The "one thing"......
 

You find most important over all the lessons, tricks, techniques et al you have learned in your striper fishing.

What is your personal "one most important thing"?

retrieve slow then slower

BELIEVE in whats on the end of your line. You will fish it more effectively and by extension, pay attention 100% of the time.

It is only a fish.

Never ever take you eyes off the surf if your rock hopping somewhere dangerous.

2nd is putting something in front of a fish is more important that what plug color/style/ live bait, etc...or in other words whats inside your head that tells you where to go is more important than your gear.

Patience is my #1 Perseverance #2

Learn from your mistakes. Keep an open mind!

time

Striped Bass eat eels.

Remember to have fun. We would all love to catch a 40 or 50 # ever time we go out. But if you put the time in it will come.

The right people can help you greatly.

current + structure = fish

Networking......

think like a fish

Lessons learned about eels

Don't let them get loose inside the kayak!:D:D

Save any dead eels. They can be usefull if you run out of live ones

On a night I couldn't make it to the bait shop in time, I remembered throwing a few dead eels on the ground under a tree in my yard a few days before. I used them that night and they worked.

On nights when the blues are ripping them to pieces, half a dozen eels wont last long. Use the pieces or a least save the pieces for when you run out and the stripers eventually show up.

Check all knots is first, sharp hooks second...not a very deep answer. That would be...Patience young Jedi

Confidence in what you're doing.

1st: It's the time on the water that I love, regardless of how many fish I catch.
2nd: Just cause a spot was hot last year at a certain time does not mean it will be hot next year....ever!

Attaching that hidden GPS system to the frame of your 4 x 4 Flap. It might have cost $6000.00 but I saved that much in gas last year.

More seriously time=success. Sometimes that are 100 cast fish, sometimes there is 200 cast fish, and sometimes there is less.

Retreive slowly and pay attention

Learn more about your craft on every outing regardless of the results.

If you are serious and I mean really serious....two things.

Concentrate on what you are doing all the time and pay attention to every detail.

Ask Back Beach what makes Tony C and the late Lanny G so successful. They don't and didn't make mistakes....at all because they concentrated on what they were doing and payed attention to evey detail.

The one thing..
 

I would have to say it's the piece of equipment between my ears..:grins:
There are times I even surprise myself.
Some might argue to differ..

You don't have to kill a fish to prove you are "The Man".

Concentrate on what you are doing all the time and pay attention to every detail a accident can happen in a moment and a rouge wave can will take you ! i know from experience:rollem:..

make sure its wet before i stick it inthehole of the hook.

The number of nights you put in is the most important factor regardless of your skill level. If you compare fishing to baseball, the following applies:

Say a .500 hitter(fisher) puts in 10 nights and a .250 hitter(fisher) puts in 20 nights....do the math. They would be thoeretically equal in terms of "hits". A .100 hitter would need 50 nights, but would likely exceed the "better" fishermen as his skills would presumably improve with the increased participation level. Keep in mind over the short term these numbers can be misleading, but over many seasons they will prove to be quite true.

When you hear the old addage "put your time in", take homage as its the best advice you could ever receive.There's too many factors involved to pinpoint what will happen and when, thus you need plenty of failures(outs) in order to get the occasional success.

In my mind, if you can catch a good fish from shore once every three trips and thus bat .333, you're doing extraordinarily well.

Good topic Flap. Good to read everyones responses on a cold wintery day.
Probably one or two things for me;

Just when you think you've got Striped Bass all figured out, you really don't.

Get and use the best gear you can afford and go overgunned if anything, because your gear will fail you at the worst possible time.

"the most importent thing" make friends who have planes..lobster boats and comm. fish for bass...they'll tell you when the schools of fish are close enough to shore when your shore fishing.Then hit those spots at nite.

come back in one piece...