Striper Cup Finish
 

Striper Cup Finish (no, not the cup itself)!

Anyone doing anything? Going large but not large enough...

20-30# fish by the truckload. Got close to 70 good fish last four nights.:fishin:

I would gladly trade every one of them for one real good fish. My hands look like ground beef too. Partner threw back a mid 30# fish last night as it wouldn't have helped us much.

i sure cant wait for the run to hit the soco area

That about sums up my late July, August, and early September. My hands are still recovering from a week ago.

I do know of at least 3 low 40's taken out of the surf over a week ago by an s-b 'er while I was asleep resting up for the honey do list.

Just missed 40#s (my scale had it at 42#s when caught). Broad daylight on one of those slimey things that don't count.

nice fish John!

first thing your gonna have to learn now that your joining the ranks of the married, look ahead at the long range forecast and pick your battles. cloudy, rainy, 10 mph SW night on the sept. full? - you can do chores the day before or after when the moon is bright.

john, did you weight it in??

hopefully we hang on for second, unless somebody is keeping something really big under wraps, i'd say that's the best we can hopefore - and we have redlite to thank for even allowing us to put up a respectable finish this year.

So True. Or, get her something to so out of the house 2 nights a week in off season, oh I dunno, Stitch-n-Bitch, Karate, 18th Century Poets Female Reading Club or something.
Yes.
Yeh, we would need a blitz of 40s top pull this off. I think there were a few but might not be enough.

Big Props to Redlite for putting a lot of us on his back :btu:

Superhuman

All of Team Franklin was a$$ kicking this year

Four hours left of the Cup

Mike has had an insane season and maybe he can correct me if I am wrong.....never caught a 40 before this season??? Now he catches them everywhere!:fishin:

John...nice fish! Eel?

I put the time in. Just wasn't a fish worthy. Actually had the best day of fishing early this am.

Nothing hauled that would have changed the total.
We would had to havee boated a 50 to make that happen,
Didnt get that far, nobody seemed to be hitting anything large.

I saw John's fish this morning, gorgeous fish. Nice fishing with you and Bart :cheers:yesterday John!

likewise brotha

:eek5:

wow! congrats to mike then for a fantastic season!

:hee:

Yep

Yep (funny how he don't want a job but can teleport back and forth from FLA) :D

Well, I gave it hell like never before in my life the past few nites. 11 hours of sleep since 9am weds morn. My hands look like I tried to give a chain saw a hand job. Hurts just typing. Would make any man wince. Had more 30# fish than I care to think about and lost an absolute SUPER cow last night that would have done it for me . Just wasn't in the cards. Best could manage was a few around 38#'s.
Was an incredible run that I doubt i will ever top in my life. Great times with some great friends.
As for 40#ers, I have caught them in the past, had just been since 2002 since the last one from shore.
I am takin a week off, sleeping for most of it, and hopin for a few congagal visits with the wife. Haven't seen her in a week.
A great run and effort by everyone that fished for the team.
The fall run is just gettin goin. Everyone still has a chance at the fish of a lifetime.
Best to all.....over and out.

get some rest Mike. you done good :kewl:

i just cant see how a man goes from not catching a single 40lb striper in 5 years to catching 12 or so in one year?

amazing season!

fished the canal from 1am till 10am..
nothing but shorts and bluefish...

the fish i lost the other day still haunts me..

oh well

Dropped the DIFFERENCE maker,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
 

last night at my steady producer,

first cast ~~~as always~~ w/an 18"- 20" eeeeeeeeel.
0343, 25 mins to High, 3'-5' rollers, ptly cloudy with the half light.

she HITS hard and goes right for about 50 yards, THEN

stops and does a 90, on a dime, to head for Boulder Alley and
Gloucester. not any fish, in 3 years and hundreds of haunts has
made a break for THAT side of my portion of The Rockfish Super Highway.
mind you she's trying to take my line around the high ridge that lines my casting zone.
so i oblige her and follow~~~

up craggy and steep ridges over to a too high perch to almost get spooled.
i put the gentle brakes on her and coax a gain of about 60 yds.

she runs again ~headed for GLCSTR and open water~ same as the first run, feeling no worse for the fight
and takes me to about 20 yards from being spooled. so i thumbed the spinner and applied sum pressh. she stops again
as i can feel the line bouncing off of the boulders. i am able to gain about 50 yds this time,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,before

she's off and running, again for the 4th time!!!
this time i stop her just short of zero, maybe 7 yds from zero. same-same the old thumb trick and now comes the hunkering DOWN. and the most horrific sensation i'll ever know,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,she begins with the RUBB~RUBB!!

in my mind, i freakkkkin' already got her weighed in and holding her HIGH, picking up the monthly winner's slip, and weekly OTW schwag ~nevermind the weigh it would've hepped out the CAUSE!!! so what is a pooooor, poor, PO Hungry to DO??

couldn't free spool as she shirley would've SPOOLED me.
i strummed her a couple of times for naught. so i decided to try to bring her in and gained about 40 yards and then she really started to DIG IN. I AMM an Idiot!! i should have just let her run again. but NO!!!! i pumped and just felt the line get weaker and weaker and weaker until SNAPPPPP!!! and with that went another Feesh of a Lifetime. How many MORE of these BIG GURLS must i lose??? what chaps me arse the most is this WAS a difference maker for The Cup.

sorry about that gentlemen. as for me and my personal non-accomplishments, *with therapy and time ~i can take it!!* i am MOST DISGUSTED with letting the Team down,,,,,,,,a Fiddy Plus from shore might have sewed this thing up for the Repeat, for THAT i WILL lose sleep and countless hours of replaying The Play.

when i compare her pull (4 runs like i wasn't even there), her skill at at the old RUBB~RUBB Trick, and the way she felt compared to the near 40#'er i landed the previous AM; that fish this morning was in the "weightborhood" of 50# to 60# ~~with lots of shoulder and power. she stayed LOW the whole fight and prolly laughed ALL the STINKING way to the off shore ledges as first light approached

so farrrr,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

MONSTERS 5, BassDawg 0

thanks for letting me share, i won't be right for a week,
months, a whole friggin' year.............or at least until Sept's New II.
:uhuh: :uhuh: :uhuh: :uhuh:

should be GOOOD!!! very verrrrrry GOOD!

Dude- your replays are so entertaining that I may just lose sleep for your loss. FWIW- it seems you did nothing wrong but got outlasted by a fish who got that big being, as you would say- Schmaaaaat! :shocked:

thanks spin,

for yer empathy and encouragement!
that was rough duty~~~~~

i will NEVER go to that spot again from Sept-Oct without:

50# spool to 80# shock (yozuri hybrid to Ande clear), and
fresh spool line ~~not the line from last night that released;
a 38#er, a 25#er, and a 20#er. :wall::wall: :wall:

NO MORE brangin' a knife to a gunfight!!
25#BCountry to 60#Andepink, or this~~
"........sure-sure i'll just strip 30 yds of the used stufff, that'll work!!!"
:smash: :smash: :smash:

I saw Johns fish this am as well.It was a sight for sore eyes after the fruitless night we had.Anyways it was a great fish,and it was good to see the bossman getting it done.Thx for the eels.

The take...1...2...3...4....set!! Hookup! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...oh my god! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzz....

Long story short, a 24 lb striper, fouled hooked in the dorsal region. I thought I single handledly took the cup.

:laugha:

That sums up my 2008 season so far.

I'm actually glad the cup is over. Got close to 10 hrs of sleep last night and my hands feel quite good.

Can honestly say although I love the sport, I'm still highly incentivized and would only fish half as many days/nights as I did without the tourney competition.

Good thing about the striper cup for me is it’s like my commercial days. I prepare my gear meticulously, check knots, and change line, etc, almost to a fault. Success rate is higher with added incentive. Simply enjoying it isn’t enough. I needed a goal to justify fishing 14 of the last 20 nights while making 125 mile round trips and sacrificing precious sleep.
Rest of my season will be geared towards one real large fish, albeit on a slower pace than the last month.

Congrats on the fish John, I'm very happy for you.

JOhn R, congrats on the fish, that is awesome.

John R congrats on the fish and good to meet you last week....

nice catching Bossman..:drool:

Nice fish John, congratulations

:cheers:

that's awesome John!! and you guys that are getting those multiple 30 pounders, congrats to you too, even though they don't win the cup they are still an accomplishment if you ask me