Some more fish with stripes...! :)

This blog entry is long overdue...

A couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to accompany my good buddy Chad and a couple other fine gentlemen (Neil and Scotty--who have just become two of my newest fishing buddies) on an afternoon striped bass fishing charter in Raritan Bay.

I am truly a surf fisherman by heart, so it's not very often that I make it out on a boat to target striped bass... Still, whenever the opportunity arises for me to board one of these fiberglass jetties, I am always psyched to make the most of my opportunity.

Fortunately for us, the fish were willing to cooperate with our high hopes for the trip as well, and by the end of the day we were able to put some good numbers of real nice-sized fish in the boat.

Our day was spent fishing w/ Captain Joe Scotti of Staten Island, NY who had no trouble proving to us that he is a live bait specialist... Drifting over top of submerged structure with live, adult bunker (menhaden) was the name of the game on this outing--and it worked like a charm.

Captain Scotti certainly new were the stripers were hanging out, because it didn't take long for them to find our baits once they were in the water. As an angler who has grown accustomed to striper hunting in the dark, it was a serious blast to watch these fish come up from underneath our baits and engulf them on the surface. Oftentimes our bunker would be swimming frantically on the surface, somehow hoping to escape the danger lurking beneath them and what must have seemed like their impending doom... It was totally awesome!
Needless to say, the trip was action-packed. In fact it and almost seemed too short... By the end of the day we had landed 3 fish in the 30 pound range and a bunch of other smaller fish (still really nice fish for this surf guy) in the high teens to 20 pound range.
Personally, I know that I can't wait to get my butt back out on one of those fiberglass jetties to chase some more striped bass.

Until my next entry, thanks again for reading and best of luck to you on the water...