ANNUAL POP POP & GRANDDAUGHTERS TRIP BY BOB DODDS

Posted on July 13, 2023 by VHFC

For several years, I have taken my granddaughters on an annual bay fluke fishing trip with Brett Taylor. This year, it was my oldest Ashley, 20 who will be a junior in college studying accounting and Maddie, 8, the youngest. Hannah 13, could not make it this year. We started out with high hopes and Brett didn’t fail us. Maddie caught the first legal fluke @ 18.5”, which was also her first fluke ever. She followed this with several more before she got tired.

The real competition was between Ashley and me. Over the past 9 years, she has always beaten me with larger & more fluke. She delights in that and loves to give it to me. It was not to be this year. We caught 8 keepers, my 4, Ashley’s 3 and Maddie’s 1. Overall, we must have caught another 25 shorts, what fun!

PS Ashley was not happy with these results and as a result, has challenged me to another trip in August before she leaves for college. Whatever happens, I will report in August.

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

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