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My (our)first striped bass ever. My brother and bought a couple surf rods from Benny's and went to the Chatham lighthouse beach 3 nights in a row while on summer vacation in Harwich. We fished with sand eels over on the left near the rocks (back when the water was faster over there). The tackle store gave us the classic 2 hours either side of high - so we fished around 7-11, 8-12 and 9-1. Nothing but crabs. On the 4th night we said forget it - we must be doing something wrong - we basically just chalked it up to being freshwater guys and the big surf was our match. It was 9 or so and my girlfriend who was also there with us and sick of spending nights with my sister and family said why don't we go, there is some bait left and you guys love to fish - I'll even go. So the three of us went - took lawn chairs etc and headed down.
That night at around 1AM one rod started bobbing and it was not the waves. After setting the hook my brother yells "Jim, I think we got one and its heading to England" Well a longer than necessary fight took place. We all took turns reeling it in - I ended up going in the water to literally push it on shore (couldn't figure out how to surf that last wave in...).
We all look and its a keeper. We pack up quickly race home and wake up the whole house, the dog my parents sister and 75 year old grandma. It weighed 22 lbs, taken with the scientific step on the bathroom scale with and without it method. We stayed up and cleaned it and I think the grin did not leave my face for days.
Needless to say I was hooked. I now am married to the girl from this story, and I certainly don't have to explain to her why I go out late at night and come home with a grin on my face the receipts from tackle store are a different story...
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