Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

BM,

You missed a great time. They tried to torture me but Don's wheel of pain was at the shop. No fish though, not from any of the crew John was leading around although John hooked a pretty big boat at the docks :D.

Here is the run down of how Mindi and my trip went.

Showed up at the Cornerstone at about 7:00 and went to Greg's seafood restaurant. I had the fried shrimp, she had the grilled salmon in some sort of dill glaze.

The next day, we were sitting out front on the patio chairs and CharlieM, who wound up right next to us comes out with his waders in hand. He is much younger than I thought. I was expecting some old salt.

We loaded up his car and decided to scope out some spots. They looked pretty decent at daytime at low tide.

We decided to run over to Don's shop. A bunch had already gathered. As a celebrity in New England, I was recognized immediately. :P Saw Tattoo's tattoo. Met Hesh, Edna and Iceman. Met with so many people it's hard to tell you who.

The cook out began. The grills were fired up and big slabs of meat were tossed on the grill. We had everything you could want. Chips, dip, vegetables, hamburgers, shrimp, keilbasa, hotdogs, and I think venison burgers. Saltheart made his strawberry shortcake. Someone made a delicious pound cake that was very good. There was water, sodas, some guys had some beer. We all shot the bull for the while but ya know, looking through all the stuff Don has in his shop, you could tell people were getting antsy to hit the water.

The party started breaking down and people started gearing up. John led us to Central beach I think. The waves were too big to fish. I think Saltheart stayed behind to fish it. The rest of us made our way up to more protected waters. I don't know the name but we hit this inflow that is protected by a peninsula. If the winds were right, the place could have been loaded.

Then I think we hit a dock where John got his boatfish. We took the 3 minute ride over to the squid dock. John and Chris L went out to see if there was any bait. I knew they didn't have too much hope if Chris was coming in with his rod in hand.

John got on his cell phone and got a report that some bait had surfaced in front of the Andrea hotel. We convoyed over there and took a look at the surf. The wind was howling, the waves were crashing. Birds were picking off bait that looked like it was a 75 yard by 25 yard school running parrallel to the shore only they were out 100 yards or more. The problem was they were right behind the breakers so if you could make the reach, the next wave sent your lure surfing back in. I made it out that far a few times with a 3 oz Hopkins. John was hitting the school with what looked like 3 oz+ bottle popper. Some guys were casting large kastmasters. My feeling was that there were a few fish underneath waiting for the 70 or so birds to push the bait down. The only problem was keeping your lure in the strike zone long enough.

We headed back to Don's shop for some guys to enjoy their cheese and mustard sandwiches. John dropped us off at the Cornerstone and I guess they took Don's advice. Don't know how they made out.

We had a blast. I want to head back next year. I like the big water thing. Any chance we can have Long Island moved so CT can get in on the wave action?