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Ahhh....it's finally time we can talk fishing!?!?! After the long, cold, and nearly painful winter, the stripers and their associated finned friends are finally filling out the great voids they left when they packed it up early last fall and headed south, north, and/or deep. They kinda left us holding the bag last fall, dissappearing without so much as a good bye! They are back...pretty well spread out into all their normal spring time haunts...and lemme tell you, they are a welcome sight Along with the bass, there are winter flounder, some early (but LARGE) fluke...but the season on the fluke is still closed....the blackfish are making their way inshore....toothy bluefish are cutting lines and shredding plastic lures...Spring is officially under way!

I've managed to make a few trips here and there in the past few weeks. First of which was a trip to the "Flats" with Jim-DE and Dubs...a kayak adventure to be sure. Even though that was the first of the trips I wanna tell you about, I'm waiting for the photos to come back before I do...I landed a moose in the yak and without the photos, it just wouldn't be as good a story

Somwhere along the line, I managed to make a few early season forays into the local waters...my first trip, very early April, I managed to land my first NJ striper...the lil' feller ate a ball jig with one of these new plastics I've been "testing" since my trip to the Chessy with Thill...they ate 'em there as well! My second trip in Jersey resulted in the same thing, one more NJ striper, a lil bigger than the first one...and he ate the same thing. Since then, we've been concentrating on finding the big weak fish that are almost officially overdue now! On one trip with BrianZ and Cheen, we heard 'em, saw 'em breaking occassionally, but failed to connect. I love them big weaks, the perfect fly rod fish....but I've still not connected this year with one! Granted, my efforts have been quite meager, time is not as readily available as it was 1 year ago...but there's hope, it's time to start the the trips in earnest. I sincerely expect to connect with my first LARGE weakfish of the season whenever it is that I can manage my next trip targeting them....it just feels like the right time!

Boy, since Dubs and I got kayaks, it's getting harder and harder to keep our butts outta them! The more things we do with them, the more we realize that they might just be the perfect weapon for folks that have that explorer gene built into their character. This young season alone, we've 'yakked the flats in MD for big stripers, floated around on Long Island both in the dark and the daylight, and found new and exciting rips/bars/channels right in our local rivers that we never even knew existed! On LI, Dubs and I first used the kayaks to transport our gear to where we were to meet up with the fabled Ditch Jigger, the nefarious Crazy Alberto, and Brian "magic darter dance" Z We've now grown to realize that it's easier to pack the yaks with your stuff and paddle to where you are gonna fish than it is to carry your stuff! But then again, just when we thought we had it wired, Crazy Al pulls a fast one and parks his truck 25 feet away from our destination!?! It seems 'tis true that being local has it's priveledges! It's nothing short of a good time just hangin' with these guys...each one is a character in their own right...each one an excellent fisherman....each one a very good friend....I'd fish with any one of them any time and any where. With all of us casting - Dubs, Ditch, Alberto, and BrianZ - I stopped at one point, just after releasing another fat striper....and I realized just how blessed I am to have been able to spend time doing what we all love with these guys, truly blessed. You guys rule :-) I can't wait to do it again.

Another memorable meeting this month was when Dubs and I had the opportunity to bend rods with Cap't Gene from Shore Catch Guides....I've "known" Gene online for a couple years now but had never met him. We fixed that with a lil trip out on the Barnegat Bay w/ him. As I shook hands through my open window prior to parking, the first thing I said to Dubs was "Damn, he even looks like a guide!" He also looks like a hockey player and a wrestler...and it turns out, he's done that too! As we grabbed our gear to load up his perfectly rigged boat, it became apparent that we weren't gonna be guests as much as we were gonna be "guided"...Gene made us feel right at home, helped stow the gear and offered us our choice of beverages. Mind you, I've never fished with a guide my entire life, even in strange waters I've always preferred to do things the hard way - when you learn something the hard way you will never forget it. As Gene realized Dubs and I knew our way around a boat, I said to him "We're gonna be the most helpful non-paying party you ever guided" :-) He laughed. We were under way. There's nothing like a boat ride through places I've always wondered about...I must have made 3 pages of mental notes that afternoon! Dubs ended up landing the only striper in the still chilly waters, it ate a black/yellow bunny strip fly of my creation. I missed a good shot in the same are....I made a note to not ask my 9wt to throw a 500 grain Teeny line any more :-) I landed a few toothy rat bastages on flies and plugs. But it wasn't about the fishing, it was about getting to know Gene a bit...and might I say, he's someone that I'm glad I took the time to get to know, a real gentleman, a truly competent guide and captain, and, most of all, a man who loves to fish and love to share what he knows about it. I better stop, this is starting to sound like a paid advertisment and it ain't! :-) Now I just need to wrangle a trip with Gene and BobPop to throw flies....how 'bout it Gene, you ready to do it again? ;-)

Forum Leader, master rod builder, talented fisherman, and just plain nice guy Al Goldberg, who blesses us daily with his excellent advice and insight on the Rod Building Forum here has begun a series of articles for StripersOnline on building that perfect custom rod! All four parts to Al's most informative series are now up! If you haven't read them yet and have any questions at all on rod building, make sure you check them out! You'll find them in the Articles section here...I find myself referencing them frequently when planning out a new rod, they are excellent! And if that weren't enough already, Mr. Goldberg also submitted two more very specific articles - Inshore Tog Stick and Mojo Tuna Rod - two more information packed articles for two very popular sticks folks might like to build themselves. Thanks a ton Al, you da' man!

JohnB has been entertaining us weekly with his Weekend Warrior columns...make sure you take a moment to share some laughs with John and his adventures. I'm gonna grab John and take him to kayak heaven one weekend soon...so you'll see one his Weekend Warrior colums with lots and lots of editing as I remove all evidence of incriminating descriptions, names, and places. Come on John, it's time....your backyard or mine? ;-)

There's just so much to tell ya, but I'm flat outta time this morning. I didn't even get to the part where I tell ya about all the new things in the catalog here...but somehow, with the fishing really picking up steam, that just feels right :-) Get out there and enjoy all the wonderous things God has blessed us with, take nothing for granted, choose a smile instead of a frown, and get them rods bent!

 

Sincerely,
Tim Surgent