Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post

schoolie monster · 12-14-2000, 03:31 PM

Though we lived in PA, we used to vacation in Nantucket with my mom every couple of years. Being an avid fisherkid, I borrowed a surf rod from my uncle to bring up and generally caught a few blues off the surf.

We went up for a week in June of 1984 (I was 14) and I was fishing a bluefish blitz off of Smith Point (for those who know Nantucket, this was before Smith Pt. re-attached to Esther Island, so it was a reasonable walk). Everyone was catching fish! Except me, I had a case of the break-offs likely due to year old line on the Penn I was using. After losing three hopkins (two in fish, one on a cast) I was down to a couple red/white ballistic missiles and some un-named, unknown gray, ranger-like lure that my uncle had thrown in probably 'cause he never used it. The fish were only hitting metal so I went with this gray lure to at least match the color.

On my second or third cast, I noticed a huge fish coming towards my lure right in the wash at the end of my cast. I almost had the lure in so I slowed it down hoping the fish could get to it. It did and the fish just peeled line as it headed for the open ocean. After a great fight, this guy walks down into the surf and grabs the fish and yells, "striper!" He tried to throw it up the beach, but it was too damn big. About 40" and around 25lbs.

Needless to say, I was pretty psyched. It was the biggest fish I'd ever seen. I called my dad and due to cost and logistics of getting the fish back to PA, we (or should I say, he) decided not to get the fish mounted. So, we had bass for dinner the rest of the week. Good stuff!

The unknown lure? I returned it to my uncle when we got back home.

That year at Christmas, I opened a gift to find that he mounted the lure in a small wooden case covered with glass. I bought more hopkins when I weighed in the fish, so that lure never saw the water again. 3 casts, 1 striper... not too bad.

Though, I think I'll attach one of those small metal hammers with a sign, "break glass in case of emergency"... if I ever get into a serious dry spell, I may bust it out.

I actually only fished saltwater one more time before I moved up to Boston in 1995... or 1994... amazing I remember everything about that fish, but not when I relocated to a different region of the country.

Great topic... cool stuff to hear how we all got started.

12-14-2000, 03:31 PM	#7
schoolie monster Registered User Join Date: Dec 2000 Posts: 1,195	Though we lived in PA, we used to vacation in Nantucket with my mom every couple of years. Being an avid fisherkid, I borrowed a surf rod from my uncle to bring up and generally caught a few blues off the surf. We went up for a week in June of 1984 (I was 14) and I was fishing a bluefish blitz off of Smith Point (for those who know Nantucket, this was before Smith Pt. re-attached to Esther Island, so it was a reasonable walk). Everyone was catching fish! Except me, I had a case of the break-offs likely due to year old line on the Penn I was using. After losing three hopkins (two in fish, one on a cast) I was down to a couple red/white ballistic missiles and some un-named, unknown gray, ranger-like lure that my uncle had thrown in probably 'cause he never used it. The fish were only hitting metal so I went with this gray lure to at least match the color. On my second or third cast, I noticed a huge fish coming towards my lure right in the wash at the end of my cast. I almost had the lure in so I slowed it down hoping the fish could get to it. It did and the fish just peeled line as it headed for the open ocean. After a great fight, this guy walks down into the surf and grabs the fish and yells, "striper!" He tried to throw it up the beach, but it was too damn big. About 40" and around 25lbs. Needless to say, I was pretty psyched. It was the biggest fish I'd ever seen. I called my dad and due to cost and logistics of getting the fish back to PA, we (or should I say, he) decided not to get the fish mounted. So, we had bass for dinner the rest of the week. Good stuff! The unknown lure? I returned it to my uncle when we got back home. That year at Christmas, I opened a gift to find that he mounted the lure in a small wooden case covered with glass. I bought more hopkins when I weighed in the fish, so that lure never saw the water again. 3 casts, 1 striper... not too bad. Though, I think I'll attach one of those small metal hammers with a sign, "break glass in case of emergency"... if I ever get into a serious dry spell, I may bust it out. I actually only fished saltwater one more time before I moved up to Boston in 1995... or 1994... amazing I remember everything about that fish, but not when I relocated to a different region of the country. Great topic... cool stuff to hear how we all got started.