January 15, 2000:

Just an update as to how the new home is going. So far, I've got everything moved in, everything is fully functional...except the board. I will tackle moving the board today...it won't be fun, but I'll get it over there anyway! You guys won't feel a thing, even those of you that are on the board right now. I'm moving it in a way that you won't know what hit ya! Actually, there will be a tiny window of time that I will "close" the board....but I'll do that late tonight, when all you guys should be fishing anyway ;)

Things are looking good, lots of room, you won't notice many changes on the surface, but you will once you start looking around. There are some excellent tools that I am customizing for our needs. There's so much out there, one by one, I'll be turning all type of programs and scripts into tools that can be used to help us all communicate, help up find information, and to ultimately, help us all become more efficient at this game we so love to play!

I have company coming tonight, Jim-DE and his buddy. I am looking forward to meeting them, I can tell from my communications with Jim that he's a good egg! If the fish are still cooperating, we'll catch a bunch...if they aren't we'll give it a shot, either way we'll have a good time!

Back to the scripts, codes, links, and other assorted goodies. BTW, I didn't fish last night, I doubt even being Friday too many brave souls got out, it was COLD!!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

January 16, 2000:

**Update: We'll, here you are, to the new site! Yes, I know, it looks just like the old site, but that will change everyday! There's many new features here that I will be incorporating. For now, it may look the same on the outside, but the insides are very different...I think you'll all be very happy. If there's anything you've ever seen somewhere else that you think would add to this site, I now have the room and will gladly add any features that will benefit the users here, just e-mail me! I'm working on chat rooms, conference room, fishing logs, photo storage for you guys...you name it! I even have something that I've been working on for a few weeks quietly that I think you will all enjoy, I've been working the bugs out of and am very satisfied with it...the only problem is that it is completely unique, not offered anywhere I've ever seen before, so I am trying to protect it. You'll like it, I'd just hate to see imitations of it everywhere, so I am encrypting the code and copywriting the whole thing...that's really as much as I can tell you about it, but like most things here, it will be made by a fisherman for fishermen! Well, the biggest pain in the neck was getting Surf Talk over here....the scripts, absolute paths, relative paths....making sure I didn't lose even one post or cause one person to have to reregister....it was time consuming, but it worked, the board is live on the new site, everyone's there, all the posts are there, you shouldn't notice anything different about it...which I think is a good thing!

Update your bookmarks folks, striper fishing has a new name, it's:

StripersOnline!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

***Hang in there folks, I need to close Surf Talk, from about 3:00-3:30pm....all systems go on the new site, I just need to have the board down for a few minutes to make sure I don't lose anyone's posts! If you go to the board, you will get a message that it's temporarily unavailable...it ain't lyin'! After 3:30pm, please use the link on this page to get to Surf Talk, it will be on the new site. The site is not done all the way, but the board will be there and you can continue to use it...by tomorrow morning, everything will be over there! You can update your bookmarks when you click on Surf Talk from here.

Thank you for your patience during this brief intermittence! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

January 17, 2000:

Here we are, the new site is up and running with the whole deal from the other site all nestled away here. It went pretty well yesterday, no real problems other than the simple kind we as humans make and don't notice until a couple hours are wasted...then we catch on! :) I got a lot of e-mail's yesterday about how well the whole thing went and I am glad, that was how it was intended to go! I think I managed the whole act with only about 15 minutes of downtime on Surf Talk, which could have actually been less, but I made a slight mistake in the scripts that would show you that it had moved....oh well, live and learn.

