Ok, I just wanted to share a story and a few pictures from a new member of the striper addicts club, my father.
My dad was a forth generation commercial fisherman, he got out of the game two years ago. Before this year he had never caught a striped bass on rod and reel. I don't know what he had against striper fishing but he just could see any interest in fishing recreationally. He did fish commercially since he was 12 years old so I guess he saw everything on the water as work. Back in the 90's I also had a lobster boat and we would fish inside during the striper months within sight of each other. He used to go ballistic when he saw me fishing for stripers instead of pulling my traps. He would get on the radio, "what are you doing, let’s go, get those traps pulled". I would hear it from him when I got home, and I would hear it from my friends that worked on the boat with him. I guess he used to tell his sternmen stuff like "oh my god, there he goes bass fishing again!", and “Doesn’t that kid ever work!” and other stuff like that. Needless to say I did fish for stripers for 70% of the day most of the time, but I was doing what I loved.
Well, this year I finally won the battle and gained a great fishing partner. He never knew that you could have so much excitement and fun from catching fish. He's a very stubborn guy and actually came right out and admitted he was wrong, I even got a "what the heck was I thinking" out of him
The first keeper he caught in his life was this spring, 29". He brought it home and cooked it up - it was a little rat - but it was his. I kept telling him that you need to stick with it and soon he would get a large fish. He stuck with it all year and fished with me almost everyday I went out.
Well, in the end it paid off. He just sent me a pic of his big fish of the year that we caught together and I wanted to share.
Pictures to follow if I can figure it out….
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