Your Seasons Highlights???
 

So I know a few are still out there fishing! As Thanksgiving nears I was wondering.....what might the highlights of your season been? Personal Bests?? Great trips with friends?? Epic blitz situations??? Fresh water?? Salt water??? Boat, kayak or shore??? Tell us all of your great experiences this season!:uhuh:

As I was tied up working on the house much of this season and my time out was limited at best.....I did mange a few highlights! Tops on my list was after several trips taking my wife Angie to the canal trying to get her first canal striper the stars finally aligned and she hooked a great 17 pound fish on a pencil popper that she fought like a seasoned canal veteran! I could not have been more proud of her and she was about as excited as I have ever seen her! It was awesome!

That was a good day Larry, and she sure was smiling :btu: I remember that.

I had a few highlights i guess, maybe a few lowlights too

I Had a good time one late afternoon with Paul my first time on his boat fishing eels for cows, didn't catch many but they were all good size. Like Joe and Nightshift say, feed them meat, it's what they want.
I had a good time fishing one night with those two also. I also enjoyed a few nights from shore and many mornings at the canal.

I hope to get out 1 or 2 more times

Well my first and most memorable highlight is that I spent an entire season fishing with my son. My normal partner didn't fish a single day this year.....Jacob filled the void. It was awesome! Also, watching him catch his first striper was definitely a highlight.

Another is catching my personal best at the Canal. Got into a lot fish there this year but never had as many large bass as this year. This year I got several in the 30's, some high 30's and some in the 40's. With a PB at 43.7lbs. Although it didn't break my all time PB it is my largest at the Ditch.

My best fish was at Cutty in early June fishing the SE corner on the 1st night. I did not have a boga then but it was probably a 25 lb fish and I caught it on one of my dartahs.

Another highlight was fishing on my birthday at the canal with Andy on June 18th,.. i caught a nice ~ 38-40" racer fish and Andy took a great pic before I released it.

Another great highlight was fishing with Slip at the canal.. we were getting ready to call it a day but then we saw some big fish bustin mid canal and Slip made the perfect cast and landed a monster fish and I took a pic before he released it... good times for sure

nuff said

is that a Barbie with dark hair?

The infamous "Indian Bowfin"

Season highlights
 

Had a handful of days when 2 sons Leo & Matty had no baseball or football and were able to come out. Fishing was pretty good also with up to 40 lbs while I just sat at the helm smiling.
Matty got his biggest fish to date.

Put in a lot of time Trying to learn a new spot. Only caught a few small fish in the process but consider it a success. It's one of the parts of surf casting I really enjoy the most.
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Many high lights. Getting to fish with Sax more often at the ditch. Always good times.

Realizing Chunkah and I are bad influences on each other lol.

Getting to fish with and know the Tri state guys was fun. The fish might not be big all the time but you laugh like hell regardless.

As far as individual fishing days go? My favorites were the ones that were least expected. Showing up in a spot I never fished with no clue as to what had been going on and fish show up. Those days are the best.
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my first bass of 2012 was 41 lbs...yup, it was all downhill after that...

my 12 yr old son Garrett caught his first ever albie from shore last season, so he follows that up with his first bonito from shore this season...same pile of Rhody rocks...

Garrett and his 14 yr old brother Hunter both caught their first ever stripers and bluefish this season, along with several other species...

but the numero uno highlight was watching Garrett land a 23 lb, 41.5 inch bass on his 6-ft Ugly Stik lite rod and 8lb test mono while fishing for schoolies in Plymouth...

Best days this season was when I took the trip up to the ditch on June 18-19. Got to fish with Andy and Ty, Paul, Skippy, Soups and some guy named Chris? No big fish but plenty of them and just about all of them on my plugs! Had a great time.
btw, found this pic on my phone, I think it's that Chris guy.

I caught and released more 30# or larger fish during June this year than I have any other total season. Best morning was 9 fish 25# and up 3 over 30# and then my new PB 44# all on plugs. Had couple of 12-15 fish mornings but the fish were all under 25# so they were good just not great or unusual for that matter. Had just enough late season skunks to remind me I'm not that good...yet ;) Have to add went to RI for the first time and Purgatory kicked my ass. I had no idea what it was like down there. Next time it's the wetsuit not waders. Man that's tough fishin.
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2 bests.

took an very impromtu suicide run to montauk, only was gonna fish a few hours. caught more fish than i could count, including a 30

the best though was getting my personal best @ 41lbs on the mtk ss on a danny.

Without a doubt the cutty trip with where I met S-B crew and got my biggest fish this year. The food was awesome and company was great. Already looking forward to next year
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Great year for me. Probably my best year since 2000 both in the boat and in the surf.
Highlight was seeing my nephew Jake Morgan get a 30# bass in the Canal on a Penn 5500. That fish almost spooled him twice. This was his first year striper fishing and "he did good". He just took the test to become a RI State Trooper.

August 16, Kerry Elizabeth Bombardier was born

Sharing this moment with a grown son.

Loads of laughs with these losers

The lost and found plug(s) this year!

In the Karma Thread:
Fishing early in the spring during the first real good action, my buddy breaks off his diawa minnow on a nice fish, I cast hook up with a nice fish myself and lose it 10 ft in front of me, but his rig is attached to my bent out hooks. same fish? you be the judge. Give it back to him, and he catches fish on it the rest of the night.

Then last week during the canal's last gasp, I lose an expensive orca, get a call a few minutes later sayin that guy we passed down there caught your plug, trackin him down and say hi, ends up being chef chris! get my plug back. unbelievable!

Whats the saying? I'd rather be lucky than good :devil2:

October 8th, Drew Joseph Marshall was born.

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...424827513_.jpg

October 27th, First solo keeper tuna fish.

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...293/tuna55.jpg

As i reflect on the season, it's hard to put a finger on a single high light.. I had 3 very large fish that were at or over the majic mark..i released all of them with out a measurement or weight... for me.. although I am a trophy hunter, the abundance of small and medium fish to about 12lbs gives me hope that fishing will be good until I'm too old to care.. at times.. they were a pain in the XXX!...the fishing was as dependable as I have ever seen it.. the boat only got skunked 3 times from May to mid October.. and on those nights, had i REALLY wanted to do something differant ( we fished plugs those nights I'm sure we could have come up with a fish or three).. and that's fishing a 30 hour week.. I'd have to go back to the mid 80's to find a time when I could find fish EVERY night that were willing to eat like we had this past season... ... the weather co-operted nicely until mid September when we had a stretch of rough seas and the majority of "nice" fish were on the ocean front... Once again slipnot made the voyage north... Myself, he and Nightshift spent a slinging eels laughing and catching a few fish..Nightshift and I had a great season...we laughed hard.. fished harder and even got to play a trick on a boat load of yahoo's that tried to follow us to our honey hole..so.. I got to fish with good friends, have a few laughs, no one got hurt and we made it home safe each night.. that i guess is the high light of the season.

Good gravy what a season it was this year. So many positives. Main hi lite was a health issue I encountered that came about in mid season which had me very worried for a few weeks but turned out positive in the end. Thank you. Probably fished as much this year as humanly possible for a mid 50 year old man:) Spring in tin boat was awesome, even got Numby out once. he takes me in his boat several times so it was a pleasure to get him out in my tinny. Maybe got him hooked for a few times next year. I had a blast fishing with him several times in his boat along the Elizabeth Is. again this year. I luv plugging and that has to be the nirvana of plug fishing on the whole East Coast. I have fished the canal for probably a good 25 plus years and this had to be in my top 3 seasons and I don't even fish jigs or bait. The plug fishing was truly awesome with many fish over 30 lbs and even a good mid 30 2 weeks ago. The Albie fishing was again fantastic to the point I got bored with it after 2 weeks. Biteme and I had some fantastic action and it was such a pleasure to enjoy all my hard work on my cottage last year to be just a mile from the boat ramp to fantastic albie fishing. While this was going on I got some info from Capt. Cupcake about a really great boat bite going on in CC Bay. Slip and I one nite had some fantastic big fish catching and next nite Biteme and I did it again all thanks to Rockfish and Nightshift's generous donation of eels to me a few weeks before. I just let the remaining dozen eels go this past weekend so the experiment of keeping eels in 5 gallon buckets in a fresh water pond worked flawlessly. My commercial season was decent, not Chatham decent , but way more enjoyable and relaxing. Had a couple skunking's from shore that were still fun with Biteme and Slip. I always have a good time no matter how slow the fishing is. Learned some stuff this year too. Was able to fish and socialize, U know how I luv to socialize:uhuh:with so many fantastic guys this year, way way too many to mention that I am truly one lucky guy. I also have to thank my family for allowing me to chase this crazy addiction without one complaint, till last week. I am one lucky guy. Look forward to seeing a lot of U this winter with the plug hobby and look forward to next year with hopefully a good elbow. Paul

This year was a bit of a bummer overall with a new position at work I could not fish nearly enough, but all seasons have highlights .

Catching my first two Albies was one of them. I now know why people go crazy over them . Next year I will be using a more appropriate outfit .

Another was a night in ct that I did not have high hopes for it was in August. I nailed. 14 lb bass when it was sunny then got a near 40 after dark . Not bad when the expectations were low .

I am sitting here in the lot to get off block right now . These fall trips are always highlights even if the fishing is a bit slow. All the keepers were taken on fresh squid that were jigged up in the harbor . We gave up after a half bucket since we figured we would be wasting them. Little did we know we would run out and be willing to buy them for 2 bucks a piece right now .
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That was a great morning and an awesome breakfast as well.... here are 2 pics of some guy named Lou... and another guy (Andy Stevenson) who I think should be considered for "Fisherman of the Year"... he definitely puts in his time and helps a lot of guys including me with learning how to fish the ditch... plus he out catches just about everyone at the canal... except his son.. but that is a given...

In late June I had a day to fish and went by myself. Usually I bring a friend and usually I fish the Elizabeth Islands. The water warmed up pretty early this year so I decided to try CC Bay. I was fishing the normal spots, Scorton and B-stable harbor with nothing doing. I decided to fly up to Race Point. About 1/4 mile into my trip I look over and I see a little blip in the water, I don't slow down, but I continue to look and see another small splash (water was flat as glass that day) so I decide to turn and see whats up. I almost get to the spot when I realize that there are dozens of fins sticking out of the water. I slow down, make a cast and hook up to a beautiful 25 lb. fish. I continue to fish there for two hours and catch fish on almost every cast, most in the high teens. My arms were so sore, I took one more cast and bring in this 30 lb. fish. I left the fish there. I had them all to myself, no other boats, wish I had a buddy with me, but.....

So you guys did find fish?

Yeah we did they were coming through a few at a time. When they did most of us would ho up then a couple hours of nothing . Then repeat ...
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Good for you guys. Better than nothing for 3 days for Spence, Bryan and myself. I mean not even a bump in 3 days and nights.

I am afraid I am done with my late Fall Block trips. Haven't been great since the last year I drove down to SW Point. I think that was 1996.