2007 Goals - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Back Beach · 10-31-2007, 10:25 AM

With the season winding down, take a quick look back and tell us how your season has been with regard to your fishing related goals. Everyone's bar is different for different reasons, as you know. For some its all about size and numbers, for others is just the sheer pleasure of being on the water. Maybe you conquered a new spot or technique. Let’s hear it.

GonnaCatchABig1 · 10-31-2007, 10:35 AM

goal: catch my first keeper (over 36 cause im old school like that yo)

uhhh yeah.. been really really frustrating. especially since the beginning of august. (july was the last time i caught fish except for one schoolie about a month ago). i hooked into three legal. two really big both dropped. one an inch away as i went to lip her and one in a wave. another was landed. but since there is no photo evidence nor an actually measurement i'm gonna say she was only 27".

i dunno the beginning of the year was amazing for me. when all of you were getting skunked i was catching dozens of fish an hour. literally. i couldnt keep fish off my line. all over 20". then everyone else started catching and i stopped. i'd say in june and july i landed around 80-100 fish most over 20" nothing big though. but fun just the same. since august how ever 1 fish. bunch of decent blues though. and god knows i have joined the ranks of the dogfish masters. it sucks cause i put in probably only a 3rd the amount of time in during june/july that i have since then. guess i hit my yearly limit early.

luds · 10-31-2007, 11:11 AM

I had a good season. The only thing that was missing was some good bass on topwater and that was my own fault. I caught so many night tides that there was not enough time for it. In terms of numbers and size I was very happy July-October. I got my personal best at 48" inches in July and never looked back. I hope to do a little better next spring but again I just find it hard to get out to do much daytime fishing. Life and schedule don't permit it.

oke:

I'm heading to BI in a week and if I get a good fish on a pencil or danny it will have been a nearly perfect season. I just need one image to get me through the winter.

Flaptail · 10-31-2007, 11:38 AM

It was ( and still is) a typical season. Lot's of fish to 35 pounds, bigger than that were tough round these parts (Cape Cod) from shore.

Highlights so far have been the most spectacular hit on one of my homemade poppers I have ever witnessed in June when a 35 pounder followed the plug for a 100 feet and as I sped up the retrieve ten feet from the boat she lost her mind and killed the thing just off the rod tip. Me and Eric were soaked from the water that thing threw.

A 23 pound bass on the flyrod while drifting lazily across sand flats in Cape Cod Bay sight casting to rolling bass under a noon day crystal clear sky. There were hundreds of bass of all sizes for weeks there.

A 45 inch fish that ate one of my home spun needles on a dark night on a noted rocky island shore that just fought harder than any fish that size I have caught in a while. One of many low to mid 40 inch fish I had there this year.

First cast one June morning at the canal, again on a home made popper and having a 25 pound fish cartwheel across the surface after hitting the plug ass over tea kettle style. That fish thought he was a salmon.

With Numbskull one hot humid night in August on a point on a distant island and having fish after fish after fish, mostly all legal or better hit until I was actually tired of being on with a quality fish mid to high 30 inch range every cast and went and streched out under the foggy sky on an old surfboard and passed out.

Me and Stiffy and Kissell talking old times and taking 15 to 20 pounders on just about every cast in May at our secret inlet on Chrome Creek Chub poppers.

Walking for miles on a winter beach several times with TC and talking about the many ways to catch bass and how many of the old guard are gone that once fished with us.

There are so many memories to keep me at the lathe all winter perfecting and refining plug designs in preperation for next year.

lurch · 10-31-2007, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flaptail

It was ( and still is) a typical season. Lot's of fish to 35 pounds, bigger than that were tough round these parts (Cape Cod) from shore.

Highlights so far have been the most spectacular hit on one of my homemade poppers I have ever witnessed in June when a 35 pounder followed the plug for a 100 feet and as I sped up the retrieve ten feet from the boat she lost her mind and killed the thing just off the rod tip. Me and Eric were soaked from the water that thing threw.

A 23 pound bass on the flyrod while drifting lazily across sand flats in Cape Cod Bay sight casting to rolling bass under a noon day crystal clear sky. There were hundreds of bass of all sizes for weeks there.

A 45 inch fish that ate one of my home spun needles on a dark night on a noted rocky island shore that just fought harder than any fish that size I have caught in a while. One of many low to mid 40 inch fish I had there this year.

First cast one June morning at the canal, again on a home made popper and having a 25 pound fish cartwheel across the surface after hitting the plug ass over tea kettle style. That fish thought he was a salmon.

With Numbskull one hot humid night in August on a point on a distant island and having fish after fish after fish, mostly all legal or better hit until I was actually tired of being on with a quality fish mid to high 30 inch range every cast and went and streched out under the foggy sky on an old surfboard and passed out.

Me and Stiffy and Kissell talking old times and taking 15 to 20 pounders on just about every cast in May at our secret inlet on Chrome Creek Chub poppers.

Walking for miles on a winter beach several times with TC and talking about the many ways to catch bass and how many of the old guard are gone that once fished with us.

There are so many memories to keep me at the lathe all winter perfecting and refining plug designs in preperation for next year.

2008 goal: Fish with Flaptail!!!

The Dad Fisherman · 10-31-2007, 12:10 PM

This might help......http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...ighlight=goals

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Dad Fisherman

Get my 1st 30 lb'er
Get my Daughter a keepah...
Find some new Spots in my neck of the woods
Fish Big water more
Want to make a trip to either MV or Block once next year.....

I only managed one of mine.....and that was finding some new spots.

piemma · 10-31-2007, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lurch

2008 goal: Fish with Flaptail!!!

Me too, before I pass on to that great bass haven in the sky...

shorehunter · 10-31-2007, 11:39 AM

My goal was to top my best fish from shore 25 pounds. 2 weeks
ago I took a week off to fish hard. While every one headed south to the surf I stayed inside the bay. Nw wind kicked in and turned the fish
on. Day 4 and i hooked into the best fight of my life. 30 pounds.
Figured I still had 3 days to top it but southwest wind kicked in and killed it. I still have 3 weeks of fishing in the bay before its over.
so i am not closing the book yet .
Goal next year the 40

Rappin Mikey · 10-31-2007, 12:02 PM

I had two personal goals, both of which I met. My first goal was to break 30# on topwater from shore. My first fish of the year (April 27th) was 36# on a Mac canal cut from the shore. Met that goal quick. My second goal was to fish Cutty. Did that with the boys on the Fall trip.

Rob Rockcrawler · 10-31-2007, 06:04 PM

This season has been a bummer so far. Got a new position at work, good pay but man it cut down on the fishing time. The goal of a 45#er fell short and a lack of keepers that has been downright disgraceful has haunted me. The only good part was catching more blues in a 2 week stretch than i have in my whole life. And only lost 1 plug, no wire either. Go figure.

wheresmy50 · 10-31-2007, 07:45 PM

No specific goals, but despite not fishing in July and August due to work, I caught my personal best 42lbs. Learned a lot as well. Good year.

Vogt · 10-31-2007, 09:31 PM

My goals this year were to break 30 pounds and to catch large fish on a more consistant basis. I havent broken 30 yet, however I did get alot of good fish in the 20's this year. This year's numbers overall are through the roof. I'm happy with the season so far, still have about a month or so left.

Maybe I'll get that 9th inning 30.............

RIJIMMY · 10-31-2007, 10:12 PM

A goal for some time was to get a boat and I did that this year. By the time I was situated, I missed some of the best fsihing in the bay, but I did get to experience some of that fishing with P23. I had a blast catching porgies and snappers with my kids and time on the boat with my family. I thought I'd be able to get more sleep fishing from a boat, but I was still on the water between 2-3am. Sometimes dusk until 1am. I spent a lot of nights, up close to the rocks tossing eels, it was a blast. My goal was to break 30lbs which I have not yet done. Got a few in the 20s, most under 15.

My two most memorable times were 1, around labor day. All alone on my boat, no one around and massive blues feeding on snappers. The water was glass, and it was large blues on every cast. The visuals were amazing. Not something anyone cares about, but I must have caught well over 100 blues this year. I can offically say I am now sick of them (until next summer)

The 2nd was 2 weeks ago, beautiful early evening, pink purple skies, glass water, fsihing around a small island and rock out croppings. I have rarely caught stripers on topwater , but this day I was casting a white pencil on nearly every cast, bass between 24 - 32" where nailing it . Missing about 1/2 of them, popper flying in the air. I looked around me and it was so incredibly beautiful on the water and I was nailing the fish. It was almost too good.
I've had a good season, and learned alot. I am really looking forward to next spring.

thortum · 10-31-2007, 11:02 PM

I don,t set any goals for myself. That would turn a sport I love into a competative event. Very disstracting! I enjoy ever minute I'm out there because there are no pressures and no disstractions. I had a very good year and hope to have many more. When it stops being fun, I'll do something else.

dredey · 11-01-2007, 06:29 AM

2008 goals: To travel and fish more places like Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, Truro-Ptown and Nauset, Pulaski for Steelhead, Florida & Bahamas for Bones, and Cutty for a few comandos.

BrianS · 11-01-2007, 06:38 AM

my goal was to do better than last year... which i did... and I also got to see cuttyhunk... but im still pretty disappointed.

Granted... there isnt much I can do about it... For the most part I cant follow the tides etc.. I go when I can go.. which is 1-2 times a week, when a window opens, and 90% of the time its at the canal....

So its all luck of the draw...

tynan19 · 11-01-2007, 11:20 AM

Fish goals. Albie on MV, Damn funny fish. Had shots but no fish. Did catch a Bone in RI. Still trying for a 15+ Salmon. Learned how to fly fish and spent a good part of the spring catching Brookies, Browns and Rainbows on some beautiful streams in Northern Ma. Had an epic day were my wife, son(4) and I were all hooked up at the same time from shore in RI. MV derby was fun, no big fish but great company and learned some new areas. Week in Westerly in October was also a huge highlight. Driving the beach with the family was priceless.

hyefisherman2 · 11-01-2007, 06:10 PM

ohhh and my goal was to break 20lbs in the canal this year but didnt. but the season is not over yet! there is a chance that i can still break my pb from last fall. but each and everyday my chances are becoming slim. but who knows?

i cant wait till i can drive. next fall legally. that is when the real cow hunting starts. and that is when the bar is raised.

Joey G · 11-01-2007, 07:43 PM

Had some great nites local with Slingah and BigFish, not done yet

flyben24 · 11-01-2007, 07:54 PM

I had a great year..... my first keeper of the year was my pb of 28#... caught over a 100 20#s, caught my first bonito..... and had a great time on light tackle goin for schoolies, bloos, and albies..... cant wait for next year!!