LOOKING TOCATCH ANYTHING!!!

[Got Stripers]

Can't speak to the fishing, but I will add some comments as a boater.

1. Make sure your boat is equipment with every piece of required safety equipment and then some. Make sure you can access it quickly and know how to use it.

2. Make sure you get the most current detailed
charts of your area and study them at length and then go out during the day, preferrably at low tide and confirm what the charts are telling you.

3. Be prepared for the worst, meaning spare warm clothing on board, even in the middle of the summer. Rain gear is always on board. Working bildge pump and manual means of bailing water. Quality anchor and sufficient length/size line and you might want to consider a good drift sock.

4. Have 1 or 2 ways of communicating with the coast guard, SeaTow or nearby boats. I have VHF and a cell phone on the boat, because getting help is hard to do if you can't contact others. You should have both, plus the required flares and signal devices (horn-whistle-orange blanket).

5. I would highly recommend a GPS, permanant or portable, because they are extremely accurate. I went out 2 weeks ago in pea soup and each waypoint was reached without problems. I still watch my nautical mile log on the depth finder and my compass, but the GPS was dead nuts on.

6. I'm a mechanical morron, so I joined SeaTow for $99 per year. I'm not looking at any $800 towing charges if something goes wrong and I'd say anyone boating today would be smart to do the same.

7. My backup power is a 107lb thrust trolling motor and I use it almost 100% of the time I'm fishing. I'm hoping to put a 10 HP kicker on board for next year. If you can afford one, a kicker is a good backup and can save you gas if your trolling a lot.

For the fishing, I'd recommend getting out with a friend (boater a must, different than surf gear) and try out some of his gear. My gear is light compared to what 95% of boaters use, but then again I have a very powerful trolling motor to run down a big fish. Unless your on a mission, take it slow and enjoy the learning process.