February 2000 Striped Bass Surf Fishing Archives

February 2000 Archives
Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4

February 9, 2000:

Note: I would like to invite any of you with any interest in the Shark River Surf Anglers to the meeting tonight! It's at 8pm in the Belmar Fire Station located on one block in from Main Street on 7th Avenue in Belmar. If any of you would like to come and sit in on a meeting, just to see if maybe you'd like to be a part of this surf fishing club, come on down, pull up a chair, and see what we are all about! If I'm not there, just let them know I sent you...I'm sure they will welcome you! :)

The credit card setup and shopping cart setup are well underway...but even I was shocked at the amount of work involved in setting up the shopping cart! Whew!! Each item, each size, each quantity, each color...they each get their own line of type...part number, item number, description, and price. I enter over 190 yesterday and have about 100 more to go...then I get to start making the links and buttons and incorporate the buttons and code into each of the pages! I'm not whining, I'm just, as always, trying to keep you all up to date with what's going on.

We had an excellent lunch chat yesterday, 8 guys or so. I think it's cool to be able to speak in real time to folks from all over while we enjoy the respite offered at noon. I really like the way Surf Chat is being utilized...it's a hang out, it's a question/answer forum, it's a what's new place...it's just a great tool that many, many guys are using. I'd like to encourage everyone to swing by there at one time or another. Don't let your typing skills keep you from participating, even if you just go there and type "lurking"...which means you're just watching. It's nice to see so many familiar people in there...it's equally rewarding to introduce myself to the new folks that show up each time! Don't fret, we are still working on the JohnM decoder script...it's still got a few flaws...but we're getting closer! :)

I met with Tony "12 beavers" yesterday...poor guy is still fighting to speak after his throat operation a month ago...but he's ever vigilant in his quest to make Lex Lures the most popular wooden plugs on the coast! He's handed me another prototype last night...and mumbled "see how it swims." I ensured him that I would put it through it's paces during the day today. Tony inquired a couple weeks ago about "casting swimmers" or bottle plugs as they are commonly referred to. Many of you older fishermen refuse to call them bottle plugs, remembering that the term "bottle plug" was coined to describe the reverse Atom....well, it did look like a bottle that Atom connected backwards, that's for sure! I will generally use the term bottle plug for what you call a casting swimmer...it's just the way I was taught! I've never even seen a reverse Atom first hand, but from the pictures, I assure you, the name given it was indeed accurate! Most folks, at least in my neck of the woods, wouldn't know what a casting swimmer is, so I will call casting swimmers bottles...but I will try to be clear by also noted that they are called casting swimmers. :) Back to the story...so, Tony was asking about them, which one's did I like...which one's swam better...casted better...etc. Reluctantly, as in the past, I handed him one of my few remaining Hahn plugs...a 1 1/2 oz bottle...a real fish catching plug...it swims and casts very well...and it start easily. Some bottles require great effort to get them "started"...not this one. So, he left with it...5 days later he hands me an unpainted but exact duplicate! I was thrilled...it now hangs on my tying bench...waiting for it's debut this afternoon. I am quite excited to try it. Tony also tells me that this entire series of bottle plugs may be an exclusive for you...StripersOnline readers! This excites me as it will certainly help me to continue my quest in helping all of you to catch more stripers! For me to have direct contact with a talented plug make like Tony will ensure that you folks have lures that the general public will not be armed with. Many the fish are unfamiliar with...you'll be out there this year taking fish when others aren't...and when they ask what shop you got these lures in, you can tell them they aren't sold in shops...but only here, StripersOnline.com! This will draw more and more folks to out humble outpost here in the cyber suds...and as we grow, I will continue to add more and more features here for you! It will be a great mutually beneficial relationship...and in the end, we will all benefit!

Well, back to the shopping cart stuff, I hope you all have a most excellent Tuesday, the weather is certainly teasing me to hit the suds one night soon...but I won't go until I've gotten this entire shopping cart and credit card processing thing all set up :( Soon my striped friends, I will come looking for you...and hope to land that most elusive NJ suds caught February striper!

A note about the many jigs that I sell here. First, as I've always said, mine are just plain better than 90% of what you can find elsewhere. I just found out why! Besides all of them being exactly the same as the ones I use while hunting stripers, I found that most companies use long shank, non-forged hooks! That's why they are weak, a forged hook is much stronger than a non forged hook...the bend is actually "hammered" flat when viewed from the side. This adds incrementally to the strength of the bend, which is the part that ultimately may be holding the trophy of your lifetime...why chance it to an unforged hook! Not to mention, a long shanked un-forged hook! Long shank hooks are much easier to open, the leverage a fish can gain with a long shank is often enough to open the hook. A hook need not open much to give a fish it's freedom. Like many of you, I learned these lessons the hard way, I hope to be able to save some of you from having to do so!

The new cartoon was put up on Saturday! It will be replaced with a new one each Saturday morning! I like this one a lot...not that the others weren't awesome...I just like this one a little more! :) Dave's a character...I'm finding that out more and more when I run into him on Surf Chat, I am always suspicious of folks who's sometimes off sense humor I can relate to! :) Good one Dave...I'm liking each one better than the last.

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

February 10, 2000:

MEETING TONIGHT!!! I would like to invite any of you with any interest in the Shark River Surf Anglers to the meeting tonight! It's at 8pm in the Belmar Fire Station located on one block in from Main Street on 7th Avenue in Belmar. If any of you would like to come and sit in on a meeting, just to see if maybe you'd like to be a part of this surf fishing club, come on down, pull up a chair, and see what we are all about! If I'm not there, just let them know I sent you...I'm sure they will welcome you! :)

I'm almost done with the credit card processing stuff...I got all 302 separate items entered into the shopping cart script...now I just got to tie it all together! Whew, I'm glad you only gotta do this stuff once! Sure, I could have someone do it for me, but then I wouldn't know how it worked and thus how to fix it if something should go wrong. Yea, it takes longer, but you generally only need to learns things once and then they are now a part of your hopefully ever broadening arsenal. So, I'm hopeful that it will be finished by tomorrow morning at the latest. There's a few more things that I am eager to make available in the way of cool things here, but I gotta do this credit card/shopping cart stuff first! I've got articles to write and pictures to post as well!

Surf Chat and Surf Talk just keep getting better, the quality of the folks on board here combined with their knowledge and sense of humor is enough to keep you learning everything you ever wanted to know...and laughing so hard your wife will come in and begin to question your sanity. These are both excellent ways to get through the winter! ;^) The chat is like a Christmas present....when you log in, you never know if it will be empty....a couple guys in there...or a room so full you need to scroll down the list to see who's there! I'll be there again regularly for lunch chat sometime around noon. If you go there and it's empty...just leave that window open for a couple minutes...it seems people pop in and out...if there's no one there, they leave! It's a timing thing...unless there's a predetermined time to meet, there will most likely be people checking in at random times...stick around for a couple minutes, they'll be there! The board is alive and well, nearing 3000 posts on the main forum alone! This is after only 7 weeks or so! As it gets more crowded there, we will from time to time have to "deal" with people that aren't necessarily as interested in fishing as they are in stirring things up. Be patient, I will do what I can immediately upon seeing these types of posts. It's not happening yet, but I expect it will happen. It's inevitable in any community that there will be some folks with ulterior motives that wish to cause problems....we currently have 3 cyber sheriffs on patrol around the board...if they miss anything, please fire off an e-mail to me, Ditch Jigger, or Dubs and it will get taken care of immediately! I expect with the example being set there by all fine folks there a trespasser will not feel welcome and their posts will certainly stand out from the informed, humorous, and knowledgeable replies that you are all accustomed to. Just had to say it, I want you to all know that under no circumstances will I allow this board to be compromised in any fashion. I'd also like to note that like driving, being a member here is a privilege, not a right...if you are making trouble and disrespecting the folks that are part of this community you will be asked to leave and there will be no debate. At the rate this site is growing in popularity, it will certainly get to be a handful in the near future, but I am not afraid, you guys/gals are all of exceptional quality and I don't see any problems even doubling in size! :)

I'm expecting another Tony "12 beavers" visit at some point this afternoon. After this visit, I expect to have each and every one of the Lex Lures that is currently made! I'm working with Tony on two new exclusive lures...one is a duplicate of the most successful casting swimmer or bottle that I've ever used. The second is a duplicate of a plastic bottle/darter combo plug that BrianBM loaned me as a template. The casting swimmer is one that has a very specific and necessary place in the surf bag. I'm not sure on the new plug, it has a unique look and will be able to comment more on it when I get the second revision in the water for a little swim. I expect that to happen sometime over the weekend. I am going to carry the stubby needles in black, schoolbus, blue over white, and black-n-purple...all colors that many have relied on for years in many of their plug choices. I will put up that page when I receive another color...I only have black now and would hate to put up a big page for them with only one plug picture on it! Soon my friends, they will all be up. The Polaris style poppers should be here today and then I'll put them up, too! Moving right along.....

So how about the weather? Nice...feels like spring...but don't get used to it, it's supposed to "slurry" this weekend. A "slurry" is those mixed precipitation storms where it just can't decide what it wants to do...snow, rain, sleet...we get it all at once...a slurry if you will. The 45-50 air temps sure get the bass blood boiling...but I refuse to answer the call until I get this whole credit/shopping cart thing done! Hope you all have an excellent day and I'll catch up to you somewhere on this site today, be it the board or the chat!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent