Back from the Ditch...... 

June 26, 2000:

  UPDATE: I've just recently learned that, once again, in our absence, some good sized fish were taken this weekend...there's also a rumor that our club may have won our third tournament this season! Jerry T had a 27# fish and Mark H had 27#, 28#, and 34# stripers this weekend. I'm told these fish were surf caught but I dunno what they ate...at least, not yet! ;^) This means the big fellas that were in IBSP are making their way north now. Just thought you might wanna know!

     I think that's it for a while, this past Ditch trip was the slowest of the now 5 trips that Charlie and I have made there up to this point! I guess the fishing is just off up there...at least in the Ditch it was. From my point of view, it appeared that the place was just barren! Granted, we didn't fish ourselves into the normal fishing coma's that we used to, but we did keep the place as honest as a couple fellas can! It didn't start out much different than most, we arrived at the east end at about 3:30 am or so. We stopped in RI for a little look-see...but our directions were slightly lacking at the point where the street signs were also lacking...a wrong turn put us in a different location than we were looking for...but it looked enough like the description of the intended location that we geared up and walked to the water. That was when I noticed how different this place was from where we were supposed to be. Hey, we're new up there, never saw RI shoreline before! On the way out of there, we realized where we went wrong...there was no sign where there should have been on the way in, but on the way out, the signs showed us which way we should have gone...after the fact, but better late than never! It was getting late, we decided to bag it and continue on to the Ditch, a place we at least knew how to get around. Notes were made about this RI area and a return there is imminent. Back to the Ditch....we arrived around 3:30am...and were greeted by the one thing you can absolutely count on at the east end - JPowers! ;^) We've voted him "best dressed" Ditch fisherman, two years running now! He picks us out of the darkness by the sound of Korkers on concrete...I don't know how these guys fish the weedy rocks without Korkers, but as JP noted, only the "tourists" wear them here. Silly locals, slippery rocks and weeds demand cleats of some sort or another! Anyway, he wasn't fishing, but resting between attacks when we met up with him...and he told us tales of woe and no fishes that evening. I tried to talk with him, he shooed me along and said "We'll talk in the daylight". Alrighty then, we continued west a lil bit, took up our pretty much standard positions, and began firing. As is the custom, we were in within a few minutes, I was in. A decent fish, 32" or so, had inhaled the 2 1/2 smilin' bill w/ Pork-O (now our favorite pork trailers!). Then Charlie hooked up, a lil guy, but a fish. Then he hooked up again...another lil guy. This is pretty much the pattern at this spot lately, I get one or two fish less than Charlie, but mine are substantially bigger...only at this spot, but that's the way it seems to work here...weird. We shuffle around a bit, I lose one, then I land another, in the low 30 inch range again....and Charlie lands another, bigger than the first two, but still short.  We miss a few and drop a few, but that's pretty much it here, not much at all going on. JP lands a short.  We run into Harrible (Harry) who's now firing shots with JP at one of their preferred foot holds. Haven't seen Harrible since last year, we shoot the breeze a bit and fire a few ourselves...nothing doing. More idle chatter and we're on our way for grub and sleep....plans made for that evening. 

    Bottom line, we fished hard Friday night, I landed 4 fish, one short, 2 around 30-32", and one 38 1/2" fish.  All but the biggest and smallest ate the MegaBait 4 1/2oz jig, in the dark...something I wouldn't have thought they'd do, but Charlie scored last trip up on them in the dark. Charlie landed one nice fish on the MB jig that tide as well. The biggest fish and the smallest at the 2 1/2oz Smilin' Bill w/Pork-O. We both had a heck of a time with technical problems and snags that night, neither of which we usually run into at this location. I lost a total of 6 jigs, 3 MB jigs and 3 SB jigs....a normal night there you might lose one jig...this was odd. Charlie busted a fish off, line issues. By 12:30am, we were done, a total of 3 hours fishing in our favorite spot at our favorite tide had shown us only 5 stripers. We checked another spot after a cup of coffee, each missed one hit, but the tide was so done by then, we headed for camp even though daylight and a tide change were gonna happen pretty soon, we were pooped. Saturday night, as planned, we ran into Saltheart. He's pretty much a fishing partner up that way, doing whatever he can to come out and meet up with us each trip. Between him and JPowers, Charlie and I always feel at home up there! We waited together for the tide to do something east...and as soon as it did, we got a few bumps. Charlie landed the first critter, a keeper...then I landed one...another keeper.....then Charlie again...I missed a couple....and it slowed down. Charlie went to play with the ever abundant lobsters and Saltheart and I continued to work over this rip. Then through the bushes comes JPowers and his fishing buddy for the night, Guy. We did the socializing thing for a couple minutes, talked about the terrible fishing reports we traded with each other based on the prior night...poor JP fished a big piece of the Ditch the prior evening and met up with only one small unicorn...and he found, like I did, that the snags on the bottom were far hungrier than normal! We spread out a bit, the little rip we were fishing can only handle a couple/few guys, Guy and JP took up stations 75yds east of us.  Saltheart whiffs on a decent shot...then sticks 'em on the next cast. After a short scuffle, he release a nice 30" fish. Then I whiff on a good shot...and stick one on the next cast...smaller than Saltheart's, but a keeper on the MegaBait jig. And that's it, other than sea weed, no other fish were hooked for another hour or so of jigging...and the sea weed was becoming a real hassle. Charlie had played with the lobsters long enough, JP and Guy had checked in our their way elsewhere, confirming first that the bottom where they fished was now to be called "The Graveyaad" (that's how it sounded to me anyway ;^)) for all the lost jigs they donated....and Saltheart and I were done piling up sea weed around our feet. JP and Guy were going to try and acquire some baits and fish them elsewhere, we said our good byes.  As Charlie, Saltheart, and I made our ways back to the truck, that feeling of defeat was setting in...Charlie and I had jigged the fabled Ditch for a total of about 7 hours (in the dark) and landed a meager 14 stripers....we said good bye to Saltheart and decided to pack for home. Never a bad trip, the Ditch and the people there are reason enough to plan a return trip, but after this whoopin', we decided that we need to spend a little more time closer to home, keepin' NJ honest for a while..... Thanks again to Mo at the Herring Run Inn, she's always a gracious host. We called on Thursday night for a room for Friday and Saturday night. She not only hooked us up with a room, but told us which one and told us where she'd put the key so we could crash there long before official check-in time. She's the best.  

    The TripleFish page is now up and functional! Also, the Fireline and Rigged Eel pages are also up! On the Lex Lures front, we've just added the 2 1/2oz SOLaris Popper...I weighed them, they all weighed between 2.5 and 2.8 oz, these are the bombs you guys are looking for. In addition to that, now you can get them and the smaller size with bucktailed Siwash hooks. A new color Surfster is available now, in the same blue scale finish as the A-40. 

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

Local Front 

June 27, 2000:

  There were some nice fish caught again in our absence....that's ok, we're getting used to it! Some extremely nice fish...some in the mid 40# class even. It seems the big gals are following the schools of bunker that are out there, making occassional forays to the beaches. For the most part, fresh bunker parts are scoring well...calico crabs are due to start being a preferred bait...and all that means is it's quickly turning the corner to rigged eel season! The lack of fishable jetties is sure to really sting as we prepare to throw the rigged wonders this year, we have even fewer choices this year than last...and last year it was tough to find the right jetty and have it to yourself. This year will be a challenge indeed. Rigged eel season is a time when we pray for those hard SE afternoon blows that peter out just around dark...the kind that drop the water temp 5 or 6 degrees in a few hours....the kind that make the water so much cooler than the air that when you walk up to the jetty, the blast of cold air almost stops you in your tracks! Those are good times...especially if the waters got a good roll to it! With the much bigger weakfish around this year, they'll certainly be caught on the rigged eels as well, but they'll slice up the real eels like a razor blade, I'm sure the smaller ones will be cursed and the 10# + weaks will be welcomed.  Razorlips, they will all be cursed and feared whilst the real eels are swimming...nothing else alive can nip doubled 80# braid and barely bend the rod like these things! Grrrr......this is where my hatred for the blue devils is founded....rigging an eel is time consuming, each one is a work of art...to have a rat bastage cut the thing in half is heart breaking to say the least! Last year, now good friend Plug asked me to write something about how to rig eels...and I did. It's now a part of this site...I just re-read it recently, made a couple changes and am quite proud of the outcome. This evening will be a likely candidate for a rigged eel trip...I'm getting myself all worked up just talking about it!

   I'm feeling very out of touch with the local fishing at the moment, usually we're fishing 5 nights a week locally, staying in tune with what's going on and where...but with our recent Cape Cod trips and a one nighter on Long Island, we've sadly forsaken the local waters. This is the very time that I swore to myself that I would spend considerable time plying the local haunts...and that's just what we're gonna do, it's time and the LARGE are around. For the next few weeks, I'm gonna re-familiarize myself with the local happenin's. The run of LARGE bass down Island Beach is still going on, most are being taken on bunker parts or clams, but there's a good showing of fish eating plugs and jigs down that way. If that place is in your agenda, make sure you get down towards the end. The north jetty can be the hot spot...on the inside, throw jigs, live eels, and plugs...and on the outside throw live eels and plugs....on the front, if you don't mind the walk, throw everything! Be respectful of anyone already out there, don't crowd the fellas that made the trip before you got there, they deserve enough room to fish as they were before your arrival. By doing this, you can expect the folks that get out after you to give you that same room...if they don't, ask them politely to give you some room. Most folks are willing to work it out, some will be rude and impolite...handle it however you will, keep in mind that fishing under these stressful conditions is no longer fun. Impolite bastages are everywhere, it's best to either suffer through it, don't give up your footing so they "win", keep fishing. Sadly, most times, the rude and impolite folks are also the ones that don't mind fishing with a bad attitude, most times, I'll stand my ground only long enough to show them how much they have intruded...longer than that and I get too stressed...fishing is supposed to be fun, relaxing, and enjoyable...I'll go elsewhere and find a place I can enjoy fishing. Impolite and rude people suck, to put it bluntly, try not to be one, first come first served is the way a jetty should be handled...sadly, they usually aren't. 'Nuff said, I'll get myself all worked up and end up with my foot in my mouth, we'll leave it as is! I haven't had much run in with rude folks this year, most likely cause I haven't fished locally all that much! ;^)

  So, big fish are around, get out there and get bit! With the right conditions, I might just find myself fishing fresh bunker parts in the near future, they are deadly when the schools of bunker are off the beach a bit. The big gals certainly home in on that oily nasty bunker smell, no reason to not do it, it works and it's easier on the back than humping gear across jetty after jetty. I'll also look forward to doing a little calico crab fishing in the near future...but I hear the crab raking has been terrible lately. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, I'd rather score on rigged eels, but I'll not be above throwing fish heads if that's the only way to score one of these mid 40# bass that are right at our doorstep! Now where did I put those sand spikes? ;^)

  The TripleFish page is now up and functional! Also, the Fireline and Rigged Eel pages are also up! On the Lex Lures front, we've just added the 2 1/2oz SOLaris Popper...I weighed them, they all weighed between 2.5 and 2.8 oz, these are the bombs you guys are looking for. In addition to that, now you can get them and the smaller size with bucktailed Siwash hooks. A new color Surfster is available now, in the same blue scale finish as the A-40. 

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

The Stuff....and why maybe sharp hooks are bad 

June 29, 2000:

  I must say, things are coming along quite well in the    here at StripersOnline. Nary a day goes by when something new isn't added there, if you don't keep snooping around there, you'll end up missing some of the new things there! Briefly, here are some of the things we're now carrying for your shopping convenience ;^) MegaBait Plugs, MegaBait Jigs, Lex Lures (new ones too!), Bombers, our own Smilin' Bills, our own ball jigs, our own shad jigs (both ball and shad jigs will soon be available painted), Fireline, Whiplash, Fin-S-Fish, 9" Slugg-O's, Uncle Josh (page coming soon), Pork-O's (page coming soon, Mr. Twisters in 5" and 6" sizes (page coming soon), Mustad fly hooks, Mustad jig hooks, Daiichi fly hooks, Tiemco fly hooks, Zap-A-Gap, Trilene Big Game line, TripleFish fluorocarbon (both 50yd and 125yd spools, 50# test coming soon!), Ultimus eel squids, Ultimus rubber eels, rigging supplies including dacron and two brands of tail hooks, SOL eel squids, every color bucktail, 1 oz bags of strung saddle hackles, black brass machined Clouser eyes (on pages soon), prism eyes for fly tying (on pages soon), peacock herl (on pages soon), ostrich herl in 3 colors (on pages soon), deer body hair in 3 colors (on pages soon), hook sharpeners (on pages soon), Rapala Super Shad Raps (on pages soon), Sampo snaps and swivels (on pages soon), Mustad 3X short shank replacement trebles for plugs, SBPro swivels (on pages soon), Rebel Windcheaters (on pages soon), Korkers (on pages soon), Bronco Bags, Cortland Spectron (on pages soon), HoldZit tool protectors (on pages soon), Penn Mag 525 reels (on pages soon), Neptune 7500 reels (back ordered!), SA System II fly reels (on pages soon), a complete (almost, working on adding clousers and 1/2&1/2's to the pages!) custom fly/teaser selection including impossible to find Tabory's Slab Flies and Popovic's Silicone Mullet,  and even cyalume light sticks for your rods so you can watch them get bounced around in the dark! Whew...that sounds like a lot, no? Here are the things that are coming very soon: Lamiglas rods, Abu Garcia reels (6500 Mags, 6500 C-4, and 7000 sized reels), Hab's Plugs, Power Pro line, Red Gill teasers, Gibb's Plugs, and a ton of other stuff! Did I miss anything? ;^) If you guys can think of other stuff that you'd like to see here, lemme know! Boy, looking at the list, it's kind of amazing how much stuff we've deemed worthy to put in your hands...from the beginning, I promised that only useful, functional, and proven items would be available here, you won't find us pawning of 3 1/2oz Gibb's swimmers that no one else wants...you won't find us selling Bronco Bags full of all the things that no one else would buy...just the things that we've found to be most useful in striper fishing...if it's for sale here, it has proven it's worth, our word on it!

   I'd love to tell you all about the wonderful fishing that I've been experiencing back home here in NJ...but sadly, the highlight of my last trip with Paul was the hour we spent removing a size 1 Mustad treble from my left arm :( Yup, I'm starting to feel like ole Capt. Bumps and Bruises! (GMiller for those of you that aren't familiar with his latest moniker)  Since it was the most exciting portion of my evening, I'll tell you about it anyway. So I'm fishing...throwing plugs into the vast wasteland that used to contain striped bass that would gobble up plugs and teasers....and I'm minding my own business when my plug hangs up on a rock about 20 feet away. No big deal, it's happened a thousand times before. It wasn't really stuck, it just wouldn't reel in anymore...I hadn't set up on it yet. So, much as I've always done in the past, I give the rod a couple light yanks to free the plug. Much as has happened many times before, the plug was released from the offending rock and was now headed for me...going quite slow I might add, more of a lob. Much as has happened time and time again, I instinctively move my left arm slightly in front of me to protect all the important stuff that we carry on our fronts...and just like all the other times, the plug landed harmlessly on my clothing somewhere or another...except, this time when I reached over to remove the plug from my clothing, I happened to note that I was wearing short sleeves....and the "shirt" the plug was stuck in was really my left arm, just above my elbow. No big deal, we've all had plugs hang from us before, we usually bleed a little and get back to fishing. Not this time, I noticed that one of the entire points of the front treble was completely buried in my arm, couldn't even see it! That sudden twinge of "uh oh" swept through my mind..... I told Paul that I was having some "issues" and as he approached, I showed him the new "bomber-wear" that I was sporting. I think he liked it, he immediately tried to take it from me...luckily, I had the barb buried deep in my arm, he was gonna have to earn this bomber-wear if he wanted it so bad! ;^) With my free hand, my right one, pretty much useless as I'm a lefty, I deftly grabbed my trusty multi-tool, cleaned cut the hook...which was no easy feat, there wasn't any hook showing till I pulled it out a bit...and then decided this was gonna require some planning. My arm was in some kinda shock....my mind watched what Paul and I were doing to my arm, but my arm didn't complain as loudly as my mind thought it should...which is good, it certainly looked a lot more painful than it actually was. Now, the hooks cut, the rod's on the ground, and I'm at this thing with my right (useless...I'm lefty, remember?) hand. My biggest concern is that the cut end of the hooks is going to pop inside my arm with the rest of the buried part...and that would mean a certain trip to the ole 'mergency room...and I have an affinity to waiting for anything! I grab the tiny end of the hook that's external to my arm....and even though I know you're not supposed to, I pulled....and I pulled hard...I needed to get enough hook outside so that when I turned it to try and poke a new hole, it wouldn't get all hung up on something important....it seems most of the really important stuff in your arm is pretty deep down...luckily! So, I've got enough hook out backwards that I can begin trying to poke a new hole in my arm through which I can pull to hook. I was amazed at how tough the human skin really is! I mean, my hooks are very sharp, they always are...and this one was sharp enough to penetrate my arm, straight in over an inch, on just a lob from the rocks...but it was nearly impossible to poke it through the skin. I'm pushing as hard as I can with the pliers....and Paul's trying to push the skin down around the hook point...I only wish we had pictures ;^) Eventually, the hook point poke through just a tiny bit....we rip and tear at it some more...and finally, the pliers can catch the tip of the hook. Now we expected this to be over...nope. Even with a death grip on the pliers, Paul and I were having a very difficult time getting the hook through the skin! After a good many pulls, lots of tugging, stretching my skin far from my arm...I get one really good grip....and I pull...I mean really pull....the kinda "put-yer-feet-against-the-wall-and-lean-into-it" kinda pull! The hook pops through the skin and outta my arm...I'm now holding bloody pliers in my right hand, the offending hook part still in the jaws...my left arm has decided that a slow steady stream of blood would be appropriate...I wanna keep the intruding hook part for a memento. We rinse the new boo-boo off with fresh water from my water bottle...and I say to Paul "Which jetty's next?" Did I mention that I like to fish? ;^)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

Happy 4th, I'm on a mission 

June 30, 2000:

   Happy Friday folks...happier for the many of you that aren't working today, but happy none the less for you folks that are just for the sake of it being Friday and the outlook of a long weekend! Yea, they'll be hordes of folks invading this area to bake in the sun and splash in the waves, God bless 'em, I'm not much for either the sun or swimming in the suds. I do enjoy fireworks however and fishing around here at night for a couple weeks around the 4th, you can often see town after town lighting up the sky with their own pyrotechnic displays...it's been years since I drove into a crowed little town, being herded like cattle to watch the fireworks intentionally, that's just not my idea of fun either. We do get to see at least a dozen different towns blowin' up the sky while fishing, that's plenty for me! 

   I am on a humongous losing streak when it comes to the fishing locally. Yes, it can be tough this time of year, but circumstances have been rough for me to fish when the fishing is good....instead, I'm fishing when the timing is good...and much as Murphy's law would dictate, that's when the fishing's been just plain mean! :( I'm technically 5 trips now locally without one single strip landed...and I've only seen 2 little ones landed (Paul got lucky one night ;-) in those 5 trips. For the most part, the trips themselves have been a joke, two of them were for less than an hour of actual fishing...2 of them were during the brightest part of the moon at the lowest portion of the tides...one of the trips was well planned and I was surprised that we didn't score. Out of the 5 trips, 4 even felt like just casting practice...but that one trip, the one where Paul landed the two little fellas...the one where I got to wear a schoolbus bomber in my arm for a while...that one felt right. Sure, we missed the dropping tide (my preference) but we did fish a good portion of the incoming...there was no excuse for the fish not being around, throwing an occassional shot my way, but they were missing in action! So, what's the mission? Tonight....this evening...in the dark, I will break possibly the longest running (trip wise) skunk that I can remember! Sure, I could break down and throw bait to remove this striped monkey from my back, but that would break the tradition of skunk removal on their own terms! The last time I remember a multi trip skunk, a trip with the fly rod, getting back to basics was the cure....but I'm still without my jetty fly rods...both of them, the 9 and 11 weights are in the hands of the good folks at Orvis! They haven't been there that long yet, but it seems like two lifetimes!?!?! :( Hey Orvis folks, just send me something?!!?! I'm dying here, the skunks are starting to make themselves at home, a few hours on a jetty front in the middle of the night swimming snake flies and slab flies always gets me back in the groove, but a soft action 9 wt has no real place there, I need my Tridents back! Ok, I'll stop whining about the rods, sorry. 

   Here's the plan. Rigged eels, middle of the night, falling tide, treacherous "3-point" rock climbing...getting drenched, bugs crawling up your nostrils and chewing on your legs...sweat that won't stop stinging your eyes, small cuts on your hands burning from the sweat and salt water...and, God willing, some good fish. Sounds like fun, no? ;^)  It's time to leave all the plugs in the truck, spinning gear at the house, waders home too....shorts, bug spray (I don't like bugs in my nose), sneakers and cleats, gaff, eeling stick, and a bag of fresh rigged eels in my hip pack. This is minimalist fishing as minimalist as I ever get. Just snaps, fluoro, rigged eels, Zap-A-Gap (for repairs), pliers (for removing hooks...from me lately!), light, rod and gaff....and spare batteries if we're going on a walk-a-thon...and most important, a full water bottle! It seems when it's really steamy out doing this kind of fishing, I can drink a liter per jetty. I think it comes back out in sweat immediately, almost like thousands of tiny leaks. Water is important for any fishing efforts this time of year, when even the middle of the night is hot, muggy, and nasty....bring water. Now I just gotta put aside an hour or so to rig up my very first fresh rigged real eels for the season, clean and oil my Penn Mag 525, and stretch my back....I'm getting the feeling it's gonna be a long night............

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent