Striper Time

I am a notorious late starter when it comes to spring fishing. Yes, I’ve had years when I traveled to New Jersey and years when I hit North Shore harbors hard in March and April. Crap , I remember years when we use to chunk down in Manhasset Bay in April, Dave Haase, Mike Lang and bunch of other guys. Some years were better than others but we caught our share of nice fish up to 40 pounds.

Unlike many so called experts I consider myself mostly a googan with passion for fishing. It does not bother me one bit to admit that I never really did well early in the spring on north shore on plugs. Part of that was because as soon as I would head that the bluefish would invade the south shore bays I would abandon stripers and run to the South Shore. Yeah, you heard me right, leaving bass for blues. The chances of me catching a decent bass were slim to none. I am not a big fan of small plugs and I am definitely NOT a fan of soggy marshes and mud.

But put me on a south shore inlet with a 7 foot St Croix Legend and a 3/4 ounce bucktail and I am heaven in late April, early May. Last few years I did not even bothered to fish on north shore but instead waited for Silver Fox to let me know when bluefish arrive. Because the dude lives and breathes surf.

This year, I was looking forward to a lot of thing. After suffering through the fall and basically being reduced to the camera duty, after weeks and weeks of physical therapy I final got a shot in my elbow. Nothing else was working…and the shot?

It was wooooondeful. For the first time in 6 months I was pain free. I bought my son waders and a new reel. I made plans to go away with friends and with my son in summer. I spend last few weeks driving my son from college to college to college. I was going to try to fish with my son as much as I could. If you ask me if I would trade catching a 60 pound bass for watching my son catch a 2 pound bluefish I would take watching my kid every time…

and then few weeks ago the tendinitis in my elbow was back, more painful than before. Even just the thought of making a cast scares me. I remember trying to make a cast in Florida with Alberto in January and that hurt like a mofo.

So now I am back in the physical therapy three times a week, working on a construction site sucks as you can imagine. And to add to my misery I pulled my back again and can barely walk. Looks like another year me holding the camera, you guys fishing. Hope you catch them up. I will try to spend as much time with my kid on the boat as I can… I don’t have a time to “wish” things on. I want to make few more memories before he is gone to school.

But speaking of north shore and my own shortcomings which they are many…isn’t is funny how many surfcasters abandon the place just as its getting good? And I know this has nothing to with results but comfort level. Who wants to fish in some strange place where you don’t know where to park, where you are not sure where to step instead of your familiar grounds? I mean, seriously, why would everyone rush to south shore when bluefish arrived while the big cows from Hudson are STILL up river and have not even started to come down? Think about this, early May to late may might be your best shot of the year to catch a truly gigantic striped bass in the Sound yet by then many of us have abandoned the bays and sound and are concentration on ocean and inlets. I am just giving you some food for thought…

I know that reports are getting better. I see daily reports from Grumpy’s in NJ on Facebook about the daily weigh-ins with clams doing most of the damage. And in NJ back bays the action has been going on for awhile now. Western Long Island Sound and Jamaica bay have a good action when the weather is cooperation with some fish in the twenties regularly being caught..on plugs. Rhode Island and Cape Cod Canal according to Edge and Red Top have freshly arrived schoolies and those in the know in CT know well that river bite for stripers has been good for a while. The fresh bunker is showing up in stores, Saltwaters Tackle in Islip has it. Looks like a good weekend to stretch the legs and at least visit some spots to see how they got affected  by Sandy if not fishing. I am on my way to work, heavily taped and medicated but you should be fishing. All your excuses have been revoked.

Of course you can just sit on a couch and wait for this dude to call you when the bite goes off…