Striped Bass Explosion

A Kids Striped Bass Adventure

I was only 12 years old when I went fishing very early one morning with Bobby and Ernie. It was early, quiet and still. Almost eerie on Long Island sound. Because we had no gas, we rowed my 12 foot boat. I rowed the boat around the boulders on the point. Around the point was a reef approximately 90° to the point. Between the point and the reef was a body of water that was less than 10 feet deep.Like I said, it was a strange kind of morning. Incredibly foggy, quiet
and calm. We anchored our boat and started to cast surface poppers. The popper of choice was a Creek Chub.

Before I could put the oars in the boat, my friends started to cast. Before I could get my pole ready to cast, Ernie pulled his in with nothing. Bobby’s popper was about 50 feet from the boat when things started to happen.

Massive swirls were coming up around his plug as it moved through the surface of the water. Those are also known as hits. Three hits and then it happened.

It seemed like a bomb went off in the water. Bobby yelled out, “I got one!”. The fish was causing his rod to bend so much that I thought it was going to break. He was fighting what I thought was a monster fish. Turns out that it was pretty big. He pulled the fish in, we got it in the boat and continued to fish with no further luck.

We got home and found that it was an 18 pound Striped Bass. We cleaned and fileted it. We then Saved the body to use as bait for crabbing. What a morning.

I am 50 years old now and still remember that morning like it was yesterday. I am sure that there are thousands of people out there that have had similar experiences. I have never in my life caught a Striper. This experience has stuck with me for all these years.

As a footnote, Ernie also did not catch anything that morning, but two weeks later he caught a 41 pound Striper. Not afishing story, I saw the fish when it was brought in to shore. I was not invited on that trip.

Go figure

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