So we're at the new place, roomy isn't it? :) Like I said yesterday, you really won't notice the changes right away, I took considerable effort to keep it the same initially to make the change less noticeable and less painful! There are many things in the works, I'll be using some of you as brave volunteers as we try out Java Chat rooms, Surf Conference rooms, and about a dozen others things that I think will become useful and purposeful tools in our communications and our fishing...and that's what I'm talking about! Yes, the internet is cool...yes, there are lots of pages and lots of people....yes, you can easily get overwhelmed....but what is the real purpose of the billions of pages out there? I don't mean in advertisers eyes, they want you to buy their products, that's a no brainer. I mean you, as a web surfer, what is it you hope to accomplish? Don't tell me your just surfing blindly to wherever your mouse takes you? I didn't think so. First, if you aren't at this site by accident, at least one of your short term goals is to find out what's happening here and at the local beaches, right? Either that or you are a fishing report junkie trying to keep up with anything anyone might be catching! :) You might like to check out all the pictures on this site, debating whether or not anyone would like some of the pictures you might have laying around. Maybe you love the real time nature of Surf Talk, the bulletin board here. Regardless of why, you are here, and I am glad that you have come for we are building a surf fishing community here, and you are part of that. There's no pompous smoke blowing going on here, no teen chat room style debates, no editing of peoples words to limit your options in purchases, none of that, just a growing community of surf fishermen. Some from this area, some from north of here to Maine, some from south in Florida, from the left coast, as well as folks from New Zealand, Australia, England....and who knows where else. We all share in the community, I will be your host, I will do whatever I can to make you comfortable here and will promise that the content will continue to be honest, respectful, un-biased, and as useful as it can be. If there's anything you ever think of that you think could be of some use here, e-mail me and I will do what I can! That's the way a community works, everyone pitches in, everyone benefits...respect, both for yourself and the others around here is all that I ask of you. Enjoy, contribute, lurk....make yourself at home!

I had the distinct pleasure of spending a little time with Jim-DE and his friend Art on Saturday night. Man, it was cold...painfully cold, but we spent the better part of 5 hours fishing anyway! Much as I have come to expect of the folks around here, these two are first class....fishermen as well as gentlemen, an honor to fish with! Jim wrote a very nice piece about our trip on Surf Talk under the Reports forum, it made my night to read it! Thanks Jim, you and Art are welcome here anytime, you got the number! Well, the fishing was no where's near as good as the company...in fact, Jim had the only hit all night, but he said it caught him so by surprise, he reflexive hookset was not all it should have been...and the fish went unseen. Catching fish would have been nice, we certainly gave it an honest effort, but it's the company that really makes these kind of gatherings memorable. You guys are great and I look forward to some springtime action down your way!

Back to the code and scripts, I'll check in with all of you at Surf Talk throughout the day. Thank you all for your continued support, input, orders, e-mails, and just about every other thing a humble webmeister could want! You're the best...

Again, I'd like to say hi to one of my newest daily readers...Hi Dad! Love ya lots!

Charlie Fact:According to my records, I've caught 214 stripers since Charlie's last trip on December 4th...a fair number of them were keepers...the fishing just continues on, even though the weather is becoming less and less pleasant, they keep on eatin'! **NOTE: I was secretly shooting for 200 before they left...now I'm thinking that might have been a bit pessimistic of me, let's see if I can get to 250 before they leave! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

January 18, 2000:

Good morning....cold, cold morning! We are having air temperatures of 2 and 3 degrees, with a decent breeze...that spells very cold!! There's a wind chill calculator on the Weather&Tides page, it's pretty interesting, you might get a shiver out of seeing the current will chills...or input worst case scenarios and see just how cold it can "feel" around here. I'll tell you this, it's colder than you want to be outside in for any longer than going from one warm place to another...and hurry!

I'm sure this cold weather will be the end of the striper run for 90% of the guys that had been going right through January, I don't blame you guys! I'll take a wait and see stance, if it warms up enough one night to give them a shot, I think they'll be there to catch. What I'm not doing is going into negative wind chills to chase these guys, that just wouldn't seem normal even if they did bite! So, the cold has beaten the remaining diehards. I'm sure somewhere, there's someone fishing in NJ even right now, but I think they may have stepped over the edge a little...it's painful cold outside, even dangerous cold...no thanks!

I'm ever vigilant on this site, I ran into a few problems last night, with some of the scripts that run here...like the FishingReports! The data and the reports are there, but the from that runs when you add a report is failing. That in itself is not strange, but I am running into the same sort of problem elsewhere. I'm going to rewrite them, keeping the format, but changing the forms handling...in the long run, it's better that way....short term, I wasn't looking for another thing to add to the list! :) If you guys run into any problems, like yesterday, SwFly e-mailed me that Augie's pictures were not working. You know what, he was right...neither was Charlie's! It only took seconds to fix them, but I would have not known if it were not for Walt's fearless nature!! ;^) Thanks SwFly! So, if you come across anything that doesn't work, or even hesitates too long, or is just plain acting funny, you can send an e-mail to problems@stripersonline.com and I'll get it looked at right away. Please, don't feel like you are bothering me with your questions and the "little" things that just don't appear right, I want to know about every one of them....the more problems you guys point out now, the faster we can get this all wrapped up and move onto some new and super cool features! I am aware of the following problems, so you don't need to send the following to me: 1.) The order page responds with a server error. Status: I'm on it! 2.) The Fishing Reports give an error with a new submittal. Status: I'm on it, but lower priority (who's fishing anyway! :)) Those are the only two that I am aware of, I would appreciate a scream if you bump into anything else, I'd appreciate it much!

I've also setup a place for your suggestions! At the moment, I'm asking you to send all suggestions to: suggestions@stripersonline.com. If you guys would like, I could make a suggestions page where you can all see the suggestions of your fellow striper brethren...or we could just keep it between you and I with the e-mail. Until further notice, I'll keep the suggestions to myself, but will respond to each one personally and let you know what I think...that's how we will make this site great, communication!

One last note, while the order page is down, I am working on the shopping cart, I am anticipating my credit card merchant account finalization in the next few days, so I'd like to have the shopping cart software ready to go...so if you could send all orders temporarily to: orders@stripersonline.com,I will be able to get them out right away! Anyone currently waiting on an order, they will be completely caught up with today's mail!

Also, I have been working on a page for your fly, jig, and teaser tying needs. I've got fly hooks on there at substantial discounts and both regular and saltwater bucktails per each and in quantity. The saltwater bucktails have hair at least 4" long on them! In the stores, these go for as much as $6.50, I got 'em there for $4.00! Regular northern deer tails, in loads of colors, for $2.95! I'm offering white and yellow tails in quantities of 10 for $25.00 and $35.00, northern and saltwater tails respectively. Also, there are Mustad, Tiemco, and Daiichi hooks there as well. I'll be adding to this page regularly, until it's got all the stuff I want to put there for tying...like thread, scissors, glue, epoxy, paint, etc.

Well, back to work, maybe I'll bump into you on Surf Talk, I'll be around, just swamped....but happily so! :)

Sorry to you guys that were hanging on Surf Talk last night! I finally got my domain host to rectify a problem that was on their end, and in my excitement, I published an older copy of the bulletin board on top of the current version (extreme embarrassment!) It took quite a while to get it all screwed back together, the only residual problem is that users 164-170 may not be able to use their logins right away, but I can (and will) manually fix those. So, to anyone that e-mailed me with a problem after 8:30pm last night, it wasn't you, it was me! ;o) It's all better, I just fixed what I hope was the last thing, the board was replacing "a" with "*".....I guess I was pooped when I was rewriting the "bad words" section! So, as far as I know, every single thing on each part of the board is now working 100% and I can move on to the new stuff. I'm working on some cool things, an interactive calendar, Chat room, Conference room, and a better fishing report system...just to name a few! The shopping cart that I'm setting up is a good one, but it requires me to edit each and ever page on the entire site...that way, no matter where you are cruising, you won't accidentally dump your cart along the way. There's easier ways to do it with cookies and such, but I'd rather do it so that even if you are surfing through a firewall, you won't lose your stuff.

Yesterday, Robert "the Wordmeister" Williams reposted a classic from last year on the WMI board. I had looked for it a month ago, but could not find it! First, you have to understand the target of his humor, the great fisherman, Bill Nolan. Seems once Bill's season shuts down up in RI/MA, he drops by the WMI Board to remind us, the mere "mortals" what a great and powerful fisherman he is. It's done more to "stir the pot" as some of the folks there call it, than to actually profess his prowess...but it sure gets folks going when he does it. At first, I did not like Bill at all, but that was a year ago, and MikeP (Ditch Jigger) told me then that he'd grow on me...I doubted it! Well, it didn't take long after that for me to understand Bill better, and even though we're both as hard headed as they come, we get along fine now! The funny part about Bill's stirring the pot, he can manage to get 20 or so guys all wound up with his profession of greatness...the rest of us just laugh, but it can make for some interesting posts. Robert Williams, who I nicknamed "The Wordmeister" last year, responded to one of Bill's "greatest surfcaster" threads with this all time classic, fittingly titled "The Gospel of Bill." It's a great read, don't take the Biblical references to seriously, it is all meant in good fun and I wouldn't post it here if I thought it was disrespectful of my faith in any way...or your faith for that matter! Read it, it's awesome, a testament to Robert Williams and his needle sharp wit! Thanks for both Robert and Bill for their "okeedoky" to clean it up and post it here, I love this one! :)

Charlie just called me, he's teasing me again, he's telling me there's a heat wave coming, like 35 degrees tomorrow night, and he wants to fish! I don't doubt that he wants to, but I'll be impressed if he actually gets out there. It would be nice, he hasn't been since December 4th, and I still need 36 more fish to get to 250. Paul called last night, he sounds ready to jump at the next non-Arctic night we get. Me, I'll go...as long as the wind isn't pumping over 20kts! Man, we've had some serious cold weather, and there's more coming on the other side of this little break we'll get tomorrow. Talking about brutal cold, it could send the rest of the striped warriors south, but I'm not sure what they're up to this year, they've been strange to say the least! I really want to keep up on their travels, I'd like to be able to document when they actually leave, this has been the longest year on record for keeper sized fish, my first was April 2, 1999 and my last so far was January 12, 2000. That's a pretty long season in any one's book, considering I don't take any "heroic measures" to preserve the season, I have never fished an artificially warmed area, like a power plant, just to extend the season. I'd really like to catch a keeper in the ocean in February....but only if the weathers not too bad! Back to the pages and pages of code...it's making my skull ache just thinkin' about it!

If you come across anything that doesn't work, or even hesitates too long, or is just plain acting funny, you can send an e-mail to problems@stripersonline.com and I'll get it looked at right away. Please, don't feel like you are bothering me with your questions and the "little" things that just don't appear right, I want to know about every one of them....the more problems you guys point out now, the faster we can get this all wrapped up and move onto some new and super cool features! I am aware of the following problems, so you don't need to send the following to me:
1.) The order page responds with a server error. Status: (Fixed)
2.) The Fishing Reports give an error with a new submittal. Status: (Fixed) Those are the only two that I am aware of, I would appreciate a scream if you bump into anything else, I'd appreciate it much!

I've also setup a place for your suggestions! At the moment, I'm asking you to send all suggestions to: suggestions@stripersonline.com. If you guys would like, I could make a suggestions page where you can all see the suggestions of your fellow striper brethren...or we could just keep it between you and I with the e-mail. Until further notice, I'll keep the suggestions to myself, but will respond to each one personally and let you know what I think...that's how we will make this site great, communication!

Also, I have been working on a page for your fly, jig, and teaser tying needs. I've got fly hooks on there at substantial discounts and both regular and saltwater bucktails per each and in quantity. The saltwater bucktails have hair at least 4" long on them! In the stores, these go for as much as $6.50, I got 'em there for $4.00! Regular northern deer tails, in loads of colors, for $2.95! I'm offering white and yellow tails in quantities of 10 for $25.00 and $35.00, northern and saltwater tails respectively. Also, there are Mustad, Tiemco, and Daiichi hooks there as well. I'll be adding to this page regularly, until it's got all the stuff I want to put there for tying...like thread, scissors, glue, epoxy, paint, etc.

Well, back to work, maybe I'll bump into you on Surf Talk, I'll be around, just swamped....but happily so! :)

Again, I'd like to say hi to one of my newest daily readers...Hi Dad! Love ya lots!

Charlie Fact: According to my records, I've caught 214 stripers since Charlie's last trip on December 4th...a fair number of them were keepers...the fishing just continues on, even though the weather is becoming less and less pleasant, they keep on eatin'! **NOTE: I was secretly shooting for 200 before they left...now I'm thinking that might have been a bit pessimistic of me, let's see if I can get to 250 before they leave! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

January 20, 2000:

Good morning, it's snowing pretty good here right now, we're actually supposed to get the brunt of this winter storm, right here at the shore. They're talking about 4 inches or more. I know, that's not much of a storm, but in years past, we haven't seen 4 inches! I could easily do without the snow, it's just messes up the traffic for the most part. That's not true, the white blanket of snow gives the entire world a new, beautiful look! The white covering over everything is an awesome sight...and it messes up the traffic! :) Drive carefully, there was a good accident right outside this morning. Charlie's take on the snow or rain is that it makes people's "stupid gland" swell to like 10 times normal size! Although fairly unscientific in his approach, I'd have to agree that he's on to something here! ;)

