MY FIRST SURF STRIPER!!!!!

[trowpa]

Well guys- I can't thank you enough for all your advice to this newbie. I'm a little sad I didn't get him on AI and that I couldn't have one of you with me to witness it - but other than that, I wouldn't change a thing - It was a completely amazing experience. I didn't have internet access while I was in Avalon (NJ), so I wrote down a "journal" of the first two nights I fished there along with the first two stripers I've ever caught in the surf. Here are the stories and pics below...

DAY 1
Unpacked, ate dinner, got the kids to bed, and walked right out in back of the house we rented...
On the beach at 9pm...found what looked to be a little rip so I set set up one rod with mullet rig, one rod with a clam. By by 9:15, landed a 17inch blue. Half hour later, hooked up with another blue on the mullet - this one felt bigger. I couln't see where the fish was in the wash and ended up comming up with just my mullet rig - without the fish OR the HOOK! somehow the thing twisted the hook off the wire on the rig - perhaps i didn't put it on correctly? Ugh!!

Well, I was really annoyed at losing him before seeing him...while I was stewing on that - about 15 minutes later, I saw something reflecting off the moonlight in the sand - it
was a FISH! My lost blue - still with the hook in its mouth! I must've actually beached him before loosing the hook and never saw it! I recovered my fish (picture of the blue
with the missing hook still in its mouth below) and set up again for more action with the blues.

Meanwhile, nothing but dogfish and skate on the clams, so I figured I'd just keep going with the blues on one rod as it was fun enough. Well another hour went by - between
10pm and 11pm no blues at all - ended up catching 3 dogfish in a row on mullet and decided the blue bite must be off and I should just switch to all Clams for the remainder of
the night...

Well, 10 minutes after setting up with the 2nd clam rod - I got hit on it....seemed like a skate as I picked it up - very gentle "nibbles" then, as I was holding the rod, i
felt steady slow pressure - well "yet another clam fed to the nuisance fish" I thought as I began to reel to engage the circle hook....As soon as I did that, WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!! My rod doubles over and line starts peeling! And so began a fight that took who knows how long - its a blur. My heart was throbbing, my mind repeating "relax, stay calm, don't rush the fish....." After several runs and back and forth with the fish, I finally saw it appear on the beach - "STRIPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I dove toward it, grabed it, and dragged it up the beach as fast as I could - (I"M NOT taking any chances after waiting a year to catch one!)

I pulled it up on the sand and called Nate (I told him i'd give updates on the trip). I was shaking, out of breath, all I could say was "dude- I DID IT!" I was a complete
basket case...finally managed to route through my tackle and find my measuring tape and checked the fish - 33 inches easy - (I noticed later my tape measure didn't start at at
the end - so It was really 34 ;) )

Now the question - what do I do??? I could barely cart all my gear down to the beach alone...now I've got this fish that weighs who knows how much....not gonna take two trips
and risk losing either my gear or the fish - so I wake up my wife and plead with her. SHe finally agrees to come help me... I was too excited to fish any more, so she comes
right down - we get everything back to the house, walk in the door, rinse off the fish, and take the obligatory picture of "the happy fisherman" you see below.

That was the most excitement I've ever had catching a fish (with the possible exception of my first Tuna). Wow. All the time, money, and effort - its all worth it. I'm
addicted now.


Day 2 -

Well, we cooked 1/2 of that 1ST striper last night for the house (6 adults, 4 kids) - WOW that was good - everyone insisted I immediately go out and catch another. I thought the fishing wouldn't be good until later and only enough clams for about 3-4 hrs of fishing. They were begging me to go - I delayed them until about 7pm. From 7 to 10, small hits - dogfish,

skates, a and two kingfish. I was surprised the kingfish could be hooked on 7/0 hooks! Probably could have gotten a mess of them if I put some fishbites out with smaller hooks,
but I was on a striper mission. About 10pm, I got two really good hits -but missed them - the one was so hard, I heard a "whoooosh" when my rod tip went down! At 10:30, got another big hit and hooked up into it solidly - after last night, I recognized this feeling - I KNEW it was a striper - and a good one!!! Took line even more than last night's 34 incher - so I was pretty excited. THe fight lasted pretty long - i was actually wondering if I'd ever seen it...especially since this one hit my Penn which I had just noticed a a couple hours ago had a loose bail roller which I tried to tighten with just my finger nail (gulp). Well I finally beached it and immediately noticed it looked longer and a little skinner than the other. I measured it to 39 inches!!!

Called nate to give the update, then called the wife, she showed up with a kids toy wagon she found at the rental house (actually worked pretty well in the sand), and we carted
it back. I'm not yet ready to catch more than one in a night, which was good - since i only had half a clam left after that fish.

After fishing two nights and getting up early in the morning to clean the fish and help my wife with the toddlers, I'm exhausted... I'm going to concentrate on spending some time with the family from here on in - if I can fish too, that will be a bonus, but I've already gotten more than I could ever have hoped for out of that activity...

[Coop]

Excellent report :up: ,,,nothing like your first striper from the surf and to follow it up with another one the next day,,,Great job!

[Sam]

Great Job! Man, what a feeling landing your first striper. Great report and pics. :v:

[TJones]

WTG!!! Two beautiful fish... 34 and 39 inches for your first two stripers is doing pretty good---and from the surf no less!! Congratulations!

[Steve]

That was a fun report to read. I found myself right beside you seeing your huge grin!

Great going, and I know you enjoyed the meal!

Now, go get some more.....
(grin)

[ocsnapper]

Steve GREAT job :up: and one hell of a report don't know who's grin is bigger yours or that fish, Now that your hooked there's no turning back we will be seeing ya down AI every week.

[trowpa]

Thanks. Yes Dave - I'm already making plans for the fall run :mrgreen:

[Sam]

[quote user="trowpa" post="6359"]Thanks. Yes Dave - I'm already making plans for the fall run :mrgreen:[/quote]

You'd better be making time for the sharking run. You think you got excited when you landed a 20lb striper, wait until you land a 120lb sandbar. :-)

[Rockboy42]

Hey sam...im looking forward to doing some sharkin wiht you guys this summer...the only problem is that i dont think my outfit is big enough for sharks but id love to just come spend the night and hopefuly see you guys land some big sharks! WTG steve! i was def excited for you and could tell u were beside urself when u called me that night while you were measuring your first one! Keep it up and we well have to hit the sand/susquehanna someother time this summer!

[igormothra]

:up: Way to go buddy, I'll never forget that first stripper. My brother is all about bass bass bass bass I keep telling him imagine that great bass hit times 200 and some nice keepers for the first ones.

[Randy Stinchcomb]

Mucho Congrats Steve :up: Good JOB

[esoxangler]

Very nice!

great going on the stripers. Whats next on the list? Red drum?

[bluefish blitz]

were are the pics? I would really like to see them. CONGRATS :mrgreen:

[chomper]

great fish man Congrats. 8)

[Rockboy42]

There are pictures in the original post! they just might take a few minutes to load.