at the 4-leg and feeding them venny burgers! Wait till next year And I'll make something really special. Oh and getting a fish or two. Fisherwoman definatly go with braid and the lightest diamond jig you can to hold bottom. Bucktail teasers about a foot above the jigs bouncing the bottom. When you gat sick of loseing jigs two teasers work too.

OK I'll play: Late September up on Cape Back Beach. It was a rainy Thursday night, we all were headed to Chatham Inlet in 2 cars. Four of them went to Inlet, My bro and I turned around the car and headed for HOM, just had this feeling. Of course the other 4 had approx 2 dozen live fresh eel's, we had 6 1.5 day old barely breathing eels - nonetheless still eel's. Outgoing tide, pouring rain, heavy surf. 15 mintues into it I nailed a 35 lb cow - what a fight. My brother nailed a 30 lbr. Just started nailed stripers for approx 2 hours, caught me last 3 on a dead eel. All said and done, we caught about 14 stripers between us. It was sick. The other 4 - nuthin!

Meeting everybody in RI was cool. Good to know that you are not the only demented and sad but social stiperman(woman) out there fishing. Good to fish with C-Rat & Specialist @ C-Breachway - man when that wave hit, thought it was over. It aint' over until Thanksgiving.

Iceman

Definitely catching my first 30lber. 33lb. 4oz. from the surf... E-E-L!!! Thumb was smokin'. That was pretty fun.

Getting my dad into a bunch of fish out in the boat and getting him to admit that I was right about the fact that stripers would kick a largemouth bass' @ss. Screamin' drags aren't too common with freshwater bass. We had a great time.

9/10/01... took a day off to fish and had the harbor and a bunch of fish to myself. Caught fish all day. Probably my best day of the year. That was the last "normal" care-free day that I remember. No terrorists, no war, no disasters, no anthyrax... just fishing.

Seeing my wife catch her first legal bass while on vacation on Nantucket... and seeing my daughter catch sunnies at a local pond. She put a hurtin' on those guys this summer.

Worst memory. Getting peeled by Got Stripers 17-3. That's right Bob, I haven't forgotten... your day of reckoning will come. Obviously, I'm kidding although I do have a score to settle. Getting a jerkbait outfit ready for a return match in Scituate next season.

Worst memory is that I didn't get out with friends or family very often this year. Fished alone alot, which I do enjoy, but I missed the social aspect of it. Something I need to work at a bit more.

Tight lines.

Why wait Greg, I'm going fishing in the a.m., do you really have to work?

The highlights of this season include:

Directing Lefty Kreh on Cuttyhunk where he caught stripers in every possible type of conditon. Then, watching walls of stripers pass by the camera on legendary Sow and Pigs Reef.

Blueberries shared with friends in Newport and fishtalk that included some great tales of big bass caught in the surf.

Meeting fellow Striped_Bass.com'ers in Weekapaug -- including Patrick and his woman (Empty barrels make the most noise).

Mike

Meeting and fishing with the crew here:D.

I really enjoyed boat fishing with clamdigger, especially when he took the boy and I out. Fishing with the kids make it worth it.

The two year old sitting still long enough to catch a fish on his own.

The 4 year old insisting on casting himself and catching fish.

Mike, I love them pics....keep em comin' ....I saved the Hog one from SOL....its a different world down there.....;) ..been a few years now for me...but I must return!!...

..High-lights of this year ???.....hmmmm...let me stink about it ...

Fish_Eye - I'm just waiting for some new DNS changes to happen and then I'll give you the ftp address and space....

Thanks,

John

GS, thanks for the invite, yeah, I gotta work. I was out a couple days last week when my daughter had the "croup"... and the week before that, I was out a couple days to travel back to PA for a really fun wedding.

But we'll definitely face off on the Thames this winter... but that's not gonna satisfy my appetite for revenge. I want your @ss on your home waters and next time I won't let you off easy 'cause your an old timer! I own those ledges! In fact, don't be surprised if you show up next spring and see "The MONSTER was HERE" painted all over your favorite rock.

YEAH! Who's the man!

Seriously, I'd like to tag along a time or two this winter and I like the idea of getting a couple boats together and having a little winter get-together. I threw my bowmount electric back on to outfit the boat for the Thames. Did you see my post about the ramps near the mouth of the Thames? I did find that article and there are ramps under I95. From what I read there and in other sources, that gets crazy this month... though I wonder if boat traffic gets crazy too. If I read it, I'm sure its not a secret.

I just put in an order to grab some spiderwire for some finesse, deepwater, plastic presentation too. So, I'll be ready.

Later.

I really wanted to make this a record year for "getting out there" but that didnt happen....

I DID however get a chance to meet a few of you and fish with some great people......

overall I would say the times I DID make it out I had a blast!!!! and I learned quite a bit thanks to those who were kind enough to take time and share their expirience with me!!!:)

FW....yeah we had some fun didnt we ( and I absolutely loved the comfy bed in the front of your boat!!!:p ):rolleyes: But next year we will have to do better at getting a "girls day" going!!:p HA!HA!

Thanks again to all that made my fishing year a little more memorable!!!! and even though I am gearing up for my winter pastime......fishing remains on the brain......

Well to start off it has been and still is a pleasure to participate in this board. Have to admit was a little nervous about meeting up with a bunch of internet strangers in person given all the bad stories we hear about, kidnapping, being used as a sex slave, or worse forced to carry someones fishing gear over miles of sand in the dark of night.:eek:
I have to say I have two very nice memories to reflect on from events that wouldn't have occured without s-b. The first one being the s-b third leg. It was really a great day good people, food and fishing talk. I was happy to fish that night with some of the nicest guys and the best part of it all was we all caught fish. One fish that I caught that night eventually went on to win the four leg tourney. I still think had the surf and weather cooperated a bit more on the night of the fourth leg it would have been beat. I am going to cherish the rod and reel for a long time.
The second memory which to this day still hits home with me was the thank-you from Steve from Mass, and the fish that his grandfather caught on one of the beaches I showed Steve when I took him on a quick guided tour after a night of fishing. Steve you and your grandfather are so very welcome and I Thank-You for touching my heart and making me smile everytime I go by that beach.:) :) :)

I have many memories from this years fishing and like Schoolie Monster, my most memorable would have to be breaking 30 pounds this summer with a 31 - 1/2 pounder in the ditch on a jig that Saltheart made.
Meeting a lot of new people from this board has to be memorable starting at the fishing shows up to late Summer I think I meet quite a few new faces. All good people too :th:
Off the top of my head let's see: Ragfly,clamdigger,Smokey, Saltheart, Noreaster, Fisherwoman, Baitcaster, Topwater, East Tide Dave, Mike P, Milo, Jenn, J. Habs, Fisheye, Don M, Tattoo, BM, Specialist, 10x10, Krispy, Ed J, Otter, Ismail, Got Stripers, canalratt1, Steve in Mass. , Jettyjockey18, JeffSod, and maybe some more but I can't think right now. I met a few members here last year as well: JohnR, Fishpart, Jeff, BillB, Schoolie monsta, J Powers, Chris L.

I think I helped make up for John missing out on some of the action this year as I just about double my trips to the water this year. Caught over 350 stripers from Jan. to Nov., 86 of them legal.

I remember the Mass Bass show was a good time and I look forward to it next year. I met Stan Kuzia and Ron Arra there.

I really got to learn about the canal this year with much help from others and by putting in my time. One of these days I will hook a real cow in that place and when I do, I hope one of the members here is nearby.

Fishing the Thames river in January with Got Stripers and Schoolie Monster was quite a treat. And again with Bob at his ledges and watching him work his magic jerkbaits.

I was hoping to take my kids fishing with me more but after dumping my boat that made it more difficult to include the kids on my fishing trips. But they will be older next year and I will get them out more :)

Getting the chance to fish with Bassmaster was a memory for sure. Hey Tattoo, got skunk?

Overall I had a great year fishing and I'd like to thank John for his efforts bringing us this website
http://forums.evilnet.net/ubb/smilies/claps.gif

Let's be thankful for this years fishing and hope that next year is even better.

;) STILL FISHING R.I. PUTTING IN MY TIME BUT CATCHING ONLY 1 BLUE SO FAR,GOING TO FISH SAT AM AT THE HILL.BEST TIME SO FAR THIS YEAR WAS FISHING WITH MY 3 SONS ON THE CAPE AND CATCHING SEVERAL BASS.ALL FISH I CAUGHT WERE SMALL STILL LOOKING FOR THE BIG COW-HOPEFULLY SHE WILL BE PASSING THROUGH RI WHEN I'M THERE IN CASTING RANGE.

I guess the highlight of the year fishing wise was a pretty nice bass I caught right in the middle of a crowd this spring and released while everyone else was killing their better fish.Made me feel good knowing that fish lived, probably would have been a goner if someone else caught it.I hope it's still swimmin around out there somewhere.
Otherwise a pretty unexceptional year fishing wise.
Getting to know some of you cape guys and fishing at nauset(nice beach),that wasn't a bad thing and I did get to ride in BM's sand sled.Matter a fact I think I was the last person to ride shotgun before it met it's untimely demise.bang bang bang%(&$##^T&)^# GET OUTA MY WAY!freakin dopey tourists &^)($%$#@!#!!! Haw Haw Haw, lot's of fun.
Had lots of fun making lures and swapping with other guys too or just givin them away(Where's my Darters! and where'd my needlefish go?)
Fishing down here is pretty bad anymore.Too many people,gill netters working in the close to the beaches and pollution are doin a real number on the fishing down here.Couple more years of this and there really will be no fish here at all.
These guys down here I don't think even know how bad the water quality is.They been lookin at it so long they don't know water is supposed to be clear and not smell bad.Nor are beaches supposed to resemble land fills.There's places I fished in NJ this year where I was afraid to touch my line after it was in the water.I'm not kidding either.
I guess that's what they call "progress".
So,Any of youse guys got a big bass yet up there?
Is any one even trying?I'm tellin you there's more fish still to come.Everything is late this year and you guys are gonna get decent fishing right up til Thanksgiving I think.Last year there were some big bass caught right about now up that way so if I lived up there I would still be out tryin.

this past year has been a good one !
I met alot of good fishers I would have normally walked right past ( too many to mention and I dont want to miss anyone ) . Thanks to John for the outings I had a good time at the 3 I went too . Between flings and legs ( sounds sexy ). I got into a lot of fish this year .
I need a massage my aching back . Am I getting old ? nah just casting alot ! I got some quality fish this year . But it was great to meet all the new people . Next year we will have to do it again .
thanks everyone

10x10.....darters are coming!

Dont tell HIM....

I was going to save adding to this thread until after my last time out (still a shot at a 50 :D ) but, what the heck...

First & foremost, being a Dad... This past year watching my son grow with me & my wife has been the uncontested highlight of this year.

As far as fishing goes, this year was not going to break any records for me but I knew that from the get go. I knew that I'd be lucky to get out a third of what I did last year - which I didn't and I figured I'd be lucky to catch a third of what I did last year - which I didn't. Being sick for a lot of the time from April on didn't help much either but that's on it's way out... Nor did I get any outboards this year... I also didn't get to Block or MV and I didn't break thirty pounds this year (yet - my biggest this season is a guestimate of about 25-27 pounds - although I got a few in that range).

What I did do this year was have a lot of fun. I met a whole bunch of new people and really got to know others better. I spent a fair amount of time getting to know Fishpart & Clammer and I feel all the better because of it... I enjoyed seeing both Slip & Schoolie & FW hoisting their biggest basses so far and knowing that there will be more & bigger to come - I just wish I had been there to SEE THEM HOOKUP... I was lucky enough to see Fishpart get his biggest fish ever and was glad to be there at the time!!! I had a true blast (and schooling ;) ) when I went to watch the Mastah at work on the Scituate Ledges... GS - that's truly sweet water... I enjoyed seeing a lot of people attend the various legs of the tourney and very happy to meet a lot of you. Next year, I hope to fish with some of you a bit more and touch an island or two... Had a ball watching FW & Jenn harass each other...

I like seeing it when people hear have made friends with others that they otherwise would have never met. And you see the results of that like when Steve's Grandfather got into those fish. Big thumbs up to Charlie, Steve, and Red!!!

I also appreciate all that I've learned from you all and all of you that have contributed here at Striped-Bass and it has been a real pleasure for me to bring this site out to you all... I also appreciate the support we've gotten from the people that sponsor us like Don & Weekapaug, Mike & his family @ Capecodtackle.com, Saltydog @ flyrodreeloutfitters.com and Ron from the Sportsmans Den... These guys have been helping me keep the lights on (so buy a few things from them will ya ;) )

A very special thanks to Saltheart for slaving at keeping me on the ball with my getting things done here - I think everyone should give him a round of applause - he really deserves it. http://forums.evilnet.net/ubb/smilies/claps.gif

BUT THANK ALL OF YOU for making this all possible :D

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