February 15, 2000:

Ok, it sure feels like spring out there the past couple days, huh? Charlie and I were coming back from a visit to Tony "12 beavers" late last night and it was still 44 degrees!  That's awful nice weather for February...as we were contemplating the fishes last night, Tony tells us of some fishing already going on!  Now, I tend to believe Tony most of the time, but I'll wait for some sort of confirmation on what he told me before I'll go there and look...not that he would make something up flat out, but I would like to know the source before I'm draggin' my busy butt out chasing unicorns! Especially just "stories" about unicorns...that's how these whole myths and legends get started....someone "sees" one and they tell somebody and it spreads like wild fire. Before you know, everyone alive has heard about the mythical unicorn, but no one that you actually know has ever seen one...yet, everyone "knows" somebody who knows somebody that has seen the mythical one...just not anyone first hand. And the myth grows from there!  I haven't even looked for the elusive one since January 15th when I spent the night with Jim-DE and Art from...yup, you guessed it, DE! We had a blast, climbed some nasty rocks, told some jokes, talked about some fishing, casted intermittently for 6 or so hours...but we did not see the mythical one...Jim had one stuck for but a moment...but see one we did not!  We will likely rectify this on our next get together, the three of us.

Finally, the shopping cart is done....all the items are entered, all the pages rebuilt, all ready to go! Amen!  If anyone's cruising around through all the things over there, let me know if there's anything not working or pictures missing...whatever! The way the program works requires me to change each link, add the pictures, and forces me to double check each and every picture, link, header, and footer. It's an odd script, one that doesn't like relative path names, it likes them to be absolute...what's a guy to do?  So, it's done, I've run it through it's paces, I've already processed maybe a dozen orders, it works like a champ. One thing I realized, after all the effort and $$'s spent, I don't like the automatic credit card processing! Eeeek! Here's why. It will immediately process the card associated with the order, we each get a receipt, a few days later, the stuff ends up at your door, the money ends up at my bank. That's ideal...the world is often not! If I don't have something, or you are ordering something custom...whatever, it is easier to not charge the card until the order leaves than it is to credit that card should something become unavailable!  So, for now, that's how we're gonna do it, you place an order, I'll fill it, bill it, and then ship it. I have been able to get many, many orders out the very same day they were placed which makes me very happy! The big hold up lately was the custom colors in the Lex Plugs, but Charlie and I went to Tony's last night, made a pot of coffee, and got 4 dozen of the our custom colors finished and packaged! Odd thing was, Tony was already working on my order when we got there...that made it easier, we didn't have to rough him up! ;^) Tony's a neat guy, one that most of you would like. He's pretty intense, maybe many of you wouldn't like him....he's one of those guys, you love him or you hate him...not many feel casually about Tony in either regard....he's not that kinda guy! :)  I love the guy, always have, at double my age, he's got more energy than I can remember having...he loves his wife, loves to fish...can't go wrong there!  Anyway, excuse the unintentional "12 beavers" biography.  

So, I left there very satisfied...Charlie was honestly beside himself when he saw the table full of Lex Surfsters at Tony's....not that they aren't a beautiful lure to begin with...but when he saw the table full of black-n-purple and schoolbus surfsters, the dribble bucket had to come out till we got enough of them in a box where Charlie knew he'd be able to get a few for himself!  He was telling me on the way home "The 5 in Surfster, the schoolbus ones....don't put them on the page yet, this batch is mine!" I assured him that I would put aside a half dozen for him, but then reminded him that we would still have 6 more weeks to fill out own boxes and bags...he reluctantly let me put them in the "community" lure boxes! Tough guy, Charlie is...but he sure gets all emotional over little schoolbus swimmers! I don't blame him, these are easily the best I've ever seen, Tony has way outdone himself this time...and they won't be in tackle shops or magazines, just here...along with the black-n-purple which is a deeper purple now (I hate when Tony changes colors but I did tell him that the other purple was a little light!). Well, most of the pictures are up, but I got a little tired around 3:30am and decided to call it quits before I made some mistake on the pages that would take me hours to fix...I went to bed! We'll look at the pictures together for the first time after this page is up! If anyone finds any problems, let me know immediately and I'll get right on it! The link to the pictures and stuff is now a little different...there's a front door...you gotta go in through the front door!  Once you get inside, it's 99% the same as you are used to, some changes here and there, but much the way it's always been. So, let's take a swing by there...wait till you see the little schoolbus surfster...the black and purple Fatboy...heck, all of them are awesome!  It's hard for me not to get excited...I love these colors and am dying to get the chance to feed them to some fish...sure, black, whiteflash, and yellowflash are all excellent colors...but look at the blue/green over white on the surfster...that's my all time personal favorite...has been for 10 years!  Well, go look, let me know which one's you like...I'll put aside a few for ya...put 'em in the mail even! Here's the link, Lex Lures. It's the same link to get to everything in that section, you might as well bookmark the page this link takes you too, you can't bookmark inside of there, but on that main page, go for it!

I've got so many new things going on, so many pictures to put up of others, new plugs and colors coming, flies to put up, you name it...I am thankful very busy! I will do my best to keep you as informed as possible as to what's going up when and where, but sometimes things just "appear"!  Saturday for instance, my new favorite went up!  I love this one, it's fitting...I can see Jim-DE doing that...especially in school! Dave, you gotta gift my friend! I'm eager to peruse the next one...Carole and I sneak a peak at the new ones when they come in...I use her to read them with me...if she laughs, I know it'll be a big hit...she's not much into fishing. Don't get me wrong, she knows that fishing is a part of me and she encourages me to do it, but she sometimes teases me and da' guys when there's 5 or 6 grown men hanging in my office, some chatting online on Surf Chat, some tying flies...or watching flies get tied...sorting through the boxes of flies that are already tied...or maybe going through any number of things...she laughs at us...usually after she personally delivers coffee to each who answered to the affirmative when asked. She will tease, she's even giggled at us as we excited go through a box of flies, reliving some of the stories that each pattern has built into it...it's a giggle that I love to hear, a warm one...the kind only women can do to a group of men.  If a man were to do that to a group of women, he's have some explaining to do...the luxuries of the finer sex, God bless every one of them! :)

I know I'm forgetting a hundred things...I gotta count up my brownie points and start planning...these 40+ degree days will have me in knots if they keep up...but I need to know where the brownie point jar is! I hope you guys all put a couple handfuls a points in there yesterday, it was the big day!  I did pretty well :^)  Hope you have an excellent day, I'll be likely adding to this page through the day as I think of the other things I know I am forgetting!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

February 16, 2000:

Good debate on Surf Talk of about the proposed regulation changes for the striped bass laws in NJ. I'll give you the Cliff Notes version: The state hopes to protect 28"+ sized bass....to do so, they are going to let you kill them when they 24". I know, it doesn't make long term sense to me either! Good debate, lots of excellent points being made, come chime in with your couple a cents! Excellent lunch chat yesterday, had the pleasure of running in Bill Klein! It's always nice to bump into a familiar face around here!  

   Plug sent me a plug...a used 7" Windcheater...to many of you, this doesn't sound like much of a gift. To me, it's more than that, this plug has "good medicine" in it! It's taken it's share of nice fish, it's still got many more years, and it's prior owner really blessed me with it...I'll do what I can to respect the good medicine in there and do it proud! One place where that plug always brings to mind is the Cape Cod Canal. It's just the kinda place where I can see a 7" plug that dives hard being effective.  Plug, I'll take it with me to each place where I suspect it's features will come in handy...not the least of which is the black, gold foil, orange belly on it! Thank you sir, excellent taste in used plugs ;^) I'd like to take a moment here and thank all of you for the odds and ends that make it to my mailbox! I love to look at this kinda stuff so keep on sendin' it! Half the fun is watching Carole try to figure out what it is that I was just sent...and why would someone send such things she wonders. The best in this department to date was a black jig and black pork rind that Prospector sent me...it took me a good 15 minutes to figure out what I was just given! The pork rind in the pork rind jar wrapped in plastic, then paper towels, then plastic and tape...that was the real challenge! BTW Prospector, your gift will be headed north to the Ditch with me as well all the trips till it is properly sacrificed to the rock gods in the canal that must be satisfied....but I'll have a half dozen duplicates with me, just in case you LI guys are on to something! :^)  I'm not forgetting the other folks who graciously have sent me some of their prized possessions, these couple just came to mind. Thanks to all of you who have donated these kinds of items to me, all are appreciated and each is honored, fondled, and admired!  Oh yea, Bill Klein, one of my first official sales of jigs, he sent me two original, in the package, No Alibi Smilin' Bill jigs! These are true treasure and have been put safely away in anticipation of one day gracing my "fishing history room." I'll have ya all over to see it when it becomes a reality.....

Couple questions I received on the new layout of the plugs, jigs, and flies section of this site. The lack of a link back to the main pages from inside their is intentional...that's the way the shopping cart works. If you need to cruise around to research you purchase a little bit, open a new browser window. This is easily done by clicking on "file" on the upper left, then choose new and browser window. That's for Netscape, but I'm sure it's similar on AOL or IE.  

I will be putting up a registration form for the May 19th. gathering in my neck of the woods. The details are still a little fuzzy, but the date is set pretty much in stone, May 19th. Friday. I may be putting a small registration fee on this "gathering" just to cover the costs of breakfast, maybe T-shirts, but more for the fact that it will help to get a better head count. People are not as likely to casually sign a registration form if it costs them $10....but then again, people who really want to participate won't balk at a $10 fee! I'm still not sure exactly, but the date is definite. The time is not, but the date is!

Well, that's it for now, except to say that the rumors of bass being caught continue to permeate the air...I just don't have any concrete evidence to support these claims....but I will certainly being looking for an opportunity to give them a look!  Thanks folks, the orders are rolling in, all the people here are maintaining their even keel on the board and the chat, and once again, you all make me proud! :)

  Saturday my new favorite went up!  I love this one, it's fitting...I can see Jim-DE doing that...especially in school! Dave, you gotta gift my friend! I'm eager to peruse the next one...Carole and I sneak a peak at the new ones when they come in...I use her to read them with me...if she laughs, I know it'll be a big hit...she's not much into fishing. Don't get me wrong, she knows that fishing is a part of me and she encourages me to do it, but she sometimes teases me and da' guys when there's 5 or 6 grown men hanging in my office, some chatting online on Surf Chat, some tying flies...or watching flies get tied...sorting through the boxes of flies that are already tied...or maybe going through any number of things...she laughs at us...usually after she personally delivers coffee to each who answered to the affirmative when asked. She will tease, she's even giggled at us as we excited go through a box of flies, reliving some of the stories that each pattern has built into it...it's a giggle that I love to hear, a warm one...the kind only women can do to a group of men.  If a man were to do that to a group of women, he's have some explaining to do...the luxuries of the finer sex, God bless every one of them! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

February 17, 2000:

Cold out again and getting colder! Too bad, we had a nice run there of warm weather...I hope it doesn't retreat too far south, I was getting used to it already! You guys realize how little time is left before the bass are "due"? Not much, there will be some taken with consistency in early March in many areas...that's a couple weeks! I need to get out once in February as I never have before and I'm not sure the bass all migrated...matter of fact, I'm not sure if they ever all leave our waters after the awesome fishing we had right up until it got too cold to enjoy being outside! Poppy and Thill have been doing a number on them down south and I'm hearing rumors about fish north of us already....I wonder if they ever leave or we just don't bother fishing because we assume they are gone? No matter, I stopped fishing because it just isn't much fun when it hurts to be outside. I think this will be a banner year...but I also fear it will be the beginning of tough times. This idiotic slot limit law that's getting passed now will ensure that thousands more bass are killed in NJ...why? To protect the bigger ones of course! Yea, let's kill them at 24" and somehow that will make more 28" bass...only the government is so short sighted. Killing 24" fish just ensures that there will be less 24" fish around to grow to 28"!  28" fish are only 7 or 8 pounds to begin with, now they are going to to encourage the killing of 3 or 4 pound fish.  Oh well, the party and charter boats are very happy with this, their fares should have no problem finding 3 or 4 pound fish every time out and thus will go out more. How this is going to make more 28" fish is beyond me, if you kill them at 24" those fish certainly won't reach 28", that doesn't take rocket science to figure out! Whatever, no one needs to kill 24" fish but now they will be allowed to. It's just a matter of time folks before all the fish we are finding are 23 3/4" inches....that's the way it's always worked in the past I expect it to be that way in the future. My unpopular thinking is that this will just speed up a crash and a moratorium and then we'll start all over while the commercials start raping another species leaving us holding the bag again. Anyone who wants to argue the historical fact that "recreationals caused the first collapse" should open their eyes to the fact that the "recreationals" of which you speak were really all selling their fish...that would make them casual commercial fishermen. No species to the best of my knowledge was ever decimated by taking only what you will eat, that's how God set it up, His plans always blow away anything the government makes up! It's when greed and waste are entered into the equation that the fish suffer....mindless netting of millions of 18" fish, bycatch of the truly LARGE stripers following the bunker around, dogfish bycatch, bluefish bycatch, weakfish bycatch...that's all waste. So it taking of thousands and thousands of bass by netters every single day...that's a waste...those thousands and thousands of fish belong to each of us, for one person to kill them should be illegal. It's a little different offshore where they are raping fish that can't be had by everyone but to mercilessly hammer a fish that swims into our backyards, that's wrong. Whatever the outcome, expect to always lose to the commercial fishermen and to the party/charter boat owners. Once you accept that, you'll never have a complaint about any of this. The point as made over and over again by our government is that we the non commercial angler, the biggest contributor to the fishing economy by a huge factor, are the bottom of the food chain in management decisions....we get the scraps but pay the way. I'm hopeful this will change one day, but I'm also doubtful.

Interesting chat's on this subject each night, 9pm seems to be the unofficial gathering time, I'll see you all there at 9pm! I'm working on a few things, a Magic 8 Ball fishing predictor (far more accurate than all those scientific ones!), a registration for our May gathering, a few more photo pages for patient folks who I'm not ignoring, and a few more articles. By the way, if anyone has an article they've written or would like to write one, I'd love to put it up on here for all the world to see, just e-mail it to me and we'll get it up for you! Have a good one folks!

Couple questions I received on the new layout of the plugs, jigs, and flies section of this site. The lack of a link back to the main pages from inside their is intentional...that's the way the shopping cart works. If you need to cruise around to research you purchase a little bit, open a new browser window. This is easily done by clicking on "file" on the upper left, then choose new and browser window. That's for Netscape, but I'm sure it's similar on AOL or IE.  

I will be putting up a registration form for the May 19th. gathering in my neck of the woods. The details are still a little fuzzy, but the date is set pretty much in stone, May 19th. Friday. I may be putting a small registration fee on this "gathering" just to cover the costs of breakfast, maybe T-shirts, but more for the fact that it will help to get a better head count. People are not as likely to casually sign a registration form if it costs them $10....but then again, people who really want to participate won't balk at a $10 fee! I'm still not sure exactly, but the date is definite. The time is not, but the date is!

  Saturday my new favorite went up!  I love this one, it's fitting...I can see Jim-DE doing that...especially in school! Dave, you gotta gift my friend! I'm eager to peruse the next one...Carole and I sneak a peak at the new ones when they come in...I use her to read them with me...if she laughs, I know it'll be a big hit...she's not much into fishing. Don't get me wrong, she knows that fishing is a part of me and she encourages me to do it, but she sometimes teases me and da' guys when there's 5 or 6 grown men hanging in my office, some chatting online on Surf Chat, some tying flies...or watching flies get tied...sorting through the boxes of flies that are already tied...or maybe going through any number of things...she laughs at us...usually after she personally delivers coffee to each who answered to the affirmative when asked. She will tease, she's even giggled at us as we excited go through a box of flies, reliving some of the stories that each pattern has built into it...it's a giggle that I love to hear, a warm one...the kind only women can do to a group of men.  If a man were to do that to a group of women, he's have some explaining to do...the luxuries of the finer sex, God bless every one of them! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

February 18, 2000:

It's snowing...again! We had a few days last week over 50 degrees...now we got snow again. It's supposed to change to freezing rain and sleet...oh boy, just what I was hoping for! Charlie and I had been quietly planning a trip on Saturday to do a little nymphing for trout up north, now I'm not so sure about it. I guess we'll have to see what happens with the snow up there...if it stays snowing up there, we'll go...if it turns to freezing rain and sleet...we'll sleep in tomorrow morning. I'd love to get out and do some trout fishing but freezing rain and very cold temps up there make fly fishing very difficult. The ice in the guides makes it tough to even get 20 feet of line working...and if it freezes in the guides when you hook up, your delicate leader will certainly part. Even in the diminutive sizes when compared to the combative unicorn, there is something deeply satisfying about nymphing up a couple dozen hold over trout that have learned the ways of Power Bait and shiny stuff. With the size 16-14 nymphs we use, we often fool the bigger, smarter trout in any stream. Some guys don't like to fish nymphs, to me, it's perfect! What could be more natural than a baby bug drifting and tumbling down current, recently dislodged from it's abode. The trout have a way of picking even the smallest of edibles from a screaming flow of water. In the past, we've taken some awesome trout on tiny nymphs up north. My best trout on the fly rod at a size 14 cream bead head....a special little caddis bug I made up long before beads were all the rage on trout bugs. Nothing could be simpler, it's just a gold bead on a 12-16 2X heavy nymph hook, dubbed with my special "cream bead head" dubbing...a mixture of white rabbit, cream rabbit, the underbelly rusty cream colored hair (guard hairs removed) from a fox squirrel, and some finely chopped up flashabou dubbing....pearl with green highlights. Super fine gold oval tinsel counter wrapped and tucked under the bead. It's a simple looking fly...but when it's wet, it puff up slightly, the water filling all the voids in between the tiny hair, it looks so damn alive in your hand, I don't blame the trout for eating it as much as they do! Anther super effective fly that I've only been using a couple seasons is the emergent and deep sparkle pupas by Gary Lafontaine. That man is to trout fishing what Lou Tabory is to salt water fly fishing! I have every one of Mr. Lafontaine's books...there's nothing like reading the way he does his tests on each fly. He tests the fish's reaction to many of his creations. He'll gather a group of fishermen, give them all the patterns to be tested...and have one or two folks on the bottom of the pool in scuba gear!  They will watch the fish react. The successes of the fly include things like how far the trout noticed the pattern from, how far they were willing to move to look at it closer, how many that got a closer look ate it, how many refused it, etc. Real tests in my book! It's even better than just fishing it and noting your successes! There's no doubt in my mind, when it comes to caddis and caddis nymphs, Gary is da' man!  He's one like Mr. Tabory, if Gary says this bug will work in this situation, I'll take his word for it and fish it in blind faith. Same for Lou, he says try this fly in this situation, I'll do just that and fish that fly in those conditions with as much confidence as I would fish a long time personal favorite. To date, neither of these two guys has steered me wrong, no once! That's some track record considering the number of experiments these fine gentlemen have had me performing!  It's guys like this that make fishing and learning a much more enjoyable proposition. There are some guys who write books for the sake of writing books, their "innovative" fly patterns are just patterns they "invented" for thier new book, many of them have never even been tested by the books sell as the flies in them "look" like they should work! Sad, borderline theft by deception! Nuff' on trout fishing, a lot of you guys have recently been calling my little salmonids "colored bait"...shame on you...they have all the heart of our beloved striped bass and even strive to entertain us when the bass won't! That's gotta be worth something! :)

I put up the preliminary registration for the "First Annual StripersOnline Spring Fling".  Well, that's what I'm calling it now, for lack of a better name...not that Spring Fling isn't catchy, it's just not very original...I'm open for suggestions here guys, fill up the inbox with catchy names! The registration is somewhat official, but it's not 100% done. Some of the rules are yet to be determined, but for the most part, it's all there in some form or anther. If anyone is interested in helping out either at the grill with Team L&H the following morning, or with the setup and details in any fashion, put that on your registration in the comments section. Your help or even your offer for help will be duly noted, I got a little special something for the guys that help out! If any of you can see an immediate problem with the registration, please let me know, I'll get on it right away!

Also, for the guys that have been asking, I finished the Deadly Dozen Teasers, and I believe that the teasers/flies there are an excellent starting point to any surf situations! Let me know how you guys like this format, I'll do another one if this one goes over well. 

  Saturday my new favorite went up!  I love this one, it's fitting...I can see Jim-DE doing that...especially in school! Dave, you gotta gift my friend! I'm eager to peruse the next one...Carole and I sneak a peak at the new ones when they come in...I use her to read them with me...if she laughs, I know it'll be a big hit...she's not much into fishing. Don't get me wrong, she knows that fishing is a part of me and she encourages me to do it, but she sometimes teases me and da' guys when there's 5 or 6 grown men hanging in my office, some chatting online on Surf Chat, some tying flies...or watching flies get tied...sorting through the boxes of flies that are already tied...or maybe going through any number of things...she laughs at us...usually after she personally delivers coffee to each who answered to the affirmative when asked. She will tease, she's even giggled at us as we excited go through a box of flies, reliving some of the stories that each pattern has built into it...it's a giggle that I love to hear, a warm one...the kind only women can do to a group of men.  If a man were to do that to a group of women, he's have some explaining to do...the luxuries of the finer sex, God bless every one of them! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

February 19/20, 2000:

**Update**

     The new is up! Again, better than the last, this guy just keeps gettin' funnier every single time he sends me a 'toon! Robert Williams, a.k.a. "The Wordmeister" according to Dave planted the seed for this funny! I don't know how he does it, but Mr. Powell out does himself each time.  Also, you can surf through and see the previous cartoons from the page that displays the current one...in no time, we'll have an afternoon's reading here with as far as I know, the worlds first true surf humor...how appropriate! :)

    Also, the Bonus Fish Program page is fixed, there was a little problem earlier there...my bad! Two other things of note, there is now a mailing list just for this site and you must sign up to be a part of the StripersOnline Spring Fling!!

I just made some changes to the Surf Chat welcome page, I hope it will help some of you folks that are having problems with password and login problems! If you entered a valid e-mail address when registering, you can request your password and login, change things around, whatever. I also included a link to the MS Virtual Machine Update that will save you AOL and IE5.0 users a lot of grief! Also, immediately to the right here, you will find a link under NJ Fish & Game for the application to the bonus fish program! This was mentioned on the bulletin board, but I figured I'd put it right here on the front page. The link will take you to my page where I go into a little detail explaining why it is important for you to register for this program. Don't delay, it takes a while to get your cards and the fish will be back before you know it!

I finally did it, broke down and put up a mailing list for you guys! Now you can let me know who you all are and all your e-mail addresses. Why? First, cause I'm asking nicely! Second, because the folks on the mailing list will get stuff others won't. It might be information, might be special deals on stuff, hard to tell just yet...what you won't get is sold, given away, loaned, borrowed...none of that! When you sign up on this mailing list, I promise you all your gonna get is stuff directly from us here at StripersOnline, nothing else, ever, not one piece of spam....my word on it! So, please, register on the mailing list, it will help us to help you. I think the first thing I'm going to do with the mailing list is pawn of tons of stuff that I just don't use any more....mostly jigs and flies, ones I don't sell but have lots of anyway. Stuff I have more of than even I will ever use....stuff that is 100% useful but I just don't feel like keeping anymore. I've already got two boxes of such things....trying to figure out just what to do with it. I'm thinking maybe I'll give you guys a week to register on the mailing list and then start of with a first come/first served kinda deal to get rid of a few hundred jigs and flies and excellent prices! So, register, you got nothing to lose! :)

Don't miss the Sunday night "Weekend Round-Up", 9pm...Jim-DE will be your humble host, I'll just be there to cause trouble. And whatever you do, don't let the outboard motor noise Jim makes scare you! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

February 21, 2000:

The weekend is over for some, it's extended for others...either way, the hints of nicer weather abound....the time is nearing for the return (if they ever left!) of our striped friends! Thill has been torturing us on Surf Talk with his reports of heavy catches of stripers fishing a rip down near the DC area. Seems he's been on these fish pretty much since everyone else stopped catching them on the beaches....he's now speaking of "pre-spawn" staging...this means the biggest of the big gals will be doing their yearly ritual before the big dance! I've been eyeballing this area on the map since Thill and I started trading e-mails...yea, it's 4 hours and 15 minutes away....but I've never taken a pre-spawn fatty before....very tempting.  Plug lives much closer and is going to take a little look see and inform us as to how the fishing is...I, for one, will be listening closely when Plug returns from his adventure! I'm still suspicious that the bass could be taken locally in decent numbers, there's just no one fishing...and I'm too busy to really want to know....there needs to be at least a month or two where the bass aren't front and center in my mind once the sun is long gone each day!  

Carole and I got to spend a few hours with my parents last night, nothing is as relaxing as spending a few hours in the house where you grew up with caring and loving folks such as my parents! Not to mention the opportunity to enjoy some of mom's culinary delights....uummmm! They just "upgraded" their mobile home...about the 5th one this year...and to this one my mom said "Can we keep this one?"  I'm guessing this will be the one they hang on to for a good bit, it's a beauty! I couldn't help but think how awesome it would be to cruise into Montauk or the Ditch in this self contained abode! Shower, beds, TV, you name it, it's got everything a weary angler could ever need to recover from a long night of fishing and be "fresh" to do it again the next night! I'll have to speak to them about this when those trips begin to present themselves to me.... You can sleep 4 comfortably....very nice!

Once this warmer weather settles in up here, I will be forced to make a run to the north Jersey trout streams, I will no longer be able to fight the urge...I'm getting weak, it's been 5 weeks since I wet a line...nearing an all time record for me! Most years, we are up north every single Saturday before sunrise...this year, not a trip! I'm beginning to understand this cabin fever thing a little better...and for me, it ain't pretty!  

You guys/gals continue to rule! You make me proud, handling yourselves like real gentlemen/women, nothing but class...I tip my proverbial hat to you. This site is really taking shape, the relationships we are forming with each other are solidifying and the new people here can't help but feel welcomed and their questions are promptly answered by many of the "residents" here....what more could a guy ask for! I'll do my part, you're all doing yours, from here, the skies the limit! I will be looking for sponsors and approaching a few advertisers in the near future. Note, I will be approaching the advertisers, I won't just start flinging banners and crap at you every time you check in, the ads will be those I choose from companies that I choose. There's a billion banner ads for all sorts of crap that I could just pile up on the pages like some sites, but that would be, in my head, a breach of your trust. If you see an ad here, you already have my word that the company and it's products are first class, top notch, above average, and useful in our combined quest to catch more stripers! That's pretty nice, I hate being barraged with mounds of useless ads when I'm looking for tackle or fishing reports...I will do everything I can to keep this place "wholesome", let the other sites flood you with pop up windows and banner ads that just take your attention away from the fishing. Here, the ads will be 100% relevant to fishing and they will be from folks you and I both can trust. We will do everything possible here to continue to keep this site 100% honorable, trustworthy, and in excellent taste! You are all doing your part, you deserve it!

     The new is up! Again, better than the last, this guy just keeps gettin' funnier every single time he sends me a 'toon! Robert Williams, a.k.a. "The Wordmeister" according to Dave planted the seed for this funny! I don't know how he does it, but Mr. Powell out does himself each time.  Also, you can surf through and see the previous cartoons from the page that displays the current one...in no time, we'll have an afternoon's reading here with as far as I know, the worlds first true surf humor...how appropriate! :)

    Also, the Bonus Fish Program page is fixed, there was a little problem earlier there...my bad! Two other things of note, there is now a mailing list just for this site and you must sign up to be a part of the StripersOnline Spring Fling!!

I finally did it, broke down and put up a mailing list for you guys! Now you can let me know who you all are and all your e-mail addresses. Why? First, cause I'm asking nicely! Second, because the folks on the mailing list will get stuff others won't. It might be information, might be special deals on stuff, hard to tell just yet...what you won't get is sold, given away, loaned, borrowed...none of that! When you sign up on this mailing list, I promise you all your gonna get is stuff directly from us here at StripersOnline, nothing else, ever, not one piece of spam....my word on it! So, please, register on the mailing list, it will help us to help you.

I put up the preliminary registration for the "First Annual StripersOnline Spring Fling".  Well, that's what I'm calling it now, for lack of a better name...not that Spring Fling isn't catchy, it's just not very original...I'm open for suggestions here guys, fill up the inbox with catchy names! The registration is somewhat official, but it's not 100% done. Some of the rules are yet to be determined, but for the most part, it's all there in some form or anther. If anyone is interested in helping out either at the grill with Team L&H the following morning, or with the setup and details in any fashion, put that on your registration in the comments section. Your help or even your offer for help will be duly noted, I got a little special something for the guys that help out! If any of you can see an immediate problem with the registration, please let me know, I'll get on it right away!

Also, for the guys that have been asking, I finished the Deadly Dozen Teasers, and I believe that the teasers/flies there are an excellent starting point to any surf situations! Let me know how you guys like this format, I'll do another one if this one goes over well. 

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent