December 15, 1999:

I doubt there was anyone out last night, it was nasty! The wind was gusting at times to 47kts, the waves at their best were 13.5 feet....no doubt, a little rough for comfortable striper hunting! I'm sure there were places inside the rivers and bays where one could have scored, if it was a Friday night, I might have been tempted to go and look...but I needed the rest. It turns out Paul and I were not the only ones to score heavy on Monday night, I got e-mails from Steve and Rick7, both of whom also had hits every cast that night. It seems the fish made an eastward move on their southerly migration...and everyone out there in the right spots got bit...a lot! I'm looking forward to the surf calming quickly, hopefully it will clean up and be weed free by this evening, but that might be asking a bit much. A guy can hope though.

Charlie stopped by the other night, poor guy's been working like a dog, his company made promises they knew they couldn't keep, now Charlie's been working 7 days a week trying to make those promises happen. It reminds me of a great saying in business, "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." Something like that anyway, it always seems that when someone plans poorly, another further down the totem pole is having a crisis trying to make it right...it ain't fair, it's America! I'm hopeful that Charlie can get out and score a couple more times before the fish leave, it's usually this time of year we're walking flat clam, gin clear surf down near IBSP and scoring all night long.

I just read something disturbing...actually, one of the disturbing things I just read. It seems that VP Gore just signed a $5,0000,000 "disaster relief" agreement with New England commercial fishermen. I'll throw a little quote in here, from Saltwater Sportsman magazine. The commercial fishermen, "who are struggling due to overfished stocks of cod and other groundfish in the Gulf of Maine." "Eligible fishermen will receive up to $1,500 per day for fishing days missed from February to June due to fisheries closures aimed at rebuilding the depleted stocks." Is there any other industry where you can take all the natural resources that provide your livelihood, sheer greed, then moan to the government and get paid $1,500 per day for a problem your initial greed created? Hell no! If you sold horses, but were so greedy that you sold every single one, including your breeders, do you think the government would pay you $1,500 while they used taxpayers money to rebuild your horse population? Hell no. If you sold lumber but greed motivated you to chop every tree down, do you think they'd pay you $1,500 per day while they used government money to plant more trees? Hell no! What's wrong with our government, why are they using the hard earned dollars of ours to pay greedy commercial fishermen to sit home and watch Jerry Springer while we are out there earning money to fund their greed? It's not even just the $$, the recreational fisherman also pays dearly with closed seasons, smaller limits, and bigger minimum sizes. The commercial fishermen take what they want for as long as they want, then when the fishery collapses, they scream and moan, they even have the balls to call it a "disaster" and our government hands them millions of dollars as a reward for their uncontrolled greed. Something's wrong here folks, open your eyes, there's something very, very wrong! Every other industry that works itself out of profitability just has to move on, they need a new plan, but if you are a greedy commercial fisherman, you can take every fish out of the ocean, get paid for it, and then collect $1,500 per day while the government and recreationals rebuild the stocks. Why do they rebuild them? Just so there are once again enough fish for the commercials to start the whole process again! How come sometimes it feels like I am the only one who realizes what crap this is!! As long as this goes on, it's literally just our government telling commercials that it's ok to fish a species into non-existence, the government will pay them to watch us rebuild it! Anyone else see how the commercial fishing industry has us and our government by the balls?!? Excuse the vent, there's no excuse for our government thought, they should be embarrassed and ashamed, giving our money to fishermen that couldn't control themselves enough to leave enough fish to reproduce and sustain the fishery...they should be responsible, they should be paying us for not being able to enjoy a historical recreational fishery...but that would only make sense!

On a better note, on the same page as that little blurb that set me off, there's an interesting advertisement. It seems that Mitchell has come out with a new reel! Believe it or not, it's a direct competitor to Van Staal! That's right, old time company Mitchell has produced a "waterproof" spinning reel....it's called the Neptune. I haven't done any looking into the reel, don't know what the price range or sizes offered are, but I am intrigued to say the least! Some of the old Mitchell's are classics, the 308 for instance was/is a great reel, one that I used to use a lot...I'm dying to pick up one of these Neptune's and put it through the kind of fishing that I do. I'll do some research on it tonight, see if I can order one and give you a first hand report on it, it sounds interesting!

Tonight, God willing, I will fish! The suds may be a little angry still, but I'll give them a glance...if they are still whipped up, I'll nose around inside the Hook a little. I'll keep you posted....

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

December 16, 1999:

I had plans with JimK for last night. Even though we both expected dirty, nasty water, we went anyway. We fished jigs, plugs, teasers, and even the long rod. I think I had one hit, that was it, not one fish landed! We ran into Dave Choi...then Paul Naj. I also saw two old friends, Jerry and Jim. No one caught a fish. It was typical of the nasty, dirty water that you'll see after a storm like the one we had. Oh well, we all tried! :)

The handwarmers are gone. I removed them and all the their pictures yesterday. It was bought to my attention by a couple people that they offered nothing unique to my site, there are thousands of places you can see bikinis on the web, and what started in fun got to be a little much. It's not a good thing for people to have to watch what they look at on my site while at work, bikinis are not accepted often as work related...I shoulda known! It's also not really the "image" I was going for, this will be a fishing site, hopefully a unique one, and as much as they were beautiful, they weren't part of the fishing. I would not be a good brother or Christian to continue to put up women that cause your thoughts to wander... I also would hate to see someone lose their job because of them, that's not in the plan! :) So they are all gone, off the site, off the server, and I'm not being selfish, I took them all off my own PC...I'm not holding out on you! Not the least of which, my wife did ask me the other day if "that" was an image I was comfortable being associated with.

Well, your message board is now up, it's called Surf Talk, cruise over, register, and join the fray! I ask that you keep it clean, respect your fellow fishermen, show respect for yourselves by respecting the others. There are young fishermen there as well as older fishermen there...there's so much to learn and so much to help others with, a forum when used properly is the best tool for doing both! Have at it, fire away! I already removed the first imposter, the first person to try and instigate trouble. I'm looking into their e-mail address and IP numbers, I'll publicly post here who they are if I find out...I suspect it's someone who's a little "bitter", but I won't speculate in public, I'll find out for sure, then I'll let you know. They know I'll find out, I don't know why they bothered.

I suspect the ocean will have calmed down by this evening, the fishing is likely to explode again in the next 48 hours, you just gotta get out there to find out! I'll give it a whirl, it's rough to catch 46 bass one night and zero the next...it's like getting a 100 on one test and then a zero on the next, it cuts your average right in half! :) If the surf gets down to a pluggable level, the fish should move right back in...if anyone's clamming, they'll be scoring pretty well, this is the kind of surf for it! Me, I'll continue with the plugs and jigs, it's just the way I like to do things...and I'll be throwing the flies a bit more as well. Last night I learned of a mid 30# fish taken very near to where I've been losing big fish due to pulled hooks...I wonder if that fish had any holes in it's face where my plug used to be?!? :)

Thanks to everyone for helping make this site successful, if it keeps growing at the rate that it is now, we'll all have one of the best sites on the internet where we can get honest answers to questions that aren't even always easy to put together! And thanks to the guys that have blessed me with their friendship, I never thought I'd meet so many quality folks on-line, never. And thanks to Plug for hitting me on the head, sometimes that's the best way to get someone's attention!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

Things looking a little different this morning, huh? I got rid of those frames, nothing annoys me more than surfing a site with those annoying frames!! I had it that way in the beginning as I thought it would work out better, I had a picture in my mind I was going for, but then as I poured much effort into the site, I realized that my mental picture would be better served using JAVA scripts, not frames. So, after recently learning lots about CGI scripting, now I will undertake a personal crash course on JAVA scripts. I've always enjoyed learning new things, but I sometimes prefer them to be fishing oriented. Robert Williams and I have had some laughs in the past about programming...he does it, I hate it, we both know how necessary it is. I give him lots of credit, I'd have put a load of buckshot into my monitor if I had to actually run through thousands of lines of code! I'd flip so bad, they wouldn't use the term "going postal" anymore, they'd change it to "going programmer"! So, let 'er rip, cruise around a bit, tell me about all the things I missed, let me know if it looks better this way. I think you'll like it better, it's a little easier on the eyes. The main difference is the contents window that was on the left permanently is now only on this page, and it's on the right. On the other pages, you can use the links in the footer of each page...which I will be adding to shortly.

Boy, I love you guys! I've had the message board up for just 24 hours, I've already got 60 people registered and posting there...to me, that's just amazing! I will do my absolute best to make sure that Surf Talk is handled exactly how you guys want it handled, not how I want it handled. If you can think of another pertinent forum to put up there, I might just put up one more. Saltheart reminded me yesterday to keep the number of forums down, and I couldn't agree more, there's nothing more annoying than having to check 8 or 9 forums to find something or to languish over where your message should go! Also, I hate when people tell others that their message is in the "wrong" forum...so there's just two, very simple. Fishing reports and conditions....and the other one, for everything else. That doesn't mean that reports can't go in the main forum, or that you can't ask if there's any fish around in the main forum, the only thing that I ask is that you all show respect for yourselves by respecting each other. Respect doesn't mean agreeing with each other, it means handling disagreements like adults...so far, so good, everyone's been the perfect gentleman/woman that those of you I've met are. One last thought, I'm giving everyone a clean slate, I noticed that a few people who have been known to cause some trouble have registered, and I've e-mailed them that they are welcome to participate, and that I hope their intentions are positive. The rules are simple, they are but one, and they are the same for everyone, respect...not to me, but to each other. I know people will get out of control, it happens, I've done it, don't freak on them if you can help it, I'll take care of it as soon as I find out about it...don't hesitate to e-mail me if I seem to have missed something that deserves attention! 'Nuff said, there are some super quality folks already posting there, they will draw attention, both positive and negative, I'll deal with the bad stuff, and I'm not taking any prisoners, I know my way around these computer things :))

I didn't get a chance to go fishing tonight, I think Paul may have, I saw him post on the board after midnight...about when he'd go home if I wasn't out there with him! :) Also, the fact that he was home at midnight leads me to believe that he didn't do much while out there. Of course, this is absurd speculation...going on a hunch here! Tomorrow, being Friday and all that, I will dive into the fishing with both feet...I'll check numerous spots, throw many different things at the fish, and let you all know how it goes. Believe it or not, I think the fishing will be very good by tomorrow night, maybe even excellent! As for my 100 fish weekend I was hoping for, I just had my legs chopped out from under me on that one, Saturday night is a no go for me, social obligation with my lovely wife, which is always a nice break from cold nasty nights on rocks and sand :) So, unless Friday night and a shorter trip on Sunday night really shape up, I don't think the 100 mark will be in any danger. You never know though, this time of year just about anything is possible. It really remains to be seen as to how the fish handled the 13.5 foot waves from that last little blow...I know the water was looked like Yoo-hoo yesterday (Wed), but it was surprisingly weed free. There are/were plenty of fish around before the blow, I'll know much more come Friday night, I'm going to give it a good effort! Much as I have been enjoying fishing with Paul, it'd be nice if Charlie could join us for a bit tomorrow night, he's pulling his hair out at work...and to top it off, he stopped by tonight as he dragged his sorry carcass home from work, he's got a killer cold! Poor guy, see what no fishing can do to the truly addicted, it's much like heroin! I'll get my fix tomorrow night, God willing.

Christmas is almost upon us, it's my favorite holiday, I like to get stuff! Kidding, I really like Christmas because it's one of the very few holidays that actually celebrates something real. It's also about the only day of the year when I wouldn't mind seeing it snow, there's just something awesome about a white Christmas...intangible, but awesome!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

December 18, 1999:

Ok, consensus is that no frames is better than frames. I don't think one person told me that it was better the other way, so I'll take that to mean it was worth the heavy eyes the other night till 4am getting all the pages restructured to handle not having frames. The pain really wasn't the pages, it was that every single link on this site, a total of 2,171 of them...each one had to be redirected, separately, to not look for it's old frame anymore. That's how come my eyes were heavy! Sure, I can stand in the dark and cast for 18 hours in a row and my eyes feel nice and relaxed...but sorting through 2,000 links, that's an eye ball killer! Anyway, I'm glad you all like the new look. Did anyone have problems with the auto-forwarding scrip on the old home page? I think I'm starting to get the hang of some of these simple scripts anyway...so of them I look at and they boggle the mind, some are nice and straight forward. If there's anything anyone would like to see, a new feature, a different look, a problem I should look at, let me know...e-mail or Surf Talk and I'll get back to you on it. And thanks to everyone who's using the new board, it's going well, the only person with any problems that I've been made aware of is the infamous Ditch Jigger, a.k.a. MikeP...soon to be Senior Burbot :) If anyone's having problems over there, let me know, I'm all over it! So far, there's over 80 people registered, I scroll through the list (administrative luxury only!) and it's like a who's who gathering from all the other boards I've ever been on...it's kind of touching to see how many people's names are familiar to me, a year ago, I had no e-friends! You guys are the best, as of late, the DE boys have really shown their colors, I've gotten so much support from that crew that they certainly deserve mention, you guys are nothing but class! That's not to say my "homies" from NJ and NY are any slouches, but these DE boys are really surprising me, especially Jim-De, Plug, and Poppy...you guys are one (three actually :)) of a kind, you ever need a personally guided trip in my parts, you give me a holler and I'm there! I'm still planning on a trip down to meet these fine folks, very likely between the Christmas and New Years holiday's. Don't sweat it guys if the fishing's no good, I've been through that plenty of times, it's the company I'm driving down to enjoy...if the fish want to entertain us, God bless 'em..if not, they'll be other times for that! And Walkin' Jack, I'm gonna call you "The Quiet One"....although Jack's been a little quieter than his normal self, he's still one of the truly greats out there, and I've never met him...when he shares fishing stuff with you and I, it's from the heart, it sincerely is! This man not only loves to fish, he is moved by all of it...and such people certainly move me for I share their love of all of it! Thanks WJ. I'm getting a little off track here, but some people just make my day and I thought I'd share a few with you being that it's almost Christmas and New Years, two of the greatest times for reflection...now if the bass would just move on I could get more into the holidays! :)

As for the bass, I was wondering how this storm affected them...and I was slightly uncomfortable with yesterday's water temp drop, it went from 51 to 48.2 in a little over 24 hours...right now it's at 48.7! At least it's headed the right way now :) JohnM hosed Phil and I last night...first time ever! We had all communicated during the day, agreed on meeting at my house at 9pm...Phil got here a little early, 8:30..no big deal...he had a bunch of questions as to all the molds, tin, lead, and fly stuff I got strewn about, seems he came into a bunch of lead and it going to pour a few hundred pounds this winter! Once we wrapped up the guided tour, we realized it was 9:30...time to call John, make sure everything was cool. I got his wife on the phone, asked for John, and when she said "Hold on, I'll see if he's still awake" I almost fell over! John's one of those guys that will take the hour drive if there's the faintest hint of stripers around...he acknowledged the fact that he had said 9pm...that was it, and that he wasn't coming....huh? Now Phil and I got into high gear to get out there. Still wondering how the unicorns had reacted to the monster blow and rapidly cooling surf temps, we climbed onto a recently "replenished" jetty. My first cast was met with a good shot before I got one full turn on the handle as all my fears of the stripers packing their bags fled from my mind. It was a fat, scrappy mid 20 inch fish. Next cast, ditto..a little smaller, but twice as fat! Phil hooks up...and then Phil hooks up again. I threaten to call John's house, thinking I'll hold the phone near Phil vociferous drag...but that would just be mean! We had some good, solid action..lots of hits, lots of fish, and they were certainly bigger on average than they were before the storm. I put on a little Smilin' Bill jig, a small piece of home cut pig skin, and caught a fat one, 10-12# on the first cast with it! It was nice to have a fish take a little line and hang tough! I released it. We caught a bunch, some on jigs, some on plugs, some on teasers...all welcomed and returned to the water. Some hammerhead came out and did what he could to mess us up, we just shifted positions and continued to pick away. I got nothing against new fishermen, but when they have a chronic case of the "cast over you"'s, I get little bent out of shape. When said fisherman lost one that appeared to be in the mid 20's, I felt no remorse for him...and I felt mean for no feeling remorse for him...but I likewise felt justified, three casts in a row I untangled his line from mine, he just didn't get it! Some people have no shame when it comes to being rude! Phil realized it was past time for him to go, we chatted a couple minutes, wished each other happy holidays, and he departed. I was now in the mood for some fly rod action, I told myself at 10 fish I would go, now I had 20 already and was still throwing the conventional rod...each fish I thought would be the last before I went for the Orvis stuff. Who should pop up now but Paul Naj! I had given him up for hoofin' the suds with Steve...such was not the case, Paul said he poked around but couldn't find Steve. Once I told him of the critters around and two fish broke right in his face as he retied his leader, he suddenly wasn't that worried that he couldn't find Steve! :) After a handful more fish, I told Paul I was going for the long rod. When I got back, my first cast with a l/0 snake fly was inhaled by a fat fish, maybe 10#'s...I forgot how hard they pulled on a fly rod. As I tried to slide the fish up the rocks down by the waters edge, he came unbuttoned...but he didn't swim away real fast...he hung there. It was as if he was asking me if I was sure he could go, I wished him well and he swam off. After missing another three hits, I checked the hook point and while it felt sharp, it had that little curl on it that was keeping it from getting skin...I fixed it and stuck a short on the next cast. I decided maybe I'd find a bigger one with a slab fly....looking back, there was nothing wrong with the action I was having on the snake fly, but sometimes we out think ourselves...at least I do! I missed 4 good hits on the slab fly, I couldn't get near enough to the water to take the belly out of the heavy 12 wt intermediate line I was using, by the time I felt the hit, the fish had grabbed the fly, possibly recognized my handiwork, and spit it back out...so I missed them all. A little frustrated, a lot tired, I decided to go back to the conventional, Paul had just landed a nice one, same class as my two biggest keepers earlier, in the 10-12# range...actually, Paul's might have been a tiny bit bigger than my best last night, but let's keep that between us, don't tell Paul! :) After a handful more fish for each of us and about 10 last casts for Paul (he's good at that!), we bailed. I don't know how many Paul and Phil had, I think Paul said 8, Phil caught a bunch, and I ended up with 30 releases. I did note to Paul that I hate to end on an even number like that, sounds too much like estimation, but 30 it was, on the nose! I had about a half dozen keepers, counting the one on the fly rod that I had up on the rocks for the briefest of moments! :) I think Paul's a little more strict with his "counting"...he said he figures it as if he was going to eat the fish...in other words, if it gets back in the water under it's own power at any point, it doesn't count! I'm a tad bit more flexible...if they come out of the water and onto the rocks, the counter ticks forward....cause if I was going to eat them, I'd have stuck a gaff in them rather than tried to lift them! Both methods are fair I believe, because of the ones that I slide up onto the rocks that then get away, all of those could have been subdued with a gaff.

So, it's far from over ladies and gentlemen, I thought I'd put this up today as tonight is going to be beautiful...only I won't be out there! I'm roughly 1/3 of the way into my 100 fish weekend and I'm right on schedule with 30 fish...missing tonight is going to put an awful amount of pressure on me for Sunday, I'd need 70 fish to make 100 by Monday morning...that's a lot! I may just have to try and sneak out tonight after the wife's asleep, put 20 or so on the rocks, that'll relieve some pressure for Sunday night! :) Best of luck to those of you who get out there, things are still cookin', no excuses! I know, many of you don't care where I was fishing, many others put too much weight on where I was fishing, and yet others want to know EXACTLY where I was fishing....how about a compromise? I was fishing the stretch between Asbury and Belmar. That shouldn't even matter, the fish are spread out all over, I'll hazard to guess they were caught last night from Sandy Hook all the way to Cape May by anyone out there giving it any effort. Don't be fooled into thinking that I'm fishing some "hot spot", I'm not....fish where you are most comfortable, you'll catch more fish there than where I am comfortable, I promise! Good luck, get them rods bent!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

**Update: The NE wind has just blown the water temp back up over the magic mark! It's right now, 12pm, registering a respectable 50.0 degrees...the fear has been allayed again!

Just a little update for Sunday. Didn't make it out last night. Paul did, he had one hit in nearly 2 hours of throwing, but it was a nice 12# fish (actually, Paul told me 11-13#...so odds are, it was about 12#! :)) So, if you're gonna get one hit I told him, it might as well be well hooked, landed, and legal sized! While I will do my best to get out tonight, the 100 fish weekend will be pressured by a lack of time...not a lack of fish. My normal late Saturday night trip was done in by a 4 hour round trip social visit with a 5 hour hang out time stuffed in the middle of the two long drives. Not that it was a bad time, I had an excellent time...for the first 2 1/2 hours, then it started to really drag...it takes exactly 1 1/2 hours for my wife and mother in law to say goodbye during a Christmas party...I was the driver, try dragging two adult females from a social event...it ain't happening. Finally, we got in the car, all three of us shot...the two hour drive looming in my immediate future...they get to sleep! Something about that doesn't seem fair...I'm thinking I would have much rather made the second 2 hour drive at 9:30 rather than 11:00 when I was pretty pooped. Hey, at least it was quiet on the way home! :)

I hope some of you fine folks are getting out there still, the fish haven't gone anywhere and they would love to wish you happy holidays...you just gotta go. I may even hit the sand tonight, maybe stay of the rocks for a little bit, I miss throwing the weightless Loomis steelhead rod and the light plugs...much easier on the back! Good luck if you get out!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

December 20, 1999:

What an odd weekend for me, Friday night was dynamite, see the December archives if you missed the weekend pages. It wasn't fire engine hot fishing, but it was spectacular for this time of year, some nice fish were seen, taken, and lost. Saturday was a social evening, it happens even to me this time of year! Sunday John came over and we decided to give it a quick go just for kicks, even though a cold NE wind was blowing a good 15-20kts. Not a real good idea, but we went anyway! Let's say this, it wasn't good. The conditions weren't that awful, 3-5 footers, 20kt ENE wind, 40 degree temps, wind chill way down there.....but we gave it a shot. John had one little guy who fell off on his way up onto the rocks, I had a couple hits, none hooked, none lost, none landed....but I did catch 2 very big starfish! :) We stayed longer than we should have, but we were being thorough...or crazy, depends on how you look at it. Not real good fishing by any stretch. I imagine that folks in the right place last night likely scored well, the water was rough, but very fishable.

The water temp is back down again, when it sticks at 47 degrees, consider that the fat ladies arrival! That's the lowest where I've had "good" fishing. Caught them below that, but the best fishing is above this mark. I've seen a couple big fish taken at lower temps, but I'm talking generalities here. The proverbial fat lady is certainly in the neighborhood, if you run into here, shoo her back up north for a little bit longer. This fall has been punished by bad conditions, much unlike last year. It seems, even now into December, we'll get a good bite or two, then the wind whips the ocean to a froth. Then, just as the ocean calms down and the fish start hitting good again, here comes the waves! It gets a little old after about the third time in a row this happens. It's really to be expected this time of year, but in all the years past, in my mind, December is a time of flat calm and crystal clear waters...just spearing disturbing the calmness in the middle of the night. You can see even your 5" plugs as they struggle and crawl across the mirror. You might even see each hit just before you feel them hit...we certainly haven't seen those kinds of waters yet this December!

Christmas is getting very near, a handful of days...I hope everyone's got their goods all wrapped up, shopping hopefully nearing an end. I love everything about Christmas except the shopping...I don't mind the wrapping, I just don't like the shopping, I'm not a big fan of crowded stores. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do! :)

The new bulletin board, Surf Talk, is really taking off! There's almost 100 registered users after just a few days...that's spectacular in my book! I have been mulling over a separate fly fishing forum for a couple days. I think it would be a welcome addition, a separate place to discuss the natures of the hairy hook. In the same context, it would thin out the ranks, forcing people to check more than one forum for fishing questions. I really haven't decided yet, but I am looking for input from anyone interested...how many forums? I won't be going ridiculously crazy with a separate report forum for every part of each state, a long list of forums that you can see but can't enter without a password (rude if you ask me), or a forum for every single thing ever discussed...that's just a trick to make you spend more time on certain sites than you would really need to just to check every single forum. I won't do that to you, at most, I'm looking at 3 forums...possibly, a fourth one day, but it will be a unique forum, not a redundant one. So, what do you think about a fly fishing forum? I'm looking for input, all is appreciated. I started a thread on Surf Talk asking the same question, you can make your opinion known there.

Also, thanks again for the continued interest and input, I'm trying to keep things moving here. Let me know what you guys are really looking for here, a board...more articles....huge pages of links...search engines...what? Maybe you're just hanging out, not looking for anything in particular, that's cool, too. I just would like to make sure, while I'm in this setting up of things, that I cover every need that I can on the first pass....it's easier to put things into play early on in the development of a site. Sometimes, you can run into road blocks if you wait too long.

Almost forgot, over the years, many people have looked at my fishing vest, pockets all jammed up with stuff, and asked me what was in it...why do I need that much stuff! Last week, Paul and I got thoroughly drenched...we did catch hordes of striper while getting wet, so it wasn't even noticed how wet we were getting! Anyway, I emptied my vest out for possibly it's last ever trip through the washer and dryer, put all the contents of the pockets on a big towel to dry...then I had an idea, I took a picture. Then, I took the picture, made links all through it. You can click on any part of the photo, it will show you a bigger picture of the item you clicked on, tell you about it, maybe even tell you why I carry it. It'll help you figure out if I really need the fishing vest! I hope you enjoy it, it's more a confession showing you what's in my pockets than it is anything else, but some people have been truly curious in the past, so I did it. It's called Tim's Vest Stuff on the Photo Pages. While on the subject of photos, I owe ScottG an apology! Scott, I had your page done a long time ago, it wasn't until I was cleaning up that directory that I saw that I had never put the link on the main photo page to your picture page...I apologize, this was sheer oversight on my part! It's up now, with my apologies! I'm working on a few new ones now. Everyone is invited to send me their pictures, I'll put you up in lights! People really enjoy photos of their fellow anglers, it helps somehow when you know who you are talking to on the message boards...so send 'em in, I'll put 'em up!

Well, my earliest guess at the next likely productive time to fish would be possibly tomorrow night, certainly by Wednesday night. The key here is a wind from the west...we'll need it to knock down the surf and clean up the water a bit. We're supposed to get some real cold weather by Thursday night...if it ain't over, it sure is gonna feel over by the weekend! Me, I'll keep at it till it just isn't producing any more. Last night may have been horrible, but in the past couple weeks, some of the best fishing since October has been had...it ain't over yet and I ain't done trying! Get out there, let the suds settle a little...but get out there, get one last shot at 'em, they're still around..and some are of considerable size as well! Best of luck, stay warm and dry out there, it's getting cold! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

December 21, 1999:

*Update: The west winds have taken over, the surf is down to 4.5 feet from 8 feet yesterday. The water temp is 48.6 degrees, plenty warm enough for a good bite...it's moved up .6 degrees since the wind switched. Sorry, rest time is over, they'll bite again tonight and tomorrow, we just gotta find 'em!

It's getting easier to stay in at night, that's not a real good sign for the season! Actually, it wasn't that fish are gone, or even that the rain and 60 degree air temps kept me in, it was the fact that our Christmas tree was put up on Sunday, last night we were to decorate it, always something we both enjoy this time of year. We were both a bit shot, Carole and I, so we watched our favorite show, "What about Raymond"....which ended up being back to back episodes....then, being tired, we opted for just hanging out, no decorating. It's nice to just relax with my wife, she's a good friend.

No fishing last night, I'm not planning on it tonight...but I know if it's not nasty out, my thoughts will be wandering that way. It really depends on the wind for me, the ocean is all cranked up, without some hard SW or NW winds, the heave will probably keep me home. If it lays down some, I just might give it a shot. This is all contingent on the tree decorating plans, we didn't reschedule them yet, tonight might be the night for that. Hey, either one's fine with me! Paul called me last night, he says "It's 61 degrees and rainy, why aren't we out there?!?" I remind him that the surfs over 8 feet...I think I heard his shoulders slump as that reality hit home. :) Maybe tonight, keep an eye on the wind.

Christmas is fast approaching, time to get the rest of your shopping, wrapping, and planning done. I usually will spend a couple hours on Christmas Eve wrapping the presents that I've gathered...it's kind of a tradition for me! I admire those folks who are done shopping and wrapping by December 15th..that won't ever be me! I hope all you guys are done, save one last night for a fishing trip, I'd plan on either Thursday evening or Friday during the day, both should be good, but both will be cold....the fish should have had a chance to regroup after this last blow by then. I'll get out either tonight or tomorrow night, then I'll be done till the day after Christmas. I am planning on heading south soon, to the Indian River Inlet, there's some fine folks down there I'd like to shake hands with, not to mention some stripers down there I'd like to wish well. Plug, I got your number, I'll be ringing you up right around Christmas to put together some sort of plan....you still up for it?

The new bulletin board, Surf Talk, is really taking off! There's almost 100 registered users after just a few days...that's spectacular in my book! I have been mulling over a separate fly fishing forum for a couple days. I think it would be a welcome addition, a separate place to discuss the natures of the hairy hook. In the same context, it would thin out the ranks, forcing people to check more than one forum for fishing questions. I really haven't decided yet, but I am looking for input from anyone interested...how many forums? I won't be going ridiculously crazy with a separate report forum for every part of each state, a long list of forums that you can see but can't enter without a password (rude if you ask me), or a forum for every single thing ever discussed...that's just a trick to make you spend more time on certain sites than you would really need to just to check every single forum. I won't do that to you, at most, I'm looking at 3 forums...possibly, a fourth one day, but it will be a unique forum, not a redundant one. So, what do you think about a fly fishing forum? I'm looking for input, all is appreciated. I started a thread on Surf Talk asking the same question, you can make your opinion known there.

I nosed around the Gofishin.com site yesterday, do you guys realize what kind of deals are to be had there? I saw many in my few minutes. I saw 7 1/2" Bass Assassins for $1.99. Newell reels, new for $99. Plenty of rods. There's also 10wt III Sinking lines for like $15. All kinds of stuff, it's a nice place to do "Merry Christmas" for yourself! I added Amazon.com to my site yesterday, it's a classy place to shop, one of the best on the net. Using either link to go to Gofishin.com or Amazon.com will help to support this site and I will continue to put the money back into the site to make it increasingly more what we all are looking for in a fishing site. I've got a million ideas, many are unique. Any more ideas from you guys? You've all been very supportive of my efforts thus far, I'm sure there are some of you that have things you'd like to see here, fire away, let me know, I'll get them in the works! Merry Christmas folks, just a few more days! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent