Originally Posted by Hookedagain (Post 1102819)

Today, June 20th. We took marky and his daughter Amelia. Launch at 4:00 AM and hit RP. Not much current but good wind. #^&#^&#^&#^&y has a keeper the first cast. In 20 minutes we had three good keepers in the bag. Decide to make the run behind before the wind picks up.

I ran the boat at top speed for about 20 minutes. Then we start to see the birds, lots of birds. #^&#^&#^&#^&y, marky, and Amelia were all on fish in the mid 20 pound range. marky was catching bigger and bigger fish with every cast. Mostly we were at least doubled, if not tripled up.

Then we turn to look at the shore about a mile away. There was a line of giant fish busting 14 inch mackerel for as far as you could see. We reel up and #^&#^&#^&#^&y runs us right into the middle of the fish. They were BIG....very BIG. We cast and everyone has a fish. We are dancing around the boat with 4 big fish on. marky and I settle into the stern and start working the two biggest ones. Mine took 1/2 of a 500 yard spool of 40 pound power pro off the VM. marky's fish took almost all of his line. We turn the fish, fight them for 20 minutes. marky flops his fish on top of my 44 inch wide bench seat. The fish hung over each side, and was fat. I couldn't get my scale to fire up, but I'm sure it was in the high 30 pound range. My fish was about a 35 pounder that was foul hooked and literally was held on by a piece of skin and a scale. It was a miracle that I got it in.

Today was seriously the best fishing I have ever seen in 45 years on the water. The bass were heavy, the traffic by us was almost non existent. And the best part, was as we drove home in a hard SW chop, was to roll really slowly through the vertical jigging fleet with not an angler with a bent rod in all of the 30 or so boats at RP.

That was my son and I on Niko's boat when you stopped to talk to us. You are right there were a lot of fish breaking on the surface. Top water action was good for a while but dropped off. We got a little beat up heading back with the SW wind but not too bad.

Originally Posted by Rob Rockcrawler (Post 1102831)

This may i hit a new spot to me in Warwick, the guy at Quaker lane told me to go there. I was getting hits frequently and finally started catching, nothing big but hefty schoolies. A kid walks up behind me on the jetty and is just watching wearing jeans, sneakers and a tshirt. HE sees me catch a fish and says he will be back in a half hour. He needed to grab his gear at his school around the corner. Sure enough he comes back with a decent rod and reel with a krocodile spoon tied to his braid, he tells me he isn't good at casting. That was an understatement. Fishing 101 starts, i show him how to cast then ask to look at his lure box. He has a jumpin minnow style plug and we put that on since it is what i was getting half my fish on. It takes him an hour to earn how to work the plug and i assure him he will get a fish. He gets a couple swirls and doesn't see it. Im more than waist deep when his plug gets slammed about 10-15 feet from me. No schoolie for sure. I get out of the water and coach him on fighting the fish, lifting his rod tightening his drag, after about 10 minutes he lands the fish, about 20 lbs. I set down my rod and my plug bag before helping him. Bad decision, rod was in the water, no big deal. I get back to fishing and try to swap plugs, cant find my bag. After about 20 minutes of looking he sees it about 10 feet from the jetty in 6 feet of water. Another guy that was there gave me a heavy jig to snag my bag. We fishing for a couple more hours. THe kid is shin deep in frigid water. I ask how his feet are, he says "I cant feel them". THat was the only fish he caught while me and the other guys were catching left and right. It was funny as i was leaving he thanks me and we shake hands. He was from China and says the white girls wont like the pictures of his fish in broken English. I tell him the right ones will. It made a great day of fishin even better. I made hm release the fish he caught, told him it was his first and i helped him. Hopefully it teaches him respect for the fish in the future.

Originally Posted by Rappin Mikey (Post 1102815)

A few weekends ago, I was walking to one of my CT River spots at about 4:30 AM. I walked by two guys and asked if things were happening. (it was still dark)I heard a younger voice retort "what's your last name?" Thinking it was one of my students by the oddity of the question, I replied, "what's your first name?" Then I heard "Is that you Mr. Bombardier? It's me Norberto!". He was with his dad that didn't speak any English. He told me he had been fishing up and down the bank all night since 10:00PM with no fish. I asked him about school as he transferred from Holyoke to Longmeadow the prior year. He informed me he was still at it and actually had some career goals which are rare for a inner city young teen. Now mind you, this student for the two prior Springs always used to tell me how many stripers that he caught and how big they were (never showed me a pic though). I told him how happy I was he was still in school and made my way about 50 yards down from them where I knew a few fish would be hanging in a pocket. At this point it was bright enough for us to see each other and I immediately buttoned into a teenish pound fish, then a 20#, then another 20. He then came over with his dad to hot box my spot. They only had one 5 ft stout jigging rod between the two of them. The dad was throwing a soft plastic. I landed one more fish and then told Norberto, if I hooked another he could bring it in. A few casts later I was tight into what felt like a fish in the upper teens. I handed him the rod which went immediately under his armpit for the beginning of an awkward fight. I tried to coach him to put the rod between his legs and not give it any slack. As he got the fish close to shore (my drag was tight) the fish gave it's last burst, almost pulled Norberto in, rolled and came unbuttoned. I talked to him about what he could have done differently, casted back out, and was into a reel good fish in about five minutes. I handed him the rod and he ended up landing a 26# fish. The funny part of the story is after he landed it, he screamed "my first striper ever!" Then he looked at me and said "yeah, I was lying to you all of those times at school" He said he would remember the day the rest of his life and thanked me. I told him the best thanks I could get was if he finished school and get the RN job he was planning on pursuing. His dad took pictures through the whole event.

Originally Posted by chris L (Post 1105174)

See Mike that's why you do what you do , your good at it ! Hope its students like that that keeps you motivated . Sounds like you guys had a moment . lol