Growing up, we had a relative that had a barracuda mounted and my Dad always talked about it. He used to watch every fishing show @ barracuda and was crazy about them. His dream was to get one. Despite fishing his entire life, he had never fished with a guide. While I was living in CA, I set up a trip for he and I to go out on the flats for barracuda in Key West. I flew to FL and we drove, down to the keys. stayed overnight and met the guide at 6am. For the next 4-6 hours we slammed massive barracuda on topwater and tubes all in water from 6' to 3 feet deep. It was mid-70s and no breeze. We laughed our asses off. The guide said to my Dad and I that we can take a break or eat whenever we wanted, we fished the entire time, only stopping to drink and move locations. Definitely the best time I ever had fishing.

October 31, 1985

As a student at Cape Cod Tech in the Marine Fisheries program my class had authorization to overnight on Monomoy Island in the tarpaper shack not far from Monomoy Light. Early on the 31st, I woke and headed to the point with a dozen eels. An hour later I had landed a 40lb bass. It was hard work for a 13 year old kid to carry a 40lb bass the mile or so back to the group, but it was worth it, still makes me happy to this day. (1st pic)

Or, October 27th 1993.

Fished with my former skipper, Bob Lassen, on his 31 JC "Shanti". I was his mate for a few years during high school. He invited me out after I got home from the Army. We found the migration of stripers 4 miles east of Great Point, Nantucket. We were surrounded by a bass blitz that stretched as far as I could see in each direction. All good fish, 36" average. We caught fish for what seemed like hours until the southwest winds got so bad we had to run for home. The ride home was awful, but I'll never forget the day. It was the last time I fished with him, he died in 2003. Another happy memory. (2nd pic)

Workin' the deck on "Shanti" off Nantucket Fall of 1987(3rd pic)

I think it was 89 or 90,early November at the Quonnie Breachway.We stopped at Cove Edge and grabbed a dozen eels from Henry Hetu.
Got out of the truck,wind howlin out of the north,temps in the mid 20's.Out at the end of the breachway on the hard side,outgoing tide.Now you have to appreciate these conditions.It was sooo windy that all you had to do was pitch the eel and away it went.As soon as the eel hit the water there was a bass on the end of the line.
12 eels,12 bass!! I kept one 29lbs,my buddy kept one 27lbs.I swear all these fish were the same size!!We were freezing.One hour later we were in the Andrea Hotel toasting the kind of fishing I doubt I will ever see again.

Bluefish Story 1985
 

Last day of the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby in 1985 I cuaght a 17.60 # blue somewhere on the north shore of the Vineyard. The best part was walking into the junior yacht club holding that fish in my right hand and putting it up on the bench. ThAT warmed the cockles of my heart then and it does now writing this.

every day is the best day becuase I always catch large

mine came this past septmeber in the ditch. My self and another kid arrived at the spot at the same time coming from opposite directions. We both crawled down the rocks and decided to fish. It was slow at first and then i caught and 18# fish on a pencil. The next cast i caught another fish a little bit bigger. I told the the kid to put on pencil and rip it across the water. he did, and he caught a fish about 20#. for the next hour we caught over a dozen fish from 18# to 35# on top water with out any fish showing at all. guys to left of us and to right were shocked couldn't believe their eyes.

Later on in the day i ran into a buddy who was fishing across from me at the time and he told me how he watched these guys on the other side clobber fish. his jaw dropped when i told him i was one of those guys.:spin:

34lb Amberjack off the Packery Channel jetty in Port A TX.1988.

Unreal for me.The fight was so intense.

my dad taking me fishing for the first time 5-6 years old too long ago to remember. Caught a white perch in an upstate NY pond. Never looked back and still remember the day like it was yesterday some 35years ago.

1990, florida keys, watching a pod of tarpon march towards our boat from 150 yards out. readying a live pinfish on my TLD-15 on a penn slammer loaded with 20 pound test. as the school is less than 20 feet from the boat i toss my bait to the lead, and largest fish. he sucks it down and runs, and runs, and runs until my spool is closed to empty. after setting the hook this silver king leaps, dives, leaps, head shakes and the chase is on. after about 45 minutes the sun is setting and we are basically playing walk the dog with a 100+ pound fish. in and out of the bridge struts of bahia honda bridge, back out into the channnel. now its dark, the fish is tired, i'm shot too. the sheer weight of fish and current is still making it a game. then all of the sudden, line goes limp...nothing...my griend kevin gets out his Ibeam and holy %$%$%$%$, there is a huge fin swimming where my line is leading to...big mo, the legendary 16 foot hammerhead of bahi honda channel is looking to eat my tarpon!!!! :shocked:...i only guess the tarpon is playing dead or is dead! my friend says cut the line, let him go, give the fish a chance. NO WAY. i reel like hell, the SOB is there, so is the fish....end result is the picture now hanging to my left of the tarpon being held up on a lip gaff in the bow of the boat, over 6 feet long, 100+ pounds, me smiling like the happiest guy in the world... and on the other wall a 2 shot frame another guy took of big mo chewing a tarpon in mid air...that was a great moment and telling it just now was a blast!

