Merry Christmas and makin' waves...
December 21, 2000:

   Greetings my friends, happy Thursday, just 4 days till the fuzzy fat guy with the red hat and reindeer makes his way to each our homes...I'm still amazed that he's got time to visit every person...but somehow, he's been making the trip for years and he's never missed my house even once! Not only that, he's never even been late...amazing I tell ya! With things being monumentally busier this year than last, I haven't started my shopping and am still hopeful that BrianZ was serious about going shopping on Saturday night!?! ;^) Actually, I may start this evening...but why rush? Thank God for da' wife, there's no single thing that bring her more joy that being loose in a mall with a pocket full of Benjamin's to gather presents for everyone in the world. When it comes to my shopping, I'm left mainly with gathering presents for my wonderful wife. That's how I can manage to get it all done in just a couple days...I still don't know how anyone could enjoy that mall stuff, it drives me outta my mind...guess I'll never be much of a philanthropist, huh? ;^) Too many people, all in a rush, it just reminds me of what's wrong with people today. But that's a rant for a different day, I'll spare y'all cause you're likely going through the same thing right now, it might be a sore spot ;-)

   Well SurfTalk just celebrated it's first birthday...and might I again thank you all for your contributions there? While it's true I'm runnin' this place, it's the people, their knowledge, and their willingness and ability to share it that makes SurfTalk about the best place online to get your questions answered. Prospector reminded me the other day about the collective experience of the members of this site....and it's astounding! There are many folks here who've put in some 30-50 years in the surf...some who are just starting out. On average, I'd say the experience level probably runs about 7 years. That would put the collective experience available at a mouse click somewhere around 7,000 years in the surf!?! That's awesome. The people that have gravitated towards this site impress me, it's far more than I would have guessed it would ever be. Besides the registered members and contributors, among which are some very big names in this surf fishing world, there are thousands more who read it. I won't go naming names, but rest assured, when you ask a question or make a statement about a product or service, the right people are listening! This will likely improve in time, we'll have even more folks at the decision making levels of the fishing, tackle, boating, and hopefully, law making "industries" with their ears to what the folks are saying here. In the past 11 months, we've seen over 500% growth in the number of registered SurfTalk users....I'd expect to see this triple over the next 12 months. You're probably wondering "how ya gonna do that?!?!" Actually, besides being a somewhat natural growth when a site has the caliber of folks we do, I have many, many plans that I've not been able to implement due to the fact that we have been on a shared server. That means there's a huge server out there in OH where we have been sharing processor/memory/storage resources with over 100 other sites. We out grew that about a month ago, but through various band aids and such, we've been able to get by. No more, that's not good enough for all of ya! Last night I signed the contracts that will put us on our own dedicated server...a substantial step financially for me...but since this growth, I can think of nothing I'd like to see more than to watch StripersOnline become truly complete. What's complete? Well, much as we all live and breathe stripers, I'm told there are other fishes out there?!?! Yes, I was as shocked as you may likely be! So, with the new spacious accommodations, we're going to begin adding more and more species....and adding the sweetwater type stuff....and and and...well, never mind, I don't wanna bore ya with what we're planning, I really just wanted to say a sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of you, young and old, grizzled surf vet and newbie, fly rodder and bait chucker, boater and rock climber, I'd like to sincerely thank each and every one of you for all that you've done to make this site what it is today and your past interactions that will put this site where it's going. Thank you and may God bless you and your family as we celebrate this holiday season.

    So, it seems that my rant about the party boat I fished last Friday has stirred up a hornets nest of feelings among the crew here. Some folks think bending the laws is ok, some think they should be adhered to implicitly...to each his own I say. The main sticking point seems to be the "boat limit"...that's where if you have 6 guys on a boat and the law states that the legal limit is 10 fish per man, the feeling is the boat should be able to keep 60 fish regardless of who caught them. I looked briefly on the NJ Legislature page where you can access all laws, bill, amendments, and such...I couldn't find where this was legal. Perhaps I overlooked it or it's worded differently than I might suspect....but until I hear that I missed it and someone can point it out to me, I'll continue to say that a "boat limit" is an illegal limit. Fish kept illegally are considered poached....so, again, until I'm shown the law that states otherwise, those fishing for a "boat limit" are poaching. Poaching has a serious adverse affect on the quality of the fisheries. If you think one guy on the beach keeping a short fish is a bad thing, what about repeated party and charter boat trips where this "boat limit" is accepted? One or two trips per day, from 6 to 60 guys....the entire season long. Imagine how much better shape the blackfish stocks would be in if everyone only kept their own limit? Blackfish are an extremely slow growing fish, for a few sharpies removing a huge number of very big, very old tog each day or each trip is not difficult. It's catastrophic in terms of what's lost to the fishing areas though. As far as I know, the law sets the limit to 10 so that the impact on the fish can be controlled for those guys that have the ability to catch 20 or 30 legal sized tog....it's not designed to let them board a boat with 3 of their friends who don't have the knack and for the sharpie to fill their limits as well. Again, just my personal view. If anyone has any knowledge of this "boat limit" being legal in NJ, can ya shoot me an email and lemme know about it? I'd feel better if it was just our legislature being careless and irresponsible with a valuable, slow growing resource than to think that it's our fellow anglers who are being careless and irresponsible....well, a little better anyway, we've grown to expect that from the government where the fisheries are concerned :-( Please don't take my rants personally, they are aimed at any one person, they are just my feelings on how widely accepted this practice of "boat limits" is...people that I know and respect will fight me tooth and nail and swear that it's ok. The law is the law...and it's a fair law, if ya can't catch a tog, why should someone else be able to do it for ya? Isn't that what the commercial fishermen are already doing? Isn't that having a bad enough impact? Ooops...there I go again....where'd I put them Zantac? ;-)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

Santa Comes Early!
December 24, 2000

 UPDATE:  Santa comes early to SOL and the new is up!! A special one, just for Christmas! Gotta love DP, you just gotta ;^)

    And, one last time before the sleigh arrives, I'd like to sincerely thank each and every person who visits StripersOnline, whether you contribute or just read, whether you've ever purchased something or not, I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and/or Happy Holidays! After our first year, the growth here is astounding and this year we will, God willing, be able to bring you so much more! And while celebrating this season, remember why we have Christmas, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ who was born and dies so that our sins could be forgiven. God bless each and every one of you and your friends and families. We'll see you on the other side of Monday! Hug everyone you know...that's what the holidays are for! ;^)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

On to the New Year!
December 27, 2000:

   Christmas is still very fresh on our minds, the presents aren't even put away yet...many of us haven't even had a chance to let all the blessing sink in yet...and now, we're on our way to the New Year. Now me and all this New Year celebrating have never really come to terms with each other. Well, to be honest, when I was younger we'd celebrate the fact that it was Thursday night, New Years was certainly welcome then, any reason was good enough to party then! ;-) These days...particularly the past 5 or 6 years, I no longer understand what all the fuss is about? Why not celebrate the end of each month? Why not the changing of the season? Why the first day of next year? Is it any different that the 50th day of that year? It just doesn't make sense. Sure, we all get new calendars, we'll be scribbling out the date on checks and important papers for three months, but still, I am in a quandary. Yes, I guess, as some folks have told me in the past, it signifies new beginnings...but why wait till January 1 for that? Is this some kind of secret procrastinators holiday for all the things you were looking forward to putting off till the "New Year?" Can't be, I would have gotten that message in one of my Procrastinator Association newsletters ;-) Is it likely a ploy to get us all to stay partying and socializing for an entire week instead of but one or two days? Perhaps Weight-Watchers started it, we all put on 10 pounds this week. Maybe Hallmark ran out of "Special Person" days and needed one more excuse for us to drop $5 on a shiny card? Maybe big business just needs that day to finish wrapping up the year end stuff and decided since we'd all just be in the way anyway, might as well give 'em all the day off and act like we're doing them a favor? I dunno, maybe I'm just getting even more cynical as I continue this journey through life...maybe there is more to celebrate and I'm just missing it ;-)

   Around here, we'll soon have cause for celebration, we're moving to our own dedicated server. I've been researching the associated growing pains...it's certainly not as easy as the sales folks had me believing, there's clearly a lot more to such a move than I was led to believe. I'm a little anxious about the whole thing, but I'm equally excited to get all of us to our own place where we can really start to do the things that will set this site apart from all the others. I've already got a secondary board up and running with the newest version of the software...it's pretty sharp...I don't even wanna mention the fact that I've now incorporated a spell check, don't want you guys to get all mushy on me or anything ;-) I've changed the layout of the board, too....there will now be 4 sections to it, each with their own relative forums. I don't wanna tell ya what they are, it'll ruin the surprise! Bear in mind, I do listen to all the things you folks suggest, even if I don't appear to pay them much attention online sometimes, I hate to give away the all the good stuff before I've had a chance to incorporate it here ;-) Another wonderful thing here is that everyone participating in this site and the forums has done so because they want to be a part of what we're all growing here, we haven't had to pay anyone to draw interest here, they come for the atmosphere and knowledge...they stay because they are treated with respect. We've been blessed to have Al Goldberg hosting the "Ask Al Goldberg" forum here, Al's one of the premier rod builders in the country! Thanks Al, don't want ya to think I don't appreciate your efforts! 

   One of the main changes that will be taking place here shortly is the addition of "Features"....these will be the monthly ramblings of a good number of our friends here. I am working out the details, I've had a number of folks email me who are interested, some very talented word smiths I might add ;-) Here's the deal with this change, I am forcing these folks to take some form and amount of recompense for these submissions. Why? Because I will need to count on them and it's just not in my nature to require something of someone without retribution of some form. This way I won't feel like I'm hounding someone when they volunteer to put some words down every month and then one time they don't show up...it will give me the some piece of mind knowing that what I am asking for is something that I am willing to pay for. I'm funny like that ;-) Boy, there's so many exciting things going on right now that I can't even get 'em all together in my skull at the moment! Anyway, if any of you might have any ideas for a monthly column, lemme know. Shoot me an email. If anyone who has not already contacted me would be interested in having your stuff put in front of a few thousand of your closest friends every day, shoot me an email. Hey, if you just wanna say hi, shoot me an email ;-) I'm back to the grindstone and still scratching my head as to what's up with such enormous celebrations on the changing of the year? Talk to you soon, see ya on SurfTalk...and it's pert near time for the nightly SurfChats!?!? Boy, now that's some fun!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

Where the heck is TimS?
December 29, 2000:

      By now, you gotta be wondering where I've been? Where's the daily updates? Why isn't he responding promptly to the board? Well, I'm up to my ears in mind numbing Linux and Apache stuff!?!?! There was a time when this stuff was a walk in the park, I did it everyday...but that was about 10 years ago and that stuff succumbed to the FIFO (first in-first out) memory management in my skull...in other words, it's plain gone! So, I'm working feverishly to prepare our new home. It's going well, the hurdles are LARGE but I'm making my way over them....soon, we'll be relocated to our own machine, no one to tell us that the cool scripts and stuff we've been trying to run here aren't necessary...no one to tell us where's getting too big too fast...it'll just be you and I. I'm excited...gotta headache from looking at text editors for the past 72 hours....but I'm excited.

   The Hooligans arrived today...two big boxes! I just need to put aside some time to photograph them beauties and put 'em online for all of you. I'd like to do it this evening even if just for a break from this Linux/Apache stuff that's hurtin' my head! ;-) I've also got a box of new poppers from a company called High Tide Lures...they are solid, they float, and they are indestructible....literally. I really didn't need another popper to carry, but I saw the need when the samples arrived. They are made from a special blend of plastics to be solid, cast well, and float! There just ain't any way to hurt these, the colors are dyes added to the plastic before them are molded, they are wired through inside the solid plastic...these will take one serious beatin' and they won't cost as much as the hand turned wooden specialties that some guys can't be without. I expect these to supplement the wooden wonders, not replace them...these won't ever be available in the colors that the artists are painting on the wood these days. But, these will never sink and their "faces" won't chip or dent from banging them on jetties and rocks while fishing them. Like I said, they'll complement the ones we all rely on, they won't replace them. Interesting critters though, very interesting!

   I'd like to again thank all of you, everyone, for helping to make this place so spectacular and it's not even started yet from the point of view of the plans I'm working on! Have a wonderful New Years, don't drink and drive...better yet, don't even drive, it's gonna snow and there will be plenty of folks who insist on drinking and driving, you're better off hangin' with you loved ones! My goal is to have this new server completed and the move wrapped up and tested in the next 48 hours...I might even take New Years Day off to rest...and if the move goes well, there could be a toggin' trip as a reward from me on Monday or Tuesday! Take care, see ya all

   One of the main changes that will be taking place here shortly is the addition of "Features"....these will be the monthly ramblings of a good number of our friends here. I am working out the details, I've had a number of folks email me who are interested, some very talented word smiths I might add ;-) Here's the deal with this change, I am forcing these folks to take some form and amount of recompense for these submissions. Why? Because I will need to count on them and it's just not in my nature to require something of someone without retribution of some form. This way I won't feel like I'm hounding someone when they volunteer to put some words down every month and then one time they don't show up...it will give me the some piece of mind knowing that what I am asking for is something that I am willing to pay for. I'm funny like that ;-) Boy, there's so many exciting things going on right now that I can't even get 'em all together in my skull at the moment! Anyway, if any of you might have any ideas for a monthly column, lemme know. Shoot me an email. If anyone who has not already contacted me would be interested in having your stuff put in front of a few thousand of your closest friends every day, shoot me an email. Hey, if you just wanna say hi, shoot me an email ;-) I'm back to the grindstone and still scratching my head as to what's up with such enormous celebrations on the changing of the year? Talk to you soon, see ya on SurfTalk...and it's pert near time for the nightly SurfChats!?!? Boy, now that's some fun!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent