April 22, 2000:

The new     is up! Maybe it's just me, but I think Dave is poking fun at the "way out" crew! ;^)  

   Well, I sit here hoping that all my friends who made it to Hatteras are kickin' the snot outta the fish there! The weather here's been very spring like, howling winds swinging from SE to NE then N and now to the NW....luckily, they've dropped out quite a bit and those folks getting out tonight should enjoy some decent fishing. Charlie and I have been getting out each night (or morning I should say!) anywhere from 1am to 4am...and fishing into the cloudy grays of the recent dawns. The fish have been around, but they haven't been easy! I think we've been averaging 4 or 5 fish a piece, keeper sized fish thrown in each trip for good measure. We finally managed to put the yak in the water....all I can say is WOW! That thing really moves! It took just one short trip in a local lake, a few trout later I felt like an old 'yak pro! Next logical step was to throw the yak in a local river, in the dead of night, SE winds about 10-15kts....that sounded reasonable to me anyway. So, we transport the yak and Charlie's kick boat thing up north, toss 'em both in the water, and figure fly rods would keep it interesting.  Kinda eerie, cruising through the choppy water in the pitch black in a little craft that only allows you the slightest of freeboard! Charlie anchors up and I keep looking....I find a likely looking spot, a nice shadow line for the unicorns to sit and wait to ambush stuff drifting out with the falling tide. I'm back yakkin' trying to determine the exact spot I'd like to line up with to throw flies at....and then I see a sizeable swirl about 40 feet away right in the shadow line where I pictured them to be (hey, even I'm right once in a while! ;^)) I backed up a little more, put the anchor (read "brick") over the side and tied it off. Strip out some line, one false cast and I'm fishing! It does take some getting used to, you have very little mobility as far as turning side to side while seated so firmly in the yak...but I was just getting comfortable drifting a 3/0 clouser into the shadowline when I was rudely interrupted by a sizeable striper! The nerve! Here I am, trying to get the "feel" of the whole thing and now I'm locked in mortal combat with a good sized striper that wants nothing to do with me! I knew immediately this was a good fish, when I stuck 'em, the first thing it did was scream past me heading up current into the dark....the line made the hissing noise more associated with a screaming albacore than a striper! This fella was moving! As I got the fish on the reel, the drag started to do it's job on my crusty old SA System II 10/11 reel and now the fish, the yak, and myself were all being dragged up current....and even my brick!  Cool I thought out loud as I marveled at this stripers strength, what a great creature God has created for our enjoyment! Now the fish started heading south...and towards Charlie and his lil' vessel...and his anchor line! I was now spun about 270 degrees from the way I was facing when I stuck the fish....and it was turning again to head east....and I put some brakes to it. It was getting a little tired and I was able to bring this fine specimen of striped warrior to within 5 feet of the yak...and the fish was all over the top, throwing water as it protested my interrupting it's evening feed. I saw the fish clearly a few feet away and was just wondering what would the next step be?  There's not a lot of room in the yak for landing fish....at least not from very limited experience! No matter, the fish decided that we had danced long enough and tossed me back my clouser and was gone...probably for the better! It was a good fish of 15-20#...a very nice striper on the fly rod...and the first one I'd hooked in the yak. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I'm glad it ended the way it did, that fish deserved to go back to what he was doing, and I don't know that I was well enough versed in the ways of the yak to wrestle that fish in with me! After that, the morning kinda deteriorated, Charlie ran into some frustrating anchoring problems with the wind and tide...and I couldn't get situated the way I wanted to be...there's a lot for me to learn about the way wind and tide affect the yak when you anchor! After we decided to bail on the fishing, I decided to take a lap across the river and back...about 1 mile each way. I was surprised again at the speed of this thing and stopped to drift with a large school of bunker that were flippin' around in the grayness of that dawn...it really felt good. I thought about stringing up my 550 grain shooting head and working a big slab fly underneath these bunkers...I'm sure there were some good fish keeping an eye on these baits...but I just didn't feel like being bothered, I was enjoying just hangin' with them! I finished my lap quicker than I imagined and within 15 minutes had our little water crafts back on the truck and were headed home. It was a good experience...I think I'm going to really enjoy this kayak, thanks Rob, I owe you one! ;^)

     We've added numerous jigs to the Striper Jigs and are adding packs of 25 to all the hooks that are sold here. Finally got the Mega Bait page up! There's a lot more to come there, for now, I've only got the 4 1/2" and 5 1/2" listed on the page, but I'm working on it! We used the 4 1/2" ones last year and murdered the fish on them and we expect to do the same on them this year...as soon as the fish get in the suds. These lures were also excellent in the rivers and bays when the bass were in the peanuts....and they are great when the bass are on the mullet.  In other words, they work!  The Bronco Bag page is also up, and like the Mega Bait page, it's going to have more things added soon...but for now, you can order from both pages! Look for some select Yozuri's, replacement treble hooks, fluorocarbon leaders, and Sampo snaps and swivels very soon! 

   The approaches quickly from here folks! Just over 25 days!?!?!  Whew...it seemed so distant just a short time ago! If you haven't registered yet or have any questions about the fling, I put up the page yesterday....we need an honest head count and are closing registration to the fling on May 5th....so get there, get registered, get counted, and come to the fling! It's gonna be something that is talked about for a long time! I'd like to encourage everyone....and I mean everyone who can make it to Spring Lake, NJ on May 19th to join us...a great percentage of all the "regulars" and many, many new faces will be there...and we'll be fishing hard all night long! Surf stuff....and whatever jetties we can climb on....it will be a great opportunity to meet a lot of you and to fish with you as well! We've set the boundaries for a 7 mile stretch where travel is easy and on asphalt...so we plan on not letting any roots grow under our feet as we fish our way through the whole stretch, meeting as many of you as humanly possible...and you guys are welcome to scoot around and fish any spots you wish from Manasquan Inlet to Shark River Inlet! Do it, register, come fish with all of us! We're looking for more "locals" to be team captains...if you think you got what it takes, shoot me an email at tims@stripersonline.com and we'll quiz you, send you for a military style physical, and an obstacle course that would make a Navy Seal break out in cold sweats! If you think you got what it takes, we are looking for a few good men! ;^)

Best wishes and big fishes!

Tim Surgent

April 24, 2000:

   Good morning folks, I trust this finds you all suffering from the "Monday" blues...and I'm not talking about any fish! ;^) Actually, we just celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ over the weekend, a joyous occasion to be sure! For those of you not of the Christian faith, pardon me for just a moment, I'd like to share this with those that are brothers and sisters in Christ....come to think of it, I'd like to share it with all of you, so hang in there a sec! The resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday and His ascension to heaven to be with His Father opened the doors of Heaven to all of us! He died for our sins, all of our sins, so we wouldn't have to...we are now all blessed with the opportunity for eternal life...and we are welcome to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ all the days of our lives! I got only one more word to say on this matter - Amen!

    So, even being Monday, I guess we still have something to look forward to ;^) The weekend...ah, the weekend....even as long as it was, it accounted for very few stripers....and I understand it was not so good for our fellow surf fishermen who made the journey to Hatteras! I was hoping they'd come back all full of torturous stories of a horrendous drum bite, interspersed with giant stripers....but they did not. I doubt their weather was nearly as bad as ours, but it seems between the very crowded beaches and the poor weather, the fishing was pretty sad. Oh well, I guess it wasn't a bad thing that I spent the majority of this long weekend locked in mortal combat with all the things of StripersOnline! I did manage to sneak a few trips in between the hurricane force winds and Amazonian deluges.....alright, so I got out every night except Sunday...you got me! The fishing was ok....just ok at a time when I'd expect it to be a bit better than that. We didn't get skunked...closest we came was Saturday night (short 2 hour trip) when we fished 2 spots without a hit, then while Charlie slept ("stayed warm" he called it!), I braved the elements and landed my personal young season best striper on the fly rod....about 32-33" and over 10lbs. Honest to God casting, fishing the high outgoing water in the Raritan Bay area, the fish was my only stuck hit (missed one, got a rabbit strip clouser nipped...but I'm not saying it was a "you know what"!) It was a joy and a pleasure to do battle with this critter, a pleasant end to an uneventful trip! Otherwise, I believe we averaged 6 fish each per trip, a keeper or two each per trip, and the trips were a bit shorter than normal for our weekends....loads of work to do...but Charlie calls these fishing trips "research"....and who am I to argue? ;^) I left up the page from Saturday, it was a recounting of my first yak meeting with a striper! Stay tuned folks, things are really brewing here, I've lowered many of the jig prices, redone many of the catalog pages, and am adding more goodies as we speak! Have a good one! 

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

April 25, 2000:

   OK, crunch time here boys and girls, the is just 23 days away....do you have any idea how fast 23 days passes these days?!?!?  Hmmm...I thought you might! Seems time moves exponentially faster as we enjoy our short stay here.  Anyway, I'm looking to get things rolling here, I need for all you hold outs, all you last minute Flingers, to register...there's only 9 days left to register....remember how fast you thought 23 days will pass? Well divide that by 100 and that's how fast 9 days will blow on by! I don't mean to insult anyone, but regardless of whether you told me you were coming or not, you need to register....we gotta get an official head count...and the sooner I can get a real good estimate, the better! Which brings us to dilemma number 2 (a day wouldn't be complete with but a single dilemma! ;^)) We need people to volunteer to be "locals"!!! I doubt that I've scared you guys with threats of military style testing...but in case I did, get over it....move on, please email me at TimS@StripersOnline.com and let me know you are going to lead a team of fearless unicorn hunters (still chosen at random!) into the darkness to emerge victorious (or at least unscathed...Geoff, bring extra Band-Aids! ;^))  Be brave guys....buck up, take the challenge, lead a team of these nocturnal surf warriors, show 'em around some....catching fish is just the icing on the cake! So who's gonna be the brave soldiers and step forward...or everyone else can step backwards, makes no matter to me?!?  I've got a bunch of verbal volunteers, but I'm lookin' for more...and I'd like for the verbals to confirm with an email to me, puhleeeze!

  So, much as is our nature this time of year, Dubs and I got out fishing...just for a few very enjoyable minutes between "stuff" we're working on. The weather was nicer tonight than at any point over this recently passed long weekend...but that's not surprising to us...we get used to it....don't like it, but we get used to it. We stayed local, threw jigs for about an hour, I had one shot and missed...and then we bagged it and headed home. It just doesn't get more uneventful than that but I thought I'd keep ya up to date with the going's on around here! ;^) I'm sure if anyone else got out from say dark till midnight, they'd have a much better report than our sorry little excursion....but it was needed, it was appreciated, and I'll be lookin' forward to the next one! 

  One by one, I'm redoing all the pages in the order section of StripersOnline....and they are, if I may, looking pretty sharp! All the table style menus for ordering are being retired and are being replaced with nice drop down menus. Another new thing, when you order an item, you can choose a quantity before you submit that item...a big help for you guys that like to order duplicates! :D  One more cool thing that is being added is that you will no longer be taken to the dreaded shopping cart page after each item is added...no sir, you'll be left right on the page you ordered the last item from...that way you can choose another size or color without having to get back to the last page! I didn't like the way it was before, but it was as good as I could do with my limited knowledge (and kindergarten level help files) of the cart program we're using. I was looking at another program...not to mention the hundreds of hours it would take to set it up right, the one that caught my eye is a mind numbing $1,800! Geesh, it's only a little script that reads a database...$1,800 seems a lil' steep, so I'll continue to tune this one till it's exactly the way I'd like it if I were shopping here! Any input from you fine folks that shop here is certainly welcome, we're always looking for input! Either everything here is exactly the way you folks want it or you're all too shy to tell me what else you think you'd like to have around here.....cause my suggestion box has been mighty silent lately!

   I'm looking forward to the weekend already....is it Friday yet? Rats....I didn't think so, but it doesn't hurt to ask! Charlie and I will be taking a lil' trip to LI to harass some OPF (other people's fish), hooking up with Crazy Alberto, bending the rods with MikeP for a bit, and procuring our buggy permit so we can continue to harass Mike and Alberto's fish! I warned ya Alberto....whatever you do, don't leave Charlie and I alone with your fishes! 

Best wishes and big fishes!

Tim Surgent

   There have been many changes in the ordering...I'm in the process of making every single plug available with a Siwash tail hook dressed in matching bucktail....the schoolbus colored lures will sport a black over yellow bucktailed siwash hook...the black-n-purple will have a black over purple bucktail on the back! Too cool! 

  We hope you all get a chance this weekend, it looks like the fishing should really improve as we near the month of May! Check out the fishing reports and SurfTalk...people are scoring pretty well these days as it's only gonna get better! Have a good weekend folks, I'll post a page tomorrow detailing the trip to LI that we are undertaking!