Greatest moment fishing
 

Watching Leo break 40lbs last year

Great stories guys! Love reading them! The pics are also great!

Mr. Sandman.....love that childhood pic of you! Priceless!:uhuh:

Rockfish - pass along my thanks and regards for your son please :btu:

2 years ago. Taught my son to cast his spinning reel and my daughter was using her push button. Freshwater fishing. They each caught a 2 lb. bass on their first cast. Best double I will ever be a part of.

I could catch a 40# this year and it wouldn't top that day. Now my daughter is into the girl things, while my son can't wait to fish a beach with me.

And Rockfish, thank your son for me for being one of the brave people who allow my children to sleep safe every night.

My (our)first striped bass ever. My brother and bought a couple surf rods from Benny's and went to the Chatham lighthouse beach 3 nights in a row while on summer vacation in Harwich. We fished with sand eels over on the left near the rocks (back when the water was faster over there). The tackle store gave us the classic 2 hours either side of high - so we fished around 7-11, 8-12 and 9-1. Nothing but crabs. On the 4th night we said forget it - we must be doing something wrong - we basically just chalked it up to being freshwater guys and the big surf was our match. It was 9 or so and my girlfriend who was also there with us and sick of spending nights with my sister and family said why don't we go, there is some bait left and you guys love to fish - I'll even go. So the three of us went - took lawn chairs etc and headed down.
That night at around 1AM one rod started bobbing and it was not the waves. After setting the hook my brother yells "Jim, I think we got one and its heading to England" Well a longer than necessary fight took place. We all took turns reeling it in - I ended up going in the water to literally push it on shore (couldn't figure out how to surf that last wave in...).
We all look and its a keeper. We pack up quickly race home and wake up the whole house, the dog my parents sister and 75 year old grandma. It weighed 22 lbs, taken with the scientific step on the bathroom scale with and without it method. We stayed up and cleaned it and I think the grin did not leave my face for days.
Needless to say I was hooked. I now am married to the girl from this story, and I certainly don't have to explain to her why I go out late at night and come home with a grin on my face the receipts from tackle store are a different story...

2 Best days
 

Number one when I lived on a lake. Giving my stepdaughter a rod and reel and stocked tackle box as a first conmunion gift and seeing her catch a 2lb. large mouth on the first cast from our dock.
Number two taking my grandson (age 7) saltwater fishing for the first time last fall and hitting a bluefish blitz from a breechway. I'll never forget holding his belt so the 13lb. blue wouldn't pull him off the rocks. Must have caught at least 40 fish during that blitz. He's been fresh water fishing since age 3 and now he thinks saltwater fishing is always like this.

A Striper from the Old Days...

This photo is of myself with a 62-pound bass taken in 1971. What you can't see in the photo are the two 45 pounders laying at my feet. We were live-lining menhaden. I’m still around and still chasing that elusive 63 pounder. A boy can dream right?

So…here is my “Fish of a lifetime”…

Al

I could read a whole book of these. I'm not kidding. Great stories, great moments and some super pics.
I've been fishing so long it's impossible for me to pick just one. I can think of 3 in the past 12 months I'll never forget. 1) watching my 16 yr old son fighting large stripers under a pier. The look on his face, the rod bent in two, the drag screaming. So much fun. 2) Hiking into a Vermont stream a mile with little luck...then he hooks into a large trout on ultralight tackle and lands a 20" brown after an amazing fight and many jumps (pretty unusual for a brown). 3) a few weeks ago he and i fishing from a dock on a small island off KeyWest at night. He was hooking monster Tarpon on a rapala floater/diver. Finally landed a smaller one of maybe 30 lbs.
All great memories he and I will never forget. We are never closer than when we are fishing together.

I will do that.. this evening in fact ,he's home (in NJ) until May...

Great Thread! Everyone's stories are very inspiring. My favorite trip occured last year on the South River with my then 3 year old. he caught his first striper on his rod drifting worms off my skiff. his face lit up and he was so proud of himself. But only a fraction of how proud I was of him. It's a powerful and emotional feeling doing these things with people that you are close too. It's hard for me to explain but reading all these posts is really bringing me back to how important family and friends are. Thanks Larry for starting this thread!:kewl:

decksweeper and I with easily a 600+ lb night
laughing like school children every time we hooked up

the first time I took my oldest son James fishing.....sunnies till his arms fell off


oh ya...and this as well

After coming close to death a couple of years back when I fell in @ Hazard Ave.By A rouge wave Everyday is the best. :bl:

Hey Al....Fabulous picture!:kewl:

GREAT Stories----Brings back so many memories of great times fishing with some I still fish with, others that I don't.
For the past 16 years my life has revolved around liitle but fishing for striped bass. A lot of good times with plenty of laughs, a lot of heartbreaks with disappointment. No moment, even as a young kid fishing compares to the night this past season that I caught my first 50lb.
The image of a board member here laying on his back on a rock staring up at me with his redlite on and his arms and legs wrapped around that beauty will forever, ever be burned into my mind.
As striped bass fishermen, a fifty from shore is the Lombardi Trophy. So many nights away from friends, family, activities and the wife in pursuit of that one fish, all the casts into perfect water in perfect conditions and it finally happened.
I have seen the Red Sox win a world series and caught my fifty.....now I can die in peace.
But then again the night behind the Oceanmist with JohnR is a close 2nd............

Thanks Larry,

The fish was caught off Third Beach in Newport in October. In those days we never measured the fish, just the weight. To give you and idea of the length, I was 5'- 8" at the time. Gravity has taken a tole on my height over the years.

Notice the old green Penns in the picture. They were loaded with 20 pound test. I still am useing the Thermos that you see sitting on the boat.

Al

My fondest memory is when I was about 7 or 8, my parents allowed me to walk to the local pond by myself, I caught a small largemouth and the guys that were building something nearby took it off the hook for me, and called it a nice fish. I was beaming, and never stopped fishing after that. I was at that pond every chance I got, catching mostly pickeral, perch and bullheads, but occasionally getting a small bass or trout. Leading out of that pond was a small stream that led to a private hunting and fishing club, and we used to sight fish for trout that made it up the stream out of the fly fishing pond. I couldnt have asked for a better place to grow up. And since it was a girl scout camp, it was private, and I had the place to myself, as long as I didnt bother the girl scouts.

Nice fish . . . . the belt looks like it's about to cut you in half though.

Ya Makai, I was bust'n my gut holding that fish up for the picture. I wear suspenders now...it helps. :hihi:

Thats why I live in sweat pants and shorts.

two moments...
 

First about 10 years ago on Weekapaug Beach, my 13 yr old son (at the time) caught his first striper on his brand new spin caster (though cheap it was). He hooked up with a little popper. He couldn't reel it in...brain lock... he walked backwards until the fish came out of the surf, dropped the new rod/reel into the sand and ran down to tackle the fish...poor thing. Then proceeded to try and pull the lip from 27.5 inches to 28"...poor thing. He released it.

The second about 5 years ago in almost the same spot.
My wife to be had never fished (she is from Colombia, S.A.). She was practicing casting in ankle deep water.
A bluefin came out of the water about 200 feet in front of us. Looked like a car fell into the ocean! I was amazed. I turned to see if she saw it... she was gone.
She was at the back of the beach..."there are things that big in the water?" she exclaimed... It took our honeymoon the next year to get her back in the water (same place again). She caught dozens of schoolies and bluefish and has been hooked ever since. Those memories are the best.
That was very cool.

Okay..I caught my 1st striper in Eastham at the herring run when I was about 13 or 14...I went over to the river empyting into the bay and picked up a herring,put it on the hook and cast it out..Had my brand new waders on from Goose Hummock and a brand new rod and reel I got for my birthday..I put the rod in my 12 inch spike and went roaming the beach..All of a sudden I heard a plop..Look over and my rod was gone..^&&t..Parents are gonna kill me..I waded out in the water and I could the line my rod made while going towards the old target ship..:mad:..Well I made the trek back to the cottage and told my parents what happened..They werent to happy..
We went church (sunday) amd came back home..By them the tide was going out..If you know thye area the tide goes out for about a mile..I went back down to the beach and started walkng out..
I l;ooked out and in one of the tidal pools I saw a splash..Yup..I got my 1st striper and also got my rod..
The looks I got walking down the beach at low tide carrying rod and striper were priceless..