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I spent every summer as a kid in West Dennis right on Bass River by the bridge. Had a small row boat that would take me upriver as far as Blue Rock and the other way to the mouth. We caught sea robins, scup, sand sharks, chubs, even blow fish back then. But around 1968 I caught my first striper just off Shamrock Point. I was hanging around the dock at the end of Ferry Street as I frequently did, and noticed the water down river seemed all churned up. It took a few seconds to sink in, because I'd never seen it happen before, and I realized it was fish breaking the surface. So I hopped in my boat, which always had my trusty Mitchell spinning reel and Sears Ted Williams model rod and rowed down where the action was. Two or three casts of my beat up Atom Jr., the only plug I owned at the time, and I was on to my first striper, which was about 15 inches long. I don't remember the "fight" so much, as rowing back to the dock with my trophy on the floor of the boat. There was a guy who used to run fishing charters when I got back. I think his comment was some to the effect of, "Holy s#!%, Jim."
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