You can tell the summer season is changing by the increase in the striper bite.
08-22-13
Got out Thursday night. Boated a 24" and missed four. Had a hook turn into the eel on a big striper. I saw the boil on the first muffed hook set. It kept coming back hit after hit. Kept trying to cross his eyes and kept pulling the eel out of his mouth. I'm pretty sure I heard Murphy laughing.
08-23-13
Shared the boat with Joe Friday night. We put four in the boat. No keepers.
08-24-13
Today would have been my Dad's 84th birthday. It still hurts deeply not being able to share stories with my #1 mentor. My brother Dennis said it right in his eulogy, "David inherited my father's love of the outdoors genes."
Was OTW at 0900. Due to the big full moon tides this week and a tip from Ray that our buoy lines were full of eel grass I chose to check traps at low tide. My pot hauler got a workout this morning. There had to be an extra thirty pounds of vegetative debris on each line. The speedy tides had also churned up the bottom and most of the traps in deep water were full of decomposing eel grass. When it was all said and done 13 traps, 5 keepers and 8 shorts. It has been two weeks and my shallow water honey holes have dried up. Moved that gear into deeper water.
Went fishing tonight with the spirit of my old man. I knew he would be able to keep Murphy at bay. Fishing was slow on the high side of the outgoing tide. Early on a 16" striper took an eel of about the same length.
Joe was out in his boat with a friend. Got a phone call and later took this picture of Dan and his first ever striper. A 30" keeper.
Towards sunset in a skinny water rip I hooked a nice Great Bay striper. I could hear my dad talking to me through the drag on the reel. Murphy was silent.
This fish had spunk. Talk about fat!
The tape said 33". This fish did not get the release of life. It will grace the dinner table in my dad's honor.
08-25-13
Never leave fish to find fish. We know where they live. Could there be a repeat this evening? Stay tuned........