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| March 2000 Archives | |||
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| March Week 1 | March Week 2 | March Week 3 | March Week 4 |
| Mar 8, 2000 | Mar 9, 2000 | Mar 10, 2000 | Mar 11, 2000 | Mar 12, 2000 | Mar 13, 2000 | Mar 14, 2000 |
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March 8, 2000: This weather is certainly a blessing to all of us outdoors type folks, even I took advantage of it yesterday....just a taste mind you. I had the normal errands to run, bank, Post Office, Staples....you know, all the places where you feel more like cattle being processed as you wait in long lines than you feel a person. As I drove around, I couldn't help but notice just how absolutely perfect the weather was...not just "nice"...it was the perfect spring day (before the fishes come back...then I prefer clouds, rain, fog, drizzle...but that's another story.) I decided I'd drive along the beach for a tad before I immersed myself back into work. You know, a strictly fact finding mission...make sure it was still there...still liquid and all that stuff. It felt a lot like early May instead of early March, the Explorer showed 69 degrees...a 10-15KT SW wind...and the most perfect 1-2ft waves. I had to get out for a closer look. I walked a half mile of boardwalk in Spring Lake, unhurriedly, just enjoying the greatness of the day the Lord hath provided. Man, I didn't realize how much I really missed those sights, smells, and sounds! To me, they are as soothing to my soul as any thing on this planet. I inspected every foot of beach structure along my walk and I have two words for my initial reaction to the stretch where the Spring Fling will be held: Oh boy! This winter was very, very good to us...it was nearly low tide and the holes, bars, cuts, and very near shore drop offs were just leaping out of the blue-green water making every fiber of my striper being twist and jump! It was almost emotional, when I don't get out to do some kind of fishing for this long a period, I guess I just forget how necessary it is to me. I was mentally picturing all the bass I would catch from these many places in but scant weeks...I was picturing the different winds and waves we would have and how the fish would react while using all this new structure...I could almost feel the shot as the lure was moving along the outside edge of a bar with the waves pulling against my line...the lure struggling towards me at an angle when the bass intercepted it. This was good medicine for my soul...doctors should prescribe this kind of stuff. When I walked back to the car, I smiled a little more at the other folks who were taking thier medicine out there. I often look at people when they are staring east at the water and wonder...just what does the ocean mean to them? Being a fisherman all my life, it's always been something to respectfully conquer for me, but just what does it "do" for a person who never even had the slightest inclination to cast a line? It's a question that none of us here are likely to be able to answer. It really doesn't matter, so long as it sooths them...so long as it somehow completes them...so long as it refreshes thier souls. Even the seagulls seemed impatient for the stripers and baitfish to invade the shallows...they were diving around all the jetties, no doubt picking up small baitfish, crabs, and whatever else they could find in the shallows. They did appear to be smiling a bit as they circled and practiced for what in a few weeks will become a buffet style restaurant for them. I was almost surprised to look up and down the beach and not see anyone with a rod spiked in the sand. I pictured myself down there soon, casting small plugs and warming up with the fly rod in the surf....I wondered if my being there, standing in the surf and soaking it all up as I cast into the relatively fishless surf...does that complete the picture for the non-fishing folks being renewed by their trip to the surf...or is it somehow an intrusion into their minds eye of what they expected when they made that last turn to head east? No matter I figured, there's plenty of beach, they can just continue on their walk until they find the piece of beach that is everything they expected....there they can stop....that's where they can consume all that the beach has to offer.....right there they can pick up thier medicine and smile a little more on the walk back to thier car They say hiccups are contagious....I like to think smiles spread faster.... Sincerely, |
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I am leaving up yesterday's page....it needs to be read again by everyone who was too busy yesterday to go and fill out the simple form. I bet it didn't take me 25 seconds to read it, fill it out, and submit it. Please do this, what they dump off NJ's coast is likely to affect even those folks on LI's south shore. To those of you that filled it out, excellent! I thank you and the fishes thank you and the HRFA thanks you! So, how about the weather we had the past few days? Man, it feels like striper season out there! The ocean's surface temp locally has gone from 37.8 to almost 44 degrees! In January, the stripers were vicious in the 44 degree water we had then, I can't imagine why they wouldn't like 44 degree water in the spring? Yes, 50 degrees has always been the proverbial "on" switch....but I think things are changing...we caught good sized fish right up until we stopped fishing in January...more fish were landed south of us all winter than I imagine is normal...MikeT reported a month ago that small dead stripers were being found in MA...a place where they normally aren't thought to spend much time in the winter. I think the fish might be changing their habits to some degree. I think this kind of thing is somewhat natural...all speculation of course, but I feel that they might possibly not be moving such great distances on thier migrations and if that's the case, I would expect that it will get more and more pronounced over time. Is it possible that as their range is better filled with voracious smaller fish, that the stripers have found that migrating to the extremes has not become the best option? Is it possible that the fish don't want to be packed like sardines into an already crowded wintering over spot? I mean, people are like that....if too many folks went south for the winter the south would become so crowded that others would be turned off from bothering, grit their teeth, and just stay a little further north than the bulk of the crowd. And we would do so even when "foraging competition" is not an issue....sure Burger King might get too crowded...but we could always just adjust the times we eat to compensate for this...stripers don't have that luxury, they need to eat when the food is available...if there are too many small, aggressive stripers about, no doubt the others would be forced to have either their range or their feeding habits differ from the masses just to survive, much less to thrive. Yes....sometimes I might ponder the striped bass a little too deeply...but I do miss catching them in the surf, from the jetties, and up the inlets an awful lot...I hope they come back soon! I am working on a "Links" page now. The links there will all be places that we have determined to be above average in content and run professionally. There won't be a long list of all links that have anything to do with fishing, they will be hand picked, much as everything else you will find here. We will try and make sure that the finest of the conservation minded organizations are listed there. All sites will be judged not only on their content, but also the content of thier links! Indirectly, a site recommended here, their links are some reflection on this site.....I will not link to a site that links to a site that would put this one in a bad light. I am getting a new color plug from Tony, it's technically a whiteflash color with a pearlescent pink striped going down the side. It will be put up in photos as soon as I receive them. This color will be available in the stubby needlefish, all the 2 oz plugs, and the surfster style plugs! I think both you guys and the stripers will dig this one, the pinkish stripe will be easily visible to the fish on the plug styles I've chosen to have it come in. I am looking forward to it! We are adding some other flies of considerable importance...mainly, clousers and half & halfs! Two flies that all of us fly fishermen have long come to rely on for their fish catching properties! We're also trying to get the bugs worked out of the Petition script! I've been quite busy the past couple days working on Grampa Old Spook's website...we are moving his site over to one of my subdomains...it will be FAR faster and it will be free to him. I have been working on the formatting, picture sizes...and yes, some capitalization issues! :) Seems grampa likes to capitalize all the words in a sentence...but I'm going through it with a fine toothed comb to get it all squared away. I will then give him a link to peruse his redone site...hopefully, he will be honest with me and tell me exactly what he would like me to change/add/remove from what I've done with it....the next step is to then make a pointer from his old site to it's new home. I'm even thinking about throwing the 5 wt late this afternoon locally and warming up with some bluegills, crappies, largemouths, and yellow perch! Rats, I still gotta get my fresh water license! Well, if I do make it out, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes! Have a good one folks, enjoy this weather...the unicorns are already being caught in many of the normal early season spots...start making plans for those "exploratory" trips...they won't count against your brownie points as long as you are very clear that you are just looking, yes you're bringing a rod, but you're not actually fishing...just some reconnaissance if you will. NOTE: You will only get away with this till the first time you come home smelling of that sweet striper smell....be careful, wash up before the wife gets a whiff! :) Sincerely, Tim Surgent |
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Update: The new Sincerely, Tim Surgent |
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This late winter is certainly different from the many in recent memory. It's been much warmer than average for most of the past 3 weeks...it won't even be officially Spring for about 10 more days! I can hardly believe that....10 more days till the calendar says it's Spring...this winter almost felt like it didn't happen...but I think we've already covered this somewhere along the way. Anyway, it's nice out, the fish are being plucked by the bait fishermen among us, I'm sure they'd eat the small flies of spring and jigs and teasers....I just haven't given it a shot yet. It was close on Friday night...somewhere between decided to go and actually going, Charlie and I ran out of gas! We figured on Saturday afternoon in the float tubes to compensate for the kibash on Friday nights trip....the weather Saturday was not real nice for bobbing around in a lake...it was windy and rainy....too windy on Sunday and before you know it, it's Monday and we didn't get out all weekend! I guess these are some of the reasons I generally don't worry about the early season fish, there will plenty of nights to give them an honest working over without having to suffer cold, rainy nights for a couple shorts. (*I need to keep saying that prior sentence...that's what the doctor told me anyway ;) AndrianF submitted the first official StripersOnline report yesterday with 6 unicorns taken on worms on the south side of Raritan Bay...so it seems that would mark the official beginning of "our" season! Thanks Adrian! Hey, if I go with you, could you stick them nasty biting worms on my hook? ;) Not bad either, 6 fish up to 27" in two hours...that's pretty good in early March...I will certainly keep this in mind as I make my way up there in the next few days if everything works out the way it should! I'm working on implementing a new Chat program...I think we will try one that's not Java...some folks, especially those who haven't performed the latest software upgrades, seem to get booted a lot from the current Chat program. I would like a cool program with some different features. The one we are using is one of the most popular out there, but to me, it lacks some features that could easily be integrated. I was working on one last night but scrapped it when it kept giving me grief! If sales here pick up as the weather warms, I'll crack the padlock off the wallet and get the Chat program I really want...but at $400 it's pretty steep! That one would offer more control, we'd have a registered and private channel all our own, and we can set up moderated chats where speakers can have the floor with some control over the flow of questions. In due time my friends, we'll have this place even better than it is now! I'm still looking for a Lamiglas wholesaler who keeps an inventory of the big rods we call normal. I just finished getting set up with Lunker City...they sell Bass Assassin's, Fin-S-Fish, Slugg-O's, and about 15 other cool plastic baits. They also sell the jig heads Charlie prefers for fishing the bigger plastics....1oz, 1 1/2oz, 2oz, and 3oz "Lunker Grip" saltwater Fin-S jig heads. They carry a 7/0 plated and forged hook that has proven itself as "plenty strong", even at the Ditch! We'll start putting up the plastics and these jig heads in the next day or so. I go through probably 20-30 bags of Fin-S-Fish a year...and that was before I started using them as trailers on the Smilin' Bills! They also have a cool newer thing called a "Slugg-O SS" which has the head of a Slugg-O and a long, whippy tail...they look very interesting and we will be "testing" them out this spring! Seaguar Fluorocarbon and Yozuri deals should be done by this afternoon and I can start with the pricing for them in the next 24 hours. So many things going on, it's hard to put them all up here! The Articles were updated last night with one I found submitted a long time ago by DZ! My apologies Dennis...I just stumbled across it my old mail from before we switched servers! It's an excellent story called A Block Island Tale: Thumper and the Big Fish. I really enjoyed it and certainly have had my nights like DZ's friend Bob! We will double check and make sure all the pictures we have are up on the Photo Pages! I think there may be a few more that aren't up there...they'll get up there today or tonight. The Lex Lures continue to be of great interest to many of you folks, I have a word of warning from Tony "12 Beavers"....he is getting very busy...try to get your plugs ASAP as he will continue to do his best to keep me well stocked, but is already running into some lag time in orders we place with him! At the moment, I have all the Lex Lures offered here in stock, but this changes quickly...where I was ordering 6 of each color and style at a time, I am now ordering 12-20 of the more popular colors and style each chance I get! Still waiting on the new pretty pearlish pink striped lures...they should really move as they were requested by a number of folks! The pictures will be up the night I get the lures. The counter for the Spring Fling has been changed and is now functioning again! :) Registrations for the Fling just went over 35 this weekend...and I've been told by at least 15 others that they will be coming....so it looks like 50 may have been a conservative estimate! Cool! One change that is in the works to accommodate such a rapidly increasing number is that we may take the breakfast indoors to a local fisherman's diner and have a buffet style breakfast...the main reason for this is my good friend Hardy of Team L&H told me he wasn't planning on fishing...just resting and then cooking to feed all of us weary striper hunters!?!? I was flabbergasted and threatened to remove breakfast from the agenda should this be true?!?! I'd rather just load the truck up with Dunkin' Donuts and coffee than see him not get a chance to fish and mingle with the fine folks that are coming from all over to enjoy the Fling! The diner/buffet idea soon followed...suggestion by none other than Carole, Mrs. TimS! Excellent suggestion my love...now we gotta work something out with Pat's Diner....will keep you posted! I moved the Hudson River Fishermen's Association plea for help to a new, permanent page here on the Conservation Page! I hope all of you who have not yet done so will go there, read the short article, then follow the link to the HRFA page and fill out the simple email form to make your voice heard by some 20 folks involved in the decision making of this toxic mud dumping issue! Last but not least, one more tool will be available shortly for all of you guys...this will be a unique and extremely useful feature that I started using in January....can't tell you more than that just yet....but I expect demand for it to be excellent! Unlike all the other tools provided here, this one won't be free...it will require maintenance on my end and as such, I will have to charge for it. Hey, that's not bad, it will be the first feature offered here that will cost ya should you decide to use it....gotta pay the bills....you know how it goes! Stay tuned on that one....should be finished within the next two days! Have a good one folks, spring is springin' up all around us and the unicorns and their aggressors are all getting restless! God, I love springtime! The new Sincerely, Tim Surgent |
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