In honor of this momentous occasion I will, tonight, drink a toast to you all here on this site. To all the friends I have made ( I know I am no picnic when I get a 'tude but it usually don't last long), everything I have learned and to everything I will learn as I continue to participate in Striped-Bass.com, best goddam site as far as I am concerned.
Now, that being said I would also like to take this occasion to list a couple things that we, as Striper nutz, all must be concerned. Some of these issues are regional some more global.
First, The health of the Striped Bass fishery. Let me state emphatically that I think the bass population, as of this moment, is very good, but to preserve the fishery there are things that need attending to now. Let's talk about what the fish need to sustain thier current numbers.
A.) The Menhaden most be brought back. Big bass need big bait and the nutrients gained by eating said bait. In the 70's a 36 inch fish would weigh, in my experience, near 25 pounds. Today a 36 in usually goes 16. The Alewife and Blueback herring runs in most areas need to be closed for several years so that all runs become healthy again and controls need to be reviewed after the re-building of the stocks. I do advocate raising the legal limit to 36 inches again for everybody, including all the eastern Atalntic states. Commercial and sport.
B.) I know most of you will cringe and the tree huggers out there will flip out but the seal populations on the Outer beaches of Cape Cod, Monomoy are out of control. An adult seal, gray or otherwise, needs upwards of 20-40 pounds of fish a day to survive. In 1980 there were 20 seals wintering over on the outer cape, nil in the summer. Last estimate onnthe Cape and Islands was near 6000! Mid -September and seals were already in Lackeys Bay on Naushon Island in the Elizabeths. The water was 69 degrees! I got a phone call from a friend who spent the weekend on the beach and saw no less than a dozen times when seals would come up with a bass or a bluefish in it's maw. I have seen this a number of times too and while casting Saturday night my plugs got chased to the beach four times by seals. Something has got to be done. They killed the inshore bass fishery at Monomoy several years ago and they are damm near there now on the outer cape.
C. Beach access in the Cape Cod National Seahore system for oversand vehilcles. I wrote a few paragraphs about this in my October columm but the editorial staff at OTW edited it out. Well I am going to raise the issue here and now. The use of oversand vehicles for the purpose of surfcasting is a "traditional use of the beach". The park service is supposed to maintain traditional uses. A glass eye in a dog' ass could see that it's not oversand vehicles that erode beaches, it's mother nature herself and she is pretty good at repairing the damage she does when she gets PO'd. There is a lot of beachfront that could and should be opened to oversand vehicle access fom Eastham to P-Town and on the bayshore. We need to fight for more access before we lose anymore. ON after 6 pm and off before 7 am. No problem jst give us the access.
Lastly and most importantly we are about to have the priviledge of being able to cast a ballot vote for a new leader or re-elect the current President of our nation. Party lines aside this right is so precious that to not vote is un-thinkable to me. Thousands of people have died around the world fighting for that one right, a right I feel most people take for granted and in that have a very cavalier attitude about. Please vote no matter who you vote for, please just do it, it's too important not to make the effort.
I'll be forty-nine on Thursday, not much richer and not that much wiser but very thankful for the things I have been blessed with and the one thing I think is my most cherished is that I am a free citizen of the greatest country in the world! Thank you all for putting up with me, Flap.
It's my 1000th post/thread etc., etc.
It's an easier sell to the missus when I can say I'm going out of town for "work" than for fishing. 
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