We Didn’t Know It
A Preteen Adventure
This is a reprint of a previous article. This time of year gets me very excited about Striped Bass and Bluefish. Whether I am actually fishing for them or dreaming about fishing for them, this story always gets me excited. This is a great story because it actually took place back in 1974. I will always remember this.
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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