SF, Welcome to the board, and so sorry about Carl. I have a wonderful fishing partner, friend and sole mate, and would be very sad and lost without him. ALways remember that no body knows all there is to know about fishing. There is alot of good information on this board to help tech you, but the best teacher is time on the water and the experiences that will prevail.
There are many things to keep an eye on while fishing, so always keep these few things in the back of your mind when you are out there. ( Wind, tide, weather, structure, bait the fish are feeding on) these few things can be the key to a productive day or a not so productive day.
Always have the WIND blowing at you at some direction and not at your back.
Fish a whole 6 hours of the TIDE and see when the fish are biting, note the time you started getting fish, go back the next day and start fishing the time you started catching fish the day before.
Nice days and nights are not always the best WEATHER for the fish. Stripers like cloudy rainy days, and sometimes howling wind, as it stirs up and disorients the bait.
Go look at places at low tide for STRUCTURE (rocks, sand humps, grass beds, sharp embankments, current obstructions).
If you get a fish, sometime they will puke up the bait they are feeding on, sound grosse but check it out, snag some fresh bait in the water or match the size of the bait with an artificial lure, shads, curly tail grubs, or bucktail jigs.
one last thing, as you get started into fishing, keep a log book for yourself and include these abaove items to you log and you will start to see paterns from year to year, and your time on the water will become very rewarding!!!! Hope this helps and you get that 50!!!!!!!
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