Your Greatest Moment Fishing? - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

BigFish · 03-22-2009, 10:04 PM

Just curious to hear what might be your finest moment or accomplishment in fishing? Be it a memorable catch, a memorable outing or trip? Freshwater, saltwater, surfcasting, boatfishing, flyfishing, plugs, live bait....whatever........lets hear that one moment when you had a line in the water that stands out to you?

striprman · 03-22-2009, 10:11 PM

will come this summer when I go with my oldest son to take my grandson kibbie fishing (for his first time) he will be almost 3 years old.
I changed my sig pic to another fun day at the "beach" with my boys.

Thumper · 03-22-2009, 10:26 PM

when me and my buddies first got into fishing a couple years back. we decided to go to Charleston one afternoon on an overcast day. got to the spot and within 10 mins all 5 of us were hooked up. it lasted for a good 35mins and i cant even tell you how many fish we pulled in. it was only like the third time i had been out and thats how it all began..

Thumper · 03-22-2009, 10:29 PM

what about you bigfish?

BigFish · 03-22-2009, 10:40 PM

I have been fishing for most of my life.....however not nearly as involved in fishing as I have been the past 10 years since I started fishing for stripers! In my youth I fished mostly freshwater for bass, pickeral, hornpout, perch and sunfish with the occasional flounder/tommycod trips soaking sea worms in a local river near my home. However it was a day 10 years ago that changed my life. I was in the middle of a divorce and as many can attest, I had very little money to do too much with my 2 young sons so most weekends we fished local freshwater ponds with shiners, caught alot of great fish with the little guys and their Snoopy Zebco rods after which we would go to McDonalds and I would buy them each a Happy Meal......those were tough days for me as after laying out for 2 dozen shiners and a couple Happy Meals my budget for the week was pretty much blown......but it was worth it. Anyway, we fished alot me and my boys who, at the time, were about 5 and 6 years old. One day we were at Nantasket Beach and in the water swimming among us were a bunch of schoolie stripers chasing "their" happy meal. The boys were fascinated as was I and they said to me..."Dad, can we try fishing for stripers?". Now I had never fished for stripers and had no saltwater gear or the knowledge of where to begin. The best place I could start was by grabbing some of my Dad's old saltwater rods off the basement wall that had hung there for years unused along with the reels (old Squidders) and the rods were so old they were still spooled with nylon but we headed off to the local bait shop that next weekend to get what I thought we would need to fish when we bumped into a friend of mine named Warren who, after hearing my story and taking a look at the sorry gear in my truck invited us to join him at Hull Gut! He headed home to pick up some more rods and we headed to the Gut to soak some bait......the boys were thrilled and so was I that I had someone helping us along. So after baiting the hooks and getting them in the water it was not long before my oldest exclaimed that he had something on (I thought he had to be snagged on the bottom) so sure enough, as he struggled to reel in the line as I helped him handle the rod in came my sons first striped bass.....just about 18 inches and quite a beautiful fish I thought. Boy! Was I proud! We snapped a quick picture with me and the boys with Larry holding up his first striper and released the fish safe and sound! A short time later my youngest, Nathan, caught his own striper about the same size and again, we quickly snapped a picture of the three of us with Nate holding up his catch proudly! After a few hours, those would be the only 2 fish we caught that day so we packed it in and I thanked my friend Warren for a great and memorable afternoon that I knew I would cherish for a long time! The 2 pictures I have from that day are among my most prized possessions and I get a great feeling looking at the faces of my boys with their fish and looking at how proud I was of them. The kicker is that my boys caught their first stripers long before I ever caught my first. I was hooked myself that day, so impressed by those beautiful fish that I just had to try it myself, and then began an obsession which has just burned deeper into my soul these past 10 years. Striper fishing has given me so many rewards over the last 10 years in the way of great memories with family and friends, and meeting so many great people because of it! So for me.....it is the memory of that day with my boys that leaps to mind first when it comes to great moments on the water!

flyvice11787 · 03-22-2009, 11:11 PM

Nice story, Larry. My best fishing moment was about 6 years ago at Montauk. Mid October, at Brown's (just west of Turtle Cove). Full blown fall blitz with stripers on anchovies. I'm out on a rock with a fly rod, hammering fish. Literally fish on every cast. No really big fish, just up to around 15 lbs. or so. The best part was, I was the only one out of 50-60 guys hooking up consistently

. I was king for a day

. For some reason, the fish only wanted flies that day

. It got to the point that I had to break off any fish that ran to either side of me, in order not to cross lines with the guys trying to mug me.

piemma · 03-23-2009, 02:31 AM

My greatest moment fishing happened on June 3rd 1997. Fishing Nonquit in Tiverton and hooked up on a fish about 30#. Had a heart attack while landing the fish. I handed my rod to Bob Vanase, who was with me, took 2 nitros and took the rod back and landed the Bass. Went to the ER about 2 hours later and they admitted me with a diagnosos of an MI with a full occlusion of the Right Coronary Artery.

Absolutely the best rush of my fishing career.

NIB · 03-23-2009, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by piemma

My greatest moment fishing happened on June 3rd 1997. Fishing Nonquit in Tiverton and hooked up on a fish about 30#. Had a heart attack while landing the fish. I handed my rod to Bob Vanase, who was with me, took 2 nitros and took the rod back and landed the Bass. Went to the ER about 2 hours later and they admitted me with a diagnosos of an MI with a full occlusion of the Right Coronary Artery.

Absolutely the best rush of my fishing career.

Holy Sh!te Paul..

numbskull · 03-23-2009, 05:18 AM

A 14" striped bass on a boone needlefish, during a daytime blitz in a cove 1/2 way down between Hadley's and Pine Island, around 1966, age 11. I'd dreamed about and tried pitifully on my own to catch that first fish for 3-4 years prior. I'll never catch anything of which I will be prouder.

snake slinger · 03-23-2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by piemma

My greatest moment fishing happened on June 3rd 1997. Fishing Nonquit in Tiverton and hooked up on a fish about 30#. Had a heart attack while landing the fish. I handed my rod to Bob Vanase, who was with me, took 2 nitros and took the rod back and landed the Bass. Went to the ER about 2 hours later and they admitted me with a diagnosos of an MI with a full occlusion of the Right Coronary Artery.

Absolutely the best rush of my fishing career.

Mr. Krinkle · 03-23-2009, 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyvice11787

Nice story, Larry. My best fishing moment was about 6 years ago at Montauk. Mid October, at Brown's (just west of Turtle Cove). Full blown fall blitz with stripers on anchovies. I'm out on a rock with a fly rod, hammering fish. Literally fish on every cast. No really big fish, just up to around 15 lbs. or so. The best part was, I was the only one out of 50-60 guys hooking up consistently

. I was king for a day

. For some reason, the fish only wanted flies that day

. It got to the point that I had to break off any fish that ran to either side of me, in order not to cross lines with the guys trying to mug me.

You were king because you were probably the only one using something that resembled an anchovy. Let me guess, you had to avoid crossing lines with the guy in the white boots and jeans using a 7ft spinner casting a monster polaris popper.

I've been there during blitzes and the only thing they would touch was a 1/2 oz bucktail with no pork rind.

Tagger · 03-23-2009, 06:11 AM

Watching my son Mike land a 35# bass from shore at age 9 .. and years later my other son Dylan at age 12 catching and releasing the biggest bass I've ever seen personaly to date .. Must have been 50 ,, will never know ..

Mr. Krinkle · 03-23-2009, 06:31 AM

The first day I caught fish on my own lures.

Mr. Sandman · 03-23-2009, 07:20 AM

My first 20#er from the shore. I sat on the same rock at Orient point for two weeks fishing all day. ( I was 8 years old (weighing a meager 50#myself), summer of 1965) My mother thought I was a bizarre kid who was a fishaholic but my dad fully understood, and said, he'll be fine there, just leave him be and they would come to the beach for a few hours each day and leave left me there but would check on me looking over the bluff every couple hours. At 8 my conventional casting skills were not that refined, I could do it but my distance was not that great (look at those arms!)... but dad could send it out there a mile, he got me situated, and said, don't reel this in unless there is something on the other end. I sat on the rock with that rod for hours, they went back. Late in the afternoon one day, I hooked up with a bass. I dragged that fish home up the bluff, into the house, across the living room rug and into the bathroom and put in in the bathtub until my parents came back, they had gone to the farm stand to get dinner. The entire fight is still etched in my brain to this day. I had caught a few other fish, mainly fluke and a couple bluefish but this is what I had been waiting for.
While nearby a few years ago, I went back to that rock and climbed back up on to it and sat down and thought back about what that moment created and the bass that followed. I weigh 195# now, if I could catch a bass proportionally the same today how big it would be?....it turns out to be exactly 78# , gee where have I heard that number before? Maybe I need to gain a few more pounds

There have been some great memories I have shared with my kids as well, but this is where it all started.

mosholu · 03-23-2009, 07:01 AM

Last year in late September went surfcasting and I had a 12 fish in a morning with about 6 keepers all on the same bucktail. I even lost a few. It was the strangest thing as I felt I knew where they were in the rocks and it was just a matter of casting to them. Never had that before as it is usually appears to be more of a case of happy accident when I hook up. For a brief moment I thought I had figured it out and was over the moon for the rest of the day. Reality set in the next morning when I was dunked from my rock.

emgred · 03-23-2009, 07:44 AM

I've been fishing since I was four or five years old. In that time I've had many, many moments etched into my memory. Finest.....wow that's a tough one!
The one that keeps coming to the fore happened about twenty plus years ago. We had gotten reports of fish on herring. It was the Tuesday night/Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving. Hit the north side of Montauk for a 2AM tide. Lots of people. North wind in our face brought the wind chill into the teens. For the first time I was there as opposed to "should have been here yesterday". Many fish, all large! At the time it was the best session I had ever had. The moment, however, that stands out with crystal clarity over the years occurred as the tide slowed and the bite died. A huge orange sun broke the horizon. Wisps of "steam" were rising off the water. The wind sat down. As the reddish glow began to light the faces around me, I saw the exhaustion and the joy that I was feeling was shared by everyone who was there. In the growing light we all saw the heads of seals silhouetted in the rip by the light from the rising sun. It was obvious to everyone there, without the need for words, that we had all shared in one of the finest gifts nature had to offer.

slow eddie · 03-23-2009, 08:27 AM

taking my sons to the old jamestown ferry dock for snapper and mackeral. over 40 years and still remember it like it was yesterday. the looks on their faces is something i'll never forget.

Rockfish9 · 03-23-2009, 08:40 AM

This is a tough one.... so many to choose from... If I have to pick one, and one only.. it was the night when I took my son fishing after returning home from his first tour in Afganastan... he called me up state side after being away for two years (He's a seal) I hadnt heard from him in all that time, and the fact that after he kissed and daughters hello and good bye called the "old man", he made the trip from Jersey to plum island, the thunder rolled lightning flashed the sky, but we fished on, catching fish until our weary arms could take no more... here is a picture that is forever my favorite...it was one of several doubles we took that speacial night, both fish were freleased to gfght another day...

piemma · 03-23-2009, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

This is a tough one.... so many to choose from... If I have to pick one, and one only.. it was the night when I took my son fishing after returning home from his first tour in Afganastan... he called me up state side after being away for two years (He's a seal) I hadnt heard from him in all that time, and the fact that after he kissed and daughters hello and good bye called the "old man", he made the trip from Jersey to plum island, the thunder rolled lightning flashed the sky, but we fished on, catching fish until our weary arms could take no more... here is a picture that is forever my favorite...it was one of several doubles we took that speacial night, both fish were freleased to gfght another day...

Put a lump in my throat. Good for you!!!

RickBomba · 03-23-2009, 10:59 AM

I slept through the blitz that Mikey is talking about!!! Best day for me was a foggy July day about 8 years ago. Myself and two buddies launched out of Rockport and couldn't see a thing. Made it out to the spot and we immediately started banging cookie cutter 15 pounders. I stopped keeping track at 10. Anyhow, action starts to slow down, and I throw my baitcaster out with a hish tail out about 30 feet and put the rod in the holder to drink a beer and have a smoke. Anyhow, I see a tail come out of the water bigger than I've ever seen. Fought the fish for about 15 minutes (I was way outclassed), and got the fish in the boat...44 1/2" fork measurement. No scale, so can't say how big. Anyhow, we already had six fish, so it had to go back. At the time I remember thinking to myself I'd catch another like that, which I never even came close.

american spirit · 03-23-2009, 12:50 PM

haulin my first 40 to the truck. i had it slung over my shoulder and the tail was slapping my calfs. it felt good.

eastendlu · 03-23-2009, 01:16 PM

I was 5 years old living in Argentina my family was visiting my grandmother my father decides to go fishing at a local river and takes me leaves me with a handline as he fishes with some locals a ways away i feel a tug and pull on the line and am slowly getting pulled in to the rivers edge i give a yell the old man comes running over grabs the line and fights this thing for a while.Pulls it in and it was a nice fish and can't believe i did not get pulled in dam i remember this like it was yesterday the sun on my face the smell of the river after that i was hooked and have been at it ever since.Thanks for posting this.

johnny ducketts · 03-23-2009, 08:41 AM

Right now, I would say it was catching my first keeper last year, on my own plug made with help from Biteme, and Mr. Striper. I'm sure in 4-5 years though it's gonna be when my son Cameron catches his first fish ever, I think that'll be a day I am never going to forget.

Great Stories Guys

Flaptail · 03-23-2009, 09:34 AM

In September several years back Eric LaFleur and I caught and released 28 False Albacore while wading the north edge of the north Island flats at Monomoy. We were flyfishing and all those fish took the fly in 3 feet of water or less. There were hundreds of them constantly crashing bait all around us as the tide rose. He got 15 and I landed 13 never mind all we dropped or broke off. Damm near ran out of flies with my PB being 12-1/2 pounds. 8 wt's with monocore intermediate lines.

I doubt I will ever experience flyfishing like that again.

RIJIMMY · 03-23-2009, 02:58 PM

Growing up, we had a relative that had a barracuda mounted and my Dad always talked about it. He used to watch every fishing show @ barracuda and was crazy about them. His dream was to get one. Despite fishing his entire life, he had never fished with a guide. While I was living in CA, I set up a trip for he and I to go out on the flats for barracuda in Key West. I flew to FL and we drove, down to the keys. stayed overnight and met the guide at 6am. For the next 4-6 hours we slammed massive barracuda on topwater and tubes all in water from 6' to 3 feet deep. It was mid-70s and no breeze. We laughed our asses off. The guide said to my Dad and I that we can take a break or eat whenever we wanted, we fished the entire time, only stopping to drink and move locations. Definitely the best time I ever had fishing.

Raider Ronnie · 03-23-2009, 08:24 PM

Watching Leo break 40lbs last year

BigFish · 03-23-2009, 08:57 PM

Great stories guys! Love reading them! The pics are also great!

Mr. Sandman.....love that childhood pic of you! Priceless!

JohnR · 03-23-2009, 09:06 PM

Rockfish - pass along my thanks and regards for your son please

Dad 818 · 03-23-2009, 09:39 PM

2 years ago. Taught my son to cast his spinning reel and my daughter was using her push button. Freshwater fishing. They each caught a 2 lb. bass on their first cast. Best double I will ever be a part of.

I could catch a 40# this year and it wouldn't top that day. Now my daughter is into the girl things, while my son can't wait to fish a beach with me.

And Rockfish, thank your son for me for being one of the brave people who allow my children to sleep safe every night.

JamesJet · 03-23-2009, 09:52 PM

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...