I'm still threatening to go fishing, the snow doesn't bother me, actually I've done some pretty good bass fishing in the snow. To me, it's like the fog or drizzle, two of my favorite times to fish....only it's frozen! I'm sure the same barometric conditions exist in a snow storm as they do in a rain storm, only it's colder. All things considered, if the bass are around still, which I think they are, then today would be an excellent day/night to go fishing! I might give it a go this evening...I gotta see how I feel. The same conditions that make the fish feed are the same ones that make all my parts ache and hurt...it's a cruel fishing barometer...when I hurt the worst is often the best time to go fishing! After this snow passes, it's supposed to drop into the single digits again, and that's no fun for anyone!

If all goes well, I should have the chat and conference rooms up today. I think these tools are awesome! Used correctly, they are a way for people to communicate in real time, with a group of others involved...or just by themselves. The board will allow you to start your own rooms and chat with buddies by yourselves. You'll be able to do pretty much anything there that you want as far as who, how, and when you want to chat with folks. Same rules will apply as for Surf Talk, respect is the rule. I will start with not requiring registration to use the chat rooms, if there is so much as one instance of someone getting out of control, either using profane language or just plain being disrespectful, then I will require registration with a valid e-mail address. I can pretty much find out who you are in my access logs if I need to, but by registering, people will feel more accountable for what they write. I don't think by the quality of the people here that there will be any reason to force you to register, I've been constantly impressed by the caliber of the folks here, I just want you to know that if I need to, I will force registration to use the rooms.

Thanks again to everyone, I'm getting excellent suggestions every day! As DanO would say "You guys rule!" :)

Yesterday, Robert "the Wordmeister" Williams reposted a classic from last year on the WMI board. I had looked for it a month ago, but could not find it! First, you have to understand the target of his humor, the great fisherman, Bill Nolan. Seems once Bill's season shuts down up in RI/MA, he drops by the WMI Board to remind us, the mere "mortals" what a great and powerful fisherman he is. It's done more to "stir the pot" as some of the folks there call it, than to actually profess his prowess...but it sure gets folks going when he does it. At first, I did not like Bill at all, but that was a year ago, and MikeP (Ditch Jigger) told me then that he'd grow on me...I doubted it! Well, it didn't take long after that for me to understand Bill better, and even though we're both as hard headed as they come, we get along fine now! The funny part about Bill's stirring the pot, he can manage to get 20 or so guys all wound up with his profession of greatness...the rest of us just laugh, but it can make for some interesting posts. Robert Williams, who I nicknamed "The Wordmeister" last year, responded to one of Bill's "greatest surfcaster" threads with this all time classic, fittingly titled "The Gospel of Bill." It's a great read, don't take the Biblical references to seriously, it is all meant in good fun and I wouldn't post it here if I thought it was disrespectful of my faith in any way...or your faith for that matter! Read it, it's awesome, a testament to Robert Williams and his needle sharp wit! Thanks for both Robert and Bill for their "okeedoky" to clean it up and post it here, I love this one! :)

Also, I have been working on a page for your fly, jig, and teaser tying needs. I've got fly hooks on there at substantial discounts and both regular and saltwater bucktails per each and in quantity. The saltwater bucktails have hair at least 4" long on them! In the stores, these go for as much as $6.50, I got 'em there for $4.00! Regular northern deer tails, in loads of colors, for $2.95! I'm offering white and yellow tails in quantities of 10 for $25.00 and $35.00, northern and saltwater tails respectively. Also, there are Mustad, Tiemco, and Daiichi hooks there as well. I'll be adding to this page regularly, until it's got all the stuff I want to put there for tying...like thread, scissors, glue, epoxy, paint, etc.

Well, back to work, maybe I'll bump into you on Surf Talk, I'll be around, just swamped....but happily so! :)

Again, I'd like to say hi to one of my newest daily readers...Hi Dad! Love ya lots!

