Looks like the beginning of a beautiful thing....
March 20, 2002:

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Man, where did this winter go? I mean, not that I'm complaining about the lack of cold weather - which, for the record, we're apparently trying to make up for now that it's officially spring - but where did the months go? Seems just a few weeks ago it was late January and we were smackin' the stripers but good in the surf on plugs and teasers. Oh yea, it was just a few weeks ago...well pert near anyway. So where's the line that marks the beginning of a brand new season when the fish never left from last season? It's one of those intangible things, something we all have to decide for ourselves. For me, I decided that February 6th was my final striper trip of last season. Unlike many folks I know, I've yet to make my first striper trip of this season - and it's not because the fish aren't around...cause they are...and lots from what I'm hearing..and decent ones to boot It's just that, mentally, it feels like there should be at least 6-8 weeks between seasons...not that there's anything wrong with not ending one at all when the fish never leave. There's a bunch of guys who never stopped fishing this winter...and they never stopped catching either. These guys were catching stripers all through January and February - right in the surf - on those new Wildeye lures from Storm. Yup, we now carry them...just like everything else we carry...when some new lure proves itself to be productive or unique and necessary, we carry it :-) Unfortunately, the Wildeye lures became so popular, so quickly that the manufacturer is having trouble keeping up...so while we got lots of them in stock, the immediately popular colors were sold out very quickly. Folks should try some of the less popular colors - the ones we stock are all proven fish catchin' colors...just not as popularly named like "bunker" or "mullet"...the color schemes are what should be important, not the name the manufacturer decides to call 'em - I doubt they ever even saw a striper ;-)

So, the stripers never left. Now they are acting up all over again :-) Suntzu reported some excellent flounder action last week in the Manasquan River near the hospital...said it even bordered on "red hot" at times :-) Me and Dubs have been busy each weekend chasing all manner of fresh water critters with the fly rods...and the kayaks where necessary. It's been a very good winter for pickerel, perch, crappies, bluegills, and large mouth bass - we've out done ourselves with the slab sides, feeding them wooley buggers and jigglies like there's no tomorrow! The trout fishin' in north Jersey was mostly average to good, despite the extremely low water in some areas - man, we needed all this precipitation that we're finally getting now. But now it's time to start the new striper season for me...time to let all the "colored bait" and panfish go to the wayside - it's time to begin the hunt all over again! I hope to find enough interesting fishing to be motivated to keep this page updated...it's a tough predicament...if I say too much, I take heat from all sides...if I don't say nothing...well, I don't say nothing, but that presents it's own predicaments;-) If you have the hankerin' to go, don't think it's too early in the season....the season never really ended - as predicted, they came back before the even left :-)

Now for some serious talk - I'm working on a set of pages to aid in the distribution of information, phone numbers, addresses and such for the upcoming Amendment 6 of the Striped Bass Management Plan. As most of you will remember from the many, many threads on Amendment 6 - this is monumental legislation - the most important that we'll likely have any say in while the stripers are in the position that they are now in. A group of guys started an ad hoc crew and they are doing an excellent job with bumper stickers, talking at clubs and other assorted information dissemination techniques. The message, as important as it is simple, is "the job is not done until we Bring Back the Big Bass!" Nothing could be truer or more important. As managed now, the stripers, while somewhat numerous, are just not being allowed to grow anywhere near the sizes they could be allowed to grow. Stripers can live to 30 years old, yet there are so few stripers that make it even to 15 years old that they are statistically a non entity. That's pretty sad. I'm not going to pretend to know all the reasons why...but at this point, it's not so much about "why" but more about "how can we fix it?" That answer is much simpler - everyone needs to kill fewer stripers. That will, of course, allow more stripers to get older and bigger. Anyway, I could write pages on this topic, it's one that I cannot stress enough as to it's importance...but I'll wait and write that stuff in the pages specifically addressing Amendment 6.

On a substantial and happy note, at the Amendment 6 meetings that were held in late February, I heard through the grapevine that the JCAA, RFA, Maryland Sportfishing Association and the CCA all stated publicly that they would like to see F lowered to help complete the recovery of the striped bass! Now is the time to show our thanks and show our support to these groups for taking a conservative stance in striped bass management - if you have been holding off joining the RFA or JCAA waiting for them to take a stance on Amendment 6 - join them today - and while joining them thank them for protecting our striped friends! When you join, make sure you let them know how pleased you are :-) To join the RFA click here. To join the JCAA click here. To join the CCA click here. If you were ever going to join these groups that continue to fight battles that need to be fought, do it now - even if only for a year - this is the year to do it! If Amendment 6 isn't passed to address the issue of better age/size distribution, it's very likely that we'll continue to see fewer and fewer big bass...and when we do get another chance to fix it, it'll just take that much longer to fix! Now is the time, this is our chance!

Well, that's enough for now, don't wanna spoil yah ;-)