Jimbo
08-18-2008, 03:31 PM
I'm sure many of you have had better days. I had the opportunity to go out to Bearses Shoal last Thursday on a cousin's boat. Wasn't sure the usual boat spinning setup I'd use was in shape so I took a 10'6" Jarvis-Walker surf rod with a Penn 704Z I won in an S-B raffle on it. It's a heavy mother. The cousins I went with are usually trollers, but will stop and allow me a few casts from time to time while they jig squid or pogies. Last Thursday was no exception, except that I cast the plug I had made from a kit another member sold my wife for an Xmas present, that I painted in the "parrot" motif (so I don't get accused of spamming or or face other punitive responses, I won't mention his name, but the plug is the Big Surf Wooden Popper). I was getting ribbed pretty good, but after half a dozen casts I got hit hard. I brought in a nice,fat 37" striper. I think there were some who didn't believe what happened, after all there'd been mumbling about the rod I brought, and then the color of the lure, but my arms were tired so I just sat back and watched the others jigging up dogfish for a while. Then I grabbed my rod and three casts later I hooked up again. I briefly thought that I should have checked my knots. Since I had already brought a fish in I handed the rod to the nearest cousin and he had another nice 34 inch fish in a short while later. So now the talk was all about this "parrot" deal. I offered up the rod to anyone who wanted to take a few casts, but they were intent on jigging up those dogs. I had a beer and a sandwich and picked up the rod again. Took more than a few casts and bam! Fish number three on! I called to my cousin's 7 year old son to come get the rod. It's a heavy rod and that 704Z only adds more weight so we finally put it in a rod holder for most of the fight and his dad took the rod at the last minute to land it. That fish fell somewhere in-between the first two. Immediately, the crew went to their tackle bags and buckets for anything remote resembling the parrot pattern, but we lost the tide and that was it for bass that day. I offered gas money to the cousin who owned the boat and he refused, but was overjoyed when I handed him the well christianed mojo-parrot. This ranks at the top of any salt water fishing experience I've ever had; three fish over 30", on a home made lure, with a reel I won in an S-B raffle. Hope to have a pic coming along soon.