Charlie Fact: According to my records, I've caught 214 stripers since Charlie's last trip on December 4th...a fair number of them were keepers...the fishing just continues on, even though the weather is becoming less and less pleasant, they keep on eatin'! **NOTE: I was secretly shooting for 200 before they left...now I'm thinking that might have been a bit pessimistic of me, let's see if I can get to 250 before they leave! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

January 21, 2000:

Good morning folks, if you live within 1000 miles of me, you too are diggin' out today...and your freezing while you're doing it! We got somewhere around 4-5 inches by the beach here in NJ, I hear you guys up north and east really got hammered. No real use for snow when the air temps are in the single digits, not for me anyway! So, I'll cross my fingers and say a prayer that some odd shift of the Jet Stream will bring back my 50 degrees damp nights that I so love...otherwise, it's time to call this season over. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling it over because I fear all the fish are gone, I'm calling it over because I won't be participating on a regular basis...I might still get out a couple times, just to see. But, for the most part, the regular trips just won't happen when the air hurts your hands! I still plan on trying for the most elusive of all unicorns, the February surf caught keeper, but I'll look for a real nice February night to try it! Hey, this season had to end sometime, cause it all starts over again for me in late March/early April, again, depending on the air temps. I might be sadistic in the heat of the season, but I've never been one to rush their arrival! I just don't get much pleasure out of freezing my butt off for nights on end waiting for the first one of the season, and I don't fish bait waiting for them to return either. I nose around some back bay spots with a fly rod, my first one comes on the fly rod every year...it's better that way for me!

Yesterday I let you guys loose on Surf Chat, and some of you with firewalls could not get in. All that means is your firewall is working correctly! :) Them's the breaks. Anyway, many folks cruised by for the 3 fifteen minute periods that I was there, I'm sure some others were hangin' out while I wasn't there. It's pretty sharp to be able to communicate real-time like that with people I've either never met or only get to see a handful of times each year. Again, a chat room is something that we've always been taught was a bad thing, a place for undesirables to hang out and stalk children or women...not on our chat room they won't! I was thinking about just leaving it open all the time for anyone to use...but then I started to think about it, I think it would be better if I required free registration, just to keep everything, as JohnM would say, "above board." I'm not real sure just yet how to handle it, but I'm not worried, it'll come to me! A little how-to on the chat. On the right hand side, there's two tabs, Rooms and Users. You click on Rooms and it will show you all the rooms on the top portion and one the bottom portion will be all the rooms with folks in them, including the number of folks to the left of the room name. Click on the room, then on Users and you can see who's in there! To enter the chat, highlight the words "enter your name here" and then type your name and click the Login button. You're in! Click the help button to the lower right, it'll tell you how to change your handle if you made a mistake and will also give you some other commands. I plan on having a place where folks can request chat topics and times. I'll make sure we get to use this awesome tool, and I'll host any topic personally if guys ask for me to do so. There's more info on the page that the link will take you to and there's more coming in the way of registration and a place to request topics and times, but in the mean time, feel free to e-mail folks and meet them there or post on Surf Talk and get folks together for a topic or two. Another use, you can get the link to friends or family that are far away and talk to them for free instead of paying long distance...compliments of StripersOnline! I know you'll all behave, you all know I have some tricks up my sleeves for finding out who's not being nice, but I hate to have to track someone down for abusing a tool that is there for good reasons! If anyone runs into something/someone that's out of line there, e-mail me, and let me know their handle and the approximate time, I'll find out all I can about them and if I have to, ban them from my domain. Drastic? Yes, but I want everyone here to feel comfortable in any are of this site, I'll do whatever it takes to have it remain so.

Hope you all have a great day, and remember to keep young Kraig in your prayers. One of our friends, KenK has asked us to keep his son and family in our prayers as Kraig is going through some tough times. See the "Future Surfcaster needs your prayers" thread on Surf Talk for all the details. We're praying and pulling for you Kraig and Ken, in God's hands is about the safest place you can be.

Charlie Fact: According to my records, I've caught 214 stripers since Charlie's last trip on December 4th...a fair number of them were keepers...the fishing just continues on, even though the weather is becoming less and less pleasant, they keep on eatin'! **NOTE: I was secretly shooting for 200 before they left...now I'm thinking that might have been a bit pessimistic of me, let's see if I can get to 250 before they leave! :)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent