March 6, 2000:

  Monday again....but things are really looking up on the fishing front...the rumors and reports have started rolling in! DanO...don't buy them worms just yet...hang back another few days at least ;)  All this warm weather, I'd expect this to be one of the earliest spring bites in a while....I won't get out there just yet, I've never been known to rush the season...it's long enough the way it is! Sure, I might drag it out in January hoping to catch each and every one of them as they move south past us...but I'm not crazy about fishing long, cold nights in March trying to get a few bites! And I'm about the last person you'll find out there soaking worms to get a few bites! Hey, not that soaking worms is all bad...it does give me some insight as to the size and number of the unicorns that are about...so you worm soakers, keep me up to date, huh? :)  It's inevitable, it'll happen...they'll start to hit artificials...I'll hear about it...maybe I'll be the one to say it. Regardless, once that action starts, it's back to the grind...fishing till yer arms feel like they're gonna fall off, long Friday nights...and Saturday nights...and God willing and the fish as well, maybe Sunday nights! Hope you guys are all caught up on your sleep...and your sick days....and your brownie points...you're certainly going to need them if you're gonna keep up with us! :^)  Man, that's the last thing I'd wish on any one of you...we fish such a hectic schedule that sanity becomes something you long for...sleep deprivation that would have made purveyors of such torture envious...and come Monday, we look like it! Who's complaining? To me, there's God, Carole my wife, my friends and family....and our striped quarry that make me whole...complete....a functioning human being! Remove any one of them, I'm a goner, toast, history....don't wanna think about it! :^)  Actually, I could probably live without the striped guys for a couple months...any longer than that, I'd be painting pajamas on the largemouths in all the local lakes, just to maintain some form of sanity! So, bottom line....they are coming...no, better than that...they are here...they are just being quiet about it for now...don't rush them, they will soon be crawling into all your waking hours...and your sleep....and, God willing, your hours on the beach!  OK...I'm gonna stop all this kinda talk before I get myself all wound up and find myself waiting in line for a flat of worms that can bit your fingers at first light tomorrow....perish the though!

 Well, the chat room freaked out on us at the Weekend Wrap Up...it was weird...scary even. Some folks were unaffected...some couldn't type one line without getting "da' boot!"  Jim-DE and I nosed around...looked at some stuff...met some odd characters in the IRC version of my chat...and came back to find that things had more or less stabilized.  Good...I will double check on everything today, make sure everything's cool with the chat...but it was weird!  Ron Sutton stopped by...for you that don't know this fine gentleman...I call him the "Bearing Guy"....he's the guy that's got the goods on the fancy bearing replacements for all the shiny conventional reels that we all like so much. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of a chance to talk to him...it was right in the middle of the revolving door issues! I'll catch up with ya today Ron! Mike from Cape Cod Tackle was hangin' with da' crew last night...he spoke of herring moving into a lot of places already...and this is on the Cape!?!  Hmmm...I'm smelling an early spring!  To the couple new guys I ran into in the chat last night, hello....welcome...make yourselves at home...stop by the Town Tavern on SurfTalk and ask Robert to show you around! :) Jim-DE;...I fixed the email link down below my name here...hope that makes the tedious task of firing me off an email in the middle of the night a little easier for ya! :^)  So much going on folks, I beg for your forgiveness if I dropped the ball along the way with any of the things you guys have asked me about....please, don't be shy, fire me off another email...I won't be insulted! In fact, I'll graciously accept the reminder!  Things are getting under control a little better right this minute, but I'm sure this is only temporary. :)  

  Well, that's it for now, there's a ton of other stuff going on, I wanna expand the conservation section and get more of you involved...I'm not sure how, but we have a lot of folks here who are quite like minded when it comes to the conservation of our beloved unicorns. I would love to find a way that we could harness some of our displeasure with the way things are currently being handled and turn it into something positive and productive.....any volunteers or any suggestions...let me know suggestions@stripersonline.com We are working on "Old Spooks" website right now, trying to get it over here, tuned up a tad, and grooving! Here's a guy who's devoted a website to helping disabled folks better enjoy thier fishing.  He helps them find specialized items, reel, repairs, access, etc...I figured what better way to help promote his good will than to move his site over here, give him a super cool sub domain like "3forks.stripersonline.com" and help get the word out about what I think is just plain good will on his part! Hey, I can be a nice guy, too....no matter what the WMI folks might say! ;)  

   Please check check out our new survey! StripersOnline Survey  This is a preliminary survey, the information will periodically change to help us have a better understanding of how we can help you to catch more stripers. Much as our family is growing it's getting harder and harder to remember the person behind each of the names we are seeing around here. The survey only take about 1 minute and the results are immediately available in a graph format so you can see how the other guys/gals answered. While your name and e-mail are required, they are not viewable to the other folks taking the survey, only to the me!  There's no limit to the number of questions and answers that can be incorporated into the survey so if you'd like to see other questions asked, send us an email at suggestions@stripersonline.com and we'll get right on it! 

   There will be additions to the fly/teaser supplies page this week, Mustad 34185 and 34184 Jig Hooks are now there. They are the same forged hooks that I use in the jigs. Zap-A-Gap is also on there...we'll, not literally. :)  I will also add thread, peacock herl, crystal flash, mylar piping for the bodies of flies and teasers.  Coming soon...many, many new things as far as products go!  Lamiglass and a few choice Penn reels, blanks from many manufacturers, bombers, Mega Bites, Yozuri, Ultimus Rigged Eels and tin squids. Gamakatsu and Owner hooks. Andy and Berkley lines...including Whiplash and Big Game. Power Pro (not for me...just for you guys that love it...we all know how I feel about it :)) Charlie's trying to talk me into a custom, surf ready version of the Mambo Minnow...all the brands currently available need to have both the split rings and the hooks changed...he thinks it would behoove us to buy the bodies in bulk, put on "real" hardware, and market them. Yes, there are about 4 companies selling them now...but not one of them is surf ready...they all have weak hooks and splits. Doesn't it seem silly to buy a $4 or $5 dollar lure and then have to put nearly a dollar's worth of hardware on it?  Hmmm...it just started sounding funny to me...I used to buy $5 Bombers only to put $3 worth of hardware on them in the form of Gamakatsu hooks!  Egads!! What was I thinking?!  :) I'm working on many new deals with nice folks from all over the country...I'm starting to feel like I'm headed towards a Cabela's type of situation...but the one thing that will differ....there won't be stuff here that I don't give my personal two thumbs up...except for Power Pro...but I'm gonna stop saying that. :)  The next thing up should be the Lamiglas pricing...followed shortly by a flurry of stuff! Save yer allowance...this is gonna get interesting!

   Check out the complete archives of every single main page that has ever been written on this site...give you an idea what we've all been up to before your arrival! Also:

Click here to let your friends know and help this site grow!

  I've now made Gift Certificates available for StripersOnline! You can just print out the gift certificate page and leave it laying around...drop a few hints about your birthday or whatever and before you know it, you're shopping! :)

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. **Shipping them will resume Monday!! I ran out of the coveted green chartreuse hackles that make the Chernobyl Hackle Deceiver so delicious...but that was rectified over the weekend!

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent

March 7, 2000:

UPDATE: Just put up an update from Tom Fote concerning the continued pillaging of our natural environment. Seems our federal government would like to set a precedent and "sell" the sand that we all own to a private commercial firm. This is a dangerous precedent. Of course NJ is the target, I guess the bad guys know that we'll pretty much let them do whatever they want for the right price. Anyway, check out the letter...it's actually from Frank Pallone, Jr. but forwarded by Tom Fote. Click here for the Sand Mining Hearing.

   Man, I wish all the "arrangements" we're trying to make around here were moving along as quickly as this spring appears to be! The wheels of progress are slowly grinding along....but I guess that's better than going backwards. I finally got word back from a Lami source I was planning on using...for "special" rods...you know, the ones we use in the surf, they come directly from the factory and they can take anywhere from a week to 2 month to deliver!?!  I was furious...why would anyone in their right mind want to wait an undetermined amount of time up to 2 months for a rod? Got me...I'll be on the phone tomorrow trying to find a wholesaler who stocks all the "special" rods that we've come to know as normal...go figure.  I do enjoy playing with all the latest and greatest when it comes to hooks, lures, and shiny stuff though!  We will keep you posted as things snap into place. 

 I worked on a petition form yesterday...it's future uses will be to make a loud, collective *sigh* each time in the future where it appears that we, the non-commercial recreational angler have our interests tossed to the floor. Dredging, ocean dumping, sand mining, beach restoration, ridiculously small minimum size limits on stripers, overly restrictive limits on fluke...my God, I could go on forever with that list! That's pretty sad. Anyway, the initial petition, a test if you will, worked great...except that each time it was taken, it only counted the last person to fill it out...oops!  Back to the drawing board. There are over 1000 people visiting this page on a daily basis...there are far more than that who ignore this page and go straight to SurfTalk ....to each his own, when it comes to the fishing season...well, those folks just might miss out on some pretty good info! ;^) I figure as we draw more and more folks here our collective voice might just be able to be heard...at least to some degree. It can't hurt to try and it's a lot better than just moaning amongst ourselves and trying to solve the problems between us. Yea, I'm the first to admit that we often don't make one bit of difference in the outcome of many decisions...they are made "for" us even before we are asked our opinions at public meetings and such...but if we don't make some kind of noise, we'll certainly continue to get tossed the scraps. 

  With all this nice weather, the bass are sure to be right around the corner, it's time to blow the dust off your stuff and get ready to do battle!  I'm not even really planning a trip just yet...but Charlie did make the suggestion that we give a couple spots a little peek over the weekend.  Who am I to complain...I agreed with him that we should, but in the past few weeks, each time we made plans, it snowed....or rained...or somehow or another "washed us out!"  Soon.....soon it will be time to start for real!  

Please check check out our new survey! StripersOnline Survey  This is a preliminary survey, the information will periodically change to help us have a better understanding of how we can help you to catch more stripers. Much as our family is growing it's getting harder and harder to remember the person behind each of the names we are seeing around here. The survey only take about 1 minute and the results are immediately available in a graph format so you can see how the other guys/gals answered. While your name and e-mail are required, they are not viewable to the other folks taking the survey, only to the me!  There's no limit to the number of questions and answers that can be incorporated into the survey so if you'd like to see other questions asked, send us an email at suggestions@stripersonline.com and we'll get right on it! 

   Check out the complete archives of every single main page that has ever been written on this site...give you an idea what we've all been up to before your arrival! 

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent